...37...
XHANAI POISON
They stared intensely at each other for such a long time until Hera-Mera was forced to look away.
His gaze was so fiery that it seemed as if they were burning her soul, all of it.
He turned away from her, frustrated and angry to his boiling point.
His brother's woman had been confined to a dungeon, overnight!
He was in big trouble with him because he would not let him or anyone go scot-free, whether it had been his fault or not.
He turned to look at the culprit.
He was fast losing it by seeing the culprit's face, at the very verge of blowing out of proportion.
He held the emotions threatening to spill out inside of him.
He spoke then.
'Lift your head!' he snapped at her. She quickly complied at the sound of his stern voice.
'What made you throw her into the dungeons?' he asked her.
'She defied me,' was her straight forward answer.
Frustration painted his facial features with its trademark.
Was she bent on infuriating him to stupor for no reason?
'Defied you as in? Oh I forgot, you are affianced to the Emperor!' he denoted with sufficient sarcasm.
'My Munificent Royalty,' she began at his outburst. But, he crudely interrupted her.
'Where is the head of house and the butler?' he asked.
'They are somewhere around,' she murmured. He turned to one of the maids on standby.
'Go and get the mentioned persons for me and do so very quickly lest I have your head for it!' he bellowed.
The maid scurried away to do so without a bow.
She returned almost instantly with the requested people.
That made him realize that they must have all been close by, watching every single thing unfold.
'Here they are My Munificent Royalty!' the maid said to him with a voice that trembled.
'My Munificent Royalty,' both of the newcomers -a male and a female said to him in greetings.
It wasn't Peter.
That meant the Emperor had taken his butler.
He must have left the man present to take over his place for a while.
He knew the man.
He was undoubtedly Peter's assistant.
What he didn't know was wether the man was a fool!
'Collins?' he said to him.
The lanky man stepped forward, closer to him before he spoke.
'Yes My Munificent Royalty,' he answered him.
'Mainkeina?' he asked again.
The woman who had come in with him raised her eyes to his face.
But it was only for a brief moment before she returned it to the ground again.
He smelt shame, and mayhap fear of the unknown at this point.
'Yes My Munificent Royalty,' she answered in a timid voice that gave away her fear.
'Who was left in charge of the Royal manor?' he asked both of them with stern eyes.
'It was I My Munificent Royalty,' Collins said after a moment of hesitation. 'The emperor left me in charge of the Manor.'
He nodded, boiling deep inside but trying not to spill.
'You or Princess Hera-Mera?' he asked him with raised brows.
Collins hesitated once again.
'Please quickly clarify this Collins before I loose it.'
His voice was hard as steel, sharp and perfectly fit to cut through glass.
'It was I,' he murmured in a voice that showed his panic.
He just knew that he was definitely in trouble.
'I asked you a question in a loud voice, why do you reply in such a tiny voice?! Answer me like a man Collins!!' he snapped.
The entire room shook at the intensity of that voice.
Several of the maids swallowed hoping not to be the receiver of such anger from the prince.
'It was I My Munificent Royalty,' he said in a louder voice.
'What then was the Princess doing in this place when I arrived? Why was she here receiving guests on the emperor's behalf?"
He paused, growling softly under his breath in frustration.
"Why on earth are you letting her, such an unclot lowlife lord over you all?!" He pressed further.
Hera-Mera gasped.
"Why Collins? Why?! Quickly tell me why?! Now!!" He demanded.
But Collins could say nothing, his throat taunt and dry.
There was nothing he could say to redeem himself now.
He was doomed.
Hera-Mera heard the insult, cringing internally at it.
But she was totally unable to do a thing about it, coming from the prince.
She knew her place.
"Do I have to have answers beaten out of you Collins?"
Silence reigned in the room.
The only sound in the space was the one of Collins shaking terribly alongside his bones.
'She asked us to let her do so,' he stammered. 'No! No! She forced us to let her do so,' he quickly added in clarification.
Maximilian's brow rose high on his forehead at that.
'And you just did as she requested?" He asked.
Collins nodded and he nearly facepalmed because of him.
The bile rose in his throat and he felt the bitterness on his tongue.
"You could not refuse her?' he added in disbelief.
And Collins swallowed slightly.
"Collins, you could not refuse a woman like her?" He pressed.
Collins hesitated, shame crowning him with a tiara made of thorns.
'No, no My Munificent Royalty, I just couldn't do such,' he said before glancing at Hera-Mera for a brief moment.
Maximilian sneered in contempt, disgusted by him.
'You could not refuse an ordinary woman. And why is that so?' The Prince inquired from him.
He was beginning to shake visibly from the fury coursing through him.
'My Munificent Royalty, she is not an ordinary woman. She, My Munificent Royalty, is our Empress to be."
Someone made a tsk sound and it was Octavia, his aide.
"How on earth could I refuse her? I could not deny her such My Munificent Royalty," Collins continued to boot lick.
'Incompetent!' he snarled. 'The emperor left his manor in your hands and you let a woman run it just as she deem fit?!'
His voice was shaking the foundation of the palace.
His fury was no longer contained in his body, unleashed.
His eyes burned dark with the extent of his rage.
Collins began to shake his head like an mad person.
'No My Munificent Royalty. She forced my hands!"
He was pleading like a child who was at the verge of tears.
"She kept wedging her title of empress to be against us. Who am I My Munificent Royalty that I should challenge her?' he asked.
The scoff from the little prince was a dangerous sound.
He understood their fear, but how dare they cower before her?
How dare they obey a woman before the emperor?
How dare Hera-Mera's words be allowed to hold water over that of the emperor's woman?
That was treason.
'Are you asking me that? Have you no stand as a man?!' he barked at him. 'Do you even realize that this is the Royal Manor? The Lion's den?' He asked him.
Collins nodded.
"Since you are well aware, then you shall suffer! You shall suffer for all your blatant mistakes!' he assured him.
Collins looked up at him with tears in his pleading eyes.
'I shall make sure that My brother hangs you in the gallows when he returns! I would have done so myself, but I want to give him the joy of punishing you himself!'
Collins' mouth fell open at the verdict that he had given.
'No! No! No My Munificent Royalty! please do not do so!' he pleaded falling to his knees.
The Little Prince Prince paid no attention to him anymore before turning to Mainkeina.
'And you,' he began staring at the already petrified woman.
She looked like she would pee in her pants any minute from now.
'Have you no say at all in this matter? Did you not try to stop Collins when all this was happening? Are you not the woman in charge?"
She made to speak but the fear gripping her heart tied her tongue and kept her from doing so.
"You were here when she,' he pointed to Princess Hera-Mera, 'stripped the emperor's woman, had her hit with a poisoned whip and then sent her to the dungeons and you did absolutely nothing about it?!' he listed.
'My Munificent Royalty it is... It's just that... It's...'
She was stammering like a confused child and it infuriated every living bit of him.
'Oh just keep shut! Shut up!!' he yelled at her.
She did so—probably because she had nothing else to do.
'Where are her aides?! Where are the Lady's aides? Where is Xiera especially?' he inquired.
And eerie silence filled the space
the moment he dropped the question.
'She is in the dungeons with her mistress,' Princess Hera-Mera answered when everyone seemed to be hesitating.
'You put Xiera in the dungeons?" He asked her.
His voice conveyed every bit of disbelief he felt.
"How unscrupulous!"
Mainkeina said nothing, just shaking like a leaf in autumn.
"You do realize that she is in charge of the army in the Emperor's absence?' he continued.
His eyes were on Hera-Mera now and not on the others.
She was the prime suspect.
But the only reply to his questions was the circulating air.
"You know that right? Or don't you do so?' he demanded.
Hera-Mera grumbled under her breath before she spoke.
'She defied me alongside her mistress. She was the only one who didn't yield to me. Therefore, it was her who actually started this first,' she said to him.
The particular maid that Princess Hera-Mera had sent out before only returned then.
And she came out with just Xiera accompanying her.
'My Munificent Royalty, she is here,' she said after curtseying to the Little Prince.
Maximilian turned to look.
'My Lord,' Xiera addressed the Little Prince, falling to her knees.
She looked so relieved to see him that tears began to form in her eyes but they didn't fall.
'Xiera,' he acknowledged her greeting to him. "Raise your head."
She did so, smiling up at him.
"Where is Your mistress? Where is your counterpart?' he asked her. 'Hope you haven't suffered much at the hands of this wench?' he demanded.
Hera-Mera snapped her head up to look at him at the curse.
Her eyes reflected her bridled anger but she kept mute.
She knew better than to start what she couldn't finish.
'No My Lord. I fear that it is not I who have suffered at the hands of this wench,' she said using the Little Prince's words.
Hera-Mera's eyes widened in confusion at her words.
She blinked, looking from side to side while squinting.
And then when she saw no one was coming to her rescue, she finally spoke up for herself.
'How dare you?!' she said to her, looking as if she would charge at the warrior any moment.
But, the warrior ignored her totally, going on with just what she had been saying.
'It is My Lady who has suffered My Lord.' The Little Prince's eyes narrowed in concern.
'Where is she? What exactly happened Xiera?' he demanded from her.
The warrior sighed.
'This wench sent her to the dungeons,' she said.
'Well, I know that. What made her do so? She said that your Lady defied her? What happened?'
Xiera paused for a moment.
She thought of wether to exaggerate the story or not.
She finally agreed on just a little bit and began to speak.
'She whipped My Lady with a poisoned two mouth whip all because she saved a maid from her wrath. She asked My Lady to take her place. She demeaned her!' Xiera spat fiercely before staring straight at Hera-Mera.
Hera-Mera's mouth opened in shock as Xiera spilled the tea.
She hadn't expected that the warrior would be so blunt.
'She did what?! I thought it wasn't true! I thought she wouldn't dare and maybe it was just aggravated rumours! So it was true?!' he bellowed in fury.
Hera-Mera didn't know wether to cry or laugh at her impending doom.
Xiera had just come to compound her existing problems at once.
'Yes My Lord.'
The tension in the living room thickened at that moment.
And it was even causing the ever composed Princess Hera-Mera to be shaken by it.
The Little Prince stood there while assimilating all what Xiera had just said to him.
They all stared at him in fear.
His actions suggested that the situation was very delicate.
This made Hera-Mera's heart to nearly leave her body at the realization.
'So it is true,' he said going to Hera-Mera. 'You whipped the emperor's woman, on account of nothing Hera-Mera?' he asked her in a very soft voice.
She swallowed.
'My Munificent-'
'Oh shut up lest I call forward those maidens.'
He turned to Xiera.
'Let her remain so until I determine her punishment Octavia,' he ordered his aide who nodded at him.
'Yes My Lord.'
'Punishment?!' Hera-Mera asked in shock. She was genuinely surprised at the utterance.
'Silence!' he ordered her.
She kept mute.
'Not a word from you. Xiera, take me to your Lady,' he said turning his back to her.
'This way My Lord,' she told her, leading her to her Lady.
The Little Prince followed behind her.
'My Lord!!' Vura exclaimed at the sight of the Little Prince, scrambling to the bars of the cell.
The Little Prince's eyes fell on their Lady who was lying on the bare dungeon floor.
Her blue dress was bloodied.
She lay unmoving, motionless, appearing almost dead.
'Thank the most high that you came in time!' she mused.
Worry curled his stomach as he inches closer to the cell.
The woman was in a bad state.
And the entire Linamkne empire could be in that very state if the emperor met her just like this
'What happened to her? Why does she look lifeless?' he demanded.
'She is unconscious My Lord. She slipped into unconsciousness sometime this morning."
Xiera paused.
"Before she was just going in and out as her fever is too high,' Vura helped her explain to him.
'Open this stupid cell now!' he screamed at the prison guards trembling behind him.
They rushed forward to do as he had instructed with shaky arms.
Once it was open, Xiera rushed in to her Lady.
She and Vura fawned over her.
'How is she? Is she still breathing fine?' Xiera asked.
'Why wasn't she treated?' The Little Prince asked.
He was wtaring in astonishment at the unfavourable conditions his brother's woman was subjected to in that sick condition.
God help Hera-Mera that he didn't kill her before his brother was back from his trip.
If he did, it would be quite better for her because his brother would do worse than him.
'The wench denied her food and even medication. She is starving and struggling with this poison!' Xiera spat out in anger.
'My Lady didn't help matters too,' Vura added. 'She in turn did not want to be treated, and she didn't want to tell us the reason for that.'
'Let me take a look at her,' he said coming forward and crouching gracefully afore her.
Xiera moved aside for him to do so. He lifted his hands and touched her forehead.
He withdrew his fingers almost instantly as if he had been burnt.
She was like a volcano.
"Sweet Lord! She is scalding hot!' he complained, stunned.
He turned to Xiera instantly.
'Quickly! Get the Royal Physician! Go! Now!' he ordered her.
'Yes My Lord.' She bowed and left swiftly at his words.
'Adjust her dress quickly,' he told Vura. She nodded and did as she was told. 'Let's go.'
Then, the Little Prince scooped her into his arms and began to take her away.
Vura followed behind him, out of the dungeons and to the Emperor's quarters.
When they arrived, the Royal Physician was yet to arrive.
He placed the lady gently on the huge round bed and turned to Vura.
Vura understood his actions and quickly covered her lady up with the covers.
Hyeera came in as she was doing so.
'My Lady,' she said rushing over to the still form on the bed. 'My Lady! Is she alright?' she asked Vura.
'She is,' Vura said. 'She has a very high fever. I think the Princess spiked the whip with poison.'
'Poison?!' she yelled. 'Oh yes! We have to treat her this instant. We have to get the Royal Physician.'
The healer looked like she was beginning to panic.
'Calm down Hyeera,' Vura said. 'It is not a chronic poison. I think it is the Xhanai poison.'
'Oh, Xhanai, Xhanai poison,' she mumbled staring at Vura who only nodded at her.
'The royal physician can take care of that. She just needs medicine. It is the whip lines on her back that I am apprehensive about.'
'The Royal Physician is here,' The Little Prince announced.
They both turned in the direction of the bedroom door.
Indeed, the Royal Physician had arrived there, with his assistant.
'My Lord,' the Royal Physician greeted the Little Prince who acknowledged him with a nod.
'Where is the Lady?' the Physician assistant asked.
'Here she is,' Hyeera said urging them towards her with a hand gesture.
They both came to her.
'She was whipped with a poisoned whip. I think it is Xhanai poison,' Vura quickly explained.
'She is like this because she had had no medication for more than a day and her fever is burning like hell," Xiera added.
'Thank you for the quick diagnosis,' the Royal Physician said touching her forehead and checking her pulse. 'She will be fine after a few things,' he assured all of them.
'Will she?' the Little Prince asked.
He had come to the side of the bed. The Royal Physician looked at him and nodded.
'Yes she definitely will My Lord. But, I am afraid that her owner will go mad if he sees her in such a state when he returns.'
'True,' he agreed. 'Thanks be that he is not here. He is away."
"Doubt this would have happened if he were here though."
The jab hit deep.
"But I shall still have to tell him to return lest he chews me more for keeping it away from him."
The physician scoffed.
"She shall be in a better condition before he returns right?' he asked him for clarity.
'Yes she shall.' The Little Prince nodded at his reply.
Then, turning to Xiera who had arrived with the Royal Physician, he said, 'Bring me stationary.'
'There are some at My Lord's table My Lord,' she pointed towards the emperor's writing table.
'Ah, that will do.'
He went and took a pen and piece of paper from there.
He wrote a message on the paper and then handed it to her.
"Go, give this to my aide, Octavia. Tell her to send it to the emperor instantly," he instructed.
'Yes My Lord. I shall do that,' she said receiving the folded piece of paper with a small bow.
She turned and left with the message.
...OmaPhinaPhire
GLOSSARY
* XHANAI POISON:
It is a mild poison in the Linamine Empire which causes symptoms like that of mild cold along with a severe headache if one is conscious.
It causes slow scabbing of open wounds, skin irritation and itching, pain etc.
If it is left untreated, it can eventually lead to unconsciousness, severe damage to the respiratory system or even death.
(This is fictional. I didn't have the time to search for an actual poison that is similar. If you know one, you can tell me and I will do my research.)