Chapter 37: The Demise of the King of Valyria!

The horse carriage carrying the first princess of Valyria and her fiancé darted through the main roads and just as they approached the border of Valyria, they ran into a slight bit of a trouble and this time the royal concubine herself had come to ensure that the job was executed properly. Selena frowned from behind her veil as she realized that two innocent vampires were about to loose their lives because of her.

The concubine waved her hands and an entire fleet of army surrounded the notorious carriage. Selena winced as the scene unfolded right before her eyes and Caro Silva slightly patted her back in a bid to calm her down and offer her some much required comfort.

“Stop looking at them and walk past them slowly. Remember, you are just a poor fisherwoman who is desperate to make money and not interested in the affairs of the world.”

Selena let out a sigh as she picked up her basket filled with freshly caught fishes and straightened out her back in determination to get through this adversity.

Caro had correctly predicted the royal concubine’s line of action and smartly suggested a covert plan to throw her off until they reached the palace safely. Once they were inside royal palace, the concubine couldn’t afford to be this rash and driven as every actions of hers would be in constant scrutiny of the Council of Elders.
The fact that she wouldn’t be able to do anything to the first princess once she sets her foot inside the royal palace was precisely what had made the royal concubine completely fly off the ladle and attempt an assassination attempt in the middle of the day in a public area.

If the first princess were taken out from the way, then no matter if she was a murderess or not, no one would ever dare to stand in her or her son’s way.

Selena took in a deep breath to calm in her jittery nerves and a glint passed through her eyes, as she made up her mind to ignore the two innocents that Caro had put in the carriage as bait and walked past them. She had to be cold hearted to ascend Valyria’s throne because if she stopped today to save them, she would risk both the throne and Valyria falling into the wrong hands which would cause a lot more vampires to lose their lives.
With the fish basket placed firmly on her shoulders, covering most of her already disguised face, she walked out with Caro and Demetri right at her heels, each carrying their own fish baskets.

“Two sickles for a bag of eel…..two sickle! Two sickles!”, Caro yelled out in a deceptive tone which was similar to how the fisherman usually shouted off their commodity.
The vampires though they could survive with just intaking blood, they had grown so accustomed to living with humans that their food had kind of rubbed off to them.
Even though eating human food weren’t necessary to satiate their hunger, vampires still carved for human delicacies simply because they tasted good or as a force of habit after living in the human civilization for so long.

Therefore, seeing fishermen in the streets selling their commodities was not an unusual sight and the royal concubine barely batted an eye towards them as they literally passed through under her nose. Her gaze was unwavering and fixed firmly on to the royal carriage.

After passing the border, Selena heaved a sigh of relief as she placed the basket on the ground and quickly removed the rotten vest that was covering up her royal gown and Demetri and Caro followed suit, taking off their outer robes too and unveiling the rich robes they were wearing inside.

“Ready?”, a worried Caro asked Selena and she nodded timidly at him as she approached the palace guards that were guarding the entrance.

The guards bowed deeply seeing their first princess as well as the King of the West approaching them and led them inside without any hassle.
Selena frowned as she saw the huge crowd gathered outside her father’s balcony. She had thought that he was despised by the citizens for his atrocious actions but their actions were contradictory to that assumption.

Caro reading the question in her face answered with a sigh, “They aren’t waiting outside his balcony to show gratitude or respect for the final moments of their king, they are just anxious about who he is going to declare as his heir apparent.”

As they passed through the crowd, everyone bowed to her out of respect and on an impulse, she bowed back to them which left the crowd speechless and awed. After entering the King’s palace, Caro pulled her aside and asked her, “ Why did you bow back? They are normal citizens and you are a princess”

Selena let out a sigh and replied simply, while shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly, “They bowed to me to show respect and I bowed back to them to show them respect.”

Caro eyed her with an unreadable expression on his face then said softly, “Maybe I was wrong, maybe you would make a better queen than the one I pegged you to be…..Strong and fierce when needed be, and soft and gentle as a mother to her citizens.”

Selena smiled at him, touched by his sincere compliment but the moment didn’t last as it was immediately broken by her mother who dragged her inside the King’s room.

The Queen ran a critical eye towards her daughter, taking in everything from head to bottom. Relived that her daughter was fine, she let out a sigh.

As she entered the room, she saw that her father’s face had been covered with the same black poison that she had seen on Mia’s face. Both of their veins were blackened that she found herself wondering whether the royal concubine had a hand in murdering the king too since the methods were oddly familiar and it would be fairly easier for her to poison the King. She can just drop it in his afternoon tea.

It is entirely a myth that vampires can’t eat human foods. Though their hunger can’t be satisfied with intaking human food only, they were rather fond of their delicacies that they had incorporated it into their daily lifestyle too.

Sensing that the council of elders eyes were on her, Selena quickly replaced her smug face with that of a pitiful one and immediately rushed at the king and wailed, “Oh! Royal Father!”

The Queen herself was surprised by Selena’s acting. She had been about to tell her to start acting sad but Selena had done it even without her interference.
The council addressed one of the attendants in the King’s room and asked, “The royal concubine is nowhere around to be seen. Where is she?”

Before the attendant could answer, Selena jumped at the chance and replied politely, “Sire, on my way here, I saw the royal concubine and a fleet of army surrounding a carriage. Maybe she has some important work to take care off?”

The council murmured among themselves, jarred by her words and the Queen shot her daughter an appraising look. She had handled the situation quite tactically. She had indirectly placed an accusation on the royal concubine that she might have tried to attempt an assassination on her while acting so innocent as to not knowing what the concubine’s real intentions were.

If she had placed the accusation directly, she could get into a lot of trouble but what she did by innocently remarking on it was to breed suspicion in the minds of elders against the concubine’s actions while her remaining as the naïve or innocent one who couldn’t even realize that the concubine had been there to murder her.

She smiled as she realized that her daughter was starting to become more wicked and conniving than her. For a moment, the Queen felt genuinely glad and relived that her daughter was on her side, though reluctantly and not against her because her daughter make quite a formidable enemy.