Chapter 46 Poison

Lyza
Isla BUSTLES INTO MY ROOM with a frantic look on her face. Her sandals slapping noisily on the floor and the skirt of the dress flouncing.
"Lyza! Lyza!"
She runs to my bed. "Lyza you have to come now, Rosa asked me to call you. It's your father and Lud—"
"Lud?!" I jolt upright and push back the blankets. "What's going on, Isla?"
"I can't tell you, you have to come and see. Rosa has made a shocking discovery!" And she grabs me by the wrist and takes me out of my room. I don't mind that I'm running barefooted down the corridors of the house in nothing but a silk nightgown, if the guards notice it then they don't show it. They stand as still as statues as usual.
Isla stops in front of the hallway to the Royal bedroom. She shifts her weight from one foot to the other with a worried expression.
"What is wrong?" Why would she pull me out of my room just to stand in the hallway.
"I-I can't go to your parents room," her voice quavers a bit, "but you go. Rosa said it was important."
I roll my eyes, a bit impatient. "Seriously? You must come with me." She opens her mouth to protest but I shush her, "you are part of this family, Isla. My parents won't mind."
Our feet slap the floor announcing our arrival as I drag her into my Dad's bedroom.
We burst into the room pushing the velvet curtains aside. The fragrance of myrrh hits my nostrils hard.
My eyes rests on the form lying limply on the bed. I don't mind the people gathering the bed, all that is on my mind is my father.
"Father!" The piercing cry is mine. I push the maids aside and sink to my knees at his bedside. My mother sits next to him with dried streaks of tears on her cheeks, her eyes are redden and swollen from crying.
He grunts and turns his lifeless eyes to me. His lips quaver and his shaky hands find him.
"Father! What's wrong? Who did this to you?" I sob burying my face in his chest. He manages a grunt again. His body is burning with a fever and his skin is pale and clammy with sweat. I sensed something was wrong but not like this.
"Lyza." It's my mother's voice. I don't raise my head or answer her. I grab on to my father even tighter than before.
"Lyza."It's Rosa's voice. She lays a comforting hand on my shoulder, "your father will be fine."
"How can you say that when he can't even utter a word?" I shrug her hand off my shoulder, turning to face her I see how hurt she is. But right now, I don't care. The only thing that is on my mind is my father.
Heavy thuds of boots march in and I'm forced to see how is coming. Kyan and Rakar looking like messengers of death, walk in with grim expressions. They roughly drag someone in-between them. Lud. My eyes narrow in a glare as the whole situation dawns on me.
I cross to them in no time and I lose control of myself. My hand flies from the side of my body and connects with his jaw. The impact makes him stunned, he stares at me like he is seeing me for the first time.
"Lyza." Kyan shakes his head disapprovingly, "you shouldn't have."
"Don't tell me what I can or cannot do, Kyan!" I spit out. Isla rushes to my side with big tears welling up her eyes but I shrug her off.
"This man tried to hurt my father and I shouldn't slap him? Slapping him is the least thing I have in store for him!"
Rakar smirks, "she is right, Kyan."
"Boys," Aunt Alira snaps, "bring him forward."
My brother and cousin push past me, they take him to my father's bedside. Lud doesn't even utter a word of protest.
"Kneel." My mother snarls, she looks wild and not delicately beautiful as usual.
Lud obeys. My brother steps away but Rakar doesn't leave until he kicks Lud ruthlessly at his back. Lud grunts and falls forward face first, he doesn't look like the proud royal as he did just a few days ago. Now he looks defenseless and pathetic.
"You," my mother turns to a trembling maid who is standing next to Rosa with her head bowed. "Step forward. Tell us what Lud asked you to do."
The maid who looks a decade or so younger than Rosa takes a step forward as she is asked. "Your highness," her voice cracks, "the Royal adviser—"
"Lud," Aunt Alira corrects with a hiss.
"Lud asked me to... He gave me a vial of golden liquid... He told me to put a drop each day in... In the King's food." She breaks into sobs immediately after her confession. She falls to her feet, eyes sodden with tears. "I'm so sorry, your majesties. I'm so sorry. He said you will get me killed if I didn't do it."A heavy silence reigns in the air.
Kyan growls. I don't blame him, I'm filled with a dark cloudy substance that prevents me from breathing. Loath. That's what it's called.
I walk to him, wrap my hand around his arm. He gives me a glance and his eyes soften almost immediately.
Rakar steps forward, his boots thumping on the floor. He pulls the weeping woman to her feet. She refuses to meet Rakar's eyes, crying and begging. "Why didn't you tell one of us?" Rakar demands angrily. I can see a throbbing vein just waiting to pop in his temple. His nostrils flare and his eyes darken. "Answer me, you witch!"
The woman's sobbing only increases. Rakar slaps her hard across her face with the back of his hand. With a bestial growl he pushes her so she falls to the floor. She lies like a foetus, shaking and shuddering under sobs. "No one would believe me. People would think that I wanted to kill the King."
I bite my lip and dig my nails into Kyan's arm, if I don't I might just launch myself at her.
No one else speaks. Even Lud seems frozen in time.
The woman continues to sob, I almost pity her. Almost. My eyes dart to my father's still form and my loathing and disdain only increases. With a strangled cry, I bury my face in my brother's chest and let the tears fall. He holds me tight to him, not saying a word.
"Guards." It's my Aunt who speaks and not my mother who is probably stunned, "take them both away."
I hear the guards march off with the weeping woman and Lud. I should be relieved that I'm saved from the nightmare of marriage to Lud but instead, I fear for my father's life.
I have wandered around the Palace searching for my mother. After spending hours at my father's bedside with Kyan, Rakar and Isla, I want to have a word with her.
I have checked every inch of the Palace including the orchard which she almost never visits when I realise that I left a particular place out. The throne room.
I walk in slowly, the empty echoing room is eerie without my father sitting on the polished gold throne. It's apparent my mother isn't here. I sigh and turn my eyes to the terrace when I see a silhouette.
Mother.
"Lyza." She says without looking at me. She inhales deeply and continues to stare out at the gloomy night. "What are you doing here?"
I don't allow myself to be intimidated by her curt tone. I brace myself for the worse and try to speak. "What's going to happen to them?"
"Death." She doesn't hesitate to say their punishment. "They'll be beheaded at sunrise."
I gulp. The penalty seems gruesome but they deserve it.
It's so unbelievable that Lud will betray my father and all of Altsas like this.
My voice is laced with sadness as I ask, "how did you find out?"
"I sent Rosa to the kitchen to make your father some soup so I'll feed it to him. She cooked it as I asked her to, when she turned to open the cabinets for a bowl, she noticed suspicious movement from the guilty maid. She confronted the maid and that's when the vial fell out of her hands."
I try to calm my nerves with deep regular breaths. "Where's the vial now?"
"It's with me, I'll destroy it myself." She turns to leave and my hand finds it's way to her arm. She looks down at it with an emotion I can't name.
"I need to talk to you... Mother." I come to stand in front of her.
"Your wedding is cancelled," she blurts.
I blink. I knew that, it's obvious I won't be marrying the two-timing backstabbing bastard anymore.
"That's not what I want to talk about," I say. I release my grip on her and wet my dry lips with my tongue. "Father—"
"He will be fine. As far as he won't be consuming the poison anymore and he keeps taking the herbs he'll be just fine." She forces a smile and makes to go again.
This time she glares at me," what is wrong with you? I don't have time for your questions anymore."
No, you don't have any time for me.
"I need to talk about... Osar," I hear myself say.
A foreign look of confusion clouds her face. "Who is Osar?"
"My... My lover." I shut my eyes and wait for the slap, for the yell but it never comes. "I need you to order a search for him, mother. I... lost him. Th-They took him—" I can already feel tears brimming in my eyes.
My mother rises her hand to my face and wipes them almost lovingly with the pads of her thumbs. "Tell me about him. Who is he?"
And I tell her about Osar. And she listens to me without any interruption. When I'm done, she pulls me to her and I flinch as her arms wrap around my waist in a hug. My heart pounds against my ribs like a hammer.
"You should go to bed now." She whispers, her voice sounding like a lullaby.
"Mother..."
She presses a finger to my lips. "Don't argue now. Goodnight." She nudges me softly urging me to go to sleep but I know I won't be getting any sleep tonight. My thoughts will be tumbling with my father and Osar.
"Goodnight, mother."
She presses her lips to my clammy forehead.