The Queen (8 page)

“
Yes, just a little bit of magic to push
things along,” he said, taking the vial from her hand and placing
it on a nearby table. “You need to start giving this to the King,
just two drops a day should do it. And it is time you started
thinking about how you are going to remove that wretched bed wife
and her bastard. You will leave Baylin to me.”

“
But why must I do it?” Johanna whined.
“I don’t feel right about killing a baby. Couldn’t you do
it?”

“
I leave for Mirstone tonight to finish
preparations with King Gideon,” Cadman said. “We have almost
achieved our goal.”

“
And then we can be together?” Johanna
asked. “You’ll make me your Queen?”

“
Of course, my dear,” he replied, placing
a kiss softly on her lips and trailing down her neck.

She pulled hard at the laces of his pants,
making them slide down his thighs. “Me? A Queen?”

“
You will get everything you deserve,” he
replied, lifting her and pressing her up against the wall. She
lifted her skirt so she could wrap her legs around his
waist.

Luana felt the suddenness of nausea come
over her. She quickly released her grip on the handmaid.

“Luana, what is it?” asked Queen Valasca.
“Should we fetch Master Keon?”

“No, I’m fine,” Luana said, regaining her
senses. She turned her hard gaze on Johanna. “You’re in league with
Lord Cadman. You’re poisoning the King!”

Everyone in the Great Hall turned, shocked
by the commotion.

“Milady, I don’t know what you mean,” the
girl pleaded. She turned and looked at the Queen. “Your Grace, I
would never! Please, you must believe me!”

Valasca leaned in close to Luana. “Dearest,
what do you mean? What makes you think she’s in league with
Cadman?”

“I saw it,” she murmured. “You must trust
me. She has been poisoning the King’s nightly tea. The tea Master
Keon gives him.”

Johanna’s eyes grew wide as she sucked in a
breath. Her eyes flashed from Luana to the Queen, then back. She
turned on her heel and ran for the door.

“Guards!” called the Queen. “Seize that
girl!”

Johanna let out a scream when she saw two
guards running toward her. She turned, heading for a side door.
Another guard came through the door and grabbed her around the
waist, pulling her to the ground.

“No!” she screamed. “I didn’t do it! I swear
I didn’t!”

The guards gathered up the girl from the
ground. She continued to kick and scream when they dragged her out
of the room.

Valasca looked at Luana. “How did you
know?”

How do I explain my gifts?
Luana was
certain she thought the Queen would think she was raving mad. “I
just—”

The Queen turned to the nursemaid, gently
sliding the baby into the woman’s arms. “Please take the baby back
upstairs.” She turned back to Luana. “You are going to explain to
me what is going on right now.”

The Queen led Luana out of the Great Hall
into a quiet hallway. “Now will you please explain how you knew
about that girl’s treachery?”

“I… it’s… I have…” Luana was flustered.
How do I explain something like this?
Her mind flashed to
the vision again and remembered the blue vial. “Dragon’s Fire!”

“You have Dragon’s Fire?” Valasca repeated.
“I don’t understand.”

“I must go see Master Keon!” Luana cried.
“She was using Dragon’s Fire to slowly poison the King. I must get
to Master Keon so we can reverse what damage we can!”

Luana was still not familiar with the layout
of the castle. Even though Baylin did his best to show her the main
corridors and stairways, she found it was easy to get herself
turned around.

She knew every moment was precious and her
stomach turned into knots as she searched the winding halls. She
finally came across a young steward coming down a hall.

“You, boy!” she called. “I must get to
Master Keon immediately.”

The young man pointed up the hall, toward
where Luana had just come from. “If you go up there and take—”

“I’ve just been from there,” Luana moaned.
“I keep getting lost and there is not time to explain. Just know
that it is a matter of saving the King! Please, you must get me to
him.”

“The King?” the steward gasped. “By the
gods, yes, of course I will take you.”

As the young man guided her quickly through
the winding passages and up stairways, she realized how turned
around she had become. Building into the mountain had turned the
castle into a labyrinth.

They finally arrived in an area that felt
familiar to Luana. The long hall that led to a single door held
paintings that she was sure she had seen when walking to visit the
King and Queen when she first discovered she was with child.

The steward stopped at the door. “You will
find Master Keon inside His Grace’s bedchamber. Be cautious, the
King is very ill.” He turned and hurried down the hall.

I suppose I should knock.
She lifted
her fist to the door but stopped herself.
This is ridiculous.
This is the King’s life we’re talking about.
She grabbed the
handle and pushed the door open. “Master Keon?”

She stepped into the room and noticed there
were two guards placed on each of the two windows in the room, as
well as four on the door.

“What is it?” the old physician asked,
looking up from his table. “You!” He hastily hobbled across the
room. “Get out before he sees you! You are not permitted here.”

A guard grabbed her arm, stopping her from
entering any farther into the room.

“But I have come to help,” Luana
pleaded.

He took her by the hand and began leading
her from the room. “You know I greatly appreciate your herbs, but
this is not the time nor the pl—”

“No!” She pushed his hand away, but the
guard still held her tight by the arm. “The King is being
poisoned!”

Master Keon barked in laughter. “That’s
nonsense.”

King Ashmur stirred in his bed, moaning as
he rolled on his side.

The physician waved the guard off of Luana
and guided her by the elbow toward the door and whispered, “No one
could poison the King. What do you think the royal tasters are
there for?”

“What’s this?” mumbled King Ashmur from the
bed. “Who goes there?”

Luana felt as though her stomach was full of
snakes, writhing around on each other. She turned slowly to face
him. “It’s Luana, Your Grace. I… I’m here to help you.”

“What is she doing here?” asked the King in
a gravelly tone. “It is forbidden!” He began to cough.

“You’re very right, Your Grace,” Master Keon
said, moving Luana closer to the door. “She was just leaving.”

I’m here to save his life and he still
sees me as a worthless bed wife.
Luana felt the heat rise to
her face. “I will not leave until you hear me out.”

“You dare speak…” The King gasped for
breath.

“Please, my dear,” Master Keon pleaded.
“Can’t you see you are doing him more harm than good by being
here?”

“He is being poisoned, Master Keon,” Luana
cried. “A housemaid has been slipping it into the evening tea you
administer.”

The old physician froze, his eyes staring
off at the wall while he thought about what she had said. “It’s the
only thing the tasters do not check.”

“Exactly,” Luana agreed. “Lord Cadman—”

“My brother would never—” The King coughed
again.

Luana’s anger flared. “Please forgive me,
Your Grace, but he would and he has! The young maid confirmed it.”
She turned back to the physician. “I cannot tell you what she was
originally using, but since Lord Cadman came a few days ago, she
has been using Dragon’s Fire.”

“Dragon’s Fire?” Master Keon’s eyebrows
rose, his eyes wide with terror. “A vial of that could kill a
healthy man. But it can’t possibly be, it’s only ever been written
about. A myth.”

“It is,” she said, running to his worktable
and pulling a book on poisons. “She has been administering only two
drops a night.” She flipped through the pages of the book until she
came upon a page with a drawing of a blue dragon. The beast’s mouth
was shown open wide with fire spewing from its throat as blue
dripping poison fell from its long, vicious, yellow fangs.

“Dragon Fire,” Luana read aloud. “This
deadly poison is created using the liquid fire that sweats from a
dragon’s fangs as it spits fire. The practice of harvesting Dragon
Fire means almost certain death.”

“Exactly right,” mumbled Master Keon. “Do
you even understand what it takes to get a vial of that wretched
liquid? Dragon Fire evaporates within minutes of falling from the
fangs unless mixed with the oil of an herb like crushed dandelion
root to keep it stable. Who would be brave enough, no, insane
enough to get that close? Lord Cadman may be insane, but he’s a
coward.”

“Master Keon, please,” Luana pleaded. “You
must trust me in this. He had the girl use Dragon Fire. If we don’t
try to counter the effects immediately, the King will die!”

King Ashmur said, catching his breath,
“Master Keon, why have you not had her escorted back to her
chamber?”

“Why can you not see I’m here to help you?”
Luana spat.

“Luana!” Keon yelled. “I demand you control
your temper. He is your King!”

“Remove her now!” Ashmur ordered.

The guards rushed, grabbing hold of Luana,
causing her to drop the book on the stone ground.

“No!” Luana screamed, struggling against
their iron grip. “I’m trying to save you!”

“Your Grace, with all due respect,” the old
physician said nervously, “she is a credit to us. She is highly
skilled in healing.”

“And you would put my life in her
unexperienced hands?” The King struggled to sit up in the bed, his
eyes pinched shut, brow furrowed, as he fought against the
pain.

“Yes, Your Grace,” he said. “I believe I
would.”

“Your Grace, please,” Luana pleaded. “I
understand I am a bed wife and nothing to give any consideration
to, but you must know that I love Baylin and I am devoted to the
Kingdom. I want to help. I can help.”

Exhaustion finally took the strength of the
King. He feebly laid back in the bed with a sigh. “It would seem
you hold my life in your hands, my girl.”

The guards relaxed their grip on Luana and
she shrugged free of them. She exhaled a deep breath she didn’t
know she had been holding. She began frantically pulling books down
from the shelves, trying to find the one that would lead her in the
right direction on how to counter the poison.

“Luana,” Keon said, facing her from the
other side of his worktable. “We have no way to make an antidote.
Without some actual Dragon Fire, we are hopeless.”

“It would actually require the exact Dragon
Fire,” Luana said, reading text below the picture of the dragon.
“It must be from the same source.”

The old physician looked over at the King,
who had already fallen back into slumber. “What would you have me
do?”

“First, someone should search the maid
Johanna’s room,” Luana said, pulling out a mortar and pestle. “If
the gods are with us, we will find the vial and be able to make an
antidote.”

Master Keon looked over his shoulder to one
of the guards. The guard nodded and hurried out of the room.

“Without the vial, we will have to make due.
Let’s try and draw out what poison we can,” Luana said, grabbing a
book of herbs and searching the pages. “We can make a mixture of
wood ash with—”

“Wood ash?” Keon interrupted. “You would
force His Grace to eat ash?”

“If he wants to live? Yes,” Luana said, her
gaze serious and unmoving. “Now, as I was saying, if we make a
mixture of wood ash, egg whites and water along with the echino
flower—”

“Echino?” the physician questioned. “I have
never heard of this flower.”

“It’s a purple flower with a black or dark
brown spiny center,” Luana said, grabbing a small handful of
crumbling, charred wood from the nearby hearth and dropping it into
the large stone mortar on the table. She pushed the pestle down,
grinding it into a black dust. “I believe some call it a conehead
flower?”

“Yes,” Master Keon said, writing
instructions down on a small scrap of parchment. “You there!” he
called to one of the guards. “Get the contents of this list to me
within the hour. We haven’t a moment to lose.”

Baylin sat in the war room, drawing up
strategies on a map of Grasmere.

A young steward came in carrying a tray of
bread, cheese and wine. “Your Grace, the Queen asked that I bring
you something to eat.”

“Ah, yes,” Baylin said. “Just sit it down
here.”
Mother is constantly fretting over me, even now that I’m
a grown man.

The steward turned to leave but hesitated.
“Your Grace?”

“Yes?”

“Is it true that your bed wife actually
saved His Grace, the King?” the young man asked with a nervous
smile.

“Yes, she did.” The Prince returned the
smile.

“I heard she was the one to create the
antidote!” The steward blushed at the display of his excitement.
“Apologies, Your Grace.”

“No need to apologize,” Baylin said. “It was
an impressive show of bravery and intelligence. Luana and Master
Keon managed to reverse the poison with herbs until they were able
to create an antidote from a vial found in the maid’s chamber.”

The steward smiled. “Well, lucky we have her
then.” He turned and hurried from the room.

Yes, lucky indeed.
Baylin smiled to
himself.

Baylin’s heart swelled as he thought of the
maids and stewards discussing how Luana found the traitor and
healed the King. Her plan to save King Ashmur not only succeeded,
but he was actually well on the mend.

Baylin continued to make battle plans for
another half hour in the war room. He felt like he had not seen his
bed in months.
I should be holding my son, not studying
maps.