Eli

Chapter 2

Garret

It had been two months since his mother fell sick in bed. No one in the palace could tell with certainty what disease had obscured queen's rigid fragile body and neither did the best doctors from other kingdoms. Each day she felt how another part of her strength, energy, was mercilessly leaving her body.

Everyone's mind was shrouded by an imperishable thought that their queen was slowly but in pain leaving them. Though no one dared or was strong enough to say it aloud, because deep down in their hearts, they still believed that one beautiful day the queen will arose healthy, gracious, and wise as ever before...

"Gar...ret, tell me what's weighting your heart... (hard cough) You've hardly said two words..." his mother said hoarsely but smiling warmly. He could see that she had to give a lot of energy into saying each of the words.

He smiled drily. She – lying in the bed shivering, pale in the face, lethally coughing – was asking him about what weighted his heart...

"I'm feeling good, mother... How are you today?" he asked sadly. She smiled and then coughed. He felt his heart tremble.

Before she answered she'd had to take a deep breath in. Then she smiled again and replied:

"Hmm...I knew better days," she coughed, and he grabbed a cup of tea from her bedtime table.

"Drink," he said and helped her to hold the cup while she was drinking. After few more sips she pressed her lips together and he put the cup back to the bedtime table. He looked back at her; she was smiling at him. But suddenly she started shivering.

"Mother?" he came closer to her. "Are you in pain?"

"It's okay, son..." she coughed once more and closed her eyes for a while to fortify herself for another words. "How are the...preparation for your (cough) coronation?" she asked.

"Well, uh, I – I suggested to father that it would be in the kingdom's best interest to postpone the coronation due to your estate...And before you say anything against this idea, as you are certainly going to do," he added when he saw she was opening her mouth in argument. She smiled slightly. "It's my own decision and I feel no regret for it, at all," he continued and smiled. "At least I can spend some more time with you instead of father's mortifying political conventions." She laughed and her eyes became wet.

"I – I love you, son. You have to remember, okay?" she wheezed and coughed.

He swallowed hard and replied. "I love you too, mother."

She took a harsh gasp in and out and looked into his cobalt-grey eyes, the same colour as hers. She smiled slightly. "You are the best thing that ever happened to me, Garret Lunathorn, do you know that?" she whispered, and her laughter filled the room, delicate and light, like little bells ringing in a mild wind but then it turned to hard coughing.

She began to shiver again. A teardrop ran down her cheek. She laid one palm on her chest and the second on his cheek, her eyes came wet again. He put his palm on hers, hypnotizing her carefully.

"You will be wise and kind king, son. (cough) It's breaking my heart that I won't be able to see yo–"

"Stop...Please, I have to stop you there, mother," he managed to say firmly although he held tears from running down. "You mustn't talk like that. You will get better soon and then you will see my coronation. Because, we both know, there is no way I can get through it all without your help," he said a bit too much uneasily then he'd intended to. She looked at him gracefully.

"That's true...(cough) You have a terrible sense for fashion..." she replied and slightly laughed, but the laugh turned into an awful choking and he had to draw her into the seated position to ease her coughing and then assisted her to lie down. For a few seconds they were staring at each other.