Revolting Rose

Chapter 11/Part 1 - Well Seasoned

Hereth heaved with celebrations as another Season was ushered in. Trumpets tooted, drums were beaten and songs were sung as a procession pranced through the Drakeward gate with a flurry of fancy dresses in all colours and fashions. The young Ladies frolicked joyously in chaotic squiggles, trotting and twirling their way along the city's streets of stalks and caps. Their mothers were close behind, still dancing, though with the grace and dignity that age had bestowed upon them.

The Amphoerix flock fluttered over head, though Skarra was nowhere to be seen. Zaech led in his new outfit, which was so magnificent that his blue-eyed beauty would not be able to take her eyes off him. Alas, that beauty was proving quite elusive even now, so he flew on to the Crystal Gardens where he would have a better chance of finding her in the full gathering.

Zaech landed beside Lord Kabech and shut the dusty old tome the fellow was flicking through to make sure he had the fellow's full attention.

"I will help you," he announced valiantly. "I'll examine their eyes and dresses, you can write everything down, and all of the Amphelian generals will help."

"I'd rather you—"

Ignoring the buzz in his ear, Zaech nudged Boris toward the first Lady in line.

"Are her eyes blue?" he whispered to the hulking pile of feathers.

Boris shook his head and cooed the colour in Amphelian.

"Not blue," Zaech told Kabech with a sigh.

The Lord looked up from his book and placed his pen down. "I'll need—"

"Not blue? If you are recording like that, it will take no time at all. Not a single Tyvern has blue eyes!" the Lady screeched.

Such a temper was so unbecoming, and further confirmed that she was not who Zaech was looking for. The Empress of his Heart would never speak like that.

"We also need to decide who is welcome at the ball, Kabech. I don't think this one is noble enough, and her dress looks like it was made by a peasant. Others would complain that you really dropped the standard," Zaech said, trying to preserve the Season's reputation.

"Just tell me what you would tell Pagne and we will get on with it," the Lord said, "and I don't need your help either, Prince."

"Fine. If they're going to be so rude, I don't want to help." Zaech threw himself down on the sapphire bench where he had first met the Empress of his Heart.

Lady after Lady stepped up to the Lord and admitted the inadequacies of her eye colour. By the end of it, Zaech was so disheartened by his love's absence that even the traditional garden dance could not rouse him. Pagne would usually judge who was to be welcomed to the palace, and who was not, during the display, but this year it went by uselessly. Kabech had no eye for grace, and although the grey Amphoerix were amused by it, they could never tell one Tyvern from the next.

"Why don't you just have them fight for their places?" Zaech suggested, repulsed by the clumsy stomping about that these Ladies tried to pass off as dancing.

"I don't see why not," Kabech replied, clearly too befuddled to argue otherwise. "The first hundred Ladies to reach the palace will be awarded a place at the officer's dance."

As soon as the announcement was made, the younger Ladies turned and ran from the gardens while the mothers made their way more slowly.

Old Eraz trotted over to the bench, his head cocked like an intrigued owl. "Prince does not enjoy competition?"

Zaech looked to the distant Palace on the crook of the mountain. "None of them have her blue eyes. The Empress of my Heart hasn't come, so I'm not interested," he said and caressed the bench wistfully. "Is this how Skarra feels all the time? Is this why he is always so... drab?"

Nobody answered. Eraz had again been called away by Kabech. Zaech could not bare his suffering alone, so he took to the skies after the general.

As he passed over the heads of the Ladies, Zaech could see the competition grow more physical the closer the Ladies were to the Palace. Dresses were torn, faces were slapped, shins were kicked, and hair was pulled.

He turned away and made his way to the palace's grandest pod where he perched in his nesting box beside Kabech's fungal throne. With nothing better to look at, it struck Zaech that Kabech's horrid decorations had been replaced with Amphelian magnificence. If only The Empress of his Heart were here to see it. She would immediately fall in love with the beautiful Amphelian plants and silks, and surely insist on flying away with him at once.

The first of the Ladies came panting in, and with one look at the state she was in, Zaech's hopes were dashed on the fungal floor. He sunk gravely into his cushions and sighed. Eraz was right behind her with Kovrek slung over his back. The general carried the Lord to his chair and took up a perch beside Zaech.

"The Empress of my Heart is certainly not here. She would have surpassed all the others and entered still as a vision of elegance, not like this one. She looks like some beastly Drakuur girl," Zaech whispered to Eraz. "Mother Dearest would hate my Empress."

"Prince should be careful not to be so nice if Ordena wants to see sky-eyes," Eraz replied.

"My loins ache for her, Eraz!" Zaech cried out without a care for who heard and what they made of it.

"This might be infection, not eyes," the general muttered.

"I'm too pure to have infections, Eraz."

His pain only grew worse as more ragged Ladies piled into the ballroom. Avas and Boris closed the doors when the hundredth had come in, panting and groaning.

"Excellent, now once the soldiers arrive—"

The doors were flung open again and cut Kabech short. To Zaech's relief, all that came in was one of the Lord's elite guards.

"Lord Kabech," he panted and went to his knees before the throne. "We fear Mister Nibbs may have been lost in battle. Kyos split the ground in two between us, but no-one saw what became of your Right-Hand."

Kabech's expression barely changed with the news. "The Season can continue without him. I have Eraz here as his replacement already," he replied indifferently and reclined as much as his stiff posture would allow. "Where are my other soldiers? And have you seen Pagne?"

"Many were lost to the exploding mountain, my liege, while the survivors have taken time to rest in Thereth. We've not seen Pagne either, sir. He did not follow his mother to Ysenich, and the Wyverkiiri said nothing of his whereabouts despite vigorous questioning," the guard answered.

A dreadful thought occurred to Zaech. What if The Empress of his Heart had been kidnapped by the halfbreed? He could only imagine how torturous she would find his company.

"You saw the dragon, and yet you think we are safe enough here to have soldiers resting elsewhere?" Kabech said as he rose from the throne. For such a withered old Tyvern he made an intimidating figure when he drew himself up.

"Fortunate for us, I have Amphelius' generals for guests, and surely they are more competent than you incompetent carrots! Perhaps it is for the best that Pagne will not be with us when Kyos floods my streets with your blood." He turned to Eraz "Toss him back and strip him of his uniform. A common farmer should not be so close to his Lord!"

"Lord Kabech, please." the guard begged as Eras took him by the shoulders and shook him out of his coat, then neatly folded it and placed it in its owner's arms.

"You stood by as Kyos took my Right-Hand, and you would leave me defenceless to the wrath of the violent beast! I do not see an elite guard before me, but a cowardly traitor!" Kabech barked at the fellow. "The Season will be postponed to accommodate the delay of my soldiers, so you will have to suffice as entertainment. As I am Lord of Tyrunvern, I promise I will show you that I can be equally as dreadful as Kyos!"

When he was done, the Ladies all roared and cheered on the display.

Zaech did not stay to watch what would become of the unfortunate fellow.