It’s wonderful news…only I don’t see any happiness in either of their faces. In fact, I see anger on my big brother’s face when he looks down at me.
“You little bitch!” he snaps. “What did you give her? She was almost gone!”
I’m so stunned I can’t even answer. I just stare up at him, my eyes wide and my mouth agape.
“I…I gave her the Healing Draught I heard you and the Head Healer talking about,” I say at last. “I went all the way to Thornmere forest and dealt with the Sorceress—the Lady of Thornmere—to get it.”
I don’t tell them that I made it myself—or how I made it. Some things need to be kept private. Because if anyone found out I sacrificed my virginity to brew the Healing Draught…I don’t even want to think what might happen next.
My brother is angry enough as it is.
“You little fool!” he snarls at me. “You’ve ruined everything!”
I shake my head, bewildered.
“What are you talking about? I’ve healed Mother! She’ll be well enough to sit on the throne again in a few days.”
“She’s never sitting on the throne again! We don’t need a woman to rule us!” my brother barks angrily.
“What?” I’m still so confused but when I turn to the Head Healer for help, his face is grave, but he makes no move to contradict my brother.
“Prince Kellis is quite right,” he says, with a sniff. “It’s wrong for a woman to rule. They are simply too weak and emotional to be trusted with power.”
“But our people have flourished these past two years under my mother’s rule!” I protest.
I still don’t understand what’s going on here. Are my brother and the Head Healer actually saying they wanted my mother dead? And if so, did they have something to do with the wasting illness she contracted—the same illness that carried my father away two years ago?
Suddenly I have a flash of memory—the very first vision that the Door of Uncertainty showed me. It was my brother serving as the Cup Bearer, first to our father and then to our mother.
I see it so vividly, it’s almost like I’m back in the vision—the dining hall…the mellow gleam of the golden chalice filled with wine…my brother wiping the rim of the Cup with a crimson cloth, both before and after he gave it to our parents to drink from…
Realization hits me like a falling flagstone.
“Oh, my Goddess!” I gasp and scramble off the bed. “You were the reason they got sick!”
My brother’s face turns even darker.
“Shut your mouth!” he demands, but I notice that he doesn’t contradict me.
“You did it!” I exclaim, staring at him. “You killed our father and tried to kill our mother! You let everyone believe it was a wasting sickness, but it was poison—you poisoned them!”
“Shut up!” he insists, but again he doesn’t try to protest his innocence. “It was time for me to rule,” he adds. “They were in the way!”
“In the way?” I can’t believe what I’m hearing!
I turn to the Head Healer.
“He poisoned them both—our mother and father! He put the poison on the towel he used to wipe the Cup of Sovereignty when he was the Cup Bearer!”
But to my shock, the Head Healer doesn’t look at all surprised. He simply frowns at me and shakes his head.
“Princess, I do believe you’re going mad,” he remarks. “It’s so unfortunate, but not really surprising, considering the way you went off with that beast your brother had chained in the dungeon.”
“I’m not mad—he just admitted it!” I exclaim, pointing at my brother.
Kellis smirks at me.
“And who do you suppose gave me the poison, little sister?” he asks.
