The Exiled King's Guard

Chapter 21: Princess Vanessa

Zach POV

I was sitting in the room I was shown, fuming inwardly. My uncle the King had all but refused to do anything for me. Ever since they had taken us to his sitting room, I had been trying to be agreeable. Laughing at his jokes, agreeing with his words. I let him disrespect my protector multiple times, just in hopes of getting him to agree to my terms. Ashley had tried to get me to discuss the negotiation plan, but I hadn’t wanted to. She had messed up the renegotiations with Charlton which landed us here in the first place. She was calculative but unrelenting, and with King Reston, you had to relent. He needed to think you were getting less from a bargain than he was. I was relieved when he sent her away, and tried to be patient as he kept asking about everyone back home and the good old days when he was courting Queen Sophie and my mother, who was still young, would always be the third wheel. I was tempted to point out that it didn’t stop him from being unfaithful to the Queen, even siring a daughter with the handmaiden, who died in childbirth leaving her baby behind, Princess Vanessa. Not to mention his other daughter who died under mysterious circumstances. This family was twisted, and the King seemed even more unhinged than before.

I tried to bring him back to the point, asked for military support. Somehow then, he steered the conversation to Ashley, my strategist and right hand. He was convinced she was hiding something. That either she was working for my enemies or had her own personal agenda for power, and that she was using dark magic. I tried to reason with him that this sounded too far-fetched, she wasn’t cold and ruthless. In fact, she was probably too soft when it came to me. Like a fool, I had blurted out that we had been together once to prove my point about her loyalty. And that had convinced him of her ulterior motives, and he wouldn’t listen to anything I had to say after that. Thrusting the bottle we had been drinking from into my hands, he had dismissed me and told me to enjoy my time and that we would talk again later.

So here I was, sitting with my own thoughts, with no wish to “enjoy” myself. Frustrated, I drank from the half empty bottle, thinking I should go find Ashley, discuss our next move. But after I finished the bottle, one had never been enough to get me drunk out of my mind, and this whiskey was good. I needed to ask my uncle where he was sourcing it from.

* * *

“So, my son, do we have an agreement that she is a traitor and needs to be arrested and imprisoned?”

I nodded mutely, agreeing wholeheartedly with the man in front of me, my uncle, he had never misguided me, I should always listen to him, he was a wise and great king. She should be imprisoned, the traitorous b***h.

“ Rest now son, you need your strength.” And Uncle Reston turned to leave as I closed my eyes, relieved by the respite. While my mind was still cursing her… wait! Why was I cursing her? She is my trusted aide. Why couldn’t I remember what we just spoke about!?

My eyes shot open, “Wait Uncle! I- I can’t remember, could you tell me what evidence you found?”

He stopped in his tracks and turned around. Something unreadable swirling in his eyes, he looked like he was about to strike me like an insolent child, but then he paused, and his entire body softened.

“Don’t worry about it, I will tell you everything when I come back. Sleep now.” He waited till I closed my eyes. As I succumbed to slumber, I heard him say in a low voice, “ We need more, we are going to need Vanessa’s help.”

* * *

My eyes shot open and I sat up quickly. I was in my bed, the empty bottle on the floor next to me. I- what had just happened! Was it a dream? Was it memory? It couldn’t be a memory. I hadn’t witnessed anything like that. That had to be a bad dream! As I sat there contemplating, one thing was clear, I needed to check up on Ashley. I had to make sure she was alright, then I would know it was just a bad dream. I hastily got up to get ready for the day. Clothes and necessities had been laid out for me, so it was a quick task.

As I stepped out of the room, I realized I didn’t know where Ashley was staying. I needed to ask someone. I wandered around, and was surprised at the lack of people in this wing of the palace. I was walking for a good five minutes and was yet to see another living being. I was beginning to think I was either lost or in another dream when I heard voices coming from behind a door.Already annoyed with the lack of reception I had witnessed after waking up, I decided to just walk through the door without knocking or announcing myself in any way.

I stopped short at what greeted me. Different herbs and vials and cauldrons were strewn about on tables haphazardly standing around the room. It was clearly another sitting room before, but now looked like a madman’s laboratory. The entire room was filled with a myriad of different smells, the smell of the most delicious gravy dominating it all. A few maids who were carrying things to and from what was the biggest contraption in the room froze when they saw me, unsure what to do. All of us were frozen in place waiting for the other to make a move. The silence was broken by a melodically sharp voice from behind the contraption.

“Lydia, what’s taking you so long, I need the sage now!” A maid, who I guess was Lydia, jolted into action and scurried to the source of the voice. There was some scuffling and whispering before the voice spoke again.

“Ah Prince Zach! I expected you to be awake hours ago. If you could give me a minute to finish this, I would be right with you.”

I didn’t want to wait a minute, least of all for some crazy old lady and her concoctions. But these were the first few people I had seen, and they knew me, they could help me find Ashley, and food. God I was so hungry suddenly and the smells weren’t helping. So I waited, looking around the lab at all the different vials and potions, some labelled, some not, and most in mid preparation.

“Alright! I am done”, I heard the lady’s voice and turned to see her emerging from behind her contraption. She was completely the opposite of what I expected. For starters, she was young. I would bet that she was barely 20. And she was beautiful and well put together. Not the disheveled crazy cat lady her voice and laboratory had led me to believe. Her dark hair was long and intricately pulled back to avoid getting in the way. Only the glint of the sun hinted that it was a dark dark rich brown and not black. It went well with her honey-colored, flawless skin. If I had not met her when she was working, I would think she spent all her time taking care of her skin. It was so healthy she was practically glowing. Her pouty lips were stretched into one of the most beautiful smiles I had ever seen, a smile that reached her hazel eyes and made them dazzle. She was dressed in dark blue silks, which made her look like an ethereal being. I must have been gawking because she looked away slightly, with a shy smile and a blush creeping up her cheeks.

I cleared my throat, trying to get my senses back, “ What are you doing?” I asked, wanting to sound authoritative, but it came out sounding more curious.

“ Oh, I am a herbalist!” she said brightly. “ I help out the healers by providing them with the medicines and potions they need.”

“ Ahh that makes sense.” I nodded and an awkward silence descended on us. Suddenly I couldn’t remember what I was supposed to ask her just minutes ago.

“ Have you eaten, your highness?” she asked, looking up at me again. I shook my head dumbly.

“ Oh No! You must be hungry. Would you like to join me for lunch?”

Within minutes, I found myself in the adjacent room, seated at a dining table being served the most delicious looking food. Or maybe it looked like that because I was starving.

“ The King asked me to take care of you, Your Highness. But I hope it's alright if I take some time to do my potions. The healers are depending on me” she asked me with concern as I ate and drank like a savage man, barely noticing anything else. I looked up from my food spell at her, taking a few seconds to register what she said and then nodded.

“ Actually, that could be convenient since I am supposed to meet up with my protector. We need to be on our way back soon, people are counting on us.” I responded, gathering my thoughts with a lot of difficulty.

“ Yes, I understand, and I am supposed to take you to her later anyway. Oh, let me fill up your glass, I am afraid the food is too dry.” She said, suddenly noticing my almost empty wine glass.

Soon, I was full and feeling a little lightheaded. I chalked it up to the wine and the fact that I hadn’t eaten much the whole day yesterday.

“ Thank you so much Ma’am” I said, getting up, and she followed. I was wobbly on my feet as I moved away from the chair, the room was spinning a little. Trying to steady myself, I asked her, “ I didn’t quite catch your name ma’am, and you do look like a noblewoman. Am I missing something?”

She was still standing facing the table, she sighed and her shoulders slumped a little. Then composing herself, she turned around. I was seeing two of her now and it was taking all my strength just to keep standing. She smiled when she saw me, but there was no warmth from before.

She said in a very cold, almost menacing tone, “ You just wont give up, will you?"

Sighing, she added, "Nevermind, I have a backup.”

She moved towards me, coming uncomfortably close to me, “ Oh and to answer your question... I am Princess Vanessa.” She raised her arm in a flash and I felt a blinding pain in my skull for a split second before everything went dark.