From the paintings on the walls, showing blooming summer flowers and sunshine in the fields, I gathered I was probably in the queen’s summer quarters, far away from curious ears and eyes at this time of year.
The queen sat across the room from me, with a goblet of wine in hand. Next to her at the table sat Bardo, looking pale and concerned. “I told you, my queen, that she was the true stolen princess.”
“And why, pray tell, was she not turned into pig feed eighteen years ago?” The queen glared at him over her goblet. “I haven’t been paying you to keep her hidden all these years, you stupid man. I’ve been paying for your silence, but now here she is. My biggest problem in the flesh. Alive and well and….” She now turned her gaze towards me. “…unacceptably beautiful. At the very least you could have disfigured her.”
“My queen,” whimpered Bardo. “I have faithfully discharged all of your orders. It was never clear to me that you wanted her dead.”
Queen Beatrice rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Do I have to tell you to relieve yourself each morning, you fool? What sort of idiot thinks I’d have wanted her alive? I paid you to do away with her. And I didn’t mean hide her.”
Bardo babbled away, but as the Queen approached me, his whimpers of protest grew too quiet for me to notice. For a long moment, she stood before me, looking at me with pure disgust and annoyance. Then she took hold of my face and examined me with rough touches, turning my cheeks this way and that. With her thumb she drew down my eyelids, as if examining me for disease. Her fingertips were ice cold and it was enough to make me shiver.
Her lips twisted in disgust. “She looks like her mother. One glance at the little slut and her father would know the truth in an instant. Thank God for all those other imposters, making this one easier to deal with.”
“My queen—”
She turned her back on me and approached Bardo once again. He fell silent at once and swallowed so hard and so painfully that I heard the gulp from across the room. “Who else knows about her existence? Who else knows the truth?”
“The family I placed her with, that’s all, I swear it. My queen, if you’ll just allow me to—”
“I suppose I have no choice but to believe your word on that. My guards will deal with them at once. As for you, you dirty little toad, you have been my extortionist for long enough,” the queen said to him. “But that time is over. The secret has been revealed and your value to me is gone.” With a snap of her fingers, she turned away and two of her guards seized him.
Poor Bardo didn’t stand a chance, and the guards left him in a garroted, dead heap in a matter of seconds.
For a long moment, it was as if time stood still. Until the queen turned to me, looked me in the eye… and snapped again.
The guards came for me this time, like wolves going in for the kill. Though I was bound and gagged, I squirmed from my chair and wriggled desperately across the floor. I tried to keep my throat and neck shielded, for they seemed fond of slitting throats and I would not allow them to have easy access to mine.
I screamed against my rope gag and kicked them hard. I felt my shoes connect with a stomach, a jaw, perhaps even a groin, and they fell back.
For a moment, I was left alone on the floor, while they regrouped.
“Of course, she’d be a fighter,” said the queen, exasperated and impatient. She downed her wine and rose from the table. “Perhaps it’s better if I’m not here as a witness, just in case. Find me when it’s finished, but do it right this time. If anyone finds her body, I will make sure they find yours next.”
With that, she turned and departed, leaving me alone with the two guards. I screamed with all my might, but gagged as I was it came out as little more than a mumble, and I was met with a punch that sent my senses reeling and silenced my cries. The guard that had hit me placed his foot on my chest and made a shushing motion above me.
I stared up at him with my chest heaving, trying desperately to catch my breath, confused about why he wasn’t finishing the job. Though I could not grasp the full scale of what was going on with the queen and her plans for me, it was clear that the guard wanted to give the impression, at least, that he had done away with me as the queen had asked, and the realization dawned slowly: he was an ally.