"She killed all my men and left me crippled. I did not tell anyone about it because I wanted to tell you first," the general replied although that was an obvious lie.
The general will never admit to anyone that he got defeated by a girl, sorcerer or not. He was only telling the king so that he could order people to find her and kill her.
"Really?" the king asked with a sly smile as he finally got to the bed where the once powerful general sat on with his useless legs before.
"Yes," the general replied still not noticing the killing intent in the king's eyes.
"You made my son into a dumb prince," the king said coldly as he pulled out his dagger. "You also thought of mistreating my niece on the soil of this kingdom.
"You made a mistake. She let you go the first time but you still went after and tried to hurt her. You are lucky she left you alive but I guess not too lucky."
The general knew at this point that he had offended the king and there was no way he was going to escape. "I am sorry," the general pleaded. His voice sounded shaky with fear.
"I know because you are very much in a sorry state," the king said as he paused. "I will leave you now," he told general and walked out of the room. He glanced at his personal guard as soon as he walked out.
The guard nodded knowing very well what the order was even without the king having to speak it out. He pushed the wooden door of the general's room and walked in making sure to close the door behind him.
The king without waiting, left the general's home and heading back to the castle. Aurora must have been forced to hurt the general the way she did because she has stayed in the castle under his watch for almost two decades but she never hurt anyone.
"I want you to find me the Witch, Darlene," the king ordered his right-hand man when he got to his carriage and got ready to leave.
"There is no need to find me," the soft voice of the witch answered him from behind.
"Come, ride with me," he simply told her without expressing any surprise by her sudden appearance.
"Yes, your majesty," the witch agreed and joined him in the carriage but making sure to ignore the helping hand he offered her.
"She killed people," the king said seriously.
"Yes, for the first time, she killed someone but she will never know. I warned her maid to keep it secret. She will continue her journey although delayed, which will cause a lot of problem for her but she will definitely complete her mission.
"She is bonded to it and the amount of hatred and hunger for vengeance she has will make her continue her journey," the witch reported truthfully.
"That's what I want to hear. She must not return to the capital. If she does, you know what to do," the king reminded the witch with killing intent in his voice.
"Yes, I do."
"And don't do it on the soil of my kingdom but somewhere else. Once you do it, don't ever return to this kingdom for any reason. So, do a good job of keeping her on track."
"Yes, I will but I want you to stop the rumors from spreading. You should not let such blasphemous rumor continue in your kingdom, she is not dead yet," the witch warned him carefully.
"Don't worry, that is not for you to be worried about. I will do what is right and my duty. You should do yours too," the king said getting pissed off due to her warning.
"I will get off here if we don't have anything else to discuss. I need to keep her on the track. I saw the Duke on my way here and delayed him a little but I am not sure that will be good enough to keep him from meeting her."
"Go and do your work," the king allowed her to leave.
Without waiting for the carriage to stop, the Witch jumped out of it.
***
"Why is the disguise gone?" Aurora asked as she stared at her reflection in the blurry mirror she found in her room.
"You fell ill. I had to find a witch who took it off. She also said you should rest a little but since I knew you won't want the journey to be delayed, I used a carriage for our transportation. We are only a town away from the land of the inhumans," Helen narrated calmly despite the fear she felt of her master discovering that she was lying.
"Really? What about the river we were to cross?" Aurora asked unhappy that she could not enjoy the journey which were the days she had to live before she faces death.
"We are yet to cross it. When you fell ill, I was scared of carrying you by the carriage at first until I found a physician. We lost two days," Helen explained.
"What sickness was that?" Aurora asked because she simply found it hard to remember anything that happened to her from the moment they walked into the inn.
Helen knew about this since she was given strict orders from the witch to not talk about anything that happened after they walked into the inn that caught fire. "It was a serious fever caused by food poisoning."
"Food poisoning?" Aurora asked as she tried to remember what happened to her after entering the inn.
"Yes, your body could not fight back the poison so you fainted and you have been unconscious for days now," Helen continued to explain to her master using very a persuasive tone that even Aurora did not find any loophole.
"Urghh. I feel really tired without doing anything," Aurora said as she fell on her bed. "I am hungry. I need a breakfast which isn't poisoned."
Helen nodded. "I will go right away. Your bath have been prepared. How about you take your bath while I get your breakfast?"