Chapter 9

The Smith family spent the next two days shopping.

They caused a bit of excitement when they went to Westons. Brooke was delighted to see Paige. When she saw what Paige and Collin wanted to sell, she just about went into shock. She told them the only way to sell them fairly was an auction. She would get to keep five percent of the sales and had to bid like the others.

They agreed and the auction was set to take place in four hours. She had the others help her place most of the items in two long counters on one side of a room. The room had a podium and thirty chairs in it set up in five rows. Brooke sent Austin to tell a few important people about the impromptu auction.

Paige whispered to Serpin and then ducked out to go talk to a couple of people Brooke hadn’t mentioned to Austin. Brooke meticulously examined the items and gave them a quick polish while they waited for the others. She placed a number in front of each exhibit and busily scribbled down notes.

Collin silently asked Slinky to record the placement of each item and placed a return spell on them. Once they were paid for, he would remove the spell. Meanwhile, he would act as the guard. Brooke agreed that this was probably best. She had noticed his sword and dirk and wished she could add them too. She considered them exquisite works of art, even if they were obviously very functional.

Over the next couple of hours, people started to arrive for the auction. Serpin acted as an usher and sent them into the auction room. As each spied the items, they joined the others, as they moved around the counters. Several tried to ask questions, but Brooke and Collin refused to answer them and told them when the auction started, they would get answers.

Several of the earlier patrons left and came back with someone else in tow. When Austin came back, he got busy setting up tea and kaffe for the guests. Paige returned after an hour. She had stopped at a bakery on her way and now contributed some small cakes and biscuits.

The potential bidders were milling around drinking their beverages and excitedly chatting with those whom they knew, as more people turned up. Austin had to find more chairs. He went and borrowed them from Bailey’s auction room and attracted his attention, so he had to come and see what all the excitement was about. His mother also happened to be present, so she had to come to see what the fuss was.

Austin hadn’t found either of them when he first looked for them and apologised for their tardy invitation. They both confronted Brooke when they realised what she was planning to do, as half of the items should have been given to Bailey to sell.

Serpin stepped in and said, “Sorry, but it just seemed easier to display them all together since they all came from the same collection and Brooke agreed with us since they are our items to sell. Austin couldn’t find either of you earlier when we decided to do this.”

While not mollified they had to agree because they were her items to sell; however, she wished. Serpin mentioned that at least they were being sold through their establishment, so there really wasn’t a problem. Bailey said he would be the auctioneer, but Serpin again stopped him taking over and said no, Brooke was their choice.

Bailey stomped off and then started to take to several of the customers. Paige became incensed when she heard him telling several of them to keep their bids low and he would help them resell them later for an even better price.

“Bailey, if you try to rob me, I will come after you,” she growled at him when she confronted him. She then pulled her dirk. “You see this? It is a magical dirk and if I prick you with it, I can put a spell on you. How about a truth spell, so you can only tell the truth? Do you think that would help you in your line of work?”

Bailey stepped back from her in fright and several people who were watching the confrontation sniggered. One of the men took a closer look at the dirk and gasped, “Where did you get that exquisite dirk?”

Paige looked at it and then pointed towards Serpin and Collin and said proudly, “They made it for me. See it goes with the sword.” She put the dirk back in its sheath before she pulled the sword and laid the blade across her hands, so the people could see it.

She then decided to help the Prince out, “Prince Ayden and his mother were worried that the old items were not functioning correctly, so they commissioned Serpin to make them a new set. He was very distraught when he came to see us this morning. His mother has passed away and he was worried that we had gotten here too late for the coronation.”

“However, when he touched the new sword and dirk the entity in the vambrace he wore happily accepted the new items. He wasn’t even aware the vambrace had transferred to him when he was holding his mother’s hand when she died.”

“So, you’re telling us the Queen is dead and Ayden has already been accepted by the Queen’s items?” one woman said aghast.

Page rolled her eyes, “Yes, his new sword is different from mine as it has two sliders for the guard and Collin used white boa wood with gold trim, in the handle. It is very pretty.”

“You do know that boa wood has special magical properties, and can only be handled by a Boa,” one man said.

“Yes, when the sword came to me this morning it said I needed my vambrace on too. So, I had to put it on first. It is very happy to be with me and so are the weapons. From Prince Ayden’s reactions, his vambrace was as delighted to claim his new weapons as mine was. Collin and Serpin are fine sword smiths don’t you agree?”

“You lie, I know you’re not a Boa-Shifter or even a normal Shifter,” Bailey hissed.

“I agree that I was not when you knew me, but I am now. I caught the virus and now I able to shift. I got that gift from my father. Then when I kissed Serpin, she activated the Boa in me. If I wasn’t one, then why can I hold the sword?” she said and presented it to Bailey.

He went to snatch the sword from her but as soon as his hand wrapped over the blade, he screamed. Others gasped when he pulled his hand back and showed his palm. A small red slider was burned across it.

“Oh dear, my blade doesn’t like you at all,” Paige said in an innocently sounding voice.

A lot of chatter broke out as what Paige had said was hurriedly repeated around the room.

The groups of excited people broke up when Brooke stood behind the podium and banged her gavel to start the auction.

People hurried to find seats, and many were left standing. As Brooke looked over the crowd, she decided she must have a representative of every leading family in the room. She was just about to start when she stopped and bowed towards the door.

Everyone swivelled around to see why. They all watched as Prince Ayden entered the room. He walked up to the podium and Brooke moved over to give him her spot. “Greetings,” he said to the crowd who immediately went silent.

He smiled sadly, “My poor messengers have been scurrying all over town trying to find most of you people. Then a little voice informed me that you were all here to attend an auction. So, I decided it would make thing easier to attend myself.”

“I regretfully must inform you that my mother has succumbed to her illness and passed on. As you all know, she was incredibly old, and we have suspected for some time that she wouldn’t be with us much longer. The magical item that is used to determine who our Ruler is to be, has for some reason best known to itself, has decided that it should come to me.”

“While I realise that to many of you, I am very young, I shall try to be as good a Ruler as I can be. The official announcement of my rule will be announced at the Ball in two days’ time. My mother’s cremation will be held at sunset tomorrow at the Royal Sanctuary and all are welcome to attend. Thank you for your time,” he finished and went to step away.

One of the Lords he knew well, stood, “Can we see your new magical sword, your Majesty? Paige said it was a work of art.”

Ayden could see that they all wanted to see it. He looked at Paige and she blushed prettily and then grinned at him. It also hit him that not one of the people in the room seemed bothered that he had a new magical sword. They were all eagerly waiting to see what he now wore.

A little voice repeated what Paige has said in his head and he had to try awfully hard not to grin. He decided his mother was a fool for not trusting the vambrace. It was a powerful weapon in its own right he decided. He stepped forward and pulled the sword. He twisted it and moved his hands so they could see it from tip to pommel.

He was rather pleased by the collective gasps and then the exclamations of delight. He heard someone say, “He has four sliders dancing on his blade. That is astounding.”

Ayden looked at his side of the blade more closely and he too could see the sliders shimmering, as they seemed to appear and disappear as if sliding to the surface of the metal and then moving down deeper into it. He turned to Serpin and Collin, “Thank you. It is with considerable pride that I shall wear these items as symbols of my rule.”

He was surprised when the crowd started clapping and started chanting, “Long live the Boa Regent, long live the Boa Regent.”

He chuckled and waved them down, “Thank you. You all get to do it again when you swear your fealty in two days’ time. Now I believe my friends wish to part you from your coin as they did me. I hope you get to treasure your items like I shall treasure mine.”

He stepped down and moved over to Collin and Serpin, and they invited him to look at the items, while Brooke tried again to get the auction started.

Brooke told the crowd that all of the items had been the possessions of three Mages that had been dead for at least two thousand years.

She produced a diary and read, “I am weak, the poisons have done their job and I fear I’m not long for this world. Queen Samara’s Mages caught us unaware. The potions they hit us with defy our spells. Jerome and Reanna have already succumbed.”

“We anchored our possessions in the hidden cavern near the mine. We were lucky to find it and believed it would serve as a good base. However, they caught us outside two days ago when we were scouting for Queen Ivana. I still don’t know how they found us.”

“Ivana is a fool. Reanna had been trying to talk us into defecting. She no longer trusts Ivana and believes she was lying. From what Jerome and I have observed, we too now believe she is either lying or others are lying to her.”

“Unfortunately for us, we didn’t get to explain our change of heart to Samara’s people. They have been so badly persecuted that I’m not sure they would have believed us anyway. I wonder if they know that Ivana has been systematically killing any Boa her troops find in this region.”

“Reanna believes that she trying to make sure Samara’s people can’t breed with the pure Boa anymore. This doesn’t make sense to us. We can breed with any race. Jerome believes it would take many generations to dilute the Boa strain so that it was no longer the base-form of our people.”

“It matters not to me anymore, I do hope Samara finds a way to eliminate Ivana, she is a bad ruler and I die ashamed that I had served her,” Brooke finished reading. “This diary is but one of many and I thank Collin for letting me read that passage to you as proof of the authenticity of the items he and Serpin found in the cavern.”

“Oh, Serpin mentioned that if any of you go looking for the cavern, be warned, as it has some extraordinarily strong protections on it. It is also on land that belongs to her mother, Duchess Silvia, and that she wouldn’t be pleased to find strangers on her property.”

She then motioned Austin to bring her the first item and started the auction. It seemed that every item was important to someone and even Brooke was surprised that many bids started so high that the first bidder got the item. It was almost as if, each person knew exactly which items they wanted and saved their coin to make sure they got it.

She commented afterwards that if she didn’t know better, she would have believed that it seemed as if each item had chosen its owner.

“How did Samara prevail?” Collin asked Serpin when they were cleaning up after the auction.

He was surprised that Ayden had stuck around. Not that he had minded this, as his four Shields had positioned themselves around the room. He knew no one would try cheating them, with Ayden and the Shields present.

It was Ayden who answered, “This may surprise you, but it was her youngest daughter at the time. She was called Bryana. She had been captured by Ivana’s troops. They had been about to kill her when she changed to human form.”