The Broken Kingdoms of Osvolta (Kingdoms of Osvolta #1)

49. All Is Not as It Seems

Chapter forty-nine

All Is Not as It Seems

H ealers rushed to cover the body as they carried it away for disposal. Usually, the dead went to the temple for their holy rites, but they cremated criminals. Spread their ashes to fertilise the ground so that, at least in death, they would finally do something good for the kingdom.

Solveig walked the way back to the castle alone. Eyes resolutely forward. Murmurs echoed as she passed, but she paid them no mind. Even as carriages rumbled by, carrying supplies for the ball being held that evening. All she could see was the look on the prince’s handsome face. Sadness, anger, and pain. It haunted her. She wanted nothing more than to wash it away, to pretend she didn’t care, knowing she’d been na?ve to ask him to not hate her.

She walked the winding pathways to the gates. The guards’ armour rattled as they opened the doors for her and she disappeared into the welcoming dark of the castle. Dragging her body up the stairs; face a mask of indifference, though every step was like a boulder weighed her down and every staircase took an age to climb. Until finally she was closing the door to her room, safe and alone within the confines of her quarters.

She hid the blood-stained cloth she’d been holding on to. The substance had dripped from her nose and erupted from her throat after the crowd witnessed her power in full display.

She was getting weaker.

Ever since she had returned home, her strength had waned. Power failing her over and over. Was it an omen for the fall of her house? Was she to be the first of many to be born weak until no power remained in the Maleen line at all?

She was too exhausted to consider it, collapsing atop the bed, fully clothed daggers still attached to their holsters. The sun beamed down on her through the window. None of it mattered. She could have been floating on a cloud in a starless sky. Within minutes, her subconscious pulled her from the mortal realm into a deep sleep. To anyone glancing in, she’d appear dead. But to those familiar with magic, they would recognise it as the deep healing sleep after too much exertion. Her mind’s last line of defence preventing her from expending herself completely.

Teris passed by the princess’s chambers twice during the afternoon. Both times, she found her in the same position as before. On the third, she entered the room and set about removing her dirt covered boots, discarding the daggers on the chaise, and removing her cloak. Before using all her strength to roll the slumbering princess onto her back to cover her with a blanket, allowing Solveig to rest properly for as long as she could.

“How is she?” Emmerich rushed.

“Alive. Resting.”

“Still?”

“The healing sleep, I think. Three times I checked, and she hadn’t moved even an inch.”

“I should go to her.”

“No!” Teris grabbed the prince’s arm. “You can’t.”

“Watch me,” he snapped, pulling his arm from her grasp.

“Be reasonable, Your Highness.” Teris pleaded. “The castle is bustling with prying eyes with the ball tonight. You’ll never make it to her room unseen.”

“She can’t protect herself in that state.”

“Princess Solveig is fine. I locked the door to her chambers when I left her last. No one is getting to her.” Teris eyed her prince with sadness in her gaze. “I thought for sure today would be enough,” she muttered.

The prince glared at her. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“I was wrong. We both saw what she’s capable of. What she’s done repeatedly. Yet here you stand, as enraptured with her, as if she saved that man instead of damning him.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know how it makes her feel, you don’t know her.”

“Neither do you.” Teris shook her head. “I’m not even sure she knows who she is. She’s playing you for a fool and you’re too blinded by lust to see it.”

Emmerich had no response, no proof that she was wrong. Teris shook her head again. As if she saw every thought that passed through his head. “Listen to me, Your Highness. I beg you. You are infatuated with a version of the princess that doesn’t exist. You cannot expect her to change for you. Either accept her as she is or let her go.”

“You’ll see. I know it.”

Teris stared at him, this man who looked like her friend, her Prince. He had the same dark brown curls cascading on his forehead, the same tall, lean body, skin a deep brown. His eyes were the same fiery blue. But his thoughts, those weren’t him. The prince, she knew, would put his country first, not forsake it for a person who didn’t exist.

A knock sounded at the prince’s door. “Enter,” he called, gaze not leaving Teris as another servant walked in, pushing a cart of tea and biscuits.

“Afternoon tea service, Your Highness.” She bowed.

“Thank you.” Emmerich nodded, and the servant left.

Teris’s gaze burned through the steaming cup atop the tray. “What is that ?”

“It’s tea and cake.” He chuckled. Teris’s eyes lifted to him.

“How long have you been having it?”

“Every day for the last week. It’s a daily service for all castle residents.”

Teris’s teeth ground together as she stared at him, and his elemental flame gaze that now appeared off to her. Clouded slightly.

“No one receives a daily tea service. Not even the queen.”

“It’s only tea.” The prince laughed, sipping on the fresh cup.

“Put it down.”

“You can go now Teris,” He declared with a bored tone, flinging the door open behind her with his magic.

“Emmerich, please.”

“I said you can go.”

There was no reasoning with him. She couldn’t run to Solveig — even if she was awake — not without risking her cover. As the door slammed shut behind her, she paced back and forth before it. She didn’t know how much time had passed when someone grabbed her by the arms, startling her for a moment before her gaze met familiar, safe, brown eyes.

“What is it, Teris?” Wrenn rushed, a hand brushing the hair from her face.

“He’s taken something.”

“Who has? What?”

“Emmerich and I don’t know what, but he’s been acting strange. Making decisions he wouldn’t normally make. Surely, you’ve noticed.”

Wrenn only nodded in the affirmative.

“Someone’s been delivering tea to his room daily.”

Wrenn quirked a brow at her.

“Don’t give me that look,” Teris seethed.

“Hey, slow down. He’s overworked, bound to make some odd decisions.”

“You don’t understand. He said he was told it’s a tea service that everyone in the castle receives. But no one does, not even the queen.”

“What else aren’t you telling me, Teris?”

She rubbed at her brow; eyes dazed as she pieced it all together. “The princess, I was there one morning when she took tea with her mother.”

“And,” Wrenn implored.

“She wouldn’t drink it. Outright refused, had me bring her another drink, prepared outside of her mother’s wing.”

“You think the queen is poisoning him? To what end?”

“I don’t know. But something is wrong. I’ve seen it more than once when she and the king have disagreed.” Teris whispered, “The queen will run off and when she returns, a steaming cup of tea in hand, the king is suddenly much more agreeable. Ready to do anything she asks.” Teris gripped Wrenn’s hands. “Talk to the princess tonight if you get a chance. She’ll know something’s wrong. This has the queen’s doing written all over it.”

“I’ll talk to her, but I’m sure it’s nothing.” Wrenn hushed, bringing her hands to Teris’s face, caressing slow, calming circles into her wife’s temples, holding her tight as their inevitable goodbye loomed over them.