The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 85. More family members.

Chapter 85: 85. More family members.

Neriah was not surprised to see that she was alone in bed when she had been awoken by Aria, in the morning. He was never next to her when she woke up. What surprised her as she looked around was that their dinner from last night had been cleared and the noise should have woken her but she remained asleep.

Sitting in front of a dresser mirror, all dolled up in Avelian attire as she had refused to wear what Aria said Barak had provided for her, Neriah stared at her reflection and she hated what she saw. A despicable woman who would betray her lover and sleep with another man... that was what she saw.

She heard the door open and she knew he had walked in. "Good morning dear wife." She heard his voice and her teeth grated with the anger that boiled in her. She refused to turn around and look at him, instead she kept her gaze on the mirror. Not really seeing anything, just staring at it.

"I believe you are well rested?" He asked and still she ignored him as he took closer steps toward her. "Is this what you plan to do? You refuse to speak to me?" He asked and still he got no response from her.

A long silence followed his words as he reached her side, now standing in the view of the mirror, staring at it along with her. He lifted his hands and placed them upon her shoulders and only a minor flinch was her reaction. Nothing more.

He inhaled deeply and let it out sharply, "Very well then. I shall do the talking." He shrugged and smiled at her reflection in the mirror. "First things first, we shall be having breakfast with the rest of the family shortly, after that you’ll return to the Kadan-Rana palace here and someone will take you round the place. If you’re interested, I’ll have someone take you around the King’s palace and every other place too." He waited for a response, but it was obvious that she wasn’t going to say a word to him.

"I shall introduce you to your language tutor before the evening." He concluded. "Let us go now. We do not want to keep the rest of the family waiting, my dear Spitfire." He lifted his hand from her shoulder and her eyes in the mirror finally rose to meet his in the reflection and he could see the hate, strong and vicious and it made him wonder if such hate could ever be washed away.

She rose to her feet and turned around to stare at him, "You mean your family awaits." She stressed the ’your’ in her sentence. And she walked past him and toward the door, but then she paused and turned around to look at him again...

"And please. Deceit from referring to me by that vulgar word lest I show you what a spitfire really is." She warned and with those words, she strolled out of the room and a smile curled up his lips as he watched her walk away from him. She really was a spitfire.

...

Seated at the head of the table was the king and queen. Their chairs were placed side by side, the table was wide enough to accommodate them both on that side. Neriah stared at the woman in daylight and she was indeed beautiful, that could not be denied even though Neriah hated to admit it.

On the right to his father was Barak and Neriah sat next to him while his sister who was dressed in a feminine gown that morning sat across from him with her eyes always shifting back and forth between Neriah and Barak.

Bashan, Rakavi and Rakima, she knew because she met Rakavi and Rakima the previous night. But the other three people seated around the table, she did not know.

Two boys who were clearly identical twins and possibly in their very early teens sat next to Rakima arguing about only the goddess knew what, and one boy who seemed some years younger than the twins sat next to her with a book in his hand.

And all three boys bore a striking resemblance to her husband. They couldn’t possibly be his brother’s, right? Except the king had concubines who gave birth to the other three boys, there was no way Rakavi, who didn’t look a day older than three hundred, mothered all these children!

Indeed, one of the many things she had heard about the Tragonians was that their royalty were prone to marrying one wife, but then having many other mistresses, bringing in the children borne from such affairs under the wing of the queen, disregarding their biological mothers.

Yes, that had to be it... Rakivi could not have given birth to five children already! But the more she looked at the twins the more she saw Rakavi in them... Were they really her sons?

But then, "Neriah, you already met Rakima my sister, those are the twins Raki and Raku, you can differentiate them by their hair color. Raki is the one with brown hair like mother and Raku is the one with black hair." He explained and Neriah almost gasped in shock. Were they really his brother’s?! From the same mother?

"And beside you is Barni, our youngest." Barak completed his explanation.

"" Say, sister-in-law... brother we can call her that, right?"" said the one with the brown hair, who according to Barak was called Raki.

""You can just call her sister, but whatever. Just do not dare ask her anything weird."" Barak was communicating in Tragish and Neriah was feeling left out. She hated the feeling. They said they were there for breakfast but they were all just sipping fresh juice! There was no breakfast on the table yet!! When will the eating commence, Neriah wondered.

""So sister, did you really seduce biggest brother and then try to kill him for it?""

"" RAKI! SHUT IT! "" Barak ordered and Neriah wondered what the boy had said to make Barak raise his voice at the table. She could tell the child was talking to her but she could not just understand what he had said.

It destroyed her pride to speak with him at the moment, but "What did he say?" she asked Barak, but as he opened his mouth to speak, a calm cool boyish voice sounded from her side...

"They asked if you really seduced our brother and then tried to kill him for it?" It was the boy named Barni who gave her the explanation and her face instantly went pale.

"Barni! Who asked you for a translation?!" Barak almost roared at the boy, but he merely shrugged as a response and focused his attention on the book he was reading again.

"Do not mind their words. They are just—"

"Yes. Yes I did." Neriah confessed and Barak’s eyes opened wide and so did his father’s and his sister’s. Only his mother stared on with a deadpan expression. "Can you pass that across to them for me?" She asked Barak but he seemed to have gone into shock, truly. "Never mind." She turned to the young man beside her.

"Hello, Your Highness, you understand the words I say?" She asked and he lifted his head from his books and nodded. "Very well then, please tell your brothers that I said, I indeed seduced their older brother, I am not certain they even know what the word seduce mean, but just tell them I did it and I also tried to take his head not kill him." she requested and the boy stared at the husband of the woman who was making the request, then he turned his head toward the twins and told them what she had said in Tragish then faced his book again.

The twins seemed rather awed by her answer. They even clapped and excitedly said some things that Neriah could not grasp the meaning of.

"I see you truly do not wish to deny it." Rakavi finally spoke up.

"What is there to deny?" Neriah asked in turn, "His Majesty and many others bore witness to the event. I will only seem like a liar if I deny it any further." Neriah shrugged.

"But from what I heard, the entire event itself was a lie. It is said you went in screaming and shouting that my brother had—"

"Rakima! Hold your tongue." Barak ordered and the lady scoffed.

"All I am saying is she did a good job lying so sweetly according to the information I got. Why then does she now say she would seem like a liar when in actuality she is a liar!"

"Rakima I said enough! Say one more word against my wife in front of the twins and Barni and you shall see my wrath!"

"But Brother—"

"Rakima, listen to your brother!" Rakavi ordered and the lady instantly went silent.

"The past is the past." Bashan finally spoke up. "Let us put it behind us and focus on a peaceful future ahead of us. From now on there shall be no more talk about what occurred in Avelah from you children, do you understand me?" His question was toward Rakima and the twins.

The twins were quick to nod in response while Rakima silently stared at Neriah, as if she was trying to figure out if she would obey her father or not.

"Rakima!"

"Aye father! I shall no longer trouble my sister-in-law about the matter." She simply said and their little brawl ended that morning.

Breakfast was served and eaten in peace.