Dearest Ismenia

Chapter 3

Winter of 1614

I wouldn't accept it. For the first time since I swore my absolute allegiance and guardianship to the King — an act following my young daughter's untimely death, untimely murder — I couldn't obey my King's orders. He wanted me to kill an innocent girl, but for the first time I questioned his motives... questioned everything behind his actions and his orders for me.

I realized suddenly that I had never before questioned my King's commands. I'd never looked more deeply into his requests, his motives, but now, with a hand so powerful ready to claim a young child's life, I felt I needed to take action. Soon.

Quickly, I thought, and sprinted in the direction opposite of the King's departure.

I ran faster than I had before. I felt a burning in my chest, though it wasn't from lack of air. It was from my anger, anger directed at my King that I had never felt before. I sprinted, my mind only focused on finding proof. I needed proof.

I didn't realize where I was headed until I had climbed ten stories, reached the top of the tallest tower of the castle. There, breathing heavily and silently glaring at the large oakwood door, I realized my destination.

The King's offices.

Without hesitation, I quietly pushed through the door, closing it behind me. I knew the King was not amongst his offices for he had a trade meeting to attend. It gave me plenty of time to search...

I moved quickly to his desk and started opening drawers. If my sneaking suspicions were true, there would be plenty of proof in his files and neatly kept drawers.

As I rummaged through his many papers of plans for our city and trade route agreements with neighboring villages, I thought back to everything I should have questioned since my daughter's death.

I remembered how in the King's presence, poor dwellers from the city's border would cower and bow in fear at the site of him.

I remembered the dungeons... a horrible place where only those who commit crimes should be imprisoned, yet I heard whispers from the guards that some prisoners were found innocent, promised freedom, yet they were still being held at the King's word.

I remembered talk of village-goers disappearing in the night, not to be seen again. Their disappearance always followed a displeasing of a general or a visiting ally by the missing villager, and after their disappearance they were never again found...

I remembered more whispers from the guards, admitting the King's cruel treatment of injured men from battle. How he would punish them with lashings and hot iron brandings for not performing well enough in battle and for returning home injured beyond repair.

And most of all, I remembered the lashes he place on me, time and time again, similar lashings to those I had received last night...

I felt the 7 wounds in my back throbbing as I continued to shuffle through the drawers, but I focused again on the cooling touch of water to soothe them. I did not have time to feel pain, only to find what I needed. To find my proof.

After finding nothing in the King's desk, I moved to the chest of drawers next to it. Here lay more papers, some discussing more personal matters like which whores were pregnant in the village and who the King's dukes and lords were bedding this month. To me, none of it mattered.

I wasn't finding anything. My heart was sinking, falling lower as my doubt grew higher. Doubt for what I was growing certain were just silly suspicions, heart falling for my inability to bring my daughter justice somehow.

But then I found it.

A drawer containing papers sent to anonymous persons. Yes, the recipients were anonymous, but at the bottom of every page was signed the King's name.

I've found it.

I read quickly through the papers. This was proof to my suspicions. Things I should have doubted sooner, evils I should have looked at more closely but was too burdened with grief to see, all here in this stack of papers that were left for me to find.

The papers read of murder, death, destruction... Missing villagers...

Innocents murdered...

Loyal guards tortured.

Trade routes ambushed.

Bounties set.

Goods stolen.

Villages burned.

Cities destroyed.

Women raped.

Children kidnapped.

Werewolves slaughtered.

Humans slaughtered...

As I flipped through pages, my breath came in faster pants, anger seeping from my pores. I felt my wolf stirring beneath my skin, slowly push hair through the surface of my flesh, my vision grew red, my claws extended to puncture the papers in my hand, my bones started to bend...

These were the actions of a man I trusted. The King, my King, a man I had pledged my loyalty to from the day of my daughter's death. I pledged myself to him in both anger and honor, wishing to fulfill all my promises to my lost daughter.

But here, under my ignorant nose and careful protection, there was a man committing all the deeds I aimed to destroy.

And now, after all the evil of his past and knowing of the murder of my young child, the King wanted me to kill another innocent girl, not but 10 summers more than my Dearest Ismenia...

I stuffed the most important papers into my back pockets and sprinted from the room. The door stayed wide open behind me, but I didn't care. I'd already formed my plan, committed to it, and no matter the consequences, I had to fulfill the promises made to my daughter.

I continued to run and search the castle, from floor to floor, finally reaching my destination in the dining room...

Word Count: 959 Words