"Balnor," she said to her stout husband as sweetly as one can through clenched teeth. "Why do you keep that little girl around? What use does she have?"
The portly man shrugged. "She amuses me."
"She amuses you. You used to say that about me, when you were just the scrawny little worm at my father's door, begging for food!" The queen's voice rose with anger as she described the king prior to their marriage.
Balnor was taken aback by his wife's outrage, but retained his regal composure. "DeMona, my queen, do I detect a twinge of jealousy? Envy, perhaps?"
The queen was about to respond to the outrageous suggestion, when she was suddenly overcome with nausea, and ran out to find the healer.
"Curious," the king mused, "She usually doesn't get sick of me this early in the morning."
"Iuquy, have you discovered the cause of my illness?" The queen had found the healer. She used some specific herbs, DeMona noted.
"Yes, my lady. As I'm sure you noticed, because of your previous herbal studies, I used the prenatal herbs, and..."
"If you're trying to surprise me, or heighten the suspense, don't. As you mentioned, I have studied herbs."
"Yes, my lady. I had my suspicions, and now they're confirmed. You're pregnant."
"Wonderful." There was more than a hint of sarcasm in the queen's voice. "Balnor will be so pleased. An heir..."
"At the risk of being, shall we say, "discharged," may I point out that this will be an politically illegitimate heir, seeing as how neither his majesty nor yourself is even related to the actual royal family? Or had you forgotten?"
"No, I hadn't forgotten, and you just gave me a wonderful idea, Iuquy. Where is the rightful heir?"
As Selanick walked home, Meeka clinging to his arm the whole way, he wondered why he had gathered the White Amethyst for her. He had fallen pray to her seductions, as he promised himself he would never do, since what he called the Night of the Stranger. . .
His brother, Peshell, and Meeka were planning to be married. Peshell had made several trips with Meeka to the palace, and she had seemed to grow more distant, less attracted to him. Then, a fortnight before their marriage was to transpire, she was in their home, finalizing the wedding plans. A knock came to the door. Selanick answered it. A large figure, cloaked in black, asked for Meeka. He was invited in, and asked to talk privately with the girl. They went off to another room. Selanick rejoined his family.
"Meeka wants a lot of flowers, right? That'll be hard to do in the Fall. Can we improvise?"
"I think so. Mother, can Selanick leave? He's just in the way." Selanick could tell that his brother was nervous, maybe even a little embarrassed.
"Yes. Selanick, get a warm drink for our mysterious guest, and then go amuse yourself. Now, about those flowers..."
Selanick did as his mother told him to. He got the drink, and went to give it to Meeka's caller. As he approached the room, though, he heard the two talking, and he didn't like what he heard.
"I told you to get rid of him! He'll find out who he is soon, and then we'll be finished! My reign will come to an end!"
"Yes, I know, my lord, but it's difficult. I think he actually loves me."
"You fool! How is that possible?! I told you not to get too involved! Did you sleep with the boy?"
"Once, my lord."
"That's one time too many. Ah, well. What's done is done, I suppose. Here. Iuquy made this. Mix with a bit of water, and color your lips with it. Next time you kiss him, be sure you have it on."
Selanick wished he could see what the Stranger had handed Meeka, but feared he would be discovered and did not move.
"Yes, my lord." Meeka spoke one final time, then Selanick heard the two moving closer to the door. He ran around the corner, so he could bring the Stranger his drink, and make it appear that he hadn't heard a thing. As Meeka and her guest exited the room, the man saw his drink, and guzzled it down with no word of thanks.
Meeka let him out the door without a good-bye, and went back to planning her wedding. Selanick noticed that her lips were darker than normal, and knew that had everything to do with the Stranger. He decided to investigate.
"Oops!"
"Selanick! Can't you be more careful?!"
He had purposefully dropped and broken the glass he had been carrying. His mother hustled him away to help her clean up the shattered glass on the floor. He dawdled behind and listened to his brother and Meeka talking.
"Can you believe that boy? He is so clumsy sometimes!"
"He is, isn't he? Peshell, I have just realized that you haven't kissed me in a long time. Is something wrong?"
"No Meeka, my heart. It's just that we've been so busy the past two weeks, what with the wedding coming up and all, that we haven't had any free time. Until just now, that is."
There was a silence, and Selanick knew the two were kissing. He was very worried about his brother, and hated not knowing what was going on.
Later that night, Selanick woke up to the sound of Peshell tossing and turning in his bed, with an occasional moan.
"Peshell? Peshell, are you alright?"
"I don't feel so well. My stomach is churning and I can hardly breathe."
"Stop talking; save your breath. I'll get mother."
As he ran through the house, Selanick thought about the day: What could have made his brother so ill? He then remembered Meeka's lips that afternoon. There must have been something in that lip color! But he dared not say anything, for risk of falsely accusing the king's servant girl. Such an act was greatly punishable.
By the time Selanick got back with his mother, Peshell had stopped breathing altogether.
When the healer arrived, he discovered that the boy had been poisoned.
"I don't know what's wrong with her! She won't eat, won't sleep, won't go to the mines, she won't do anything!" LaJeeya's mother had become extremely worried. For the past few days, LaJeeya had locked herself in her room, and constantly muttered to herself. "I fear she may be going insane!"
"Will she let people into her room?" A healer, one with the specific field of Matters of the Mind, had been called.
"Yes, but I don't know if she'll respond to you at all, Selge."
Selge crept quietly into the room. There a substantially thinner LaJeeya sat, rocking back and forth slowly, muttering incoherently. Her skin was clammy, her hair drooped, her eyes reminded the doctor of the stories of the living dead that his mother had told him when he was young. The girl's whole appearance, her whole presence for that matter, frightened the man. When first seeing her, his muscular body shivered, and his usually brave spirit and mind set nearly collapsed. He tried to put the horrific images out of his mind, and proceeded to make his analysis of the girl.
"LaJeeya, LaJeeya can you hear me?" Selge first used the basic method of simple verbal contact. There was no response. "Does she have a nick-name?" he asked her mother.
"Only a pet name she was called by her father when she was a child; Layla."
"Layla, dear girl, please answer me. She's not responding to verbal contact; I'll have to try something else. Please bring me my bag, and a fire bowl."
LaJeeya's mother brought Selge his herbal case, and a bowl that contained many ashes and a large chunk of Bale, a special stone that, when herbs were laid upon it, it would light the herbs and burn them like incense. He dug in his case till he found a small jar. It was unlabeled, and the contents were richly colored.
"I must ask you to leave; I don't want this to unnecessarily affect you." LaJeeya's mother grudgingly left the room.
Selge spooned a bit of the herbal mixture onto the Bale, and almost instantly, the concoction released a nearly nauseating scent, yet it was strangely pleasant. He held LaJeeya's pale and trembling hands in his, and closed his eyes. He inhaled the unusual aroma, and within a few minutes, his mind was flushed with memories of a young, handsome boy. Feelings of love and desire swept over him, affecting him physically. Then came a sense of betrayal, distrust, torture. A spiral into self-pity and closure, and resentment at that spiral and its cause. Then, he got a sense of discovery, and then forgiveness to the spiral's cause. A mild peace came over him for a moment, but was soon replaced with concern and dread. The Mind Exploration ended suddenly and unexpectedly. Selge was jerked back to reality.
He felt as though he was out of his body, perhaps in LaJeeya's, but no, he could see her, and he was still sitting in front of her, holding her hands. He thought he now had a more accurate picture of what was happening to the girl. As he became more awake and aware of his surroundings once again, he heard her mumbling. Selge listened closely, to see if he could derive some meaning from the words.
"Sangreal berries...Helspawn..."
"Strange...seems familiar..." Selge savagely dug through his case, and soon found his herbal recipe book. "I know it's here somewhere...sangreal and Helspawn..."
LaJeeya's mother had cautiously approached the room when she heard Selge's whisperings. Now she peeked into the room. The healer's face was flushed. He was sweating profusely and furiously turning the pages of his book.
"What are you looking for, Selge?"
"LaJeeya was mumbling a recipe that sounded familiar. I think I came across it when I was looking for something else...Ah! Here it is! 'Sangreal berries and Helspawn, dried and ground together...' Oh, Gods, no!"
"What is it? What's she saying?"
"Those are the herbs used to make a concoction called Life's Bane." There was a look of horror on the man's now pale face.
"You mean...you can't be serious...it's a...a..."
"Yes, my dear lady, a poison."
As he watched his wife sleep, King Balnor worried. He worried about the White Amethyst supply, he worried where Meeka had disappeared to, but most of all, he worried about the boy.
"He'll soon discover his true identity, and try to take back the throne! I can't let my reign end! In the first year I came to power, the amount of White Amethyst on the whole planet nearly tripled! Now it's slowly decreasing. The people were happy, but now are displeased. I sense it whenever I leave the palace, the unhappiness, the dismay, and, dare I say it, the hatred. I think the old ones were more pleased with Kuolmas, and all will be pleased with his son. NO! I cannot permit myself to even think such things! I will bring about my own end that way! Oh, Meeka, where are you when I need you most?"
