The King's Servants

Chapter 5

Miwana had despised the queen long before King Merobim died. The woman had absolutely no respect for the elderly or for anyone in general. Miwana had always managed to deal with the scornful young woman, up until the day the queen had pushed her. That push was not only violent, but if Miwana had landed the wrong way, the old woman would have definitely broken a bone or two, not that Armana would have cared if Miwana was hurt.

That day, Miwana's venom had reached its maximum and was begging to be unleashed into the evil queen. "I will stop at nothing in order to serve justice to that wretched female", mumbled Miwana as she rested in her quarters. During her rest, she began to cough and retch violently. It took a long time for her coughing fit to finally die down. "However, I must be swift, for my time on this earth is running short". Miwana was dying. She had fallen ill the previous week and was showing no signs of ever returning to full health.

Her plan of vengeance was set the moment she heard the queen's true feelings towards her guest. Miwana had used the last of her money to buy a very effective rat poison that, if consumed, would also be fatal to a grown adult. She had begged Wellsworth to allow her to serve Baritorin a special wine at a banquet that the queen had planned. Her begging had succeeded. The banquet was to follow the peace conference that was to hold the same day, so a lot of the other kings and queens of neighbouring kingdoms would be there as well.

Miwana planned to pour the whole bottle of poison into a cup filled with the rare wine that she had chosen. The poison would kill King Baritorin in his sleep and Queen Armana's kingdom would be blamed for his death, as people will naturally assume that he was targeted. Baritorin's brother would wage war with Armana and destroy everything that she held dear for not protecting his brother.

The very thought of the queen suffering made Miwana's eyes brighten up with hope that in death, she would have done herself and many others a favour. Even though she had no personal problems with King Baritorin, he was, unfortunately, the perfect pawn. The queen had an undying love for the man and losing him would be a crucial part of the payback process.

The following day...

The peace conference went as expected. King Baritorin had been listening with rapt attention as each of the different royals discussed problems they had faced concerning inter-kingdom relations. However, he couldn't shake a certain feeling of dread that he had woken up with. Like something horrible was going to happen and he had no idea how to deal with it. He decided it would be best to just ignore it. He didn't want to be worried during Armana's banquet.

The human children had all been assigned to different parts of the corridor leading to the great hall where all the royals were sat, enjoying themselves to the fullest. The farthest person from the hall was Camilla. She had just finished setting up some cutlery (which was the same height as her, if not taller) on one of the giant trays, which one of the maids then carried off. That was when she heard a noise coming from the wine cellar.

She quietly made her way over to the door of the cellar and peered inside, through a small crack in the door. Inside she saw Miwana, holding the large wine cup that the queen had designated for King Baritorin. Camilla's eyes widened with horror as she saw the old woman tip a huge vial of poison into the cup and then pour some fine wine into it. The 17-year-old girl put two and two together and figured out what was going on. "Miwana wants to poison the King! But WHY?! What has he ever done to her", she thought.

She was snapped out of her barrage of questions when she heard massive footsteps approaching the door. Camilla ducked out of sight behind a large jug of water. Her heart racing with panic, she stood there silent until Miwana had left the room completely. The young human began to sprint as fast as she could to Jack, who was on a ledge not too far from the kitchen, helping with the cleaning. This was going to be the most intense relay race of their entire lives.