The King [ii].....................................................Lady Blaze

For those of you just stepping in, here's the beginning [not too far away from here!]: http://unsolvedmysteries.com/usm508867.html





Far away, in a valley among northern peaks, a different kind of storm was not lifting, but steadily descending. The king was dying.



He was not wrapped in his royal embroidered robe, laid upon heavy goosedown pillows before a roaring fire, while royal physicians saw to his comfort til his last breath. He was not old enough for that sort of passing. Cardus, King of Amilainn and Rosewind Keep, was dying a long slow death, under a slate gray sky in a land not his own, of three well-placed arrow wounds. A week before his fortieth birthday.

The white-veiled face drew back yet again upon the great black bow, to loose a fourth arrow as a parting gift. And he and his own vanished under snow laden evergreens, as swiftly as they had appeared.

Long had he suspected the betrayal. Why had he not brought his doubts to his advisors? Ah, but he had wanted to trust them. And there had been passing possibility of a traitor.

Cardus, you fool. To trust those who have never trusted anyone. Such folly. Such danger. And what now? His kingdom had little hope. Marc, the Steward of Rosewind and his good friend, had been manipulated into resigning, he could see that now. He would have brought stability to the kingdom, until Cardus' son Curt became old enough to rule. His son. . .oh, his poor young son, who would become a puppet, or be killed as the crown was fought over. And Anne. With her dancing eyes and rough but gentle hands, his wife, his queen, still so lovely, what would they do to her?

“No,” he whispered.

But none broke the silence to answer him. No one else had been left breathing in his company.

And grief overtook the king, while death gathered.

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