Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

D roanna mouthed a silent prayer to the Creator as she made her way through the dark forest. She'd brought a lantern with her, but she dared not light it. The flame would only serve to push back the oppressive darkness by a few paces, but it would render her visible from a much greater distance, and there was no telling who—or what—might be lurking in these woods tonight, waiting to do Creator knew what to a poor, simple handmaiden such as herself.

Actually, that was not entirely true. Droanna knew at least one person was out here tonight.

The bloody queen .

Droanna had watched and followed Malissa as closely as she could without making her presence known. It had been no easy task. The queen had moved through the shadows the way a fish moves through water. Could the woman see in the bloody dark? Droanna didn't know. All she really knew for sure was that she had lost the bitch shortly after entering the black confines of the forest.

Oh well. That didn't matter too much. Droanna knew roughly which direction the queen was heading, and she had a method for finding her own way back to Drachenval. At her hip, Droanna carried a leather pouch containing chunks of luminous mushrooms that she'd been growing in a box down in the cellar of the castle. Every hundred paces or so she would drop a piece onto the ground. The faint blue-green glow was not bright enough to help her see where she was going, but it would allow her to find her way back.

First, however, she needed to find the queen.

She needed to figure out what that woman was doing in the woods at this late hour.

Droanna had been keeping a close eye on the queen ever since the poison had failed to have the desired effect. Based on the amount of the stuff Droanna had been slipping into the queen's food, the woman should have miscarried by now. Unfortunately, that hadn't happened.

But something had happened. Something to make the queen suspect she'd been poisoned. For the past two days, she'd taken all of her meals in the kitchen, so she could watch her food being prepared. When that had started happening, Droanna had thought her goose was cooked. She'd even considered running away from Drachenval to avoid punishment, but she hadn't been able to go through with it.

She could never abandon her beloved Wulfgang like that.

Luckily, her little story about Dr. Jaeger seemed to have worked. It wasn't even a lie. Not really. The man was an Esmorian, and she did think it unwise for Wulfgang to allow a man with a motive for revenge to have so much power inside Drachenval. She'd even dared to tell Wulfgang that on one occasion, when they were lying together in bed and the bitter taste of his semen was still fresh on her tongue.

The king had not heeded her warning, but yesterday the queen had, and right now that was all that really mattered. The queen had even told her to keep an eye on Dr. Jaeger. Ha! Droanna had done no such thing. On the contrary, it was the queen she'd been keeping an eye on. That's how she had seen the woman sneaking out of the castle earlier. That's why she was following her now.

Well… trying to follow her.

Droanna paused to take stock of the situation. Even when she held her breath and strained her ears, she could not hear the queen moving ahead of her anymore, and it was far too dark to attempt a search for the woman's tracks. Droanna had hoped the queen might light a lantern after she was far enough from Drachenval for the guards to see, but no such luck.

Or maybe the queen was so far ahead, Droanna simply couldn't see her lantern?

Or maybe she wasn't even moving at all.

Maybe she was setting up an ambush.

Just let her try, Droanna thought. She would like nothing more than to wrap her fingers around the queen's throat and squeeze the life out of her. Or better yet, she could use the kitchen knife she had tucked against her girdle. She could plunge the blade into the queen's belly and kill the cursed child that was growing there.

What right did that bitch have getting pregnant with the king's baby?

Didn't she realize that was Droanna's destiny?

No… No, how could she know that. Nobody knew, not even sweet Wulfgang. Not yet, anyway. But he would find out, once she finally got pregnant with his baby. It didn't matter that she was just a lowly maidservant. Once she was carrying Wulfgang's child in her belly, she had no doubt he would elevate her to the level of queen. He was the king, after all. He could do whatever he bloody well wanted.

It was just a matter of getting that black-haired bitch out of the picture.

Malissa.

Where had she gone? She was obviously up to no good, sneaking around these woods at night all by her lonesome. But how was Droanna going to find her? Her pouch of glowing mushrooms was almost empty. If she went much further, she would run the risk of getting lost in the dark forest. Perhaps she should turn around and go back? But if she did that, she might not get another chance to catch the queen doing… whatever she was doing.

Droanna stood very still as she tried to make up her mind about what to do. She was just starting to turn, when a noise stopped her.

What was that?

What the hell was that?

It had been a sudden, sharp sound from somewhere in the distance. It might have been a twig snapping, but it sounded more like someone clapping their hands together once. Droanna froze again, desperately trying to listen over the suddenly deafening sound of her own racing heart. For a good long while, she heard nothing else, and she was almost ready to decide that her mind had been playing tricks on her. Then she heard it again.

And this time, after a short pause, another clap followed…

And another…

And another …

Droanna began to move toward the clapping, and soon it was accompanied by other, different sounds. A woman's voice crying out, whether in pain or pleasure, Droanna couldn't say.

Her heart was slamming inside her now, as hard and fast as it had done that first time the king had shoved her over a table and taken her from behind. The memory of her beloved Wulfgang gave her the courage she needed to keep advancing.

The forest started to open before her. She could see a clearing up ahead, lit by the moon and the glow of five candles. There was some sort of structure in the center of the clearing, and in the midst of the structure, movement.

Droanna moved closer. A strange, charred smell hung in the air.

She could hear a new voice now. A masculine voice, deeper and darker than anything she had ever heard before.

"Great Hell, I cannot take any more of this."

Then the queen's voice, ragged and short of breath: " You can't take any more? I'm the one being spanked."

"Hold your tongue and take this prick like a good little wench."

A sharp cry.

Droanna advanced, her steps achingly slow, her footfalls all but silent. There was a large tree directly in front of her, blocking her view of the clearing. She pressed herself against the trunk. Then, carefully, she peered around the side of it.

What she saw made her blood freeze in her veins.

She opened her mouth to scream, but her throat seemed to swell shut, and thank the Creator for that.

For a long, long time, Droanna just stood there, frozen in terror, her eyes as wide as a pair of dinner plates. She didn't want to watch, yet she couldn't seem to look away.

When she was finally able to move again, she carefully backed away from the tree trunk. She wanted very badly to break into a run, but she knew if she did that, the queen might hear.

The queen and the thing that was with her.

After what seemed like an eternity, Droanna found the last piece of mushroom she had dropped on the ground. She picked it up and put it back in her pouch. Then she found the next, and the next, slowly wending her way back through the black forest toward the safety of Drachenval. Her skin felt clammy with fear, and her clothes were soaked with sweat.

But she was smiling now, and as she ventured onward, her smile grew and grew, for now she possessed a piece of knowledge that was more valuable than all the gold in the realm. She wouldn't even have to get rid of Malissa herself. Her dear Wulfgang would do that for her, as soon as Droanna told him what she now knew.

The child in the queen's belly was not the king's.