by Kiki Leach
“You shall continue to not inform your husband of this? Of any of it?”
“If this child survives, I shall inform him of all.”
“And if it doesn’t?”
I lifted my shoulders and made a face. “Do you wish to inform him of it?”
He didn’t answer.
“Whatever comes, I suppose I shall be prepared for it.”
As I headed for the door, he called out to me. I stopped but refused to turn back to face him.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“For?”
“Destroying the person you could have been.”
I looked aside. “If it weren’t for you, I may not be who I am today. I’m not certain who she is, but I am certain that she is no longer in need of your apologies.”
I quickly left the room and leaned back on the door as I closed it behind me. It only took a moment for me to wonder what the hell I had just done.
The Monster
On the way to my chambers, I felt a hand lacing around my arm. I nearly yelped until I saw Norvack’s face. His cheeks were flushed and his jade green eyes had darkened as he peered at me.
“You will come with me, now.”
I jerked a little, but he kept a tight grip. “Come where? I’m exhausted after tonight’s events and am in need of sleep.”
“No sleep for you yet, my favorite girl. Not until we have a small chat first. With my mother.”
He forced me alongside him as we traveled to Eliza’s chambers. As soon as I walked inside, I saw her pacing across the floor in what appeared to be a slight panic. She was talking to herself, speaking Danish, and hadn’t realized we entered the room. Norvack slammed the door, startling her.
“Over there,” he said, tossing his hand toward his mother. He readjusted himself and stared angrily at both of us.
“Why are we in here?” I asked.
“Is now the time you have chosen to feign ignorance?”
“What are you talking about?”
“The poison!” he screamed. I jumped back, nervous at his booming tone as it rattled against the walls. “Prior to escorting the physician to his carriage, my mother was in quite the dire need to speak with me regarding John’s condition. I told her that it could wait, but she appeared nervous and fearful. And so I informed her of his condition, but that he would not die.” He clinched his jaw. “And then she made a remark regarding the serum he had been given with his wine. And it stopped me cold.”
I dropped my shoulders and closed my eyes. “Damn it.”
“Yes, damn it!” he hollered and pointed at us. “I never said a word to her regarding the ‘poisons’ in his system, only that he had fallen ill, yet she mentions a serum. It was after a bit of harsh prodding that she informed me of what you two had done.”
I stood back and folded my hands.
“You served me so as not to draw attention to the obvious,” he went on. “I realized in that singular moment that something had occurred or would. And now --”
“You’re aware. You’re aware of my actions so what are we to do of it now?”
“Do of it?” He guffawed. “You speak as if you simply made rearrangements within my father’s library instead of attempting to kill the former General of England.”
“I took the life of a prince. Attempting to take the life of a former General would have been --”
“Cinderella!” Eliza cried.
I looked to a fuming Norvack and sighed.
“I apologize. I never wished for it to be taken this far. We never wished him dead, we only wished to displace him for the time being.”
“And you wished to do this, why?”
“Because he had planned to take your --”
“Cinder.” Eliza stepped forward, tugging my arm and snapping me back.
Norvack became increasingly aggravated. “He planned to take my Cinder?”
“Yes. He planned to have her,” she said. “As well as your father’s kingdom. He wished for both.”
“Which meant eliminating me, as I believed from the moment he entered.”
“Which meant removing you from power. Displacing you as he indeed usurped what is rightfully yours. This man is dangerous. Calculating. He needed to be stopped, but death was never the answer.”
My heart sank into my stomach as she spoke.
Norvack stood looking at me. He appeared angry, yet not too certain of his mother’s words.
“He wished for you?” he asked me. “As I suspected long before the moment he looked upon your face again, he wished for you?”
“Norvack --”
“What was shared between you? If there was ever a time I deserved to know it, it would be now.”
“Whatever ‘it’ was, is of no matter any longer.”
“And why is that?”
“Because he is aware that I wished him gone.”
“What?!” The queen violently grabbed my arm and spun me around. “What are you saying?”
“I am saying that he realized the truth which is why he didn’t wish for the physician to go to the king.”
“Ah,” stated Norvack, placing his hands on either side of his waist and pressing his lips together. “It is all beginning to make much sense to me now.”
“No. You don’t understand,” I told him. “He doesn’t wish to keep me safe as you did in learning of what I had done to Willem. He wishes to torture me, in a way that would make your late brother and perhaps even your father beam with pride. He wants me to feel the same pain he feels in this very moment. He’s aware that I wished to rid him of this palace for you and it has enraged him. He became more angry than I had ever seen.”
The queen placed her hands upon her face and turned her head toward the ceiling. “This was a mistake.”
Norvack reached for his head. “That is the most clever thing I have heard come from your mouth all evening. You planned to kill a man, and now it has completely backfired on you both.”
“WE NEVER PLANNED TO KILL HIM!” I screamed. “WE ONLY WANTED HIM PUT TO SLEEP FOR THE TIME BEING -- MY GOD. How may times must I say it before it sinks in that death was never an option that had been placed upon the table? Nevertheless, if he shall come for me as he claims, I’ll have no choice but to slaughter him first.”
“No!” said Eliza. “You shall not harm him anymore than you already have.”
I glowered. “I beg your pardon, WE. Than WE already have. I never participated in this alone.”
“The poison was your plan, Cinder.”
“And it was your plan of using sweetness that tricked Esme into serving it to him! I certainly had no hand in that. If I shall be blamed for devising it, you shall indeed be blamed for the outcome!”
“Alright!” hollered Norvack, raising his hands to either of us. Eliza and I turned from one another. “Where did you purchase the poison?” he asked me.
“I didn’t. Brigita purchased it from a man within the village, on my order.”
“Well, that’s lovely, Cinderella. What man?”
I rolled my eyes at his sarcastic tone. “A Gypsy. There’s an alley near the bakery in which he sells his poisons -- errr, his serums.”
“Perhaps it was the same one I encountered.”
“I’m certain it’s not. This man is very smart and keeps to himself. He only serves those who come to him. His bottles are specifically labeled to guarantee the purchase, but she must have asked for the wrong one amidst some sort of confusion.”
“What kind of confusion?”
“I’m not certain. The bottle with yellow lettering is the one meant to put him into a deep sleep only! It’s quite clear that she did not purchase the correct one, whether on purpose or accident. Otherwise, we would be dealing with a sleeping beauty at the moment. Not a vomiting one who makes vile threats.”
“Do you believe it was purposeful?” asked Eliza.
“I don’t know. She isn’t too fond of him, but if she were to purchase one of the others, she had to have been aware tha
t one would do him in.”
He exhaled. “Alright. How long will this serum take to travel through his system?”
“If she in fact purchased the green bottle, it could take days. The blue bottle could take weeks, the red could a few months and so on. We could obtain a specific antiseptic that would possibly cure him within a matter of hours. However, it will only work if she purchased the serum meant to kill him. Otherwise, it’s fruitless.”
“And if she did not purchase it?”
“Then he shall remain sick and quite possibly, more bitter for however long. In the meantime, we could give him tea as a sort of remedy. Or something of that nature until he finished vomiting. Perhaps a palliative. Something to force him into believing he’s healing as the days go on despite not as rapidly as we lead him to believe.”
“I am to assume the Gypsy has palliatives as well?”
“Plenty.”
Norvack ran his fingers through his hair and laughed in a sort of hysteric manner, furiously rattling his head. “This is utter madness.”
“It would be nothing of the sort if Brigita had only purchased the yellow bottle as specified. We would not be left wondering, and instead, downstairs in your father’s chambers explaining John’s true intentions while he decided what to do with him upon his inevitable return from the Land of Nod.”
“Are you quite certain that you can hear yourself as you speak, Cinderella?” asked Norvack.
I was taken aback. “I beg your pardon? I attempted to save your life.”
“By killing yet another man?”
“One in which you so openly despise. And if I had attempted to kill that man as you continue to proclaim, I would have taken care of it myself and left your mother out of the equation!”
“Next time,” she chimed in.
“There won’t be a next time,” he said, staring down at me. “No matter the circumstances, you should have informed me first.”
“And then you would have slaughtered him upon your next meeting without a single word exchanged between the two of you.”
“No matter,” he stated again. “What we are in need of now is a cure. And you’re not certain which bottle she retrieved.”
“No, I’ll need to ask her --”
“No. You have done enough for tonight, far more than. Stay here with my mother. I shall ask her and then travel to the village with one of my men to retrieve the possible cure.”
“He won’t trust anything else, he’ll be certain we will kill him.”
“Not if it comes from me,” he said.
I scoffed. “Are you joking? Once he becomes aware that you’re aware, he shall never trust you to give him anything. Aligning with me was perhaps your kiss of death.”
“I shall continue to take my chances. Now, what of the king?”
“Yes, the very same king he wishes to destroy.”
“He has no idea if my father is aware of his true intentions.”
“It doesn’t matter, Norvack. The man will no longer trust any of us now that he is aware that I attempted to lie him down to pasture.”
“There is still Esme,” Eliza suggested. “She gave the wine to him at my encouragement and he knows for certain that she out of all of us would not wish for his death.”
“And how will we get her to serve it to him? She became hysterical and nearly uncontrollable the moment he dropped to the floor. Not to mention, she most likely does not trust us either.”
“I was told that she is much calmer now. And, she is not aware that the serum was in the wine. Only we know that.”
“It doesn’t matter. She’s almost certainly aware that someone in this family wished ill upon him and possibly wanted him dead -- though we did not.”
“Perhaps I shall speak with her as well,” said Norvack.
“You most certainly will not,” I retorted. “If this is what we must resort to, I shall speak with her instead.”
“You?” they asked simultaneously, unconvinced.
“Yes. I shall think of something to inform her in the hopes that she will eventually see things my way. Go to Brigita. Once we have the antiseptic, I shall take it to her and explain as much as I can without implicating myself or your mother.”
“You should go to her now,” said Eliza. “Before we retrieve it. Speaking to her later, only to hand her a bottle to give to John may possibly make her even more apprehensive, wary. Speak to her now, then go to her again once we have received the medicine.”
I looked at both of them equally and then retreated like a child. “Perhaps you should go to her instead, Eliza.”
She lowered her head a little and wrinkled her nose. “I shall not.”
“Come.” Norvack held out his hand for me. “I will escort you.”
I reluctantly slipped my fingers into his palm. As we exited, he squeezed tight, but not in anger. In fear.
As we stood at Esme’s door, I hesitated to make even the slightest move forward.
“Do you wish for me at your side as you speak with her?” he asked.
“No. I shall do it alone.”
He nodded and backed away. “Very well.”
“Norvack. I truly never meant for any of this to occur as it did. I only wished for you to remain in place as the future king. My actions may not justify it but my intentions were meant to be helpful.”
He caressed my face and smiled sadly. Then he kissed me on the lips before turning away.
As I placed a hand on Esme’s door, I realized it was open and pushed back. She was on the bed, sobbing for what must have been hours. I waited a moment and wondered if leaving was best. I walked back a little, but my food slid against a crack in the floor, forcing it to squeak in the manner of a dying mouse. She quickly lifted her head, her face flushed and covered in tears. She sobbed even harder once she got a decent look at my face.
“Why are you here?!”
“May I speak with you?”
“NO! GET OUT!”
I went over to the bed and sat on the edge. She looked down and pulled as far away from me as she possibly could.
“I said GET OUT!”
“I heard you quite loud and clear.” I tapped the inside of my ear. “And I refuse to oblige.”
She dropped back to her bed and covered her face with the back of her hand.
“What?”
“I only wished to see if you were feeling better. I realize that is not the case.”
“You have seen me, now GO!”
“Not yet,” I said. “You wish for an update on John, I take it?”
She sat up quickly and crawled closer to me on the bed.
“Is he near death?”
“He may very well be. The physician claims that he was given something to make him ill, perhaps something in the food as he was completely fine prior to the dinner.”
“Or the wine? I served it to him first.”
“Oh yes, well.” I cleared my throat. “We’re not certain when it occurred. But he was indeed given something and it has made him so deathly ill. However --”
“However?”
“Yes. He may survive it all. With your help.”
She tugged on my arm, hard and leaned into my face. I pulled away.
“I shall do anything for him,” she whimpered.
“Wonderful, as we have learned of what may be a cure for whatever is causing this --”
“If you’re not certain of what is causing this sudden illness, how are you sure that whatever is retrieved will cure him?”
I gulped and feigned a nervous grin. She was asking more questions than I was prepared to answer.
“We are not certain of much, except that this cure is well known within the village. It managed to cure one-hundred and fifty men in a single day from illness.”
“What kind of ?”
“I’m not certain,” I answered flippantly. “I only know that these men were near death just as John is now.”
“How am I involved in all of this? I don’t understand.”
“The cure we receive must be given to him by you and you alone.”
She appeared cautious, worried. Her eyes twitched a little as she looked about the room. “Why me? Why not the physician, or --”
“Because he trusts you. I can see it as he looks at you, he believes you care for him. You should be the one to administer this cure once we receive it.”
“How am I to --”
“It is only a small bottle. He must take it by mouth. Encourage him to believe that this will cure him.”
She thought for a moment and then crinkled her brows. “How am I to believe a single word of what you say, Cinderella? How am I to know that you are not the cause for all of this?”
“If I were the cause of a single thing that has occurred, would I also manage to provide for you a solution?”
She looked to the floor and pinched her lips to the corner of her mouth. “Perhaps not.”
“Norvack shall return soon with the cure.”
“Norvack?”
“Yes. He feels a sort of obligation to John as his new comrade.” I stood up and went back to the door. “Once he has returned, I shall inform you.”
“Thank you, Cinder,” she said, her tone sincere.
Guilt overwhelmed me. I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and cracked a tiny smile.
“No mention of this,” I said. “No mention of it.”
I scurried from the room as fast as I could and returned to Eliza’s chambers. I saw her standing at the balcony as the wind blew across her face and cascaded down her long hair.
“Has she returned?”
She shook her head. “No.”
I wrapped my arms around myself and began rubbing them down as I went over to her. The cool breeze made me shiver.
“The smell of winter is still upon us,” she said. “I fear a storm may be coming. And soon.”
“If it is anything like the one we are experiencing, I may need to leave the country soon.” I leaned back on the frame and looked over at her. She did her best to avoid eye contact of any kind. “Why did you stop me from informing Norvack that John wished death upon him? Not elimination from the throne, but possible death.”
“Because as you say ‘possible’, it continues to prove that you were not certain. Just as Norvack wasn’t. I believe in your concern for whatever it may be worth to you. But informing my son that John wished for his death would have created much more problems for us all”