Leonarya felt her knees slacken at Kyran’s words. Her mother was here?
Was the woman that foolish? She even forgot, or rather didn’t deem it necessary at the moment to slap Kyran for using the Queen title on her mother. She had told him more than once not to do so. But she relegated the disobedience to shock. She was shocked too.
“Where is she?” Leonarya asked, wondering that perhaps the gods were in her favor this time around.
“She is in the outer court.”
Leonarya nodded, and then waved him out of her presence.
Kyran took a bow and hurried, wise in knowing the unstable state of Leonarya. Leonarya, whose mind had started down the memory lane again.
But Leonarya shook herself out of it the next second, shook herself up, and walked out of the room. This was the wrong time to walk down the memory lane. This was no time at all. Yet, she couldn’t stop the torrent of memories that assailed her mind as she traveled the corridors to go and meet her mother.
She couldn’t even help the renewed activeness in her bones, as if she had just eaten a nutritious meal that had geared her strength up. She even chuckled, flexing her hands. Yes, the goddess was on her side.
“Hello mother..” She greeted sickly immediately she came into the court, and saw her mother standing with her arms across her chest.
She smiled coldly, happy that her servants had taken the right approach toward the woman who had been her mother at one time. She watched as Zipfarah turned aside and looked at her, something akin to sadness flashing in her eyes for a mere second before disappearing and giving way to a cold glint.
Good. Leonarya thought. Good.
But what could bring her mother to an enemy’s territory, unprotected, without the guards, without her sister’s children? Was she attempting to bank on their blood ties?
Leonarya laughed and shook her head. The woman was a joker if she had planned on that.
“What’s funny Leonarya? Won’t you give your mother a chair?”
Leonarya shrugged her head to Zipfarah’s question. “You should have thought about my cruelty before coming here. You should have thought of that before throwing yourself into the killer’s hands. Where are your grandchildren, the ones you trained as guards?”
Zipfarah gave no answer, instead she commanded one of the sofas to her, and plunked herself into it.
Leonarya clucked her tongue. “What are you here for, mother?” She asked after a while of silence.
“To try to make amends. The situation calls for it.”
Leonarya laughed now, evil and intense, yet Zipfarah knew it was expected. She knew that her daughter was very strong headed, but she had to try, before ruling her out entirely as an enemy. The situation was that dire.
“Is that why you came without guards? You are more stupid than I thought.”
Zipfarah didn’t flinch at the insult even though her mind did. She knew that if her grandchildren found out where she was, they would go berserk. They wouldn’t have even allowed her to come on this journey, if they had known of the plan. But they hadn’t. The person who was aware was only Prescott, and she had lied about the time frame. Yet she knew that the squirrel will come for her if this meeting went wrong. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be her daughter’s dead body that will be carried away.
“I came for peace Leonarya.”
“It’s decades late for that.”
Leonarya took a seat on her high chair now, still watching her mother closely. She didn’t trust the woman to come here without contingency plans.
“I tried at every turn, Leonarya. You know that. Don’t pretend to be aloof to them all, or to forget them all.”
Leonarya shook her head. “Those were petty excuses for peace finding. You took a great risk coming here, mother.”
Zipfarah knew. She didn’t need to be told that. She didn’t tell her daughter too that she was at risk for agreeing to meet her alone.
“Leonarya, please you have to come back from the path you have chosen. I know you were behind the poisoning. But I’m not here to collect, or to know who among my people were…”
“Venete…” Leonarya interrupted. “Venete had chosen to go in my stead. She hadn’t been too easy to win over to my side though.”
Zipfarah opened her mouth to talk, then shut it. Her mind needed to process this piece of information. Venete? Was that why the woman had been so vehement, trying to push Emma away? She shook her head. More reason why she needed to get back to the community as quickly as possible, with or without Leonarya.
“That’s to be expected.” Zipfarah lied, refusing to show that she had been shaken to the core by the news. Venete had been one of her first friends, one of her fiercest loyalists. What had Leonarya promised her? Didn’t the former have age and wisdom on her side? How could she let a younger witch deceive her in such a manner?
“Back to the subject at hand. Stop this madness and return with me. Legardo isn’t who he seems. At least that’s what my newest vision says. You need to stop serving him. He’s actually thinking of discarding you.”
Leonarya laughed, shaking off the chills that buttered her spine at her mother’s words. She knew her mother’s vision was always true, but she wasn’t sure this one truly existed. For all she knew the woman contorted that to get her to come with her.
Leonarya shook her head. She didn’t come this far, to return as a dutiful daughter to her mother. She had made her own name, and she will keep holding onto that reputation-black witch of the south.
“I can’t, mother. Or rather, I won’t. I have no use for your alliance, I have no use for retiring to your court as a mere personality. I am a queen in my own right. You will do well to take notice of that.”
“I’m not denying that, Leonarya. And no, you won’t be a mere person in my court. You will be…”
“Can you give up the throne for me, mother?”
There was a brief hesitation on Zipfarah’s part before she spoke in affirmation. But the hesitation told Leonarya of the real decision.
“No, you won’t, mother. Didn’t peg you as a liar. Too bad you had come here without guards.”