Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

At that very moment, the Grand Duke Abberbie was sitting on his small fishing vessel in the middle of the small lotus pond at the center of his palace.

His wife had always thought it odd that he enjoyed fishing the tilapia that the gardeners released into the ornamental pond in the middle of the huge inner courtyard.

Shouldn't a person at least go to a real lake and catch real fish, as opposed to sitting on a tiny little thing no larger than a small canoe and waste time catching fish that was released into the pond that morning just for his fishing pleasure?

And if a person truly insisted on catching fish in that ornamental pond, wouldn't standing on the foot bridge be easier than sitting in a tiny boat?

The Grand Duke Abberbie did not care what his wife thought. At the crack of dawn, he had paddled out to the middle of that lotus pond and let down the line from his small bamboo pole.

For all intents and purposes, he looked like a common fisherman, wearing the rough brown fisherman garb. On his head was a large conical hat, and on his feet, watertight black boots. In the round covered bowl at his foot was a small number of tilapia fish that he had just caught that morning.

It was now mid-morning. The sun was shining. The sky was blue. The puffy clouds were white. Butterflies fluttered and dragonflies swooped.

Oh look. He had caught another small tilapia.

By the gazebo, Duke Abberbie's advisors were standing around waiting for him to return from his fishing expedition. They needed to talk with him about very important situations that had just transpired, but nobody dared intrude on his fishing activity.

What they realized, and that the Duke's wife did not, was that Duke Abberbie only went fishing when he needed to get away from everyone and just be by himself.

Leaving the duchy palace was not something that he could do on a whim, but taking himself away from all interruptions for the morning was very doable.

By noon, he put his pole down and paddled back to shore. It was time to see what, if anything, had happened while he was 'gone'.

"Your Grace!" His minions came running as he stepped off the tiny boat.

He handed his pole to one of the advisors and the bowl full of fish to the other and began striding away.

Both of the advisors were elegantly dressed in their finest court garb and did not want to get fish-tainted pond water on their clothing, but they had no choice.

They took the fish and the pole with ginger hesitant fingers and ran after him as he walked away from them.

"Your Grace, King Süren has arrested Baron Hughbert on charges of insurrection and carrying out a coup, not just against him but also against the Emperor of Erenveil."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Your Grace, Prince Altan has implicated you."

"Oh he has, has he?" Duke Abberbie snorted. "And what did he say, not that he has anything to back it up."

"He said you told him that you would provide the necessary military power to remove King Süren from power and place him on the throne."

"Oh he did, did he? And what has happened to him?"

"Sir, Prince Altan has now been placed on house arrest."

"Hmmm. A pity he's such a sniveling idiot. Why would I place an idiot on the throne? The only one who is worthy of the throne is Süren, but he's an even greater idiot for having rejected my daughter."

His precious perfect daughter, the one who had been groomed since birth to become the Dragon Queen.

It was almost a done deal.

They were already engaged to be married within the year—and the Prince had to return from a wild hare joy ride with an Imperial Princess in tow, proclaiming her as his new bride.

Duke Abberbie had insisted King Batsaikhan intervene and when that didn't go as planned, he had engaged Baron Hughbert with promises of suitable marriage candidates for his daughters.

Who would not want their children to become Imperial Princesses, married to handsome Princes from the capital world of Erenveil? It would have brought legitimacy to the Baron's pirate status if the twin Princes had been amenable.

But who was he kidding?

Why would two wealthy important Imperial Princes agree to marry some nobody girls from some backwater world in the middle of nowhere?

Of course Duke Abberbie knew the twin Princes would not agree, but that wasn't the point. The point was dangling that carrot in front of the Baron to get him to do what the Duke wanted him to do.

Prince Altan had also fallen for that marriage trap, hook, line, and sinker. With the beautiful Princess Lyra so close to reach, Altan was an easy prey. If Süren took him down for insurrection, it would be one less thing the Duke had to do.

Duke Abberbie had been very careful to leave nothing that would lead any merest hint of negative backlash back to him.

He would simply sit back and watch what happened. Süren couldn't do anything to him anyway. The Duke held in his hand over fifty percent of all the military power of Avalia.

It would be the heigh of idiocy to fight against him, and Süren was no idiot. The dragons would weaken to the point where the pirates would take over, and nobody wanted that.

"Honey! Honey!" The Duke's wife Minata ran out in a panic as he was coming towards the doorway.

Her blue-violet hair was a huge mess and her makeup was smeared from the tears that were streaming down her face.

Duke Abberbie held out his hand.

"Calm down Minata. Tell me in a few words what the problem is."

Minata panted. "Sharina has been taken!"

"What???" Duke Abberbie roared. "By whom???"

"Prince—King Süren! He's charged her with attempted regicide!"

Duke Abberbie stood still, shocked to the core of his being.

Regicide was the murder of, or an attempt to murder the king. On what grounds was Süren able to charge a simple girl like Sharina with that?

Suddenly, Duke Abberbie slumped to the ground.

The aphrodisiac he had given Sharina to make sure Süren impregnate her had mixed with the powerful anesthesia that King Batsaikhan had given his own son to produce such a terrible combined effect that it had almost killed Süren.

There were doctors on hand who could vouch for the efficacy of the combined drugs on Süren. It was what had sent King Batsaikhan to the dungeon and it was what would send Sharina there as well.

Regicide only had one outcome to the guilty parties.

Death.

Duke Abberbie tore off his clothing and ran for his bedroom.

"Where is my court clothing. I need to go see King Süren immediately!"

The advisors ran after him. "Sir. King Süren is not seeing anyone at the moment. He's not even at the palace!"

"Where is he?" Duke Abberbie turned to his advisors with blood in his eyes.

"He is with his fiancée's family onboard the cruise ship Raptor 650, Sir."

"Call him!" Duke Abberbie howled.

"Sir, we are trying." The advisors responded. "He is not responding."

"Call his advisors!"

"Sir, his advisors are responding but all they can say is that he will be out for several weeks to prepare for his coronation."

"What about my daughter???"

"Sir, she is slated to be executed within three days for the crime of regicide."