Chapter 99: Untitled Chapter

CAIN

“The princess is awake!”

It hadn’t even fully made sense to him before his legs were already eating up the distance to the special room where they’d kept the princess since she’d been too wounded to be carried back home to get her treatment.

Meanwhile Cain was already in the room, his eyes trailing over the well placed furniture, carved fireplace and plush cushions to land on the two occupants of the room.

The crown princess of Smyria, Princess Asa, and her lady in waiting, Linda.

As if sending an alien presence in the room, the princess opened gossamer, thin eyelids until her eyes locked on his.

Against the stark white sheets and the room designed to look like a hospital room but with greater comfort, the once intimidating princess suddenly looked weak, defenseless. Not at all fierce like the woman she used to be. All because of aconite poisoning.

“Princess Aster,” Cain said, keeping his voice soothing. “Do you remember me?”

There was a beat of silence before the princess opened her mouth, her voice coming out fragile and scratchy. “I think the real question here is what are you doing here?”

His brows rose but he said nothing, instead coming to sit down on an empty chaise, making himself comfortable. “Alright princess, I’ll go straight to the point. Three months ago before your match for the Luna challenges you were poisoned with aconite causing you to be unable to shift. Do you know the person responsible?”

“No I don’t.” Her eyes burned with a barely banked fire. She might have been injured but she was definitely not beaten. “But I promise you, they’ll be sorry.”

“That’s exactly why I’m here.” He leaned forward. “We have good reason to believe that whoever poisoned you is also responsible for other crimes that have happened in the palace which is why I need you to tell me anything, anything at all that you might recall. It would be useful in our investigation.”

The princess frowned. “I can’t help you, Beta. I wish I could but I can’t. I don’t remember anything.” She sighed in frustration.

“Nothing? Not even the last meal you took before the match?”

Astra threw him a look. “I’m pretty sure I didn’t eat anything.” At Cain’s insistence, she elaborated, "My people, we shun food on the last day before battle. We believe it connects us more to the goddess and assures us victory.”

Cain nodded slowly. "That’s impressive but if you hadn't eaten anything or taken any water, how then could you have been poisoned with the aconite? It doesn’t make any sense."

Something seemed to occur to the female and she shifted uncomfortably on the sheets. Even her hand maiden that had been sitting beside all this while looked worried.

"You don't have to tell him if you don't want to, your Highness."

Cain's interest was pricked. "Don’t have to tell me what?"

When the princess still looked hesitant, he leaned forward, earnest. "I promise whatever you tell me will not leave this room. I just want to catch the culprit before they do more harm to other people." He tried to convey as much reassurance to her as possible. "You can trust me, princess."

Her eyes searched his for a moment and she must have found what she was looking for, because she nodded before saying, “As you may have already guessed, this isn’t easy for me to say. You see, I have a condition that requires me to take a potion every night before I sleep.” She paused. “… Because I sleep walk."

Cain blinked. Of all the things he had been expecting, it had not been that. "You sleepwalk?” He repeated.

The princess looked shameful about it but tried not to show it. And her servant looked terrified that some secret that should have been taken to the grave had just been exposed.

It wasn't that it was unheard of, there were some shifters that probably experienced mundane things such as sickness and illness but that was something that dominant shifters didn't experience, especially shifters of noble blood like princess Astra. If this got out she could be ostracized in society, looked down upon and thought to be weak.

"Well." He leaned back. "I didn't know that."

The princess shot him a scoff. "If I should hear of this outside of this room, I'll come after you myself."

He raised his hands up in a gesture of submission. "My lips are sealed, princess Aster."

The princess relaxed and though she would never condescend to

show it, royal manners and all that, she looked relieved.

"So, correct me if I'm wrong, suspect that you were poisoned through this potion?" he asked, getting back to the issue at hand.

"Yes, I do. I’m positive I didn't take anything else before my match."

"And do you remember who served you this potion?"

"It was me, Beta Cain.” The servant spoke again. “I usually make it myself in the healer’s lodge and serve it to my mistress and I would never dare to poison her. I love her like my own.”

The older woman’s lips quivered but apart from that, he couldn’t detect any lies from her.

He nodded once to show that he believed her. “You might not have put the poison but someone might have stampeded with it. Was there anyone else there with you during that time?”

Her brows puckered, thinking back. “It was raining that night, so everything’s fuzzy now… but yes I do remember one thing! When I was there, the seer came in. I don’t really remember anything else after that though. Sorry, your highness.”

Astra squeezed her palm. “It’s okay, Linda.”

Cain frowned. "You don’t remember anything else after that? Nothing at all.”

“Yes,” she nodded. “But I’m sure I saw the healer. She was holding some herbs and her cloak was wet from the rain.”

Abruptly, Cain stood up, turning to leave for the door when the princess called to him, halting him in his tracks. “Beta Cain, are you going to meet her? Do you think she’s the person that poisoned me?”

He paused, thinking, before spinning in his boots to face her. “The healer has served here longer than I’ve been alive, healing everyone both young and old, rich and poor herself even when she could delegate them to her apprentices. Can you really believe such a person guilty of such a crime?”

“That’s precisely it, Beta. The usual culprits are usually right under our noses.” The princess' eyes pierced his. “But I really hope for all your sakes that she’s innocent because if she isn’t, I’m coming after her myself.”

He left the words hanging over him ominously. He had meant when he told the princess. He just couldn't believe that the healer was capable of such crime. Yes, she could be too frank or cranky, but she was an old woman. They all tended to be like that, right?

He just couldn’t fathom that she was the poisoner and simply stood letting Lyon and Rina bear the punishment. What was the motive? He just couldn’t see it. And he couldn’t just barge into the healers house questioning her, she would see through him instantly.

And where the hell was Lyon? He had to tell him this. They would make sense of this together.

But when he made his way to the Arena expecting to find Lyon in the Royal dais or at least somewhere in the crowd, he found something much, much worse.

His first thought was "what the hell was Rina doing?" Then the second thought followed soon after. "She needed to leave that stage. Now!” Then the final thought followed swiftly as he stared in horror. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck."

He tried to run down faster, shoving people out of his way in his haste. But it was too late. The hexed dagger was sinking into her side, causing her to howl in pain. And right before his eyes she began to shift into her wolf.

And at first, he didn't notice.

Not when she stood upright on powerful hind legs and all thought stopped. She was magnificent, ethereal. Her silver fur shimmered under the light of the moon and while Cain was hardly sentimental, he reckoned that if he were ever to see the moon goddess, she would look exactly as Rina did just now.

But where Cain saw beauty, others saw a threat that had to be eliminated. He began his fight again to reach her but there was just too many people. And then he saw it.

A hooded figure stood in a darkened corner of the arena watching and when she turned to leaver, her side profile caught the light and he saw her. The wise woman and that's when he knew that it was true. She was the enemy.

On the wings of that thought, the woman turned and they made eye contact. A flicker of surprise seemed to cross her eyes until she recovered and a mocking smile twisted her lips instead.

“Stop there!” Cain started forward, either to catch her or what, he didn't even fucking know, following her as she walked unhurriedly into one of the exits of the building.

Then Rina screamed as the guards threw a net of silver iver her and he stopped. A choice lay before him, save Rina or catch the healer before she disappeared for good.

But it wasn’t really a choice, was it? He turned away and let the healer go. For now.