Dark Queen: The Cybelline Prophecies

Chapter 54

"Red where are you going?"

Isthan and Berin ran after the little fox, who sniffed the air. The little fox waited for the boys as they ran towards a quiet part of town, "I smell something good." He whispered conspiratorially. Berin sighed, when the three of them had found something they want, they had this look about them. He could only follow.

They ended up at a nondescript house where it was mostly empty. The boys climbed a large tree and saw that there were a few men eating and drinking in the house.

"After tomorrow, we'll live like kings." One of them growled as he bit into a turkey leg as if had killed his firstborn. Five men nodded and drank a draught of mead.

"As long as that bitch is in power, we can't be lords. At the Feast of Foxes, we'll kill 'em all." The man said his face red and triumphant, "The Master has promised us all the richest of their vault. Make sure ye men are ready, remember, they have to drink the mead, and only mead, and act normal. Don't forget the signal."

On some of the men's faces showed boredom, Hogat was always talked too much when he drunk. They knew they had to act natural.

They drank a little while more and then left.

After a while, two covered wagons entered.

A woman jumped down, a guard came quickly and moved the two wagons into a storeroom. She handed some packets and a slip of paper and then disappeared.

The fox sniffed, "The caskets, something's good in them." He looked at the boys, "Can we go steal some?"

Isthan scratched his head, "What was it that Cybelline taught us on how to steal something without getting caught?"

Berin brightened, "Create a distraction!" They all looked at Ceric, who backed away slightly, "I don't want any part of this." But that was not up to him.

A few minutes later, a little boy chased a fox through the yard, crying"Come back here, little pet! Come here!"

The guards saw that they were in the yard and frowned. They ran towards the boy, "Hey! Get out of here!" But the boy and the fox were too fast. Soon, all the guards were chasing the pair.

"Ere, what's going on?" The guard who was inside the storeroom finally came out and joined the chase. Two little shadows slipped in.

Isthan clambered up a wagon and opened a stopper on the barrel, "I think this is wine!"

Berin went towards the other wagon and opened on of the barrels. "This is mead! Ithos gave me a sip!" He looked at the ten large barrels and then saw a small, delicate silver barrel of mead. It was marked with royal crown on it. It was far prettier than the other ones.

The looked at each other and smiled. Quickly, they took out the satchel that could store warehouse of things. They tapped the satch against a barrel of wine in one wagon and then a barrel of mead in the other.

"Do you think we should do something to repay them for the barrels? Cybelline said we should always repay people with kindness."

Berin ran to the table where there were three packets and a letter. One red, one blue, one silver.

Isthan opened the letter with his grubby, dirty hands.

"I can't read this. Can you?" The light was poor and his hands were smudged."

"Blue...wine, Red...mead. Silver...bed?" He shrugged, "I can't read it. I think we have to put the powder in the different barrels"

Isthan grabbed the blue packet and opened it. Inside was a mountain of powder. He grabbed a few handfuls and started to dump it into the barrels of wines, "I hope this helps them."

Berin took the red packet and bit by bit, tipped the powder into the mead barrels. The boys thought they had helped the people whom they stole from. Little do they know the headache they would cause.

Isthan opened the silver packet, about to put it in the silver casket, but sneezed at the flowery scent. From his hands, the precious powder fell into the open barrels of mead instead. Isthan shrugged and closed the barrels. He was bored. The little silver barrel lay untouched.

They heard a yap and knew it was the signal to go, silently, they left as they came.

In the courtyard, soldiers huffed and puffed. The one guarding the storeroom patted his other comrade on the back, "I need a nap. You go guard the stuff. It'll go to the palace at midnight."

The other soldier nodded went inside and noticed the opened packets. Muttered he began to clean, "If you're going to poison people don't make a mess doing so." He growled and threw the empty packets into the fire.

The writer of the note had really thought long and hard about how history would remember this plot. He was going for lyrical, almost poetical plotting, so that scholars would applaud his intelligence and wit.

 It was extremely unnecessary and idiotic. And he had overestimated the comprehension skills of soldiers. 

In fact, it had taken the soldier a good while to decipher its meaning. If it hadn't taken him so long to sit there and think about what the note actually said, Isthan and Berin would never had the chance to run and create was is laughably the dumbest mistake in history.

And that is why you should always get to the point as fast as you can and never try to be smarter than you actually are. Otherwise, you might end up poisoning the wrong people.

The note, in all of it's glory actually read:

Blue fine, not in wine.

Red dead, not in mead.

Silver for Queen, for she'll serve me in bed.

But no one would actually know that, seeing that it's now burned to ash.