Queen

XVII.

Breakfast was brought to our rooms the next morning. We were to wait for one of Prince Kiken's guards and a scribe to interrogate us about our whereabouts last night. I wasn't worried. I was innocent of this crime, though the late King Khoroshiy had not been a friend of mine in the slightest, and I was certain the interrogation would prove it.

Arne on the other hand was scared for me, though he tried to hide it.

"Baby," I told him, nursing my tea, "Veleno and Nevi will vouch for me. You have nothing to be worried about."

"I'm not worried Mistress," Arne told me as his hands wrung a napkin into a tight cord. A rip sounded and the napkin frayed a bit in the middle of the twist, "I know you'll be fine."

I chose not to comment. "I doubt that anyone would assume you did it Baby," I said, "A blind man committing murder. I don't think that would be an easy thing to do." Possible, but hard. I couldn't think of a way for it to happen.

Arne snickered. "Luck," he added, "It would have to be pure luck."

Figuring that we shouldn't be talking about murder when the guard and scribe showed up, I changed the subject. "Nevi knows you're blind."

Arne gulped. "How'd, how'd she find out?" he asked.

"According to Veleno," I explained, "Prince Kiken thought it was a good idea to tell her. The girl was pretty upset about it."

Arne sighed. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Why would you apologize for that?" I asked, "You had nothing to do with Prince Kiken telling her. Nothing to apologize for."

A knock sounded at the door. Sweetness perked her head up at the noise and Kitten snapped his eyes at the door, hindquarters wiggling to be let out. I hadn't taken him out this morning due to the investigation so I had a restless lion to deal with.

"Coming," I said, getting up and grabbing Kitten's collar. Kitten could still get away if he really tried to, but I had trained him. "Come in."

A masked guard opened the door and jumped at the sight of Kitten. "Don't worry," I encouraged, "I got him." Kitten growled, that didn't help.

But the guard came in with a timid bald scribe behind him. The guard closed the door and the scribe jumped at being shut in with a lion. I dragged Kitten to the adjoining closet to make him feel better. When I came back from locking the large cat in the closet, the scribe seemed more relaxed. I sat back down on the couch next to Arne and picked up my tea again. "Shall we start?" I asked before taking a sip.

The scribe pulled a scroll and a stick of charcoal from his sack. "Queen Mathilda Zelda," he said respectfully. Few older men respected me. "Would you tell me what you did last night your majesty?"

"I'm sure you've heard about that mess in the sitting room," I said, the scribe writing my every word, "No one ever asked my baby if he could see, so learning that he's blind was a bigger shock than I had thought."

"Once the mess had died down," I went on, "I and my baby came right here. My lion knocked over a vase and broke it. I cleaned up the vase and went looking for a garbage bin."

"Can you prove this?" the scribe asked.

"I," Arne started, "She, um, she spoke to me the whole time in the room. About the vase and find, finding a garbage bin."

The scribe scoffed. "I'm sorry to inform your majesty that the testimony of a blind man means little," he said to me.

Arne gulped and lowered his head. "His eyes may not be able to do their jobs," I said, "But I assure you that his ear work perfectly well." The scribe ducked his head and his cheeks turned red. The guard snickered.