Just Keeps Getting… Dull
The question of poison came next. Juwen answered.
“Tasters are kept in, kept in confinement, as customs require. They are still very much alive, yes, very much alive. All food has been fed to the animals at the bestiary. Beastkeeper has reported no incidents. No incidents at all.”
Tasters. Of course there would be tasters.
“What says the physicker?” Jakeli queried.
“He was given ample time, ample time to examine the corpses. Says if it was poison, he was not aware of anything like it.”
“An’ ‘ow soon did ye find ‘er?”
“Moments Lord, only moment.” The woman answered, looking up, as if to implore the heavens for something. “I left after gathering the garments in a basket. I then headed for stairs by the withdrawing room near the gallery and then I heard it as I passed the King’s chambers. The Queen, she, she yelped.”
“Yelped?” Jakeli inquired, leaning forward.
“Yes, Your Highness, least I think it was.” The woman started to shiver. “Then she screamed, Your Highness. Loud and short. I remember, I remember exchanging glances with this one.” She pointed to the soldier who looked younger.
“I remember too, Your Highness.” The soldier said.
“You didn’t think it sensible to go back in immediately?”
“Your Highness she… the Queen… this wasn’t uncommon, Your Highness.”
Tell me she was prone to hysterics without telling me she was prone to hysterics.
“It was when I… when I heard the thud that I ran for her door. I have barely opened it and the King, Your Highness, I-”
Jakeli looked like he was about to lose his temper but Litoc spoke first.
“’salright, salright. Take yer time. What do ye remember?” He asked the older soldier.
“I… Lord, it was a horrible sound. A most terrifying, horrible sound.”
“The King’s scream ye mean?”
“Yes, Lord. I heard him shout before when he was angry. This was not like them.”
“I remember her standing like a statue by the Queen’s door,” the younger soldier butted in, “and I was to go with her at first but when the King screamed, I had to go to him first.”
“We both went in together.” Said the older soldier.
“I found the courage to go inside the Queen’s chamber when I saw them disappear into the, the King’s room. And I found her… the Queen, I found her. She was on the floor, by her bed, at the, at the side. She was on her back but her face was towards the bed. Like she fell against the bed and slid down.”
I was tempted to ask why there were only two guards guarding two monarchs who slept in two rooms but the older soldier spoke and cleared that up.
“I heard her scream for the other guards, Your Highness, but I, I am not certain when or how long she had been screaming for help. I was not aware, I was not even aware the other guards had come. The King, Your Highness… I…”
The soldier stopped. He was gripping his knife hard, knuckles pale in the lamp light.
“Get ahold of yourself. You’re a waving soldier! Speak!” Jakeli barked.
The soldier jumped in his seat but didn’t look up.
“I watched the King die, Your Highness. He had on… he- his face… He died of terror. His eyes were wide before they softened, died right there, eyes and mouth… open. He was afraid. Deathly afraid. Was it not for the others pouring in, I would… I would have ran out myself.”
Silence fell over the table as we all tried to absorb what these people were relating. The only sound being Hanni’s utensil hitting her plate. My doubts about us overreacting vanished, curiosity taking its place.
“The Queen too, her eyes were open but I don’t remember any expression on her face. She was still warm, Your Highness. She was still-”
The woman broke down and began crying in earnest.
“The windows, were they open?” I asked, speaking for the first time.
“They’re usually open, Lord. To let the breeze in. Seldom it’s closed, only during heavy rains. Most times the curtains suffice.” The younger soldier, the only one who seemed to still have control over himself, answered.
“Any chance someone have gone through there then slipped out?”
“No Lord. No one’s going up or down those windows.”
“Those? How many are there?”
“King’s chamber has two and the Queen’s three, but smaller.”
“Through the roof then?”
“I… I, maybe Lord but I don’t think that’s possible.” The young soldier answered hesitantly.
There was no point in pressing this point further until I saw what it actually looked like from the outside.
“Did any of you smell anything?”
They all looked at me and exchanged glances. All three shook their heads.
“And how long after that until the chambers were vacated?”
“They haven’t, the chambers has not been vacated. There are people, people there even now, seeing to our, our late rulers.” Juwen replied.
“And nothing odd reported?”
“Not to, not to my knowledge, no.”
Those were all my questions. They were answered, and at the same time, they weren’t. This wasn’t technically one but still, I wished I paid more attention to locked room mystery puzzles in my previous life. I let the matter drop. It would be some time before someone spoke again. It was the younger soldier.
“Lord, I, I thought myself delusional so I dismissed it. And it didn’t seem important, I still don’t see how it’s important. But, but I am certain I wasn’t seeing things. I saw it, I noticed it immediately upon entering but I’m not sure why I dismissed it. I only recalled it after, well, after the other soldiers came in.”
“Understandable, the King takes priority. What was it ye seen?”
“See, I mentioned the windows are always open, Lord. The King’s chambers being,” he gestured with a finger pointing up, “there, there’s always a breeze. Well, most times I’m guessing. It was the curtain on the window, on the right side of the chamber, Lord.”
“What o’ it?”
“Well, even with two windows open, and the chamber rounding off like so,” he gestured with his hands to make a curve and denote were the windows were, “the breeze, it comes from one place so the lamps’ flames, they tend to blow in a certain direction together, with some, small difference, depending on where they’re placed.”
This soldier was meeting our eyes now, and nodding while he spoke, as if to convince himself that we were following his story.
“The curtain, Lord - it was waving against the breeze.”
I blinked rapidly as images of a dusty hellscape filled my mind. By the time I turned my gaze towards Hanni, she was already staring at me.