Shaph glued his white fluffy ears to the side of his head, sat solid rooting himself into the seat, his skin seemed to become whiter until it almost matched his hair.
"You really don't have to come." I told him.
"N—no Princess," Shaph said through his clacking teeth. "I couldn't abandon you on such dangerous affair."
In spite of his courageous words, Shaph was the one most rattled by this trip, his big twin front teeth going clack-clack quite irritably all the way that I told him five more times he could go back. He insisted on accompanying though and all the while telling the terrible tale of the Queen. Queen Roseheart was like Jack the Ripper for Beastskin. She hunted and captured and tortured and killed every Beastskin in Azmera or those spotting in Aeca and Azmera borderline cruelly. That era was told to be barbarous. Even though Shaph did not live in Azmera and King Fayn, once confined the Queen, had reformed the country, the savage time still haunted every Beastskin to these days. It was so horrible that I went easy on my steward and stopped saying he could go back in the end.
"I hate her." Shaph said taking my hand. He was frozen! "You must help King Fayn, Princess! Beastskins need him!"
Now, now, aren't you pressuring me? My hard face muscles did their best to lift my lips up. "I—," I couldn't decide what to say. It was apparent I had no power to do such things. Nor did I want to saddle myself to more troubles, well, not just any trouble, it was a serious trouble involving a vicious Queen and probably the life and death of me. Umm—well likely the life and death of Shaph and his friends more than mine but—oh, darn it! What am I to do? I asked myself while Shaph's entreating stare forced me to say, "I'll try." —or I hope I could try. Now, the only thing to try was to will harder for Jes to open the gate faster and bring back Princess Carla!
Azmera was farther to the south, but the climate did not get warmer as we advanced on. So did Shaph's body temperature. On the fifth day, we entered the country of harvest's territory, the atmosphere suddenly changed. It was bone-chilling to the point of sweat-coiling-back-under-the-skin and felt wasted despite the still dense and green trees around us. The carriage suddenly made a terrible jerk and the horses squealed in disturbance. I had to climb out and see what the fuss was about. The coachman said the horses refuse to move.
"They smell death your Highness." He whispered ghastly.
It took the coachman about an hour, with Shaph's help, to calm the horses down. Shaph told me later that it was because of the unruly Queen. No Beastskin or animals liked this person. It topped bad-view list of the Queen which was accumulating higher and higher.
Aside from the coldness, this country was unnaturally soundless too. At first I thought it was because we are still in the countryside, but as we plowed on into the capital city 'Amitye,' the quietness persisted. There were more people here going on about their businesses noiselessly with their faces to the ground. I caught some eyes trying to look up at my carriage and shied away as soon as they saw me looking. From all the implications, I presumed that the citizens here were drowning in fear.
Azmera's palace stood sternly among a big hexagon rose garden emitting haunting aura. We were smacked by strident red walls as we crossed the threshold of the red oak doors which gave me an impression of warfield. I had Shaph put on a hat to hide his ears, but they kept moving anxiously inside the loose headwear while his eyes were roaming over animal's heads hanging up near the ceiling. I felt a little queasy too.
A maid greeted us. She bowed down soberly and spoke in a very low monotone voice. "Welcome to Azmera, Your Royal Highness Princess Carla of Coronale." She then led us to a room and said that the ceremony would begin in the late afternoon. We were lucky to be here on time. I did not want to imagine what the brutal Queen would do to me if I was late.
"P—Princess—cesss—sss." Shaph rushed over mumbling unsteadily in an even lower voice than that of the maid when the door was lightly closed and we were left alone. "I—I think we—we should take this cha—chance to find King Fayn."
"But where?!" I shouted in a hush. "If Queen Roseheart acceded the throne, doesn't it mean he's already dead?"
Shaph shook his head but it looked as if it was shaking on its own account. "She wouldn't Princess. Sh—she loves to torture us. Especially King Fayn who—who used to capture her, she won't let hi—him die that easily."
This is a nightmare! "H—how am I supposed to?" I asked adopting Shaph's stuttering symptom. "I can't just go roving around the castle!"
"We can ask maids or footmen here." Shaph suggested.
"Can we really trust them?" I said. "No, Shaph, I think it's better to talk to those people in the town. We will have to wait until the ceremony is over. Bear with it a little longer."
Shaph lowered his head trembling unabated. His uneasiness seemed to have seeped into me more and more as time passed by, leaving me helpless against this remorse which kept nagging stronger by the minute. It built up firmly becoming a heavy lump weighing down my head until, by the time the ceremony commenced, Queen Roseheart blew it up into sharp pieces.
"THE HELL RITE!!!"
That was it. Phew!
"Bu—but your Majesty," The gap of the door led off to the main ceremony hall here was wide enough to see a man moving tremulous lips above his triangle goatee in difficulty. "It's—it's a mu—m—"
Next second, the widened gap showed a small woman sitting on a gold dais. The lower part of the throne was covered in ruby red layered-gown that supposedly seen from the bottom would be in rose shape. Her small and sallow hand snatched a pointy crown from the man and put it chastely on her head. "There. Done." She said with a look of triumph and smug.
"Her Royal Highness Princess Carla of Coronale!" Here the doorman announced my name erasing an interesting scene the Queen was playing. Her eyes, though not red, glinted with sparking red light—probably from everything around the room, it should take me a lot of effort to guess what her favorite color is—as she flew across to me taking both of my hands up to her chest. I barely had seconds to observe the red room which full of people I did not know, maybe some Azmera's nobles, and rosettes or other rose ornaments or the rose patterned curtains—it should take me a lot of effort to guess what her favorite flower is too.
"Princess Carla!" Queen Roseheart beamed. She was a very young girl—round Elise's age—which on the surface looked very cute and lively if not for that sallow skin. Her maid had a very weird fashion though, giving her a very queer hair-doing with a piece of cloth binding tightly on her head almost like a mummy. Rubies and red crystal hairpins littered the half-sphere, and a silver crown she put on just now was hanging sideway on one of them. "I've always wanted to meet you!"
I managed a smile and a deep curtsy. She was so unlike what everybody said, but I should not be fool by that naïve face. There was something (not the head, well yeah...the head was weird too) odd about her. Something quite out of place.
She ignored my stately greeting which I had been practicing agonizingly hard for such occasions and linked her arms with mine and walked me into the hall. Shaph was stiffly shaken, others were stiffly still, all locking their eyes at my direction. The Queen maintained her lively tone all the way down the aisle, "I hear you defeated that oldie Keon Queen, you're so amazing! I've hated her for ages! That hag always pulled magic over to her Kingdom and made me do what she wants. It's not like I want to raid Witrin."
I couldn't manage even a dry laugh. I just cemented a crescent smile on my face and bullied it—don't you dare fall off!
Queen Roseheart did not introduce me to anybody. She just kept me to herself. But that made other guests glad, they all tried to avoid her and kept to themselves as much as possible too. Shaph, despite his fear, was still sticking tightly to my back.
I was brought to a rather private corner with two velvet red armchairs obviously arranged specially for me. I was more of scared than flattered. "Try this Princess," Queen Roseheart said and a maid directed a platterful of—umm, sushi? sashimi?—at me. As I made up my mind about putting this weird piece of food which was likely to be salmon sashimi into my mouth, Queen chose that moment to explain its origin. Perfect!
"This is a premium grade mermaid slice." She said and devoured on three at once. "Oh...I've missed this taste!" There was a single drop of tear at the end of her grey eye.
There was a sudden chill at my back. I knew it was Shaph. The piece of juicy mermaid's flesh poised before my mouth as I demurred about passing it into my body. Having been studying about Beastskin and making many as friends, it felt like I was eating the same kind. But I couldn't think long, the Queen was waiting, masking with an innocent face, for me to eat.
"There's a saying," I said, the orange jelly piece hovered in the air, "from where I used to live that you'll become immortal eating mermaid flesh."
Queen Roseheart raised her brows. "Is it? Oh right! You've been living in that shriveled world for a long time?"
"Sometimes," I went on groping for an idea to make an excuse to put this grossing piece down. "they said that it'll make your wit dim." The words 'idiot' or 'stupid' might sound too strong in this royal ceremony, I thought and put the piece down believing it was the best excuse ever.
The young Queen giggled. "That is so lame!" She took another bite. "I can prove none of those are true so you can go ahead."
If she comes like this—
Her cute and innocent simper peered in a forcing sort of way. I reluctantly picked the slice up delaying for about one second more and decided that I did not want to offend her. I put the―umm, I don't really want to talk about it, no! don't ask me about the taste too!―into my mouth. There were tears in my eyes as well, but it definitely was not for its delicacy. Queen Roseheart giggled heartily.
There's something about mermaid, you see. Like every girl, I love them, want to be one, or meet one, but surely NEVER thought that my first encounter with the creature would be this! Oh, dear...I finally swallow it!
"Princess..." Shaph whispered by my ear, sounded panic and worry. I created a biggest smile after the piece traveled through my throat falling into my gut.
Satisfied, the crazy Queen continued her unpredictable action. "Isn't it time for a nice show?" she waved her arm and people cleared space in the middle of the room for brown and red uniformed guards to drag in a big square steel cage. It smelled so vile.
I lost my breath in the midst of those horrid smells trying to hold up my fainting body. I could sense that Shaph was likely in the same state after seeing what was in there. The mermaid menu tried to make an escape but I had to push it back down again. It was treble terrible.