"Greetings your majesty." I greeted her and walked towards an empty seat.
"How are you Kandel?"
"I'm hanging in there. I don't want to die yet."
She laughed and poured me a glass of deep red 'wine'. I thanked her and took a sip.
"You are here because of the meeting with the king. Correct?" I nodded and dropped my head.
"Father wants me to go with Jarl." I informed her.
"Did he agree?"
"Uncle Imie took him away."
"He's not well." She whispered and got up. I didn't know who she was talking about but I got up and followed her. She held her chest as if in pain and leaped towards the house of Uncle Imie. She was very fast and I knew then that something was wrong. The anxious expression on her face didn't escape me. I leaped after her. Vampires are very fast and we got there in no time.
She run inside the house shouting Jarl's name.
When we were taken to the room uncle Imie was, I saw him lying on the bed with an even paler face if that was possible. He was laid on the bed and covered with a duvet and uncle sat by the bed holding his hand. For some reason, that picture looked a bit off.
"He had an episode." Uncle got up and walked towards us.
"Kandel excuse us." I looked at Queen Caprice and walked out of the room.
There were unusual noises coming from the room. Extreme pants, haggard breathes and occasional coaxing. Something was not right.
After a long while the door opened and Jarl walked out. His expression was off.
"What are you doing here?" That was the first thing he said when he saw me.
"Did father send you to get me?" His voice was full of hostility.
"Jarl, he's your brother. Be polite." Queen Caprice scolded.
"Brother? But why don't the other queens treat you like a queen."
"This is not the time for that." Uncle chimed in.
Jarl sneered at me and sat down.
"I have decided to let Jarl go on this journey." The room became quiet.
" What if the solution is outside?" I looked at them in confusion.
"When Jarl was young, he was accidentally locked in the dungeon." Queen Caprice begun. "Mother why do you need to tell him this?" Jarl fumed.
"He needs to know so he can protect you."
Jarl sized me up and nodded but I knew better. It's as if he was asking who is going to protect who?
"He stayed in the dungeon for more than a month and was later discovered by a palace guard. He developed the extreme thirst condition. It acts up anytime. I want him to search for the cure while he's outside."
I looked at Jarl with complicated emotions.
"What? Are you pitying me?" He asked in that sour voice.
"No. I'm admiring your strength." I said honestly.
"When it acts up, he needs the blood of someone he has extreme feelings for to come him down. " Uncle continued.
Now I get why there were unusual noises in the room earlier. Queen Caprice was feeding him her blood.
I got to know of him going missing because everyone in the palace was looking for him. Father even threatened that if he couldn't find him after sometime, he was going to behead his personal guards. I didn't know it development into something like this.
My determination to go on this journey intensified.
We were ready to set out on our journey. For how long we'll stay out, no one knew. Whether it will be a success was another unknown factor. We just had to try, as to not attract public opinion.
"It can hide your breath." Father handed me a necklace. It had a ruby gem but it was not ruby either. It was was beautiful and simple. If you don't look carefully you won't notice it.
It could not only hide your breath, it could also copy the scent of any race if smeared with the blood of someone from that race.
He gave us two. For Jarl and I.
We took nothing. Only some flying beasts we will leave at the border and walk on foot.
We didn't know the race of this guardian we are looking for. This means we had to visit all the races in the immortal land.
We decided to start from Lunadom.
The information we got was that it was ruled by a lady Sovereign who took part in the battle a century ago.
It had many towns and cities in it but the Sovereign lived in the main land which was the center of Lunadom.
Uncle Imie gave us many other treasures and some spare blood to last us till we were out of Virdom.
He didn't forget to remind me to take care of Jarl. Queen Caprice cried. She didn't want to be away from her son.
We mounted our flying beasts and set of to the border.