“My mother said the crafters got almost everything right, except their faces─ the eyes in particular. His was friendly, hers full of compassion,” he said quietly. We bowed down once more before exiting.
My head pounded with questions as the tour went on, and Cheng led me through the last part of the museum.
I froze as I found the statue of Blake. It looked nothing like him really, except for his blue peacock eyes. A couple of teenagers that didn't attend Dragonia took pictures standing next to him, like he was some sort of an idol. I understood now why Blake didn't like the city very much.
More wax figures of kings and queens came up greeted us in the next room. Cheng told me that the first couple was Lucian's grandparents and the second couple Arianna's. He explained that Paegeia had been too big for King Louie to rule alone. With all the changes he wanted to make, he needed help and solved this by giving Tith and Areeth to his two most loyal Knights.
I giggled softly as I saw a statue of Lucian standing behind the throne of his parents.“The Royal family of Tith”was printed in big golden letters on a brass plate. Lucian’s mom had light brown hair with a tint of red, and his father looked a lot like him, except for the moustache.
“He never liked doing this. I have to give it to him, Elena, he's as knightly as they come. When he ascends, he'll make one heck of a Dragonian.” A warm fuzzy feeling warmed my chest as Cheng’s words of praise washed over me. “I have a feeling that someday you'll be here too.”
“Now why would they put me in here? My brass plate would probably read something like‘The Dragonian with the dragon father’,” I joked, laughing to myself.
“Or it could read,‘The girl that stole the Prince of Tith's heart’.”
I giggled. For the love of blueberries, it was nice to hear that.
Next up was Arianna’s figure, smiling from ear to ear. I assumed she couldn't wait to have a model made of her and had welcomed this opportunity with open arms. Even her family looked happy. She looked so friendly, which was the last thing Arianna, was. She's capable of evil things.
The last exhibit was a replica of the King of Lion sword. “The blade of Aegis” was written on the brass plate in front of the glass box that protected the sword. I remembered seeing it in my Mysteries book on my very first day. Many of the kings and queens posed with it and Cheng mentioned that King William had killed the first Rubicon with it. After that he carried it everywhere he went and so did King Alexander, Louie, and Albert. The sword was always close to them.
“Why isn't there a model of Goran?”
“He doesn't belong in the museum, Elena. He gave up that right when he slaughtered King Albert and Queen Catherine.”
“Why do you think he did it?”
“Envy, who knows? He had no reason to be jealous, but he was anyway. I think it was his power that turned him evil. Before Sarafina, his dragon, died she gave him a part of her essence. I think if a dragon gives you too much of their essence, the human body changes. Goran wanted more and everything after Sarafina died. People say that she gave him a lot of her essence. A couple months later he became consumed with greed, power, basically all the deadly sins there are and he just didn’t care anymore.”
“I like your theories, Cheng,” I complimented him. He chuckled and his face turned red.
We spent the entire morning inside the museum and when we left the sun was sitting high. I took a lot of leaflets stuffed with information to read later on. I really enjoyed the tour.
He took me to the beach front where he bought two hot dogs and two sodas from a cart for us to eat.
I felt terrible because I didn't have any money but he just shrugged it off with a short wave of his hand.
We ended up strolling through the market as we ate. T-shirts, necklaces, handmade clocks and other artifacts were being sold by a variety of colorful people. We stopped at one compartment where they had potions in little bottles for sale. The words “Truth serum” and “Healing tonic” grabbed my attention. I looked at the old lady with her long, thin red hair hanging over her shoulders. She looked like a Gypsy. Huge silver hoops dangled from her earlobes. She just kept staring at me so I gave her a small smile, which she returned with a crooked one. Cheng nudged me forward.
“What were you thinking of when we entered King Albert's chamber?” he asked.
“Nothing much,” I lied. “I guess because it’s the first time I finally got to see them. I didn't know what to expect. I’ve learned and heard so many great things about them that it was hard to imagine what they would look like, until now. You know there aren't many books in the library with their pictures.”
“Yes, they weren't the type to parade in front of cameras. There are a lot of newspapers with articles about them in the library's archives though. You should page through them if you want to get a clearer picture of what they really looked like.”
I made a mental note to look through them once I had more time. “Why did you ask what I was thinking when I saw them?”
“Nothing major, it was just the way you gasped. As if you knew them,” he said cryptically.
I smiled. “That's silly, Cheng.”
“Yes, it's silly, but you know how much I love my theories.”
Did Cheng see through my gasp?
Does he know that I'm dreaming about the queen? Why am I dreaming about her? Of all the women in Paegeia why her? Well I'm not going to tell anyone about that. They'll think that I believe in my mark and that I think I'm special or something because she showed up in my dreams. Whatever the reason, it's bound to start students asking questions thatcould invariably end up causing a lot more problems than what it’s worth. I had my fair share of dealing with problems too.
"What are you thinking about, Elena?” he said shaking me from my thoughts.
“I was just thinking about home, the other side of the wall.”It wasn’t a lie. I was sort of thinking about it.
“Do you miss it?”
“Except for my dad, no. It's weird how comfortable I feel on this side. I mean I never knew what friendship was before now. Here I have so many people looking out for me. It's nice, but sometimes I miss being alone. Do you know what I mean?”
He smiled knowingly. “If you want to call it a day, Elena, I won't mind.”
“I didn't mean it like that, Cheng. I like spending time with you, and I'll put in a good word for you with Master Longwei in making you the new history professor.”
He roared with laughter. It was so contagious that I joined in.
“Thanks for the compliment,” he said when he finally stopped laughing.
He started asking me questions about New York and the Empire State building and my mind wandered back to my old life. That much I could tell him,because we’d lived everywhere in America. The Golden Bridge was on his list of things to see too.
“Thank you, Cheng. Besides Lucian, you're one of the coolest guys that Master Longwei could’ve asked to tutor me.”
“You're welcome, Elena. I’m happy just as long as you learn something.”
On our trip back to the Academy, all the things I had learned started to swirl in my head. The queen was at the forefront. As if dreaming about her wasn't enough.
The nagging bit of information was the foretelling. How could mine have appeared magically in the book? What was it I had to decide on? How would I know what the Viden mean by “if I don't the truth will never be known?” Could it have been about somebody else that she happened to receive while I was there?
“What is it, Elena?” He asked as we reached the stairs of the dorms, noticing my deep thought.
“Nothing,” I said quickly.
“I can see there's a question burning inside of you.”
“There is but it's not important.”