A DATE WITH DESTINY

Chapter 6

The woman pulled up the curtain, finally daring to show to her face to the General. Her eyes had a soft brown color like honey, and her waist length hair was the exact same color. There was nothing particularly beautiful or endearing about her. Her cheekbones were too high, her mouth was set too rigidly and her eyes were too wide. However, the General had plotted and schemed for years to put this woman in a position where she would have no other option but him.

He had wanted her that much.

“ Prince Andrex has fallen asleep,” the woman informed the General. Her voice was a bare whisper. It was not really her voice. And the words she spoke barely meant anything to her. She was only a vessel for the higher power residing within her. She was rarely herself. One couldn't even be sure that she had a mind of her own. For a long time- more years than she would care to count - the General had made sure that she could not think. He had taken her humanity from her and molded her into the only thing he ever wanted - a channel.

“ Has he finally?” The General's voice shook with undisguised emotion. He was a heartless man to the entire world, but no one knew his deepest pain. No one could ever imagine the sorrow of a man who had been forced to give up the only joy fate had given him all for loyalty towards a man who turned his back on him barely a day after ordering him to sacrifice the heart of his new born son….

“ He has indeed gone to sleep with his fathers,” the woman who was now called montenisha replied. She had been hiding behind a curtain for fourteen years but the spirit within her had suddenly become bolder and more daring and she actually dared to show her face to the General.

“ There will be chaos in The Der- Jahn,”

The General looked broken, yet he smiled- the smile of a bittter man who could never attain contentment.

The Der- jahn was an informal name given to the Royal Castle of V country where the Royal family lived.

The Regalis clan had been the most powerful and wealthiest clan in V country since the beginning of time. For centuries, no other clan had been able to snatch their power. Many coveted it but none ever got it. The Regalis’ clan had been royalty for such a long time that everybody believed that a Regalis prince was born with blue blood flowing through his veins.

The Regalis’ were as cruel as they were powerful and they always succeeded in merging with the dark Royalties of the End valleys.

For centuries, the law of primogeniture was never broken in Country V. The first son of the first son always became king.

But when king Khegan Regalis was crowned twenty five years earlier and was borne his first son prince Andrex, everyone knew that things were about to change.

Prince Andrex was born ill.

His mother was born with a terminal ailment and she had barely survived after his birth. She died three weeks later, and a new Queen was crowned.

Queen Livinia , a princess from Z country in the End valleys had her son eleven months after Prince Andrex was born. And everybody knew that the second prince was born to inherit the the Regalis Legacy and not his older brother.

However, King Khegan was determined to make his son live no matter what.

To achieve his selfish aim, he did whatever was necessary, and sacrificed whatever was necessary.

He gave Prince Andrex his title at a very tender age and got rid of anyone who proved to be a threat to his son's ascension. No one was excluded, not even his second son……..

“ Khegan Regalis really believed his will would be enough to put his weak, feeble son on the throne. But the fates proved to him that they can't be manipulated even by a man as powerful as he,” The General murmured. He could have cried but he didn't. Prince Andrex was finally dead. The one for whom his precious son had to die for. He had not even gotten the chance to avenge his son by taking the prince's life himself. The weak twenty Six year old had simply died in his sleep- peacefully and without pain. While his innocent son had had to endure the torture of having his heart dug out of him and his life stolen from him in exchange for the life of a prince who ended up dying chidless.

The General gritted his teeth furiously as he clenched his fists. His son's heart was still in prince Andrex’s body. He would have to take it out. But first, he would have to use this opportunity to torment the king.

Prince Andrex was dead. Now, the law of primogeniture had been broken. The second prince who had been sent away from home as soon as he was born was now the only direct heir. Khegan Regalis would be drowning in sorrow. After all he had done to make sure prince Andrex lived long enough to inherit the throne and pass it down to his own son, nothing had gone his way. He had lost and Queen Livinia who had been living in bitterness for twenty five years after being forced to send her son away had won .

The second prince who had been forced to live as an outcast all his life would eventually inherit the throne, and as the only direct heir, he had become the second most powerful person in the country.

The General should have been satisfied with the turn of events. The king had lost his eldest son and would have to settle for a son he did not get to know or raise because he had been acting selfishly. Khegan Regalis would suffer a great humiliation and if Queen Livinia s son became crowned prince, the second prince would become the most powerful man in the world with the Regalis family influence combined with the power and backing of the Royal family of Z country.

The General did not doubt that that was part of the reason the king despised his second son.

However, it pained him to know that Khegan Regalis still had a second option.

He wanted the king to lose completely just like he had. When Khegan passed down his throne to one of his greedy relatives, then the General would be happy. Not contented or satisfied. Just happy.

“ The second prince,” He turned back to montenisha, the mindless woman who was more channel than human. “ You know about him don't you?”

No one knew where exactly the king had sent his second son, but it was believed that he had kept him as far from prince Andrex as possible. But now, the prince would have to return home.

Right away.

The General did not intend to let that happen. “ I will snatch what ever little hope Khegan Regalis has. I would like to see the face of the great Khegan Regalis when he realizes that he has nothing, not even an unwanted son,” he said harshly.

The woman called montenisha looked past him with eyes that looked almost dead. “ The Dar- jahn Will be overcome by a great force,” she whispered.

“ Yes! That force will be me! I will create the day when the Regalis’ Legacy shall be tainted and Crumble!” The General growled. But montenisha laughed, shaking her head. Even her laughter was a whisper.

“ No Sir. Not you - not you at all,”

“ What do you mean?” He demanded.

Montenisha stared into space for a long, long moment, then her lips began to move silently as though she was reading the words from the air.

“ The second prince is like a quagmire………. even I can't seem to understand what he is all about….. He is dead, and yet…..yet… yet he lives in a new glory! In a new power!” Her eyes widened as the General hurled her roughly to her feet, gripping her by the throat.

“ You wench! You better be clear with me! What do you mean?” He hissed at her.

Montenisha did not blink or flinch. Her expression was exactly the same, and her tone did not change.

“ It is as I tell you. He is dead, and yet……he lives,”

Hundreds of miles away, the Kayondre stood watching, watching and waiting.

Soon……soon, it would be time.

Soon.