‘Hello Snowbelle, we meet again. What do you want thistime?’
‘My little spy watching the gateway told me you had arrived soI came to gloat a little. I see your boyfriend has removed yourtattoo. Was it nice and romantic or just a quick roll in the dirt.I suppose that once he added you to his tally he could get on withhis quest of causing chaos.’
‘Snowbelle must you be so crude!’
‘I knew you weren’t my real daughter you know! Neither Wyvernnor I are Llanlleans. Your spirit was swapped with that of my realdaughter sometime before I captured Argenta and became its Queen.It pained me at first to know the Lady would allow that to happento one of her devoted servants. But she is a goddess and we aremere mortals to be used and discarded when we are of no moreuse.’
‘I suffered having you at Argenta knowing all the while myreal daughter was held hostage somewhere. I searched for her butshe was always kept out of reach by your real father who has justjoined us to make sure I don’t harm his preciousdaughter.’
Llalorax walkedover to them in his Newman form and they suddenly found themselvesin a dark poorly lit mind arena.
Mirandlla andLlalorax both appeared as Llanlleans while Snowbelle appeared as anymph. Miranlla changed the appearance of the arena to sunny day inthe gully on Mudrun and changed her appearance to her Newman form.Llalorax looked at her thoughtfully for a moment and changed to hisNewman form.
‘Hello Snowbelle, hello Miranlla. I see our daughter has comeof age.’
‘What do you mean by OUR daughter?’ said Snowbelle. ‘She isyours not mine. You stole mine.’
‘That is not strictly true. You see I swapped your daughter’sspirit into my daughter’s body and vice versa. Miranlla here was mydaughter in spirit but your daughter in flesh. Therefore she is ourdaughter.’
‘I have a surprise for you Llalorax. I’m not your daughter.Your wife my mother Yllandril had an affair with Lord Darkmantle.He is my father not you.’
Llalorax andSnowbelle were both equally shocked.
‘What I want to know is why you did it? demandedMiranlla.
Llalorax stoodsilent for a while and said ‘I suppose you deserve an answer.’
‘History! It all comes down to our history.’
‘The Llanlleans are a proud people. Do you know we were herebefore the Elendari and the Trixies. We were created by those youcall the Mentarin. They were and to an extent still are our Gods.We were the prime sentients on this world until they brought theElendari from another world. They are aliens to this world. Itdoesn’t belong to them, it belongs to us. My ancestors fought withthe Elendari. We even ate them. In an effort to stop the fightingthe Mentarin changed us to be half Elendari but they didn’t changethe Elendari to be half Llanllean.’
‘We began to despise our creators and ourselves. The stonedragon Granite came to the world and felt sorry for us all. Hestopped the fighting and created the Accord between us and theElendari. It created peace between us but the Elendari always actedas our superiors.’
‘When the Trixies arrived later there was war again. TheMentarin advised the Queen to extend the Accord to cover theTrixies as well and set up a more formal structure for us tocoexist but she refused. Later another stone dragon brokered acease fire and forced the Queen to accept a new accord. TheElendari were to be the administrators, the trixies the workers andthe Llanlleans the guardians.’
‘It worked well at first. Each group was dependant on theothers and all ruled over by a Queen. Unfortunately the first Queenwas an Elendari and all subsequent Queens were Elendari. I neverunderstood why until I first read the Accord. It stated thatcontenders for the throne must come from a royal line. Since therewere no Llanlleans or Trixies that could claim a royal line wewould never have a Llanllean Queen.’
‘When Sindel first arrived and helped me become the RoyalWizard I thought she was our saviour. It was no secret that theDarkmantle family coveted the throne. They were strong and powerfuland I could see that Wyvern and Sindel were destined to become theking and queen. Unfortunately, so could others.’
‘Wait a minute.’ said Snowbelle. ‘Why did you think I would beaccepted as a Queen. I would need a royal lineage.’
‘You have royal lineage. Why do you think Wyvern sought youout and married you?’
‘Really? The cold-blooded bastard. I thought he loved me. Sohe really only married me so that he could become aking?’
‘Don’t pretend to be an innocent, Snowbelle. I suspect thatwhen you were Sindel you had ideas of using him to further yourambitions as well. You would have loved being Queen of theElendari, Llanlleans and Trixies.’
Snowbelle wasquiet for a few moments then said. ’Perhaps.’
‘I see where this is going.’ replied Miranlla.
‘If Sindel had the right lineage then her daughter would also.By swapping your daughter’s spirit into Sindel’s daughter’s bodyyou would arguably have a daughter, that’s me, with true royallineage. You liked Sindel so you would help her and Wyvern becomeQueen and King. I would be the logical successor to Sindel. But itall went wrong!’
‘Exactly!’ said Llalorax. ‘The Mentarin or someone else didn’twant Sindel and Darkmantle on the throne. That’s when that evilMentarin spirit Schlum showed up. He went after the Darkmantlefamily first. He caused the death of Wyvern’s brother and fatherand haunted Wyvern nearly driving him mad. That’s when you werepregnant. My wife and I timed our daughter’s birth with that ofMiranlla. I did the spirit exchange shortly after Miranlla was bornand just before you fled.’
‘Allalanllea fled with Sindel to protect Miranlla. She alsoarranged for you Snowbelle to be reincarnated after you died andhelped you capture and set up your kingdom in Argenta. She and Ihave foiled countless plots to capture your kingdom while youbecame more despicable by the year.’
‘I now understand what happened at the Queen’s Ball.’ saidMiranlla. ‘You saw the chance to get me onto the throne after yearsof despair. But you still haven’t explained why you wanted me onthe throne. I don’t believe it was just for show.’
Llaloraxlaughed.
‘Only the Queen or the Lord Warden
