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The sleep was uneasy, I knew I was sleeping but I could not wake myself up. My head felt like a cloud after a dreamless sleep when I came around again. I must have been out for over half an hour, I could see it was still day when I opened my eyes. The windows looked ... so familiar. They were huge and coldness came from the outside, there was no glass shielding the inside from the outside. I sat up and turned around. Like I though, the throne room.
"How did you sleep?" The Queen's voice echoed in the huge hall. She stood at the other end of the room, staring out of the last window. "I hope you did not dream about the demon again, sweet Davina."
We were the only ones in the room, but there was surely a catch coming. Mirela could blink and the throne room would be stormed by the royal army and I could be dead within seconds. Not even me could stand against dozens of soldiers.
I got on my feet, still a little bit shaky from the drug. "Did you finally manage to catch me? It took you a while. Not even your little demon could get to me."
The Queen turned her head to me. "You were hard to find, you always have help. First Caspian, then the dwarfs, the people in the town and finally a bard and a Witcher."
My blood froze when she said Caspian's name. She knew about it. "How do you know about Caspian helping me?"
"This is MY kingdom, if you might recall, Davina." She napped and walked closer to the throne. "I know everything that is going on inside and outside the castle."
"Then, why is he still alive?"
"Good question, let us ask him – Come in!"
The doors opened and a soldier slowly walked in. Caspian. He stopped in the middle of the room and bowed. When he rose again, his eyes wandered over to room. He seemed shocked to see me here.
"Caspian, welcome," Mirela sat down on her throne and looked over to the man. "I am glad you could make it."
"Of course," He said with a lowered voice and looked over to her. "My Queen."
"Davina just asked me how I knew about you helping her get out of the castle a year ago." Mirela's lips curled into some sort of a smile. "Do you want to answer the question?"
Caspian shook his head and looked to the floor. "I do not, Your Majesty."
"Well, you must. Raise your head and tell her how I know. Or even better, what YOU know about all of that."
I frowned, not being sure what exactly was going on here. Caspian rose his head and looked at me. He tried but could not look me in the eyes. "The Queen told me to kill a young woman that night. But I could not do it when I found her in in a sleep. She was just an innocent girl, who had just lost her father and everything around her had changed so much. So, I speared her life, got her to the dwarfs and told the people at the Castle she got away, but I was not convincing enough."
I felt my heart crack when he lowered his head after his confession again. Caspian did not protect me with all of his doings in the past days, he had been the Queen's guard. He must have told her everything, what we spoke about, what our plans were and where we were heading next. And I always thought I could count on him, he was my friend, he had been the one who saved me that night ... But nothing looked like it seemed in this kingdom, Caspian never left the dark side.
"See, I was wrong in believing Caspian here is a loyal soldier to the crown. He could not even do such an easy thing, like killing a princess in her sleep." Mirela added with a voice cold as ice. "And he needed to be reminded what his duty was."
I shot her a side look. "What did you do to him?"
"Torture, of course. It took quite long until he gave in, but eventually he did. You were already gone when he told me where you were, so I needed to change the plan a bit. And the Witcher fitted in so well."
"That do you mean by that?"
Mirela's smile got bigger. "You are going to see that very soon."
I turned back to Caspian. "You were the kidnapper, am I right? And it was not a coincidence I talked to you the night of the dinner. This was all planned."
He slowly nodded. "I am so sorry Davina, but I had to do it. She threatened to kill my family and-"
"Yes, yes, very tragic!" Mirela interrupted him with an eyeroll. "We do not need to hear your sad story while we wait. You can go now!"
Caspian bowed to her but kept looking at me the entire time. How could he do all of that to me? And now he was leaving me with her? I wished he would stay here and fight by my side but the threat of him getting killed right in this moment must be too much for him. He just turned around and walked out of the throne room.
I raised my eyebrows. "While we wait?"
Mirela looked over to me. "Do not worry, they are already here. They are just making their way over to the throne room. The next witnesses are coming."
I was about to ask her who she meant when I heard steps coming closer to the doors. The heavier ones were clearly Geralt and the other pattern sounded like Jaskier. The doors swung open, and the two men stepped in.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Geralt yelled and headed straight towards the throne, his sword in his hand. "Did you bring her here to kill her in front of everyone's eyes?"
Mirela looked over to me. "You should tell your friend to calm down. People could get hurt if he behaves like a monster in here. The sword is not necessary."
"Geralt, you-"
The Witcher stopped at the spot and turned to me. He was caught up in a raging anger and pointed with the tip of his sword over to the Queen. "Davina, the least she deserves is death!"
"If you kill me now, my daughter will set the whole castle on fire." Mirela explained with a calm voice. It even sounded like she enjoyed the thought of that. "You will burn with innocent people who have no idea what is really going on here. They will die without even knowing why they died – Because you did not want to cooperate. So, put – the sword – away!"
Geralt raised his eyebrows. "Cooperate? What the-"
Jaskier stepped in front of Geralt to stop him from shouting insults at the Queen. "Put it down, Geralt." Geralt was still looking at me and my pleading look made him finally put the sword pack in his belt. Jaskier looked scared and worried, the complete opposite of Geralt. "Davina, are you alright?" I nodded and he turned to the Queen. "Why did you let us through? Nobody in the castle tried to stop us from getting to the throne room."
"Because it is more fun when more people are around. I would even throw animals in to make this more interesting, but I do not have any around right now." Mirela looked over to me. "Oh, wait – I nearly forgot. Actually, we have an animal in the castle. How about we call the wolf?"
"Stop playing your stupid games!" Geralt shouted. "What the fuck is going on here?"
The Queen glanced back to the Witcher. "We are here to celebrate Davina's death."
