Burned to Ashes

Chapter Eight

I lay in bed, the fireplace lit, surrounding the room in a blazing heat. I exhaled deeply, my skin sticky with sweat. Through the commotion of the festival, the royal coaches made it back to the castle. The Blood Guard was on high alert and soldiers swarmed the hallways making sure no one could get in or out. This was slightly more intense then I had prior imagined, but nonetheless it was perfect. After the forcefulness of the Blood Guard earlier today people are sure to be talking.

I had been sitting in my chamber for what must have been two hours, Madeleine and Alexia fondling over me. The witch healed me, the skin of my ear completely intact. This magic fascinated me, it was as if nothing ever happened. Alexia cleaned the blood from my face and removed my necklace. I began to stop her.

"It's okay," Madeleine reassured. "We'll put it somewhere safe."

I swallowed allowing the silent girl to take the necklace off. I felt an attachment to it, and I didn't want it getting ruined.

She set it on the bureau lightly then resumed to her work of cleaning the blood from my face.

"Here," Madeleine said pouring a hot liquid from a kettle into a goblet. She held it out to me. "Drink this."

I took it in my hands cautiously, looking in the goblet to see a milky liquid with leaves swirling inside. I made a face.

"It's herbs." The witch said smiling at me with amber eyes. "It doesn't taste great but it will help the lightheadedness. Healing magic can take a lot of energy out of people, as you might already know."

I raised my dark eyebrows before taking a sip. It tasted awful, but the more and more I drank it, the clearer my head became. Alexia finished scrubbing the blood from my face and dropped her rag into a bucket of water beside my bed.

The young woman had never said a word to me since I first met her.

"Excuse me?" I asked Alexia, and she turned her warm brown eyes on me and tilted her head. I inhaled.

"She can't speak, dear." Madeleine said without making eye contact. "She has no tongue."

I took me a minute to process what I was hearing. "What?"

The old woman sighed. "Alexia has always had quite the mouth, she's never been afraid of authority. I assume King Bertherium became tired of it. He cut her tongue out."

I gasped. "But why? I don't understand!"

Alexia shook her head at me as if to say, don't worry yourself about it.

"Alexia that's all for now." The witch said, and Alexia bowed before exiting the chamber.

I opened my mouth to say something but Madeleine stopped me. "His Majesty doesn't need a reason to do horrific things. He will do whatever he wishes, nothing will change about that until he's put into the ground."

"You need to worry about you," She continued. "Because what you're doing right now will create change, you are what's important. What you did today was very brave."

I shook my head. "He wasn't supposed to hit me."

Madeleine cocked her head.

"Ansel was supposed to get the arrow close enough to where it would almost hit me, but not actually take my ear off."

"Maybe it was a mistake." She said reasonably.

"No," I said. "Desmond said that Ansel was a dead shot, it had to have been deliberate."