The Life and Times of Bonnie Chance

Can of Worms

"How are you, Mother?" Izmir asked the queen when he entered her room and found her awake and eating. It was a relief to see after Mira shared with him how his mother had been secretly starving herself. He couldn't believe that doctor was able to see it in an instant when even he and those closest to her had failed to notice.

"Ah, Izmir!" his mother said, brightening a little when she saw him. "It's strange... before I  couldn't eat a bite, and now I can't seem to stop... I guess the prayers the doctor prescribed for me really worked!" She was still hurt by her daughter's death, of course, but now it felt as though an invisible weight had been lifted from her chest. And after having a good cry and a deep sleep, her appetite had finally returned.

"Prayers?" Izmir asked curiously, taking a seat beside her. His mother had been praying nonstop since his sister disappeared, so he wondered what had made these so effective.

"Yes..." the queen said with a small smile, though her eyes were still sad. "I feel that girl has a mysterious power. Thanks to her, I was able to regain a small semblance of peace. I wonder if she has had training as a priestess as well as a doctor? For one so young, she knows so much... She's such a strong girl."

"Strong?" Izmir asked skeptically, recalling how easily she had given in when he grabbed her before. She hadn't given him a hint of resistance, not like Carol. He chuckled at the memory. "The Daughter of the Nile... now that's a strong girl."

The queen frowned at him. "That girl... I can hear her barking all the way down the hall..." she sighed, holding her head. Couldn't the Daughter of the Nile be a little smarter in picking her battles? She didn't have to bite the hand of everyone who approached her. That girl was lucky her son wasn't a cruel man. "Courage doesn't always roar, Izmir. Sometimes it is the quiet voice at the end of the day that says: 'I will try again tomorrow.'" She could see by his expression that he didn't fully appreciate what she was trying to tell him. "Well, perhaps you will come to understand when you're older... Fortune favors the bold, son, but it has no patience for the stupid. That clever doctor... now she's the type of woman you don't want to cross."

"The injury will heal in about a week or so..." Bonnie informed Carol as if she were just another patient. She couldn't afford to appear too friendly with Izmir, who had returned just after she finished cleaning the wounds on Carol's poor back again, watching them from another corner of the room. There were the female servants who had been sent in to assist her to worry about, too. "But you can't move around too much!" she added strictly, knowing how impossible that would be for her stubborn and energetic cousin.

"..." Carol flinched and gritted her teeth as the last bandage was tied. The healing salve Bonnie applied for her was soothing, but too much pressure on her wounds reminded her how severe they were. 'Hmph... I escaped Memphis only to meet this guy...' Carol thought bitterly, glancing at the spying prince. She could just make out his silhouette through the fabric of the curtain hanging between them. She was so glad that Bonnie had won the argument to at least leave one down around the bed for privacy. "Ouch!" she winced when she moved to pick up her decorative Egyptian collar.

"I'll help you change your bandages every day..." Bonnie added more kindly when she saw the severe pain she was in. "I'll make you something to dull the pain, too."

'Bonnie...' Carol thought. 'I'm so glad Bonnie is here! Every person from a royal family in the past is very cruel... They have no respect for women! In a few days... we will find a way to escape...'

"Everyone get out!" Izmir ordered when he realized that they had finished tending to her wounds.

Bonnie left very reluctantly with the other women. She hated to leave Carol alone with him, but she also needed time to explore and gather supplies for their escape. Fortunately, these two tasks had been made easier after the queen became attached to her for some reason. Between her majesty and Katuzili, she was able to get pretty much anything she asked for as long as she said it was for making medicine. She was even able to explore outside the palace a little, since she insisted on picking all of her ingredients herself, and several other nobles had begun to request her services when they heard the praise the royal family had for her. And where she couldn't go without arousing suspicion, Unas did. As a slave he was virtually invisible. No one thought twice about his movements as long as he was where he was supposed to be when they needed him. She and he had already formed multiple plans for escape between them. They were just waiting for the right opportunity... Carol's earlier escape attempt had put the prince on guard.