CHAPTER 28

Queen Grace at one point once suspected that her friend Mercy changed ever since she got married to her husband Rob the king of Qarth. She thought maybe she was only distant because of the regulations and all that but she never expected that Mercy had been in love with Rob all the time.
After listening to Mercy’s confession after she had been caught by Talia was something she just never expected and find it hard to believe. Feeling weak to her bones she fell to the ground and her husband caught her.
“Are you okay?”
“No, I’m not. I trusted her and shared everything with her and she just wanted to destroy everything I cherished. How could she?” she cried looking at Mercy who was on her knees and begging for forgiveness.
“What should we do with her?” Neal asked.
“She might as well just rot in jail,” she said.
“No, we can’t do that. If she is sent there then everything will be spilled and we can’t allow that. She will not go to any jail but she will regret for the rest of her life,” Talia cut in.
“What do you think we should do with her?” the queen asked.
“Just leave her to me. You can’t be absent for too long or people will start to get suspicious,” Talia said.
“That makes sense, let’s go now and let her deal with her.”
“I will not kill her mother, be rest assured,” Talia said as if she had read what was on her mind.
Her husband helped her up and took her out of the room.
“Did you know about this?” she asked her husband.
“I have no idea. From the beginning I have always chosen you, I didn’t have any eyes for anyone else.”
“I still can’t believe that she was going to kill everyone,” she said still in shock.
“I will take you back to our room, you should rest.”
“Thank you.”
They went back to their quarters where she drank the whole glass of water and lay on the bed.
“It’s going to be alright,” Rob said and kissed her on the forehead.
***
Neal remained behind still in shock with what he had just heard from his aunt, the woman who had been in their lives for long. She was still on her knees begging and Talia had taken her beads again.
She had her eyes closed doing one of her chants.
“What are you going to do to her?” he asked her.
“I’m going to make sure she doesn’t talk to anyone ever again and even if she talks about it no one will ever believe her,” she said.
Talia made her last chant and cast the spell on mercy; she was being merciful to her after everything she had just tried to do.
“I will make you not talk again Mercy and make your head to be muddled. People will think you are crazy but you will know that you aren’t. If you try to do sorcery again, it will go back to you and you shall kill yourself very slowly and painfully. So, if you want to live long, you better behave,” she said and made the spell to sink.
She looked at her husband and walked towards him.
“Are you okay? She didn’t hurt you, right?”
“No, she didn’t. What about her?”
“Now, find some trustful guards and send her out of the palace quietly back to her house. She will be safe there,” she told him.
“Okay, I will do that.”
“I will remain here and wait for you. Trust me I won’t do anything to her,” she reassured him.
“I believe you.”
Neal left Talia with Mercy and just hoped all will go well.
****
Two weeks later Duchess Talia of Falcon was very bored to the extent of watering the flowers in her greenhouse. A few weeks ago, she had people to make a garden for her. She thought it would be the best way of keeping herself busy when she wasn’t doing anything.
She was wearing rubber shoes and overalls. Her flowers were growing which was good news. Ever since she became a duchess, she had been busy attending tea parties and all sorts of other parties. She might not be educated but at least she could relate with the women since she could hear and see every single them concerning them.
After dealing with Mercy she had more people to take care of and the kingdom was in safe hands now.
“Duchess, you have a guest,” a younger maid said as she entered the green house.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone today. Who is it?” she asked as she placed the water jug on the ground.
“She is a commoner. I don’t know her at all but she insists,” the maid said.