Dark Paradise

Chapter 6: The Ball~

Chapter 6: The Ball~

I stared at the queen. "A..... a proposition, miss?" I asked her. "I'm not too sure I understand."

The queen looked at me and smiled venemously. "Why yes, honey. A proposition. A proposal. I can help you get back home, but it will cost you." I stood up and began to back out. "Oh, your Highness." I said, curtsying, trying to walk out. "I couldn't possibly... I've no money, you see, and-"

"Goodness, I do not ask of you money!" the queen said, trying to sound innocent. "I instead wish to ask you for your services in my kingdom. Alongside my dearest Lydia. Perhaps you could care for my children."

Her children? I thought. Plural? Just how old is this woman?

"I am fourty three, after all." she said. My heart stopped in my chest. This woman looks like she's in her mid twenties. Twenty eight, maximum. Unless she's unlocked the secrets of the famed immortality....

I shook the thought out of my head. This may be a strange world, but it surely couldn't have harnessed the power of immortality... could it?

"Your Highness," I tried. She stopped me giving me a nasty glare. "You are not going to declome my offer now, are you? It woild be quite a shame if you saw the gallows." I gulped. Surelt she was joking? She couldn't hang me for declining a simple offer.

"And if you think I'm joking," she said. "Actually, avert your eyes momentarily." I did as she told, and I heard her get out of the tub and walk past me, making her way into her bedroom.

"Say, Chasity," she called to me. "would you please come here, dearest? And remove your hands now. I've undergarments on. I just need my corset tightened." I removed my hands from my eyes and walked into the bedroom, where the queen was standing, holding a glass of wine.

"Would you care for some?" the queen asked me, sipping from her cup. She picked up a glass and poured me some without an answer from me. She handed the cup to me, and I bowed my head slightly. "Thank you, your Highness." I said politely.

I took the cup and sipped out of it, then set it back down on the tray. "Now, tie me up." the queen instructed, grasping the bedpost firmly. I grasped the strings and looked at it. It was kind of like tying up a lace- up boot. "As tight as possible?" I asked her. She nodded and winced as I yanked in the strings. I went to work, tightening and yanking, then adjusting and tightening it again.

The whole process took around twenty minutes, and I grinned as she did at my work. "Perfect fit." the queen said, clearly satisfied. She fit on her ballgown, a teal colored gown doused in black lace and long sleeved. The lace made the dress just that much more beautiful. The Queen of Diamonds fit on her black shoes and put on a a tiara with teal gemstones in it.

"Lydia, honey." she said, looking at herself in the mirror. "See to it that I get a capable maid in here to fix my makeup. Oh, and see to it that the two of you get cleaned up."

"Pardon me, miss," I said. "But cleaned up for what?"

"Why the ball, of course!" the woman said to me. "I have a job for the two of you. There will be a spy from Ceciel's castle. You are to eliminate her."

"Yes, your Highness." Lydia said, then grabbed my wrist and pulled me out, down the hallway, and into a room, which I guessed was hers. She got towels ready and drew a warm shower. "Okay," she said. "This ball is very important. It's the anniversary of the queens splitting into the four kingdoms. We have to be on our very best behavior. All the sisters and kingdoms are going to be here in peace."

"And all we have to do is... peacefully carry out a murder?" I asked her. She shushed me and grinned maliciously. "Not a murder." she said. "An assassination. The world will be better if this person was gone, at lest, that's how I view it."