Page 202 of Castings & Curses

“Tonight is the night of the Blood Hunter Moon. It is the last chance for us to break this curse,” finished Jaiyana.

With this news, the Queen felt behooved to tell her own tale. “When you both escaped, Roarke was extremely angry. He wanted your father to tell him where you had gone, Bellatrix, but the King did not know. Roarke said that until we could bring you to him, he would usurp the castle and lock your father in the dungeon. He jailed me as well for fear that I would warn you to never return to this place again. But before I was carried off to this cell, I watched Roarke stand on the balcony under the full moon and cast the Curse of Lovers. My heart was heavy that there was nothing I could do. I am so grateful the two of you have been given powers! Now you can fight him yourselves.``

“That is exactly what we intend to do,” whispered Bellatrix. She waved her hand over the lock and the door to the cell creaked open. “You are coming with us.”

“Where is our father?” asked Jaiyana.

Stepping out of her cell, the Queen pointed across the corridor to the last dim light on the left. Shadows fell like ghosts, threatening harm to the unwary intruder.

Despite their fear, the twins approached the room. Through the opening they saw their father, the King of Maldinia. He sat on a pile of blankets in what appeared to be a make-shift bed. With one hand beneath his chin he stared at the barren wall as if in another world. Grey mixed in his reddish-brown hair and beard. His clothes were torn and had holes. His middle-aged, burly appearance was now thin and sunken. The once powerful patriarch was now basking in the punishment he had so easily sentenced onto others.

As the scene filled her eyes, Bellatrix felt a mixture of feelings flood her body. Her pulse quickened, and her breath became heavy with rage.Serves him right, thought Bellatrix.That is what he gets for thinking women cannot rule and are not worthy. He should continue to sit here and rot.Yet looking at the man fallen from grace, she could not help but feel pity.Why did their father despise them for being women? Why could he not have been a father and loved them?

Why did he feel it was necessary to arrange marriage in order to place a male monarch on the throne?

She felt a wetness around her eyes that she attempted to brush away.

“Father,” she whispered. “Father!”

The King continued to be lost in thought. Jaiyana picked up a stone from the floor and threw it into the cell so it banged against the wall. The King looked up and his eyes widened as he saw the twins standing before him.

“The ghosts of the twins I have killed!” he cried and backed into the wall. “Do not come for me. I repent. I repent!”

“He thinks we are dead?” whispered Jaiyana.

“It appears so,” replied Bellatrix, “He had no faith in us to believe that we would survive the woods and life outside the castle.” She cleared her throat. “Father, you know us. Your daughters Bellatrix and Jaiyana. We are very much alive, and we have come to free you.”

“Free me?” The confused King appeared to be a bit delusional. “Free me? When I have tried to imprison you in a marriage of no love?”

“You must forgive your father,” whispered the Queen coming up behind them. “The year-long stint in solitude has addled his brain into village porridge. He was upset with the manner in which Roarke locked him away and took his castle from him when he was telling the truth about not knowing your whereabouts. Apparently this is the first time a man has betrayed him. I have been talking to him about his actions.”

Waving her hand, Bellatrix opened the cell, “Father, you are coming with us, whether you like it or not.”

“You are going to save your father, when he was so unkind and mean to you?” asked the Queen.

Jaiyana sighed. “If we treat him in the manner he treated us, then we are no better than he has been. As reparation for his actions, we aim to prove to him women are not only strong enough to save a kingdom but to rule it, as well.”

The Queen beamed. “That is exactly how I raised you, my precious daughters! Maldinia is safe in your care.”

Bellatrix snapped her fingers, and the blankets around the confused King began to rise upward, enclosing him as if he were in a hammock. The blankets floated parallel to the dungeon floor and followed behind the brave princesses.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” whispered Bellatrix to her mother. “As monarchs of the realm, we will take you to a place where you will be safe with our new ally, Fengari. Then we will face Roarke.”

“Who is Fengari?” asked the Queen.

“A dragon who is going to live with us when the castle is ours again,” replied Jaiyana.

Blinking in surprise, the Queen acknowledged how brillant her daughters had become.

They began to climb the set of stone steps until they reached the locked doors. Working together with their magic, a flick of their fingers, doors opened, and the princesses peered outward into the hall. Looking around and seeing no one, the twins and their mother stepped forward with their father floating behind them in the safety of blanketed magic.

As the door closed behind them, Bellatrix breathed a sigh of relief. All that was now required was to get down the hall and outside to freedom.

They began to move at a rapid pace when a voice yelled out, “Who goes there?”

Turning around, they spied a guard bolt out from the adjourning corridor. “Sound the alarm, the King and Queen have escaped!” he shouted.

Jaiyana threw forth a spell, and the guard was thrown up against the wall. However, his warning cry had alerted many of the other soldiers in the palace. Bellatrix waved her hand, and part of the ceiling of the adjoining corridor collapsed, blocking many of the guards. Jaiyana flicked her fingers and turned three of the other guards into ravens.

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