The Seven Souls

Chapter 21 (Jeanelle)

And then it was Julius who got thrown in the dungeon. The guards whom we had knocked out have woken up, but they were too dazed to remember who was supposed to be imprisoned and who wasn't. However, what they did see was Felipe's body on the ground. Julius confessed, claiming "my bad," and then he was put in the cell next to the one Bruce and Gabe were in before. You know, one of the ones without a broken lock.

In the end, we couldn't make it through this whole thing without someone committing a felony. As we watched Julius get locked away, I couldn't help but wonder who was disappointed in him for finally giving in to violence and who was glad that he had sacrificed a 12-year-old boy for the safety of the country. Actually, I don't need to wonder about it. I know Marigold was glad that she didn't have to do the dirty deed herself.

Now that I think about it, was it really for the safety of this country? Who was in danger, really? It was only King Fabricio. Not once did anyone else get infected. Well, there was me, but I brought it upon myself. Then I brought it upon Gabe. What if we just thought that Felipe was a tiny little tyrant who needed to be stopped? Honestly, I was scared of the things he'd do if he ever took the throne.

But still, even if he was a little tyrant and an annoying 12-year-old, he was still just a kid. There was still a chance that if he had let the king name his wife as his successor, then he might have acclimated to the new Kospolgina. I remembered when the king said that Prince Damian was 10 when Prince Lucien plotted to kill him. Did killing Felipe make us no better than him?

Actually, that's a bad analogy. After all, it was Lucien's spell that cured the king whether he wanted it or not. When was he going to get here, anyway? One would think that he'd want to see the boy who killed his son.

That's when we heard heavy footsteps come down the stairs. We all turned and saw King Fabricio enter the dungeon right on cue. We took a step away from Julius's cell because we knew he was the one he wanted to talk to.

The king stood in front of Julius. At least, as close as he could stand with those bars in the way. "So you're the one who killed my son," he said.

Julius nodded.

The king put a hand on his chin. "Let's see if I can remember which one you are. You're...Prince Raymond?"

"Martin," Julius muttered.

"I'm Prince Raymond." Marigold raised her hand.

King Fabricio turned back towards Marigold. "I remember you. You just about zapped me with your wand at court."

"You say that like you don't remember all the other times I tried to zap you."

The king chuckled. "Right." He turned back to Julius. "Still, you better have a damn good reason for killing your son, and you better not say that Prince Martin made you do it."

"He was going to have us kill you," Gabe spoke up. "He wanted to stop you from naming the queen as your heir."

"He'd really go through all that to secure his claim to the throne, and here I was thinking it was because I was infected with the black tar."

"That's what we thought, too," I said, "but now we know better."

"The black tar was just a pretense," Gabe added. "He told me that politics is just show. He overplayed the problem of the black tar to make us think that you needed to be dead."

"And Marigold was the only one who fell for it," Amber snickered.

"I did not!" Marigold retorted. "I had my own reasons for trying to kill him."

Bruce stood next to the king. "I'm really sorry for curing you without your permission," he said. "I hope you forgive me."

He sighed. "I forgive you. I was trying to downplay the black tar in order to not worry my people, but Felipe was right about one thing: my protective spells were beginning to deteriorate, and if I ignored it any longer, I might just have become a threat."