Ontogeny

Chapter 3a

     Matron Darniss hated to drag Queen Lacurnia away from her daughter. She knew that the other members of the palace staff felt nothing but sympathy for both of them as she took the Queen gently by the arm and urged her to leave the side of the afflicted Princess before the close and prolonged physical proximity caused the parent bond to go into reverse. She also knew that they would have felt completely differently about her if they’d known the real reason for her reluctance. If the parent bond went into reverse, the daughter would begin to raise the mother up the ladder of life, instead of the other way round. The blessing that had afflicted the Princess would be passed on to the Queen and she would also start glowing in the dark. Give it a few months, and there would be two demons in the palace.

     Darniss never tried as hard as she might to drag the two apart, therefore. She allowed the Queen to talk her into being allowed to stay by her daughter's side for a few minutes longer, then a few minutes more, only finally exerting herself when she sensed that the Queen’s handmaid was growing distressed. Great though the temptation was, it was important that no suspicion fall upon herself. If, by some unlikely miracle, the Brigadier did find a cure for the girl, it would be up to her to find a way to sabotage it. She was one of only two agents that the Callowmen had managed to place in the palace and she could not do anything that threatened her position there.

     Today, the Princess seemed to be glowing more brightly than she ever had before, although that might be nothing more than her imagination. A subconscious expression of wish fulfilment. “You must come away now, your Highness,” she insisted. “It has been too long.”

     “She is right, mother,” agreed Princess Ardria, pushing her away with her tiny, white hands. “Please go now. I could not bear the guilt if you...”

     “If I were afflicted, you would not have to suffer alone,” replied the Queen, tears in her eyes. “You would...”

     ‘No!” cried Ardria in horror, breaking free of her mother's embrace and running across the room. ‘Don't even think that! To see you afflicted like this would destroy me!”

     “To see you suffering like this is destroying me!” The Queen reached out to her, and the girl backed away into the very corner of the room, her hands outstretched in a warding off gesture. “If my joining you under this curse would lessen your torment, even by the smallest amount...”

     “It would not! It would make it a thousand times worse! Please, you must go now. Please!”

     “She is right, your Highness,” said Darniss, moving to stand between mother and daughter. “Bogarde says that five hours a day is the absolute maximium. You've been here nearly seven hours. You must leave now.”

     Tearfully, the Queen allowed herself to be dragged away from her daughter. “I'll be back tomorrow,” she promised, as she always did. “There'll always be someone with you. You'll never be alone.” She looked back to the door, where Weena, from the kitchens, was waiting to take her place. She beckoned her forward and the girl crept nervously into the room, as if it contained a nest of venomous snakes. “Look, here’s Weena, come to keep you company.” She turned to the maid. “Talk to her. You must talk to her, you understand? Tell her all the gossip from the kitchens. Don't let her get lonely.”

     “I won't, your Highness.” The maid glanced nervously over at the Princess, as if wondering whether there was a safe distance she should keep. It was the first time she'd been called upon for this duty. Bogarde, the King's wizard, was worried that the other maids were getting too much exposure and had recommended that the duty be shared out among more people. Weena had been horrified when she'd found out. She loved the Princess as much as anyone else in the kingdom, but she had parents and a half raised brother to support and couldn’t allow herself to become afflicted. A command from the Queen could not be refused, though, and so here she was, in the lion's den. Her life being put at risk by a mother who didn’t understand that the one thing her daughter probably wanted more than anything else was to just be left alone for a while.