Heart [ON HOLD]

Chapter 5: Visions

A silver tongue cannot hide a dark heart.
- Unknown

"You wanted me, Your Majesty?"

The Queen elected to ignore her a second longer before carefully putting the hand mirror back on the surface of the vanity.

"Yes, Sarah is sick. I need another servant tonight. Hence, you."

Sarah was not sick, and from the look on Cora's face she knew it too.

"I'm sorry to hear so, Your Majesty," Cora said.

"Why? Are you friends?"

"I-," the dark haired girl said, "I haven't got friends, Your Majesty. Not really."

The Queen waved a hand.

"Well it doesn't matter anyway."

The maid winced.

"So," the Queen said, rising from her seat on front of the vanity, "How long have you been here again?"

"Since you had my father executed, Your Majesty."

The Queen blinked.

This one didn't waste any time getting to the point.

"And why did I let you stay?"

"I don't know, Your Majesty."

"Hm."

The Queen pursed her lips, raking her icy gaze up and down across the girl.

She was pretty enough, if you liked long, wavy hair darker than ink and skin as smooth and pale as pearls. If you liked small noses and sweet, crimson lips and long, full eyelashes to make any woman's blood boil in envy, if you liked eyes the color of lilacs and dusk with a splash of vividly flowering violet at their centers, if you liked inhumanly flawless-

The Queen hadn't realized how hard her nails were biting into her skin. She hadn't realized that her brows had drawn together in a venomous glare. But she felt herself tensing. And she heard Ord's words in her head again, telling her to relax. Except this time, she didn't listen.

"I don't know either," the Queen said. "You were a failure as a Runner yesterday. Apparently you fainted. Does this happen often?"

The maid was nodded, as she knew she would.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"So are you ill or simply incompetent?"

"I hope neither, Your Majesty."

The Queen could feel a growl building in her throat.

"See to it that it doesn't happen again."

The maid bobbed her infuriatingly perfect head.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

A wave of exhaustion washed over the Queen. Her blood seemed to pulse weaker. She waved a dismissive hand at Cora and sank back into the seat in front of the vanity.

"I'm tired," she said. "You're going to help me get ready for bed."

The maid nodded.

"There's a bottle of wine on the bedside table. Pour some for me. It calms me down."

The Queen resumed looking into the hand mirror, adjusting the ruby studded choker around her neck. She heard the trickle of liquid and the muffled noise if the bottle being set back down. The Queen glared at her reflection. Her reflection glared back.

A gasp caught her attention and the next second there was a splash, a thump, and a delicate crunch. The Queen turned and found Cora lying on the floor, evidently having tripped on something. There was only a glass stem in her fingers now and the floor was littered with glass shards. A scarlet stain soaked the rug.