Her Rightful Place

72: The Accusations

"You had best have an impeccable explanation for these accusations," King Christophe continues to Queen Bêtel. Xavier decides to translate for the monarchs, unsure of another way he can assist in this situation. What has Mireille told her parents of where she came from before she arrived at the Palace of Roses that day? he wonders. Surely they at least know she had been living in Mordalce. She did not speak much Vyrunian. Why did we not prepare for this, while we were preparing for every other possible mishap that could befall us at the Midsummer's Eve Ball?

"Your daughter just so happens to return the day after a seamstress in one of MY villages, with the same name and more than a passing resemblance to the girl standing before you, refuses to become my personal seamstress and resorts to all manner of disrespect, deception, and witchcraft to get her way? You think this a coincidence? I do not!" Queen Bêtel rages.

"The 'girl' you are referring to came to the Palace of Roses wearing on a chain around her neck the ring given to my daughter when she was yet a toddler to celebrate her betrothal to your son," King Christophe glowers. "Even now she wears it on her left hand. How could she have come by it, unless she was my true daughter?"

"SHE IS A WITCH! She caused my soldiers' weapons to attack them! Her house grew chicken legs and trampled my carriage when we set it on fire! Creating a ring out of nothing seems no difficult task for a witch with such power."

"How are you so sure that my daughter and this seamstress are the same woman?"

"My daughter has been Sanctified in the One True Faith," Queen Généviève adds, coming to her husband's side. "This could not be so if she had any dealings in the dark arts."

"You are foolish enough to believe that a simple ceremony would not be possible for a witch to feign her way through? There is no truth in the Faith. I outlawed it years ago."

Queen Généviève gasps. "Bêtel, how can you say such things—"

"And I outlawed witchcraft years ago, too. None should have power beyond my own. And you, sewing wench, have dragged this out as far as it will go," Queen Bêtel continues, pulling a short blade from a hidden pocket in her skirt and diving at Mireille. Monique and Christelle lunge at Queen Bêtel from across the room, trying to prevent the attack, and Xavier also tries to restrain the Mordalcean Queen. Mireille, meanwhile, moves to pull her own blade and then feels a dreadfully familiar chill wind. She shrieks and falls to the floor, whimpering indecipherably about Agnes. The candles and torches in the room flicker ominously, and Queen Bêtel comes to a sudden halt, held hostage by a wraithlike figure that materializes out of thin air between herself and Mireille.

THE PRINCESS IS NO WITCH, a mysterious voice declares in Mordalcean, seeming to come from the wraith but also from all the walls of the room. Ladies throughout the Grand Ballroom scream and faint. Men gasp and shout. Queen Généviève slumps to the floor with a groan of disbelief and despair.

"What new trickery is this? You will die as soon as I get my hands on you, exposed for what you really are, vile—" Queen Bêtel's tirade stops abruptly, replaced by strangled attempts at words as the wraith constricts around her throat.

I AM THE WITCH, the mysterious voice continues. IT WAS MY MAGIC THAT PROTECTED THE SEAMSTRESS OF ADRENNES, AND IT IS MY POWER THAT THWARTS YOUR ATTEMPTS TO HARM THE PRINCESS MIREILLE.

Mireille huddles on the floor, shuddering every time the voice mentions her. Xavier goes to her side and tries to comfort her, but she flinches away from his every touch, begging to be spared from Agnes's wrath.

Christelle and Monique continue to approach Queen Bêtel from behind, not sure how long this supernatural intervention will last and determined that their friend, already deeply distressed, will not come to further harm.