Serafina: Becoming a Princess

Chapter Six

It had been a long couple of weeks for Zander since he had last spoken to his sister. Shortly after he had left his mother's side on that fateful day, he heard screaming radiating off the castle walls. His stomach sank as instinct forced his legs to run towards the faint screaming that was coming from the opposite side of the castle. The closer he got towards the noises the more his stomach sank as he recognized where his legs were taking him.

"Sera! Sera wake up! Stay with us!" He could hear Leena shouting.

He stopped a short ways before his sister's bed chambers, watching as the guards dragged a bleeding and screaming woman out of the room. It was his mother's guard from earlier that day. Immense guilt rained over him. Thoughts of how his words caused the guard to leave his mother's room in anger flashed in his head. Did he cause this?

Sitting on the floor unconscious against the door was Jelena with a couple of physicians looking after her. He quickly went to her and knelt down to where she was.

"Jelena. Jelena." He tried patting her face lightly to wake her. He breathed a small sigh of relief to see that she was still breathing and there did not appear to be any physical injuries on her. But then reality hit him when he saw the amount of guards, doctors and people in general in his sister's room.

The horrible metallic smell hit his nostrils before the horrific sight came into focus. Leena was holding an unconscious Serafina with a puddle of blood sinking into the carpet around them. The sight struck him to his core as he heard everyone screaming at his sister to wake up. He was pushed slightly to the side by the elderly Cicero, who was working faster than he had ever seen him move.

"Quickly bring that flat bed in here!" He motioned for his assistants to move a small bed into the room that lay completely flat. "Good. Now very carefully lift her as evenly as possible and place her onto the bed and once she's on there we need to cut open her dress and see where the bleeding is coming from. I want everyone who isn't a doctor out of this room immediately!"

The command in his voice was absolute. Zander stood frozen still until Leena and Eileen started to pull his arms back towards the door.

Jelena had finally come to and was bent over whaling and screaming how it was all her fault. Zander sat next to her and put his arm over her shoulder. He couldn't find words so he just sat there. Eileen and Laney went down to their level as well and embraced both of them. Leena remained standing, her clothes stained with Sera's blood. She paced the door waiting for someone to come out.

Only a few moments had passed when the shuffling of feet could be heard coming down the corridor. Zander looked up to see his father, King Jovan, rushing towards them. His normally combed back jet hair was disheveled, his ocean eyes fraught with worry, and his beard looked as if he were constantly rubbing it with him palm.

"What happened?! Where is she?" He stopped in front of Leena.

"Your Majesty, it was my fault! I deserve punishment for not being as alert as I should have been." Jelena cried.

Zander found his voice after hearing her plea.

"No, it was most likely mine. That woman was in my mother's room and I practically dismissed her and belittled her. If I hadn't been so cold towards her this wouldn't have happened." Zander felt guilty tears reach his eyes. "I'm sorry Father."

Jovan's eyes scanned everyone and landed on Leena.

"Leena, what happened?"

Leena's voice cracked but she did her best to recount the events that even she hadn't known all of the details to.

"Earlier today we saw a female guard dragging Cicero towards the Queen's wing. We were told that the Queen had a fainting spell. After being in the garden for a while, Serafina had commented how she was tired and wanted a nap. We came back here and we left Jelena just outside the door while the rest of us did our rounds of the wing. It was standard." Her voice cracked again as the tears started to choke her. "We haven't had an incident in two years. Two years. Why now?"