Chapter 33

Ricky and his girls waited while the crowd emptied the room.

Ricky had estimated some one hundred and twenty people were attending this dinner ball. Just about anyone who was anyone was here. As he watched, he realised that his family was surprisingly small.

His grandmother had not had any more children after his mother. She had given birth to one son and then the three girls. Ricky wondered why she hadn’t more. She was magical, so she should be still fertile. Realistically, she was still a young woman for a magician.

His uncle, Harold, had been killed by a dragon. His father had told him that Joshua had goaded Harold into participating with the sport. It had happened decades before his birth, so he had never met the man. His only daughter had left for one of the other islands, but Ricky didn’t know her whereabouts.

Ricky knew that Harold’s death was what had soured his grandmother on dragons. Many people thought they were dumb, killing machines, not sentient beings. His father had tried to teach people, but many didn’t want to know.

His other two aunts had both married off the island. The oldest, Eve, had died a hundred and twenty years ago. She hadn’t been strong in magic or in health and had birthed only one daughter who had also died when still young.

His Aunt Wanda had died only twenty years before. Her one surviving child, Nathan, inherited a kingdom on Delta Island called Rocklea. She hadn’t visited their grandmother in the fifty years before her death, and her son hadn’t visited since then either.

Joshua’s only living child that he knew of was Matilda, and she had never had a child. Ricky suspected it wasn’t for want of trying. Thinking of his cousin, he headed back to where he had left her. Most of the people had left the room.

Matilda was sitting on the floor, crying softly. He was disgusted with himself for not trying to help her. He even chided himself for his behaviour, it was very uncharitable. He mentally apologised to Goddess Charity.

He crouched down in front of the distraught woman. “I’m sorry Matilda. I should not have left you like this.” He waved the bubble away and put out his hand to help her up.

She looked up at him and bared her teeth like a feral animal. She snarled and leapt at him, knocked him on his arse. Shadow squawked and flapped off his shoulder. Matilda tried to scramble over him to get to the dracoling. “Mine,” she growled.

Ricky grabbed her and then grimaced as his mind met hers. He flipped them over and forced her down flat. He spelled her to lock her body and limbs to the floor as he straddled her hips.

He sat back up and looked into her eyes to see madness and hatred. He told his sceptre to appear and then touch it to her forehead as he whispered a spell. Matilda went limp and unconscious as he completed the spells.

Hetty had collected Shadow and was petting her to calm her down. Ricky was looking at her in gratitude when he was startled by his grandmother.

In a conversational tone, Angeni said, “Did you kill her?”

Ricky shook his head as he got off his cousin. “No. But the nasty spells and the little demon who was possessing her are gone. I don’t know for sure what we will find when she awakes. She has had the last hundred years of her life stolen from her.”

“Demon?” Angeni asked for clarification and looked around to see who was listening. The hall had cleared, and only she, her guards, Ricky and his girls were left.

“The best thing I can call what it was that was possessing her. I assume it had once been an entity, but it was so crazed that it had become a demon.”

Angeni sighed heavily, “That’s all I need, possessed people running around my province, I have enough crazy ones as it is. Twenty of my guards went psychotic a week ago, and we had to restrain them.”

Ricky had his pack appear and then put his hand in it. He rummaged around and pulled out a medallion with two power symbols on it. He knelt down and slipped it over his cousin’s head and settled it on her sternum. He mumbled a new spell, and it glowed brightly and then disappeared.

Ricky said to Angeni, “She will help her. However, it may take some time before Matilda is fully recovered. I’ve purged the poisons from her system and basically reset her system and memories. Grandmother, she will probably think she is only about thirty or so, as that is all the lucid memories she has.”

“I also told her a fib, and she will think that she is my child from a woman I met on my travels, and your great-granddaughter and heir. I told Matilda that her mother died in childbirth, as her’s did, so I sent her to live with you.”

“Tell her that she got very sick with a brain fever which is why her memories are jumbled. Can you treat her as if she is your heir, Grandmother, please?”

They were looked at the woman lying on the floor. Her face had softened, and the age lines had disappeared. Her body had slimmed and taken on a youthful appearance. She was a very pretty girl and looked a lot like a youthful version of Angeni.

“You don’t wish to be my heir?” Angeni asked in surprise.

Ricky grinned, “I can’t be, even if I wanted to be. Excuse me for a moment, Grandmother.” Ricky motioned to two guards. “You two, come and pick up Princess Matilda and take her to her room, please. Then find someone to watch over her. She will be confused when she wakes. Make sure they treat her gently.”

He and the others watched as the men picked up the unconscious woman and took her away. Ricky motioned everyone else to follow him. He took Angeni’s arm, and he escorted her to the banquet hall.

“Why not?” Angeni said indignantly as she walked beside him with a stiffened back. However, she still held onto the arm he had proffered as she glided along.

“Granny, I’m now the Regent Wizard of the Tear Islands. Plus, the Regent of Seth Province, so I can’t be your heir. I’ve not been able to be your heir since you Queens created Seth Province and my father died.”

“Our laws won’t permit it. You know I can’t rule two provinces. I’d have to pick mine or yours. Since I’m tied to the dragons, the choice was made for me many years ago. That law has been in the books for a couple of thousands of years, Grandmother.”

“You have put up with all my shit for a hundred and thirty years, knowing that I had nothing to worry about? That you weren’t a threat to me!” Angeni exclaimed and even gripped his arm harder in her agitation.