When she awoke on the tenth morning, she was scared beyond, well, a lot of things. But she quickly ran through all of her relaxation exercises which didn't help much except maybe her breathing.
When she arrived into Prince Matthew's bedroom, she was really desperate. She quickly rushed in and barely greeted him. He looked as worried as her, if not more.
She tried the usual daily morning conversation, and she noticed he seemed to be trying his very best, but all he managed was a lloonngg grunt of different sounds. He signalled to her that he was thirsty and went into the kitchen. As soon as he was gone, she exclaimed:
“I would prefer getting killed by the Warty Witch than to be beheaded tomorrow in front of the whole kingdom!”
Now, before reading the rest, you must know that the Warty Witch is an ugly, nasty witch who is, as you can imagine, covered in warts.
And so, the moment Anabetha said this, the Warty Witch appeared in front of her. She smiled a toothy smile and said nastily:
“Called for me did we? And what is it you want? To be killed by... let's see now... by me?! Why, that's wonderful, don't you think?!”
Anabetha stood there looking at her horrible warts, too terrified to say anything. Just like the Prince, she only managed a grunt. Well no, actually, it was more like a squeak. The kind of squeak a shoe does when it is over-polished and is walking on clean floor.
The Warty Witch looked at her too. Then she said:
“Do you know why Prince Matthew cannot speak? No, you don't do you?! Ha, well I do. I placed a curse upon him that would render him silent for the rest of his life. Do you wish to know why I did this? I did this because I knew by the time his parents worked out their son couldn't speak, it would be too late. He could not have any more siblings. And there cannot be a silent king. So they would set up a competition, and I would bewitch the judges so they would choose me to become queen. So I could govern this kingdom, so I could rule it.
She cackled nastily and drew out her wand...
