The Kingdom of Dawn

Chapter 7: Edmund's Discovery

Simeon had been hearing rumors about the girl who lived in a small room off of Tarvill's private tunnel for as long as he had been stationed in the tunnels. However, in all of his two years of service under Sir Tarvill, he had never seen her. He had heard Tarvill conversing with her before, and he called her Estrella, but Simeon had never had even a glimpse of her. That would all change tonight. As he crept down the corridor with torch in hand, he was determined not to get caught, to sneak a glimpse of the sleeping girl and prove that his suspicions were correct, to prove that the princess was hiding in the fortress. He slipped unseen through the shadows, careful to keep his unlighted torch from banging on the wall. Reaching the door of Estrella's chamber, he lit his torch and waited soundlessly outside for the princess to emerge. When she emerged, one look at her features told him that his suspicions were true. The girl hiding in the fortress was truly the princess of Dawn. Hurriedly slipping back down the tunnel, Simeon penned his discovery onto a piece of parchment, then sent it by messenger pigeon to the castle. He would claim the title of Lord as his reward, moving his family into the long vacant Highpeak Manor and claiming the valley of Highmont as his lands.

"She must be found" Lord Reuben was totally unprepared for the chaos which ensued when Estrella's disappearance was discovered. Most of the nobles had accepted his authority without question, but the house of the Moon was being more hesitant than the rest, even refusing to send a representative to the council meetings until the princess gave her opinion on Reuben's plans. Lord Reuben was hard pressed to find the princess and restore order to the kingdom. He had convened a meeting with his council of spies and informants for this purpose. "They could not have left the kingdom, so they must be hiding out somewhere in Dawn. I want informants in every city, every village, even the smallest of towns. Every fortress is to be watched, and every watchtower closely monitored. I need to know where she is. If this requires searching every nook and cranny in the kingdom, so be it. If this requires questioning every brown haired green eyes girl in the kingdom until I find her, so be it. I don't care what this requires, I want the princess found, and I want her found as soon as possible. The one who finds her will receive whatever they wish for as a reward. Now go, and do not return until you have found her!"

"My Lord, we have been searching for 5 years already. Surely she cannot remain unseen forever. We will find her my Lord. I received a report only yesterday from our informant in the fortress of Dusk. He tells of a young girl whom he spotted yesterday. She has brown hair and green eyes, and Tarvill calls her Estrella. It is likely that she is whom we seek"

"The fortress of Dusk, I should have known that Tarvill would have attempted to use the dragons to keep the princess out of my hand. He will not give her up easily, that is certain. We must assault the fortress to get her, yet our assault will be useless if the dragons are there. Yet even the mightiest of creatures must hunt sometime, and the dragons are known to stay out for days when they leave. We must determine when they go hunting again. That is when we plan our assault. Bring Lord Simeon here to collect his reward, and send the word that a hundred pounds of gold will be paid to the person who discovers when the dragons hunt next."

A/N: Sorry for the long wait for an update. I've been busy working on another story with some friends of mine, and when I got back to this story, I was dealing with some serious writer's block. I know this chapter is shorter than the rest of them, and I promise that chapter 8 will definitely be longer in order to make up for it. I'm also sorry if I'm confusing you guys by adding chapters in the middle of the story, but I just realized that I needed something here.