The Red Throne | TUQ Book Two

21 | misery

As soon as I returned to my quarters, the very first person I sought for was my mother-in-law. I could see that the curse was effective, and Lacey Rivers is essentially a living corpse at this very moment. 

          "You called for me, Your Majesty ?" Amaranthis greeted as she passed through my door, curtseying gracefully.

          "Mama," I say breathlessly. "I must ask you something."

Her finely arched eyebrows jumped up in surprise. "What is the matter, Anne ?"

I bit my lip and hastily stood up from the chaise, my hands trembling with unease. "Mama, is there a way for me to take back the curse ? I don't want to kill her anymore, Mama. I promised Edmund that I would never kill again !" I cried exasperatedly.

I glanced at my mother-in-law, though my vision was cloudy due to my tears. Her expression was cool and grim, almost as if she were looking down on me.

         "I warned you before, Anne," she says, her tone chilling and distant. "I already told you that once you curse someone, you can never turn back."

You can never turn back. Those words were like the nails on my coffin, sealing me inside the pits of despair. They were engraved into my mind, burned into my consciousness. A painful reminder of the cruelty I had committed.

          "Now that you've reminded me of it, tomorrow marks the end of the two fortnights. There will also be a full moon tomorrow night. It should be a suitable time to complete the curse," my mother-in-law adds, her words meant to inform, but I felt as if she were rubbing salt in my wounds.

           "And if I don't complete it ?" I inquired, my voice small and weak like a rat.

           "She will simply grow weaker and weaker, but she will not die. The smell on your body will worsen though, and the elugia oil might not be enough to mask it. What say you, Anne ? Will you complete it or not ?"

           "Give me one day," I muttered in reply. "I need time time to think."

           "Well then, don't take too much time. If she dies before you complete the curse, then the smell will remain on you forever," she warns.

For almost a month now, I had been smelling nothing but blood, the stench thick and foul, gushing down my throat like spoiled milk. I had not gotten used to it, and I know I never will.

        At dawn I rise and head to court, my ladies following close behind. Lillianna had dutifully applied the elugia oil on my forehead this morning, so I did not fear that anyone would smell the blood on me. 

The court was calm and at peace without Edmund's entitled sister, Anna-Claudia prancing around and demanding that everything should be given to her children. 

At the moment, the inner court was only filled by two women, Lacey Rivers and I. It is customary for every King of Phoenicia to have a harem full of ten to twenty women, though some go even further and add hundreds more, like King Edward did.

       The Dame had come to court this morning, which was surprising as she had not appeared in public for a week now. And now I know why. She is haggard and weak, her hair that was once a glossy red, thick and lustrous, had now turned into a dull brown colour, her locks thin and brittle. There is hardly any flesh left on her body, only bones. Her skin had sagged, and they hung awkwardly on her skeletal frame.

Is this truly what I had wanted ? Hadn't I wished that she were gone, wished that she were dead ? Shouldn't I be happy to see her suffering like this ?