Felix's POV:
With a soft smile, bowing, I greeted her "Your Majesty."
"It's really you! Oh my God! I'm so happy to see you here! Nick will be so overjoyed to see you again."
She said with an impeccable enthusiasm however the maid's reaction was totally contrasting, she kept fidgeting with either her hands or her dress. Then I noticed the luggages that were perfectly packed, as if the queen was planning to go on a long tour, was she leaving the palace? But why?
The queen also watched my stare, and she tried to look as calm as possible while explaining "Felix, you see, his majesty has arranged a nice tour for me in the countryside. So I'll be far from the palace for a while, can you watch out for Nick for now? He is really dependent on me and..."
It didn't take me more time to realise, what was happening, the queen was indeed the main target! But why? What did she come to know that the Khirigans wanted her dead this badly?
Clutching her shaking hands in mine, I slowly spoke "you're eloping from the kingdom, aren't you?"
Her face turned shocked, her eyes widened in fear as she tried to deny it desperately, vigorously shaking her head.
And my next sentence petrified her, "there are assassins all over the inner courtyard to kill you. And these blood stains you see on me are from them."
Only then, the reason of my appearance stuck to her, shaking her head again, she mumbled "you shouldn't be here. You shouldn't be here, Felix. Run! Run away from here! He won't leave me alive at any cost! He'll kill you too! I can't do that to my son. Just go!"
She was becoming hysterical, grabbing her shoulders in a firm grip, I assured "your majesty! Calm down! No one will be able to hurt you, we are here to keep you safe! I'm not alone here. I have seven more people with me, who are waiting for us outside. We can get out of here safely, trust me."
She almost calmed down, before panicking again "no! You don't know him! Even I don't know him! He owns the whole palace! He has his men all over the palace, maybe all over the country too! We can't get away from him! We can't get away from THE KING!!!"
Almost shouting the sentence, she sobbed out, and I instinctively hugged her, I was so focused on her that the slight clicking of the sword getting out went unnoticed. The next thing I knew, the maid's scream filled the room, as a hellish pain surged through my spine, I felt my eyes getting teary and blurred, my head dizzying, and the clothes getting soaked in my own blood. I finally lost my footing, while falling to the ground, I desperately grabbed the attacker's leg with a clumsy try, however I was late.
Horridly I watched the sword horizontally slicing the queen's throat. Immense blood oozed out of wound, grabbing her throat, the queen stumbled backward, harshly falling over the tea table, that was behind her, hitting her head on the sharp corners in the process, immediately blood dripping from that wound too, finally her body went limp.
Seeing his target down, he forwarded to the maid, and I found my anger boiling in me, that gave me the strength to overcome the pain, with shaky breathes, I stood up on my almost wobbly legs, gripping my sword tightly, I striked on him, beheading him successfully. But that adrenaline rush was dying down as soon as I felt more blood oozing out from my back, desperately I tried to rush to the queen, and another footsteps were heard, I didn't have the strength to fight against whoever it was. Hovering over the queen's body, I tried to shield her as much as possible, waiting for the attacker's strike and that did come across my back again, crossing at a point with the old cut.
This time the feeling was almost numbing, fresh, hot blood dripped down to the floor and I could care less, all of a sudden I was yanked away from the queen, falling flat on the floor, in my peripheral view I could see the maid trembling at a corner, sobbing miserably. Couching down, the attacker touched the queen's throat to check the pulse, in my almost fading vision, I saw the man was raising his dagger to end the queen's fragile life thread and I couldn't just watch that. I grabbed his hand with all of my remaining breath and our eyes met, he wasn't wearing any mask or disguise like all the other assassins, but my eyes were betraying me, I could not hold the gaze much longer.
Just when I thought I was sinking into the darkness, suddenly the door was harshly yanked open, and all the seven males entered the room finally, but the man ran away through the vast balcony and I let myself succumb to the endless pit of nothingness.
I woke up with a start, sweat soaked, my hair in a mess, my cheeks were stained with dried tears, the same nightmare again! It all had stopped when Jasper started living as my roommate, back in Gyanlo, when I was still a student in the Gyanlo Royal Medical College. The younger just couldn't bear it to see me crying, shouting and whimpering through the whole night, the incident had happened recently then, so the impact was hard too. Thankfully Jasper took it on himself to cuddle me and comfort me until I could sleep peacefully and through the years it had become my habit to have him around, now that he isn't here, I'm facing this problem again, at least I could have tried to get used to this shaken up situation.
A light knock grabbed my attention back, peeking through the small crack of the slightly opened door queen Hammond, I mean mom peeked inside, asking for permission to enter.
"Mom! What are you doing, it's still dark outside? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?" Concerned, I asked her immediately.
Opening the door a little wide, she approached me with the same concerned face, looking at me intensely, she asked through hand signs "you were crying? Was it the nightmare again?"
Nodding my head with a small smile, I tried assure her that I was okay, but she knew better than anyone how shaken I was. She engulfed me in a warm hug, caressing my back in a soothing rhythm and I melted into that embrace completely.
After a few minutes, breaking the hug, she relied another message "Tristan came, saying that you are getting late for your morning practices." As I nodded my head, she continued "then you go, wash up first, I'll be in the kitchen."
After she left, I followed her downstairs immediately, since the only washroom was there. Dawn had not broken yet, when I made my way out of the safe-house, starting with a slow jog and soon enough Tristan joined me.
"Good morning Lixie."
"Good morning Tristan."
"Still no progress?"
I knew what he was asking about and I could only be honest.
"No. She didn't show any signs. But the weirdness is becoming prominent. And I'm pretty sure that she'll remember everything soon."
"You don't intend to take initiative?"
"I do. But you know there is a high risk of her brain malfunctioning. Though I think otherwise, still I don't want to judge Steve's therapy. Afterall he is her doctor, not me. He knows her case better. So I'll let him handle for the time being."
After that he didn't pry any more questions, we started our run in a faster pace and my mind drifted to the pros and cons of reminding the queen, who she is or why she is with us. For now she knows that we used to live in St. Loire, her husband ran a small bakery, I studied in high school there, however when I wanted to study Medical Science, they decided to move to Gyanlo. On the way to Gyanlo, we were ambushed by a gang of decoits, her husband was killed, I was badly injured and she was hurt on her head throat, thus loosing her memory and voice.
I never tried to take initiative on this matter, but it seems like it's getting overwhelming for me to handle this matter. Moreover now that Nick is so close to us, I'm wavering and I know that I'll let it out before it's intended. But then what? The imposter king will know about our existence, her location and then he will finally murder her. The last few sentences that she told me that night, confirmed the fact that it was indeed the king himself who wanted her dead, thus that indicates that the Hammonds are also involved with the Khirigans. How do we expose this suspicion, we still don't have enough concrete evidence! The involvement of the Kaisers is already proved by the secret letter, Simon retrieved from his dad's chamber and that made us focus on the Kaisers for now and we all know that the Hammonds' role in this conspiracy is far more deep rooted.
Thinking about the confrontation, we'll have to do in the future, my whole body shuddered.
Seeing this, Tristan asked "you're thinking?"
"Hmm."
"What made you nervous like that?"
"The involvement of the Hammonds. The queen definitely knows something crucial or why would the king wanted her dead?!"
"Hmm that sounds strange. I mean their marriage happened because they loved each other, right?! Even though King Hayes was already married to queen Christine, I never heard that he treated his two wives differently. So what could've changed?!"
Tristan was lost in his own analysis while my mind wandered to that night again, more specifically to the words, queen Hammond told me "...even I don't know him!...he has his men all over the palace, maybe all over the country too!..." .
Did he really change that much for the queen to react that way? I don't know why but my gut feeling was shrieking another conclusion which I didn't like at all and I can't say anything about it to the others.
"Do you think we can have a way to affirm things, except for the queen?"
"You mean seeking help from prince Christopher or Nicholas?"
Giving a hesitant nod, Tristan added "we'll take it to prince Christopher, don't worry. And it'll be as convenient as possible."
"Then won't he know about all of our original identities or how we operate everything?"
"Err.. actually, Felix, five years ago the tips about the Hinoi royal palace were given by prince Christopher himself. He sought our help after knowing the conspiracy, but also he knew us as a group, not who we are individually."
"Then that means, he already knew about his dad's wrongdoings, right?"
"Well, we'll know it soon. But right now we should head back to the safe-house. The dawn is almost here, and you have to report to brother really early in the morning. And one more thing, how's your injury?"
"Stinging a lot but I can bear it."
"Then be careful with using it and before you head to your classes, do the dressing carefully as brother instructed, ask your mom for help, if needed."
Nodding obediently, we headed to the safe-house in small jogging, serene silence engulfing us as we enjoyed the breaking of various colours bubbles in the east sky, making it gradually glowing. The fresh morning breeze caressing my face and hair to lend it's purity, I let my body relax and soak all the love and nourishment of mother nature. The first day of my university life is finally here and I'm feeling wrecked as well as excitement coursing through me, everything is gonna be alright, right? Right!