“I’m afraid of destabilizing our entire country and economy!” I shout, my voice echoing in the dungeon. “What do you think will happen if we can no longer trade with our allies? We’re not self-sufficient, you know—we import a lot of goods from them and they from us! You’ll ruin our peace, stability, and prosperity just because you’ve convinced yourself you need to own land that belongs to a friendly ally who has never threatened us in any way and has done nothing but support us! That is madness.”
My brother’s face twists with anger.
“This is what comes of letting a woman get educated! I knew those tutors Mother allowed you to see were filling your head with foolishness.”
“It’s not foolishness—it’s common sense!” I protest. “And if you don’t listen?—”
“Enough!” my brother shouts. “I refuse to hear any more of this—my mind is made up!” He turns to the Head Healer. “I do believe you said you had a potion that would do my sister good, did you not?”
“I have two potions in fact,” the Healer says, coming forward. “One will make her sleep…and the other will make her sleep forever. Which one does Your Majesty wish me to administer?”
He holds up two identical vials of bright green liquid, glinting in the flickering torchlight.
My stomach does a slow, forward roll. Oh Goddess, no! They’re going to kill me—I know they are.
“You can’t do this to me,” I protest, shrinking back against the stones. “If you kill me, Mother will know. She’s seen me already—she knows I’m somewhere in the castle.”
“I do believe your mother thinks you were a figment of a dream,” the Healer says, smirking. “She woke once, asking about you, but I told her you were still away.”
“But Sir Horace has seen me too—and some of his guards!” I protest.
“Yes, well…everyone can be silenced one way or another,” my brother says dismissively. “The important thing is to get rid of dissenters so we can get on with our war.”
“Agreed, Your Majesty,” the Head Healer says nodding. “Your Majesty always knows best about these things—about everything, really.”
“Yes, I do.” Kellis lifts his chin arrogantly. “And anyone who disagrees—anyone who’s disloyal to me—will suffer swift and certain retribution.” He looks at the Head Healer. “You know which potion to give her.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.” The Head Healer nods and ustoppers one of the vials. He steps towards me, reaching for my face with one hand as he brings the poisonous green liquid to my lips.
“No!” I gasp and try to twist away, but he has me by the jaw and his grip is strong. It hurts as he grips my face and pours the green potion into my mouth.
I spit and twist but at least some of it goes down my throat.
He’s killed me—I’m dead! whispers a horrified voice in my head.
A sense of anger fills me—rage, really. This horrible old man is poisoning me so he and my brother can ruin everything good and kind and beautiful about our kingdom. So they can indulge their greed for money and power and corruption—it makes me so angry I could explode!
Suddenly, I feel a bolt of power surge through me—it’s like I’ve finally tapped into the magic inside. I feel something go shooting out of me like a bolt of lightning—and it goes directly into the Head Healer.
He’s knocked back three feet, trips, and lands on his rump.
“Oof!” he gasps.
“What the hell?” Kellis frowns as he looks between me and the Healer. “What happened?”
“I…I don’t know.” The Healer scrambles to his feet and puts a hand to his head. “I feel…strange.”
“You look strange too,” my brother says to him. “What’s happening to you?”
Both of us stare at the Head Healer because, in the flickering torchlight, it’s clear that something extraordinary is happening to him.
Right before our eyes, his beard—which used to be long and bushy and gray—begins to shrink. It grows shorter and thinner, like it’s being reabsorbed into his chin. Truly, it’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen.
But stranger things are in store. The Head Healer gets shorter too. He used to be one of the tallest men in our Court, but now he shrinks down and down until he’s several inches shorter than Kellis…and then he’s even shorter than me.
“Oh, what’s happening to me? What foul magic is this?” he howls…and his voice is higher too. Almost…womanly, as strange as it sounds to say.
Then he clutches at his chest, an agonized look on his face.
