The Poison Prince
Chapter XIII
“WILL he know it was you who attacked him?” The Empress of Nephille – Loreina – looked almost identical to her evil daughter. She had not allowed age to mark her beauty with lines or wrinkles. Not a single strand of silver invaded her thick black hair either.
“I am rather hoping that he does,” Devanna smirked menacingly, affixing her crown upon her dark curls. “It may make him think twice about taunting me again. I am Queen now. Not that corpse of a mother of his.” Her eyes shone with an evil gleam and Devanna felt the power coursing through her body. She always felt incredible strength when she thought about Ilia in the crypt, rotting away, while she ruled over Lyris instead.
Everything Devanna knew she had learnt from her mother. She too had used wicked tricks to claim her crown, besmirching her best friend’s name when they were younger so that the Emperor would stop chasing her and instead she could sidle in and make her pitch for the position of his wife. She used wits, wiles and showed the Emperor how much of a lady she could be in public, before shocking him with how she could leave all of that at a bedroom door. Loreina knew exactly how to wrap a man around her finger. She ruled Nephille as much as he did, even if she walked behind him in appearance. When she had given birth to a daughter she had raised her to be the same, reminding her to do everything she was capable of to hold the true power in her hands once the Emperor betrothed her to the grieving King of Lyris. Loreina was proud to see her daughter now, but she wondered if sometimes Devanna played her games too brashly. Even she could see that jealously still surfaced over someone who had been removed from the picture now for a decade. It was foolish of her.
“But he’s not dead.” Loreina pretended to be inspecting her skin in the mirror, but really all of her attention was on Devanna, smirking when she froze.
“He could be injured.”
“Not one bit.”
“And just how do you know, mother?”
Loreina leaned back and turned to face her daughter, the emerald gown twisting smoothly with her. “Because, my dear, you tried to murder the heir to this kingdom. If you had so much singed a hair on that pretty boy’s head the whole of Lyris would have been whispering about it by now. Even the shores of Nephille would have heard about it.” Loreina scoffed as Devanna blanched. “I wouldn’t be here to help you plan a banquet, I’d be here to bury your step-son.”
“I-“
“You didn’t think. You just did.” Loreina strode away and took a seat at the antique dressing table where her own handmaiden from Nephille began pulling her raven hair back into a painfully tight bun. Loreina had brutally blinded and deafened the young girl as a punishment for stealing bread some four years ago and then took her on as a handmaiden so that she could always be amused by the whimpers of pain from her. Loreina was crueller and more sadistic than her daughter, but Devanna was slowly catching up as the people of Lyris continued to despise her. “You always were impulsive, Devanna. You never could wait for the perfect opportunity.”
Devanna smashed her balled hand against the golden framed looking glass, letting out a frustrated cry. “I’ve waited long enough! It’s been ten years since that wretched crone died by snake bite and they still love her more than me! They still call her the queen when I’m the one wearing the crown!”
Loreina sighed and squeezed her hand tight shut. Suddenly, all Devanna could do was squeak. “Do not whine, daughter. It’s unbecoming and very tiresome.” She opened her fingers out again and watched as her daughter slumped forward and gasped for air, swallowing it down in long gulps. “Now, clean up your mess and heal your hand before you bleed all over your gown.”
Devanna quickly focused her magicks to close up the cut on the side of her palm before switching her attention to the shards of mirror that were littered on the stone floor. One by one they returned to the golden frame, slotting back into place like a jigsaw puzzle until soon enough it was like the queen hadn’t lost her temper at all. No one would ever know the looking glass had been smashed.
Loreina pushed her handmaiden away carelessly, smirking maliciously when the girl fell over and hurt herself on the stone step. She bore no love for the servant who worked her hardest to please the Empress. Crossing the room with long, purposeful strides she stopped just short of trampling on the skirts of Devanna’s crimson gown.
“Now, stop being so childish and start acting like the queen you ought to be.” She gripped her daughter by her wrist and dragged her to a basin of water still to be collected by the castle maids. “Prince Taiden will retaliate now, there’s no doubt about it-“
“He’s mad!”
“Is he really?” Loreina’s deathly serious glare stopped the laughter before it even escaped Devanna’s chest. “Don’t be fooled by the boy, Devanna. He’s young, but he’s clever, and he will retaliate.”
“What should I do?”
“Stop him before he has the chance to do anything.” Her mother’s scolding tone sent chills down her spine. She felt like she was a child again, back in the palace of Nephille spending her days in lessons once more. Devanna was shoved roughly before the basin. “Call for him. Find him.”
Devanna paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she placed her hands on the side of the basin. This was not normally how she tracked people, but it was her mother’s preferred method and she didn’t want to admit that she hadn’t done herself it since leaving Nephille. Closing her eyes of onyx, Devanna took a deep breath and focused all of her energy on Taiden, picturing him in her mind. She thought about him, and how much she hated him, how much she wanted to hurt him. The location only ever worked if there was a reason provided by the caster for why the person needed to be found. The magicks didn’t care for good or evil, but it demanded a why. Then she saw him.
He was with someone else; a girl. She was almost as tall as him, dressed in dirty, ragged clothes. Her beauty was lost to scars and blemishes, and she was most certainly a hunter by the bow and arrows she carried and the way she led the prince through the forest. Prince Taiden seemed keen to keep close, his eyes almost never leaving the girl. He tried to talk to her but she kept quiet; she only gave short answers if she answered him at all. He looked like they had been on the move for some time, travelling perhaps constantly since the night he had left the castle. Devanna didn’t know where the girl was from, but she didn’t care. She would kill her to kill Taiden, and she would do it without a second thought. It would be nothing more than collateral damage.
Snapping out of the hazy vision, she let go of the basin and smiled successfully at her mother. “He’s in the forests between Adavale and Misthaven. He’s got a girl with him.”
“Forget the girl. She’ll be no threat for much longer.” Loreina crossed to the open window and stared out into the sunny distance. “I’m sure arrows pierce her just the same as they would anyone else.” A wickedly dark grin stretched across her face and she turned to Devanna with a glint in her heartless eyes. “Watch, daughter, and learn.”
Loreina opened her hand and with the other mimicked plucking a dozen or more invisible lines from her palm. She angled her palm by the window and then shot it outwards as if launching those lines out of the window. In the air, suddenly, arrows materialised, and straight and true they flew into the distance, further and further away until they vanished entirely from sight.
Loreina looked over her shoulder at her daughter, a deliciously dark look in her charcoal eyes, and a wild smirk on her blood red lips. “My arrows will find them and pierce their hearts. I hope they try to run. It’s always more fun when they run.”
“I am rather hoping that he does,” Devanna smirked menacingly, affixing her crown upon her dark curls. “It may make him think twice about taunting me again. I am Queen now. Not that corpse of a mother of his.” Her eyes shone with an evil gleam and Devanna felt the power coursing through her body. She always felt incredible strength when she thought about Ilia in the crypt, rotting away, while she ruled over Lyris instead.
Everything Devanna knew she had learnt from her mother. She too had used wicked tricks to claim her crown, besmirching her best friend’s name when they were younger so that the Emperor would stop chasing her and instead she could sidle in and make her pitch for the position of his wife. She used wits, wiles and showed the Emperor how much of a lady she could be in public, before shocking him with how she could leave all of that at a bedroom door. Loreina knew exactly how to wrap a man around her finger. She ruled Nephille as much as he did, even if she walked behind him in appearance. When she had given birth to a daughter she had raised her to be the same, reminding her to do everything she was capable of to hold the true power in her hands once the Emperor betrothed her to the grieving King of Lyris. Loreina was proud to see her daughter now, but she wondered if sometimes Devanna played her games too brashly. Even she could see that jealously still surfaced over someone who had been removed from the picture now for a decade. It was foolish of her.
“But he’s not dead.” Loreina pretended to be inspecting her skin in the mirror, but really all of her attention was on Devanna, smirking when she froze.
“He could be injured.”
“Not one bit.”
“And just how do you know, mother?”
Loreina leaned back and turned to face her daughter, the emerald gown twisting smoothly with her. “Because, my dear, you tried to murder the heir to this kingdom. If you had so much singed a hair on that pretty boy’s head the whole of Lyris would have been whispering about it by now. Even the shores of Nephille would have heard about it.” Loreina scoffed as Devanna blanched. “I wouldn’t be here to help you plan a banquet, I’d be here to bury your step-son.”
“I-“
“You didn’t think. You just did.” Loreina strode away and took a seat at the antique dressing table where her own handmaiden from Nephille began pulling her raven hair back into a painfully tight bun. Loreina had brutally blinded and deafened the young girl as a punishment for stealing bread some four years ago and then took her on as a handmaiden so that she could always be amused by the whimpers of pain from her. Loreina was crueller and more sadistic than her daughter, but Devanna was slowly catching up as the people of Lyris continued to despise her. “You always were impulsive, Devanna. You never could wait for the perfect opportunity.”
Devanna smashed her balled hand against the golden framed looking glass, letting out a frustrated cry. “I’ve waited long enough! It’s been ten years since that wretched crone died by snake bite and they still love her more than me! They still call her the queen when I’m the one wearing the crown!”
Loreina sighed and squeezed her hand tight shut. Suddenly, all Devanna could do was squeak. “Do not whine, daughter. It’s unbecoming and very tiresome.” She opened her fingers out again and watched as her daughter slumped forward and gasped for air, swallowing it down in long gulps. “Now, clean up your mess and heal your hand before you bleed all over your gown.”
Devanna quickly focused her magicks to close up the cut on the side of her palm before switching her attention to the shards of mirror that were littered on the stone floor. One by one they returned to the golden frame, slotting back into place like a jigsaw puzzle until soon enough it was like the queen hadn’t lost her temper at all. No one would ever know the looking glass had been smashed.
Loreina pushed her handmaiden away carelessly, smirking maliciously when the girl fell over and hurt herself on the stone step. She bore no love for the servant who worked her hardest to please the Empress. Crossing the room with long, purposeful strides she stopped just short of trampling on the skirts of Devanna’s crimson gown.
“Now, stop being so childish and start acting like the queen you ought to be.” She gripped her daughter by her wrist and dragged her to a basin of water still to be collected by the castle maids. “Prince Taiden will retaliate now, there’s no doubt about it-“
“He’s mad!”
“Is he really?” Loreina’s deathly serious glare stopped the laughter before it even escaped Devanna’s chest. “Don’t be fooled by the boy, Devanna. He’s young, but he’s clever, and he will retaliate.”
“What should I do?”
“Stop him before he has the chance to do anything.” Her mother’s scolding tone sent chills down her spine. She felt like she was a child again, back in the palace of Nephille spending her days in lessons once more. Devanna was shoved roughly before the basin. “Call for him. Find him.”
Devanna paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she placed her hands on the side of the basin. This was not normally how she tracked people, but it was her mother’s preferred method and she didn’t want to admit that she hadn’t done herself it since leaving Nephille. Closing her eyes of onyx, Devanna took a deep breath and focused all of her energy on Taiden, picturing him in her mind. She thought about him, and how much she hated him, how much she wanted to hurt him. The location only ever worked if there was a reason provided by the caster for why the person needed to be found. The magicks didn’t care for good or evil, but it demanded a why. Then she saw him.
He was with someone else; a girl. She was almost as tall as him, dressed in dirty, ragged clothes. Her beauty was lost to scars and blemishes, and she was most certainly a hunter by the bow and arrows she carried and the way she led the prince through the forest. Prince Taiden seemed keen to keep close, his eyes almost never leaving the girl. He tried to talk to her but she kept quiet; she only gave short answers if she answered him at all. He looked like they had been on the move for some time, travelling perhaps constantly since the night he had left the castle. Devanna didn’t know where the girl was from, but she didn’t care. She would kill her to kill Taiden, and she would do it without a second thought. It would be nothing more than collateral damage.
Snapping out of the hazy vision, she let go of the basin and smiled successfully at her mother. “He’s in the forests between Adavale and Misthaven. He’s got a girl with him.”
“Forget the girl. She’ll be no threat for much longer.” Loreina crossed to the open window and stared out into the sunny distance. “I’m sure arrows pierce her just the same as they would anyone else.” A wickedly dark grin stretched across her face and she turned to Devanna with a glint in her heartless eyes. “Watch, daughter, and learn.”
Loreina opened her hand and with the other mimicked plucking a dozen or more invisible lines from her palm. She angled her palm by the window and then shot it outwards as if launching those lines out of the window. In the air, suddenly, arrows materialised, and straight and true they flew into the distance, further and further away until they vanished entirely from sight.
Loreina looked over her shoulder at her daughter, a deliciously dark look in her charcoal eyes, and a wild smirk on her blood red lips. “My arrows will find them and pierce their hearts. I hope they try to run. It’s always more fun when they run.”