The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 200. What to do next?

Chapter 200: 200. What to do next?

The two kings and queens sat together in the closed hall, at one corner of the hall was Rakima quietly studying everything that was happening, not raising her voice to speak, not even once for she was still slightly blaming Neriah for her brother’s incident and was certain she would speak rudely to the king and queen of. Avelah if she decided to speak a single thing. So her best option was to remain quiet just as her mother had warned her to be just before they entered the hall.

"First I must say no amount of apologies would turn around what has happened, or the shame our daughter has brought on your house, but still, I bow my head and seek your forgiveness if it can be given." Gerald spoke and bowed his head as he did.

Bashan thought in his head that the man was always quick to bow his head when it came to matters about his daughter. Just like that time in Avelah, they had not even asked for such a gesture, but he still bowed his head. Once again Bashan thought to himself that Gerald was a great king and a greater father. It was fortunate that they were still at peace with such a good king and yet so unfortunate that someone seemed to be making plans to ruin that peace.

"From what we have heard, Barak already knew about his wife’s affair with another and he had forgiven her for it. If the person directly affected by the matter was able to forgive her, who are we to hold any grudge?" Bashan asked. "Please, lift your head." He said and Gerald did so. Bashan could see a sign of surprise in his eyes.

"Thank you. Now, I do not know where to begin when my child is safe in your house and yours is—" Gerald did not know how to say it. Was he to say dead or missing? They hadn’t found a body, so he could be missing or dead and buried under a pile of seaweed at the bottom of the sea.

"Then I will." Rakavi finally spoke up. "Based on the information we got from Neriah and what we have gathered so far, it would seem that the so-called prince Lyle of the—" She paused and Erra noticed how the queen Rakavi suddenly trembled. It was not too evident, but she had noticed it. She could see that she was not the only one who had noticed Rakavi’s sudden trembling, Bashan had noticed it too and his hand had tenderly reached for hers, warmingly cupping her smaller hand in his own.

"Neriah claims he had approached her with love in his heart, but I believe that was all a facade. He must have done all this to cause a war between Avelah and Trago."

"But that would mean he knew of Neriah’s engagement with Barak to approach her. But according to Neriah she had met the man Lyle before we even decided to engage the two of them. There was no way he could have known about it and approached her with such grand plans when there was and had never been talks about Barak and Neriah marrying." Gerald countered.

"Could he have expected their marriage and approached her with the intent of using her?" Erra wondered out loud.

"How could he have expected their marriage? Unless he had visited some sort of prophet who had predicted that would. Happen, I do not see this being a possibility." Gerald said.

"I thought the same thing too. How could he have known that a plague would break out here in Trago and that Avelah would be attacked by goblins and that we would both need each other’s help which then led to the marriage proposal?" Bashan wondered.

"Indeed, but anyone from the Niles is not to be trusted. No one knows how wicked their hearts are. Anything wicked is possible when it comes to them." Rakavi spoke and Erra could hear the vehement malice in her voice as she spoke of the people of Niles. It made her wonder what history they had together.

"True. It is also a known fact that the Niles never accepted or liked the peace that has lasted between Trago and Avelah. This could really be their plan." Gerald nodded.

"Indeed..." Rakima suddenly spoke up from the corner where she stood. "A plan to use Neriah and get to Barak, then pin his death on her which will eventually lead to Neriah being hated and punished for Barak’s death. And what better way to punish a person for the death of another than death itself? The death of Neriah would then draw the anger of the Avelian king and queen, thus a war will breakout between the two great kingdoms."

"Eliminating two great birds with just a small throw of a very small but sharp edged stone." Erra added to what Rakima had said.

It made sense. It made so much sense when you thought about it this way. Even Rakima thought it made sense.

"When it is laid out like that, it is a grand plan indeed." Bashan said.

"What do you suggest we do? My second son Raknar and our commander Alnar are still out looking for Barak. We have to accept the possibility that he might be gone forever," He bit his bottom lip as he said those words and he felt his wife’s fist tighten so his hold on her hand tightened too. She was in pain, they all were. But she was suffering the most and he was the only one who knew why.

"Yet we hold on to hope that he will be found. So the question is, how do we proceed from here?"

"I shall ask a sincere question before that—"Gerald paused, waiting for some sort of go ahead and when he received a nod, he proceeded, "Why is Neriah still in her matrimonial bedroom and not in a dungeon? As the major suspect of the assassination of the crowned prince, even though she is with child, the least she should get is a barn. But we arrived and found her in her bedroom, in good clothes and in good physical condition. Why? Does this mean you believe her? Do you fully believe that she had no direct hand in the incident?"

At that moment, Rakavi exchanged glances with her daughter, "Do you believe her?" Bashan asked in turn.

"We do." Gerald nodded. "She is a different woman now. A woman who loves her husband and sincerely is in distress due to his absence. She is not the same Neriah we had given to you as daughter-in-law."

"That is what brother said." Rakima suddenly spoke up and all eyes turned to her as she took closer steps to them, "The last time I talked to brother, he said his wife was changing. He had confessed to me that the change scared him, but that it was a beautiful change. He said it almost seemed as though she held him in his heart... So to answer your previous question, no, I do not believe Neriah. I still don’t. However, I have always believed my brother, so I will do so again. I will believe in the change he had seen, the change that showed him that she loved him. I will believe in that." Erra nodded to Rakima’s words, taking in the meaning of every word.

She simply meant she was going to try and trust Neriah for the sake of her brother.

"We have chosen to believe her." Bashan finally spoke up. "I believe the entire reason for this was to elicit hatred from us toward her, so not believing her will be exactly what that man will be expecting, so we have chosen to believe her."

Gerald breathed out a sigh of relief, "Thank you... Thank you all." He said. "Even after all that has happened, you choose to show kindness. I can only shamefully thank you." He said.

"Now the first course of action is that since their plan was to put our kingdoms against each other, we must make them believe their plans are working and..."

...

"Are you certain you administered all the right herbs?"

"Aye! I did as yah told me to, Rug. I have been doing as yah told me to but the man will not wake up. I really do not think he will wake up though, the man was stabbed in the heart, Rug."

"Oh Botch yah ol’ fool, you know nothing about dragons. They are stronger than they look... And they look very strong." Rug dumped the bags he carried on Botch and walked toward the rickety bed where an unconscious half naked man was laid with patches of herbs wrapped in clothes all over his body.

"Where is Mileka?" Botch asked as he placed the old man’s bags where they were supposed to be.

"Oh hush you big puppy, yah wife will come in thought that door any—"

"Is he awake yet?" A female voice sounded.

"There she is." Rug said as he began to examine the body of the man who refused to wake up.

"This journey was supposed to be fun, and yet I am stuck babysitting an unconscious former customer." Botch complained as his wife just like Rug dumped her bags in his hand and ran to stand next to Rug near the rickety bed.

Rug checked the herbs that were on each part of the man’s body, he was checking the one on the man’s waist when they all heard a low groan and Mileka hushed everyone even though no one was talking at that time.

"Did yah hear that?" She asked and Botch opened his mouth to answer but she shushed him again, causing him to frown.

Again, another groan cane and Mileka almost pushed Rug out of the way as she stood in front of the unconscious man, bending herself so she could stare directly at his face. "Are you awake, can you hear me?" She asked, but all she got was a groan.

Again and again she repeated the same question, and was given the same response.

"False alarm, he is not awake." She said and walked away from him, giving Rug space to continue his business.

But then as she took two steps towards her husband, they all heard it...

It was low, so very low that they all almost thought it was the wind, but when they saw his eyelids slowly flutter, his lashes lifted and golden eyes came into view, they all knew they hadn’t heard wrong.

"Where am I?" He was awake.

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