The Vampire King's Mortal Mate

Roses And Shields

Leah's feet tapped at the rug covered floor in wild anticipation for a song she could say was sung in her name, The duchess of Illyria's gift to her. Her father Hogan had noticed her eager feet and smiled broadly at his daughter. He was a short stubby man with wildly growing hair and strong arms, arms that though toughened by war were quite eager to hold the petite frame of his dear daughter in loving embrace.

Several things had been said about him, most of which even if were true could not contest the beauty of the love he had for his daughter, a child after his whole heart.

She enjoyed her father's company, she enjoyed the joy she felt being around him. He had never given her reason to raise an angry word of protest at any of his actions or raise one of complaint without his knowledge. They were as close as siblings and respected each other quite adequately.

He had often felt the heart moving urge to shower his daughter with well thought out gifts, gestures that guaranteed she almost always ended up in tears. Cilia envied her daughter in this regard. It was however sufficient for her that Leah was the best child a parent could ask for, obedient and annoyingly truthful, almost too much for a bad parent like her to handle. They loved their daughter so much and the whole kingdom knew.

Those who sat present in the room were merely reminded yet again of the great bond the most powerful ruler in the north had with his daughter.

"The song i'm going to sing tonight is called the swansong of the old gods", the duchess announced, silencing the room almost immediately. The musicians no longer played the background music and the idle tongues ceased to woo, to laugh and to communicate the weighty lies of court from one ear to the other. They had all known of how cruel the king's ordinances were as regards this.

The king had demanded that this song never be sang in his court and had signed it to law but only a handful of people knew the real reasons behind the promulgation of such a decree. A lot of gossip had been granted the passing ear over time by the Lords and ladies of the Malfrost court and speculations about the decree had been rife but none rang true of the kings desires and intent.

The king tore his eyes away from his daughter's smiles in horror and pointed them with deadly focus at the duchess who was preparing to sing.

" Stop her be………..", he scarcely finished his sentence when he lost his voice, the sound ceasing to rub against the walls of his throat. He was dumb and somehow, no one had noticed this, they all had their eyes trained on the duchess as if enchanted or in a spell of some sort. He waved his arms wildly, knocking over the cup of mead in front of him in a desperate bid to get anybody's attention but reality stared him straight in the face, he wasn't going to be able to stop this.

"of flowers in the spring, of daughters, the most beautiful and fair,

He shall sing to the wind and the beasts shall hear,

To the north they shall come, from the south with room to spare,

Your child they shall bind, your daughter with beautiful red hair,

Drunk in love, she shall sing, in their courts she shall bear,

A child powerful and strong, A demon whom you shall fear"

The king's racing eyes widened with each symphony the duchess sang, beads of energy radiating from the duchess as she sang, the tales had been true, she was the voice of the old gods and could sing men into sleep or a trance or whatever this was that wrapped it's strong hand around his subjects.

The notes sounded like big hammers in the coffin of his happiness, the prophecy that had been spoken in retaliation of his father's zeal to wipe out the species had come to haunt him, vengeful and possessive in demeanor, his precious child the sought after prize.

She had finished singing and the audience had erupted in congratulatory applause, his daughter included. They had all jumped to their feet in deafening applause to her song, throwing roses and veils at her, a beautiful sight to see.

Did it mean they hadn't seen what he had?, or had they just chosen to listen to her voice instead of the words of the song?, How could they just be all so happy at hearing the wicked prophecy begin it's fulfillment?.

A dozen questions raced through the king's mind as he looked at his happy child in horror. She looked back at him with the widest smile he had ever noticed of her in a long while and reached down to tug at the sleeves of his royal robes.

"Stand and smile father, lest she thinks she's done a bad job", she said happily, looking down expectantly at her father.

Hogan's heart melted into several tiny pieces as his eyes met his ignorant daughter's smile, she was applauding the messenger of her doom!.

He rose to his feet nonetheless, he has never been too keen to disappoint his daughters expectations. The solemness of his duty as a father not allowing him time to mourn the pain the song had caused. He had invited this mouthpiece of demons into his home. The very loving memory of the duchess he had once enjoyed her songs eroded, becoming something much more sinister, a focal point for the darkness in his heart. She had done the bidding of the old gods.

Before the blood wars, there were no altercations between the humans and the beasts as he called them, no aggravated exchange of any sort, just peace and mutual respect of one another.

Aridius, king of the elves at that point had approached his father Albus about the chance to possess the power of the vampires while wiping them out. There were no problems that could be seen in the affairs of the land at that point, just the greedy and power hungry whispers of two kings fuelled by the jealousy of the vampires strength and immortality.

The plan had been to kill Aldrich Bloodtooth and possess the power of his Ulthu with which they would wipe out vampires and turn the lycans and dwarves to slaves remaining grateful to even have their lives. Albus has supplied the elven king with several known witches to this end and Aridius had made the attempts with ill-concocted magic.

Aldrich has captured one of said witches, hearing the voice of the commands to which she heeded in the song sang by her blood, he had risen in anger with a determination as dark as night to wipe out the elven race.

Aridius being the cunny elf that he was, had given up the greedy king's name as the aggressor of the tale. Spinning wild tales to convince Aldrich of the efficacy of Hogan's witches and their propensity to deceive, cunnily leading Aldrich on a charging path towards the humans.

Aldrich had never known Albus to harbor any Ill thoughts towards him, so he sent a runner to request the human kings' presence. Albus, scared of the effects that Aridius' lying tongue had caused, had sent a copy of himself, a human who looked very similar to him with a poisoned dagger and a sharpened stake to the bloodtooth courts to assassinate and end the nightmare that was about to begin for him.

The human had failed and he had struck the first blow in a war that claimed the joy in most people's lives, human and beast alike.

Aldrich had asked the elven king to invoke a curse on the human king when the war was at it's climax. Aridius, in defense of his race and in fear of the angry human king's hatred, spoke the most terrible curse into being, a curse which would only be heard by the human ear and enforced by a human voice, a death to the joy of all who loved and followed him, all who were born by him.

It was spoken to a human maid in empty fields by a lone runner commanded by Aridius at Aldrich's behest and it had in turn been spoken to the closest person until it had reached the palace, each link in the chain convinced they had said nothing after the prophecy had been said.

The words had completed their journey and arrived at the ears of a shocked king, the old gods binding him to the curse as he heard them.

The war had been fought with vigor and a need for retaliation after this, bloodying the hearts of all who fought in it till the species had united on the battlefield, attacking as a joint force and beating the humans back.

There was a zeal among the beasts to wipe the humans out but there was a growing disorientation in Aldrich's mind with each life he took and each drop of blood he drank. He had seen enough. He annointed his son Marcus, leader of the species and went into hibernation to restore the sanctity of his mind.

In that span of time, Albus had died and his son Hogan had come into power, building Malfrost and it's cities into a very prosperous empire strong enough to challenge the south once more. The hatred seemed undriven and too ancient to start a fresh war over, so Marcus and Hogan had respected the integrity of each others boundaries up till now, the curse which had been sung to him by his father when he took the throne, the curse of the old gods, had been sung to him.

His daughter was his heart and the song had told him she would be the ignorant sacrifice of an enmity born of old and bad decisions.

Tears filled his eyes as she applauded the duchess. His throat dried and his hold quaked, never had a more hurtful thing been said or in this case, sung to him.

He looked around the great hall, surveying the numbers of members of the brotherhood of the northern shield. They had formerly been called the brotherhood of the northern rose and had been dedicated to protection of territorial lines and walls during the times of peace but had been repurposed for the defense of human lives during the casualty rife period of the blood wars, the king their most powerful member.

It seemed increasingly obvious that a war with the species was nigh, he would have to call on them once more to defend all he held dear.