*********CHAPTER 17 BACK TO THE PALACE**************
Laverna knew that her family and friends were close by, and she had to find them. She walked into the forest, trying to find them. She reached a village. It was not just a village, but the one Maybell once lived. The one the queen pillaged, burned and either killed of captured its inhabitants. The smell of burning was still potent in her nostrils. Homes where nothing but black, charred wooden foundations, and the kingdom lavernas aunt wanted to be so up to scratch was hardly so. Bodies were still lying unattended, unburied on the floor. Small fires were still flaming by the ruined homes, red stained and dripped down pavements, businesses, schools and doctor surgeries; all were left, forgotten, windows smashed, and most hideous of all, were the lamposts. Bodies swung In the breeze like Newton cradles, except there was no logic behind this scene, only cold, murderous thoughts of greed and hatred. Tears filled up the hollow, tired beautiful eyes of laverna, she fell to the floor, holding back tears, praying for the lost souls taken by the queen. The kingdom her father and predecessors left behind lay in Shreds, shattered and ruined by the jealous queen, destined to drag herself into oblivion, bringing everyone done with her, Laverna stood up, and walked down the gravel streets turned crimson. The footprints then stopped, in the middle of the path. She slammed her foot down in frustration. Then she felt a shudder, and then fell through the path, into the tunnel system she was given access to earlier. She remember ed. She gave Laverna a key! Jackpot. She walked far. Very far. And heard a scuttle. She turned around, and sw a door, wobbling. The old maid quarters her mother lady in waiting lived. She could see this by the royal standard of her mother. She walked into the room, and saw everyone there. She chuckled. After words and explanations were exchanged, Maybell spoke "so, I am to come with you, Laverna." Laverna shook her head. "No. You and the rest are to stay here, there are many rooms, and has a alcove, leading to the kitchens, chef chef will provide you with food, just don't disturb the queen, or she will have your heads, for real this time. She disguised herself again, and walked off, and crept into her room.
*******CHAPTER 18 THE QUEEN DOWAGER*********
After slipping back into the palace unnoticed, Laverna still wanted to investigate he green orb,the powers and the potions the queen was dealing with. She was etching out yet another sketch of the queens (very ridiculous) new dress, as she heard a knock at the door. It was the head maid, mrs. Pottyfeather, as our faced old woman. "You have been summoned by the queen, to measure her royal highnesses mother, the queen dowager." Laverna swallowed hard. She was to measure her grandmother,the poisonous bat that shunned her own son for marrying a slave. The dowager was a very cold, pedantic woman who spent the majority of her time lounging on her chair, sewing, playing instruments and reviewing the gossip not only at court, but of other royal families of other royal kingdoms. She wore clothes that were plain but wig huge petticoats. The woman's dresses were so ridiculous the queen had to open up the doors wider, just so the old woman could squeeze her putrid little body through doors. Laverna resented the dowager. She was as poisonous and satanic like her daughter. How her late grandfather married her, she did not know, and was glad her Father carried his traits, not his mothers. "Is there a problem, little lady?" Questioned mrs. Pottyfeather. "Umm.... No ma'am. I shall go to her quarters straight away." Mumbled Laverna, gathering her seamstress items, quickly shutting and locking her door behind her. She walked up the corridor, and stepped into her grandmothers dismal private wing. It smelt like antiques, and an overwhelming scent of butterscotch, the dowager bats favourite desert. She walked into the room, seeing the wrinkled sour old woman lounging in her chair, in her nightgown. Her hair wasn't on her head, but beside her. She was bald due to years of pulling her hair back to complete ridiculous hairstyles, and over time,thined out her hair. The woman cleared her throat. "Come this way, pauper." Laverna scuttled forward, and curtsied. "I want a dress, of course, but I want a mahogany colour with garnet stones and.... Pearls! Yes lots of black pearls!!" Laverna wrote this down. She began to measure her royal lowness. She grabbed lavernas hand. "You sew like your mother, you rabid fool!" Laverna swallowed. "I am sorry, ma'am, I don't understand, my mother is long dead." She lied. He bat laughed. "She is as alive as you are, sadly. Why my son was so stupid to marry a slave, a commoner with-" her voice trailed off. Laverna couldn't contain her anger. "WITH BLACK SKIN, YOU POISONOUS BAT." The old crone pulled Laverna closer, and stuck a pin in her arm. "That's why they call you little BLACK riding hood, your just a slave, an inbred creature, with to my misery has the same blood as I do. Your disguise may fool everyone else, but your other grandmother, that little girl with that hideous cloak always used that one when she was alive. Stupid old lamb." Laverna grabbed the crone by the top of her nightgown. "I don't know who you think you are,but your the stupid one. Not purely by wanting to kill your son, but by thinking you will get away with this. But you won't. You are a stupid old woman, whos daughter is only queen because of murder, magic and denying the real heir to the throne." The crone swallowed, her turn to be nervous. "What if I tell my daughter what you really are?" Laverna was angry. Darkness fell up in her and she she said "oh no you
