Chapter 333 - The Tea . . . Party? (1/2)
”Welcome, Lady Christina,” The vampire Queen Vasilisa said from the tea table as Chris entered the oldfashioned looking parlour.
”Just Christina is fine,” Chris replied politely.
”Sure. Please, have a seat,” Queen Vasilisa smiled.
Chris sat down opposite to Queen Vasilisa on a big round table. On one side of Vasilisa, there was Prince Oziyat and on the other side was a middle-aged man, who wore expensive blue robes and more jewellery than the Queen. There were also many guards, including Gweneth and a few servants were standing around. As soon as Chris sat down, one of the servants came forward and filled a cup with tea and offered it to Chris.
”Thank you,” Chris said without touching the tea.
”So, I think we should do the introduction first,” Vasilisa took a sip of her tea and gestured the men beside her. ”This is my son Prince Volker and this is my youngest son Prince Oziyat.”
Prince Volker, the middle-aged man with loads of jewellery gave a stiff nod towards Chris. Chris nodded back, noting the frown and disgusted look on his face. Prince Oziyat, on the other hand, smirked a little bit when his eyes met Chris'.
”This is all nice, Queen Vasilisa, but --” a loud grunting noise from Prince Volker interrupted Chris. She looked at him questioningly but before he could say anything the Queen spoke to his son reassuringly, ”Its fine, Volker.”
Chris didn't understand what was going on, she just stared at the angry Volker for a moment then started again. Maybe she had broken some royal rules, so better safe than sorry.
”Look, I'm sorry if I said or did something wrong, but seriously I need to know what's in the south-east part of your forest. I need to go there. This is extremely important,” Chris said clearly.
”So you think we don't know it's importance? Are you trying to say we are stupid?” Volker growled.
Honestly, Chris thought, he was behaving like a stupid person. She was talking about something else and he was dragging it to god knows where.
”No of course not, I am just saying how important this is to me,” Chris said frowning. ”I am travelling for a long time for this destination. I simply need some answers, that's all.”
”Of course, we understand, Lady Christina,” said the Queen. ”I will try to answer your questions as much as I can. Please ask.”
”But mother, she --” Volker began looking more furious.
”At least, let her ask the questions first, brother, before you start accusing her motives,” Oziyat said cutting Volker off. His voice quiet and smooth.
As the brothers looked at each other Chris could feel the tension around them. Volker looked pissed as Oziyat regarded him coolly. Finally, Queen Vasilisa cleared her throat loudly and the Princes looked at her. Vasilisa gave them two critical looks, which made Chris think that there was much more going on between these royal vampires. Vasilisa looked at Chris expectantly and Chris nodded.
”So, how do you know Malgino,” Chris said and there was a sharp intake of breaths all around the room. The only calm-looking persons were the Queen and Oziyat.
”Well, I didn't hope to answer this question first,” Vasilisa paused looking at Chris, maybe hoping to change her first question but Chris remained unaffected. Disappointed Vasilisa looked at her teacup and spoke, ”But if you want to know it first then. . . very well, Malgino . . . was one of the most trusted wizards once among vampires.”
Volker gave an unpleasant grunt and Oziyat observed Chris' expression to see if she looked surprised, but Chris now knew better than anyone about how charming and manipulative Malgino could be, so she barely moved after hearing this revelation.
”At that time, vampires lived freely with the wizards and witches, primarily because we both were hiding their true nature from nonmagical humans. It was hard as the vampires had to drink human blood to survive and so we couldn't live very from them,” Vasilisa continued. ”And the wizards and witches preferred living among them, so they helped each other a lot. In fact, a few wizards and witches got so close to our kind that, many of them were in the inner-circle of the ancient vampires and they were entrusted with many vampire secrets, related to our magic, bloodline, . . . immortality.”
'Just what he wanted,' Chris thought gritting her teeth. But when she spoke, her voice was calm, ”So, I guess, Malgino was one of those wizards who knew your secrets?”
”Yes,” Vasilisa gave a bitter smile. ”But that wasn't all, as you have understood by now, even though vampires and wizards always had different opinions about their hiding situation, they also had a good understanding between them. Vampires believed the wizards and wizards respected vampires. It was nothing like the situation now, where vampires had to choose a colony and live there all their lives there, while the wizards and witches ruled the world, including the nonmagical humans. . .”
Chris wanted to object about her last comment but let ut go, for now.
”But before all of this, we lived together. It was probably one thousand years ago, a bunch of knights and villagers attacked a colony full of wizards and vampires. Many vampires wanted to fight but most of the wizards thought it was better to run away. Wizards and witches didn't want much bloodshed but the vampires were not ready to hide again. They were tired of this. Many wizards and witches, who had good relationsh.i.p.s with vampires, stayed and helped them, while the others fled,” Vasilisa took a deep breath. ”Malgino was one of the wizards, who decided to stay and fight alongside the vampires. He was a gifted wizard, everyone knew that, so many believed that because of him the knights lost the battle quickly and Malgino won the vampires' ultimate trust. He and a few other wizards and witches became the most trusted among ancient vampire. They were sworn to secrecy, so the vampires weren't much worried about them. And the other wizards and witches truly respected our kind but then Malgino did something so unexpected and disrespectful! He stole the most important part of vampire heritage.”