Tales of Fire and Ruin

The Queen's Staff

Oleander was inside the palace. A palace that stayed eerily silent.

I would have expected screams or yelling as Oleander dragged the queen into her own home with a dagger pressed to her throat. I would've expected someone to raise the alarm, ringing bells to summon all in the city who heard it to rush to their queen's aid. 

Maybe this was a bad dream after all. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to wake up. But as I blinked my eyes open again, Endris was still standing in front of me. His worried, tense face told me I definitely was not imagining things. This was real.

"What do we do?" I asked Endris. "What can we do?"

Endris always had the clever plans and knew Wildewall inside out. If he didn't have an answer, I wasn't sure anyone did. The flicker of doubt in his dark eyes made my blood turn to ice in my veins. He didn't know. 

Endris didn't respond to my questions, instead turning to the unconscious or dead guards in the flowerbeds. Crouching down, he pressed his fingers to the neck of the closest guard.

"No shots in the head..." Endris mumbled to himself, a frown creasing his brow. "That would have been much easier."

"What do you mean?" I asked, following Endris as he walked to the next guard and carefully turned him onto his side.

"I mean, they're not dead," Endris replied. "Neither of them. Yet, they fell unconscious... Oleander must've used poison. A mixture to put them down, which seems like a lot of trouble to go through if he only wanted to attack the queen."

Endris glanced up at me. "I don't know what Oleander wants, and I don't wish harm to befall the queen, but I'm not going inside the palace and get involved in this any more than I already am. And neither should you."

"So I should just stand here and wait," I replied incredulously. "Or leave?"

Endris narrowed his eyes. "I can't risk my people. And if you step inside this building, you can't choose Oleander's side. If you hesitate to stop him when you have the chance and someone sees, they will consider it treason. Do you understand?"

A jolt went through my body as I realised Endris was right. Nobody would hesitate to kill Oleander. None of the guards, the servants, or even Endris. To save the queen's life, they'd cut him down. I was likely the only one on the palace grounds right now who wouldn't outright kill Oleander, so I had to be the one to stop him.

At the realisation of the grim future, I promptly started running, dashing past Endris towards the entrance of the palace. Endris made no attempt to block my path, nor did anyone else. The queen's gardens were empty, and so was the palace's entrance hall.

I ran past extravagant decorations—tapestries, vases, statues, and flowers — that I might've stared in awe at in any other situation. My footsteps echoed on the marble floor as I ran past banners and paintings into a wide, round room with stairs leading up, three hallways leading further into the palace, and closed doors. There was no trace of Oleander passing anywhere. Cursing under my breath, I slid to a halt, looking left and right to find any sign of where I should go.

A soft groan behind made me made jump and whirl around. Hidden in the shadows of a large, leafy plant, a young, blonde servant cradled Ezra Dagon in her arms. Blood seeped into a white towel as she pressed it to Ezra's abdomen. A trail of reddish spots led into another dark, long hallway.

"Master Dagon!" I called out, striding over to him and the servant.

The servant girl whimpered and made herself small as she tightened her grip on the towel and looked up at me with wide eyes.