next day, as promised, Avadon left for the outskirts of the eastern part of the kingdom. Once there, he encountered two men walking down a quiet street. There was no one else in sight. Avadon, disguised as a frail old man, walked over to these men and began reciting the incantation. Mesmerizing both men with the spell, as they stood motionless. Avadon created veils or layers of illusions in their minds making them completely forget the wonderful memories of their lives in Luminatia. In their place, he then created new negative memories of misery and hardship. What was unknown to Avadon was a side effect of the spell he was casting. It was twisting him into pure evil. Vapors of positive energy left his victims’ bodies and flowed into his. As the vapors entered into his body, the positive energy was then transformed into hatred and depravity. The book had fooled him by letting him believe the codes he deciphered would turn him into a beloved king like his brother, in fact it had the opposite effect.
The vision returned as Winston saw Shadel seated at his desk, in what appeared to be an office. Sitting on the other side of the, desk were two somber faced men clad in dark green ornate uniforms.
“Sir!” the man with the red moustache began in a grave tenor, “we’ve had extremely alarming reports from the east.” Dalgranca one of Shadel’s emissaries continued, “I’m afraid, Sir, your brother is causing severe devastation to the people of that region. Chaos has erupted and many thousands of people are missing.”
Calmly Shadel asked, “Do we know exactly what he is doing to cause chaos?”
“Sir! Witnesses have reported he has been gathering small groups of people together, he then delivers an incantation to them,” Veon, his trusted aid reported to the King with great concern. These witnesses claim to have seen a white vapor emanating from each of those people and that vapor then turned black as it flowed into Avadon. Your brother has also been altering their physical appearance so no one can identify them. In some cases, there have been reports of physical violence breaking out amongst the people.”
Shadel stood, “Gentlemen, thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’ll look into this and deal with it immediately.”
Winston watched as a messenger delivered a small wrapped box to Angeen’s apartment that same morning. Inside the box is a parchment folded in four.
Opening the parchment, she read the message:
“Dearest Sister…I think it would be quite thoughtful of you to prepare a special beverage for our beloved brother and his wife today. I’ll be returning very soon…Your Loving Brother, Avadon.”
After discarding the parchment into the lit fireplace, Angeen understood Avadon’s message and rushed into her bedroom. Eager to prepare the potion she sat at her dressing table snatching various ingredients she had previously concealed in bottles of perfumes and lotions and put them into a crystal decanter.
“The Queen’s favorite nectar,” she uttered aloud, grinning, as she reached into the cupboard for the bottle containing the fragrant nectar she believed would mask the vile taste of the potion’s ingredients. “When they drink this their minds fail and they will become idiots who can only babble nonsense. They will become nasty and will be hated,” she rambled in a childish contemptuous glee.
Later that morning Angeen brought the gift she had prepared of nectar in a crystal decanter to Suri. “I’ve prepared something very special. It’s a delicious, sweet nectar just for you and my beloved brother,” she exclaimed ever so sweetly. “I hope you’ll enjoy it with your lunch today, my dear sister-in-law. It contains the nectar of the rare pristol fruit that you love so much,” she gushed.
“Angeen, how thoughtful, of course we’ll have it with lunch this afternoon,” she said kissing her sister- in-law on the cheek.
“Just before lunch the queen opened the decanter and detected a peculiar odor coming from inside the bottle. Not wanting to hurt the feelings of her sister-in-law, she emptied the contents from the crystal decanter into a ceramic jar and refilled it with her own nectar,” Myadora added.
The nectar in the ceramic jar began to steam. “That’s very odd,” Suri thought as she observed the jar break apart. Feeling uneasy she summoned the great sage, Zachonier, to her chambers.
As she described the circumstances he said with great apprehension, “My Queen, Avadon and Angeen wish to harm you and Shadel. This potion comes from the book, Secrets of Dark and Evil. I fear somehow Avadon discovered this book. Many years ago, the King knowing the chaos it could cause hid this ancient evil book in order keep Luminatia safe. Without this book there can be no evil. One needs to have very specific insight to interpret and reveal the secrets of this book. In the wrong hands, whomever attempts to use this book will turn evil,” he cautioned the Queen.
“Is the King aware of this?” she asked.
“Yes”
“Thank you Zachonier,” she sighed. “I’m meeting the King in the garden for lunch.” Suri picked up the crystal decanter filled with her own nectar and walked down the corridor to the garden.
The scene was of the king and queen in the garden. “Winston, tell me what you see?” his beautiful ancestor inquired.
“It looks like the King and Queen are having lunch in the garden,” the young boy responded.
“Yes, look closely at the bushes,” Myadora directed.
“Oh, it’s Angeen. She’s hiding in back of the hydrangea bushes,” Winston pointed to the barely visible woman crouched down behind two large bushes.
“She can see Shadel and Suri but she’s too far to hear what they are saying,” said Myadora.
“Your own brother and sister, Shadel, what will you do?” Suri asked.
“I’ve always overlooked their silliness, their greed, their arrogance. They’re my brother and sister and I love them,” he replied distraught.
“I understand,” she consoled him.
“He’s returning to the castle tonight and I’ll deal with him then. He’s become an extreme danger to the people of Luminatia. He must be stopped. Suri, I fear there could be a real possibility that I may have to put him to death. I don’t want have to kill my own brother. He’s immortal and you know I’m the only one that can remove his immortality,” he agonized. “As long as he has that book there’s going to be a potential danger to everyone,” he said sadly.
“What about the alternatives to imprison or banish him. I know how difficult this is for you, Shadel,” she said with great sympathy as she poured her husband a glass of nectar unaware they were being observed.
“Those are alternatives, but they may not be harsh enough to protect our people,” he responded. “I will speak with him later and hopefully get him to agree to banishment.”
“They drank it, they drank it!” Angeen giddily sang to herself as she watched Shadel and Suri drink what she believed to be her gift. Carefully, she left her hiding place unnoticed and hurried back to her apartment to await her brother’s return.
CHAPTER SEVEN
That night unaware he had been found out, Avadon walked swiftly down the corridor to his apartment. As he opened the door, he noticed the shadow of a man seated in the large baroque chair by the fireplace. Startled, he shouted, “Who’s there?”
As
