Fallen Queen

Chapter 19 - Past

Thomas stood still in front of the gate. He heard nothing but silence. Nothing but a deafening silence that made his skin crawl. He looked over his shoulder to make sure that the path towards the gate was empty and then he pushed the wooden door open. As soon as he stepped inside he knew that this was a mistake. He shouldn't have come here and he for sure shouldn't have brought Amelia with him. He tightened his grip on her hand and he turned his face to the side to look at her.

Her eyes were wide open. Her jaw almost touched the marble floor. Her skin was whiter than white. She had stopped breathing while her eyes wandered over the lifeless bodies covering the floor. "What happened..." She formed the soundless words with her lips and Thomas shook his head.

He didn't know what happened. He had never heard from his father that they had enemies. He had never heard that other Kings from other Kingdoms wanted to conquer their land. He had never heard that they were in danger.

"All those people..." Amelia formed more words and Thomas squeezed her hand even more.

"Do you want to go back?" He raised his eyebrows, but Amelia shook her head. He had not expected her to want to go back. Although Thomas was not looking forward to the moment they would actually find their parents either.

Carefully he started walking again. His boots walked through the blood and mud that had become a weird kind of liquid on the floor. He tried to keep his eyes on the door at the very end, leading to the throne hall. Not that he expected it to look any better in there, but at least he wouldn't be looking at the corpses from people he could all name.

Never had the hallway seemed this endless. Never had the few hundred meters from the gate to the door been this long.

Eventually Thomas pushed the door to the throne room open and he held his breath when he saw his father on the throne.

His father still had a sword piercing his heart. At least twenty arrows were sticking in his arms, legs and body. Blood was streaming down from his ears and eyes. His father hadn't had a chance. He probably hadn't suffered much either.

At least, that was what Thomas tried to tell himself. In that moment he realized that he was now an orphan. And he realized that technically he was now the King of Ilorianum. All he had to do was grab his father's crown and get out of here so he could come back with an army to claim the land that was his.

"Thomas..." Amelia placed a hand on his arm and she pressed herself a little tighter to him. "Where are the monsters who've done this and how did they get in?" She was whispering and Thomas pressed a finger to his lips to remind her that even though they were invisible, they could still be heard. "How could this happen and who has done this?" Amelia spoke a lot softer and once again Thomas tried to make clear that she had to be silent.

The throne room seemed empty. The soldiers who had slaughtered everyone in here, were probably looking for the last two missing people. The only two people that were standing between whoever had ordered them to go on a killing spree and the throne.

"No..." Amelia shook her head and stiffened when she pointed at two lifeless bodies, holding onto each other on the floor.

Amelia's mother was barely recognizable. Her dress was ripped open and horrible wounds were covering her entire body. Her lips were bleeding and her eyes were wide open while she stared at her husband.

Maxwell had clearly tried to protect his wife. He had arrows in his back and a bleeding wound in his stomach. His lips were open as if he had tried to say some last words, but had failed. His eyes were locked with his wife's as if in their very last moment they had held entire conversations without anyone noticing it.

"They didn't deserve this..." Amelia held onto Thomas' hand while she kneeled down next to her mother. She didn't seem to care that her dress would end up covered in her mother's blood. She didn't seem to care that the soldiers who were responsible for this slaughter could come back. She didn't seem to care about anything anymore and Thomas couldn't blame her for it.

"No one deserved this..." He thought about his own father.

Leopold Hargreave had maybe not been the best King this land had ever had, but he had for sure also not been the worst King. He had made mistakes, especially after his wife had died, but he had also done a lot of good and Thomas had always believed that the people in the Kingdom loved him for that.

At least all the soldiers and all the people who had died for him had loved him. Had they known that they would end up giving their life? Had they tried to get away? Had they tried to save their own life, even though it would end with the King being killed?

Thomas shook his head and he kneeled down next to Amelia. His side touched hers and he let her cry for a moment. He didn't attempt to dry her tears. He didn't try to comfort her with words. He didn't even try to rub her back or wipe the tears away.

Amelia had come here to the castle for a ball and all she had wanted was the brand new dress her father had given her. She had ended up falling in love with the crown prince and somehow she had managed to win Leopold's heart and trust. She had even managed to get used to the protocol, to get used to the rules keeping her from dancing through the hallways, to get used to having to sing quietly to not disturb the other people, to get used to not being able to distract Thomas when his father tried to teach him something about politics or magic, even though she had so many amazing stories to tell.

Thomas had wanted to give her everything. He had wanted to give her balls and dreams coming true. He had wanted to give her songs to sing and dances to dance. He had wanted to teach her how to use a sword and how to ride a horse.

Instead she had ended up in the middle of a nightmare, where her parents were murdered just because their daughter had fallen in love with the crown prince at the worst possible moment.

Thomas would understand it if a part of Amelia would wish that she had not met him, that she had not joined her father to the ball, but when she squeezed his hand and placed her head on his shoulder, he knew that she didn't regret anything, not even now it had lead to this.