The Wicked Crown

CHAPTER 5

Vivienne was in her room, staring out the window, her eyes glazed and her body still. The sun was right at her eyes, blurring her vision, and she stared at the kingdom in front of her, through that pane of glass.

It was all so beautiful before Evelyn. That was what all the Elders said.

Suddenly, Evelyn burst through the door. Slowly, Vivienne turned her head away from the window, her expression composed and expressionless, and nonchalant. "What do you want," Vivienne said. The words came out as a sentence instead of a question.

"I got a maid. You can stop looking for one now," Evelyn replied triumphantly.

"I never looked for one. What's the big deal, anyway, it's been a long time," Vivienne said, tilting her head towards the entrance. "You can leave now."

Vivienne was the only person in the entire kingdom besides the queen and king to even dare to speak to Evelyn that way. It wasn't even offensive: if someone told Evelyn what to do, she would get furious. It just wasn't explainable.

This time, unlike what she would do ordinarily, Evelyn left without a word.

Vivienne stood up after Evelyn left, and hesitated at the doorway. She couldn't stay in her room forever, so might as well go talk to folks who're down that morning.

Vivienne left, closing the door with a soft thud. She walked through the short corridor and quickly went down some golden-carpeted stairs, into the main room. Maids and servants rushed in and out of the grand room, going up and down stairs, closing and opening doors.

She went into the kitchen, and a wave of thick and musty air overcame her. When you first walked into the kitchen, that was where the servants cooked meats, usually raw meats. Vivienne had smelled that millions of times, but every time she had to hold her breath from gagging until she passed. After that, it was where the servants would put spices onto the cooked meat, and after that, was where they cooked and washed vegetables. But the end of the kitchen was the best of all: where they cooked desserts, filling the air with aromas of cinnamon and nutmeg, or chocolate and coffee, or apple pie... the list went on and on day by day.

As she walked into the place where they cooked and washed vegetables, she saw a young servant desperately trying to fry a small tomato. Perhaps she was new to the kitchen, because soon enough, the tomato was charred, and the smell was not particularly pleasant. An older woman, likely the head chef, rushed out from the meat place and shouted angrily at the girl. She snatched the pan from her hands, and quickly dumped the blackened tomato into the trash, and put it into the sink.

"A waste of tomato!!" The woman shouted with a heavy accent, "One tomato still cost a lot, ya know, gal, you go out of kitchen and find something else to do! This the fourth time this happened, you don't expect me to serve charred food to the royals?! Tis' will be shameful!"

The girl looked somewhat worried but also relieved. As she hurried out, the woman saw Vivienne standing there, and at the shocked look on the chef's face, Vivienne quickly said, "Oh, I just came! I was wondering if I could help...."

"Oh, you don't need to do anything, my dear, but if you will you can help the young girl who just went out." the head chef shook her head, "She can do nothing! Only waste the precious food I get from garden and markets."

Vivienne nodded, and went out. All the servants smiled and nodded at her in greeting when she went out: Vivienne didn't accept bows or curtsies, or anything that made her feel way more high-class than she already was.

Soon, Vivienne caught up to the young girl. By now, the girl was sort of miserable, biting her lip every few seconds.

"Hello there," Vivienne said, "It'll be alright, don't worry. I can find you a new thing to do—"

The girl suddenly said, "I really want to tend to the horses!" then quickly realized that she interrupted a princess, and shrank back and apologized multiple times.

"It's alright. I can find you a job to take care of the horses, I'll do my best, don't worry," Vivienne reassured her.

"Thank you so much!!" the girl cried. "If you don't mind, is it okay if I learn how to ride a horse too?" As Vivienne looked a bit closer at her, the girl was only about fifteen years old.

"Yes. But I don't think any professional teachers will accept, but I can teach you myself if you want, today."

For the girl, that was the best moment of her life.

After the luncheon, Vivienne took the girl outside, with the name of Clara. She was skipping around, trying to conceal her excitement the best she could. Vivienne found it lovely to finally make someone's day. It was hard, because most people declined her offers to help, saying that she was a high-classer, and that she most definitely had no need to, so it was such a wonderful feeling for a person to accept her help and think her as someone that had the same degree of power as them, even though that was far off from the truth.

Vivienne had found a spot for her in the horse stable, for Clara to work in. Vivienne spent the whole afternoon teaching Clara how to get on and off a horse, how to steer a horse, to gallop, to run, to trot... all the basics she needed. By late afternoon Clara was fine on her own to not fall off a horse when it was running.

Clara had thanked Vivienne so much, told her that she could do whatever to repay her kindness, how she was so different from Evelyn.

That made Vivienne delighted.

Evelyn asked where Vivienne was when she got back, and Vivienne told her.

Evelyn knew that this was a rare occasion of Vivienne making someone so happy. Usually, her acts just got her a ton of thank you's.

Vivienne didn't expect what would happen later in the evening, before sunset, just because of that one rare occasion.

Vivienne wasn't there for supper.

She still wasn't there, one hour later, after supper.

Nobody saw her one hour later, when the sun had set completely and the moon was shining brightly in the night sky.

She wasn't there, even when it was about nine o'clock in the evening.

Not there at midnight.

Everyone had expected her to be back from wherever she was by one in the morning—but no, she still wasn't there.

It was like she'd disappeared. Completely.

The next morning, at five in the morning, the king and queen declared a search for Vivienne. But after three hours, all the people who joined the search, low and high-classers alike, found no trace of Vivienne.

The king and queen assigned two of Vivienne's closest guards to search her room for any evidence.

What they found was unexpected: a dagger, stained with dried, silver blood, under Vivienne's bed. Silver blood meant royal blood. A dagger stained with royal blood meant Vivienne's death. Murder.

How royals died were different from how high-classers or low-classers died. Their bodies would disappear, and leave no trace, but only if it was a natural death or if they got murdered. Suicide would end differently: their bodies would stay, and wouldn't disappear.

All the low-classers thought it was Evelyn. All the high-classers thought it was Clara. They were the last people who had interacted with Vivienne.

It was hard to determine, though.

How would Clara have a dagger?

Even if Evelyn was so cruel, why would she kill her own sister?