A long caravan of carriages carrying sucks after sucks of food stopped in an open plain to set up camp for the night. Maynard closed the book he was reading as Renzo pushed aside the curtain of the carriage.
"Young Lord, your tent has been set,"
Maynard leapt off the carriage and stretched his arms until he heard a few pops. "Ah, that feels so much better, I don't really like carriages," he sighed, "Maybe I should just ride a horse for the rest of the way," he pondered.
"Young Lord please don't do that, your body is week and can't handle the intense movement of a horse," objected Renzo.
"I know, can't a man even dream nowadays," said Maynard as he entered his tent.
"You dream too often that it makes me anxious that you will follow your dreams young Lord,"
"Well don't you have a glib tongue,"
Renzo poured him a cup of water and then opened the brown paper bag to reveal some pancakes.
"Ah, the disadvantages of travelling," sighed Maynard.
"This is what Young Lord signed up for, you should have listened to the Duke and not gone personally to send the provisions,"
Maynard held a cup of water in one hand and a pan cake in the other, "Sending provisions is the only time I am allowed to leave the capital, I can't pass up this opportunity,"
"Is young Lord planning to visit your mother and sister?," Renzo asked as he took a bite of his own pancake. He was the son of the chief guard at the Duke's manor, he grew up with Maynard so they were more like brothers than master and servant, therefore he always made himself confortable when no one is around.
"Yes, that is the main reason I always take this job, I will stop there when we are coming back, first we need to safely get the provisions to the people,"
The sound of swords clashing and people screaming could be heard coming from outside.
"Go and check out what's happened," Maynard said to the already leaving figure of Renzo.
"Young Lord! We are under attack," Renzo shouted a while later.
Maynard took hold of his crossbow as the sounds of fighting intensified outside.
******
"Greetings your Majesty, Consort, Prince, Princess," the three kneeling figures said in unison.
"Who pricked the needle into the princess's horse?" Brennon asked them in a frosty voice.
Sapphire's hands on her lap started to tremble and she lowered her head lower. Julia was wracking her brains for an excuse but she couldn't think of anything at all, Selah remained calm, after all this had nothing to do with her.
"If you confess, you will get a lighter punishment, if you don't then you will executed for trying to assassinate the princess,"
"We…we ..we weren't try..trying to harm the princess," said Sapphire as she stumbled on her words. "We were try--"
"It was all Selah's idea," Julia interrupted her sister as she pointed an accusative finger at Selah.
Selah looked at her with disbelief, how did the victim become the mastermind? Selah opened her mouth to protest but was cut off by Julia.
"She threatened us to do it, she said if we didn't do it, then.." Julia started to cry, "She said that she would ruin our faces, she has already ruined our hair," she sobbed as she proceeded to remove her veil reviling a bald head.
Everyone shuddered at the site, it's not every day you see a girl without hair. But those tears were fooling nobody, Selah has just been made the Princess's study partner, why would she want to ruin her own future by hurting the princess, she had no motive to do that.
The other two were different, they could have been jealous of their sister and want to ruin her, it was very clear who may have threatened whom here.
Brennon was about to say something else when Larisa interrupted him.
"You are speaking nonsense!," she yelled as she got up from her sit, Lifar hurriedly went to support her after she got over the shock of the Princess shouting at someone.
Larisa had heard enough, how could someone try to ruin their own sister like this? Cleary they were told if they tell the truth then it will be I light punishment. Saying Selah planned this is no different from trying to get her executed. How can someone live when their own kin is trying to kill them?
The rage in Larisa's eyes as she looked down at Julia was smouldering. Getting in-front of her, she looked directly at her face and asked slowly, "Did Selah really put you up for this?"
Julia's crocodile tears were long frozen in time in her eyes as they refused to escape due to the fear that overtook her so suddenly that it left her breathless.
"She…she--"
"You better think before you speak," Interrupted Larisa.
The temperature in the tent started to rise making everyone uncomfortable. Julia especially started to sweat very much but could also feel a chill down her spine, looking up she crossed eyes with the princess's crimson eyes shining abnormally bright for a normal person, something seemed to be squeezing around her body, making her feel trapped.
Something in those red eyes intimidated her and threatened to devour her if she dared say something that she didn't want to hear, all her excuses faired her as she confessed.
"It was us," Julia spoke in the voice of a mosquito.
"I don't think I heard you,"
Julia broke down in tears, real ones this time, "We were trying to.....to prick Selah's horse, but....but she moved too suddenly and ended up pricking th..the princess's horse instead, please….please don't kill me," Julia bowed with her forehead to the floor as she trembled.
The temperature slowly cooled down and Larisa stood straight, "Death it not the worst punishment out there,"
She looked towards the King, "Father, you heard it yourself, I will leave the judgment up to you,"
The King blinked a couple times, what just happened? "Ah, yes, yes I heard, you were the one hurt so you can choose their punishment,"
She gave a small bow in his direction, "Thank you Father," the she faced the girls, "An eye for an eye, since your plan hurt my leg, you should both get one of your legs broken and stabbed, you can choose which leg you want broken,"
Sapphire and Julia completely sat down on the ground in hopelessness. Screams were heard soon after outside the tent as their punishment was carried out.
A soldier in tattered armour came running to the king's tent and was stopped by the guard outside, the breathless person relayed his message before he slumped to the ground unconscious, some guards carried him away as the one told the message broke into the tent in frenzy.
He knelt down and bowed, "Majesty, news from the border, war has broken out with the Mauling kingdom, the troops at the border request back up,"
Larisa and the rest soon left leaving the king, Dario and the officials who had soon arrived after being summoned in the tent.
Larisa was supported by Lifar and Selah as she got off from her sedan. There was a group of madams waiting in-front of her tent with countless servants behind them with boxes on hand.
"Greetings Princess," they said in simultaneously.
"Rise, what brings you all here?" Larisa asked in confusion, being visited was such a strange occurrence to her.
"We came to visit Princess, Princess shouldn't stand for too long while injured," One of the Madams said.
Larisa was supported inside and sat on the soft chair, she observed the smiling faces of the ladies in-front of her, what were they up to.
"Princess, when we heard that you were injured, we were very troubled, so we each prepared gifts to make you feel better,"
Larisa was presently surprised, she leaned forward a bit to look at what they brought.
"Princess, this is the finest gold headset," said one lady.
"Countess can only give this to the princess?, Princess, I brought you a pair of luminous pearls to brighten your night," Bragged the Baroness.
This went on for a while, the ladies trying to best each other in gifts, Larisa soon realized they weren't there for her but to show off at each other, what was she hoping for anyway.
The Madams and Ladies became quite as Duchess Whitman entered the tent and greeted Larisa.
"Duchess need not do that," Larisa said hurriedly, how could she have Maynard's mother bowing down to her when she wanted her as her mother in-law.
"Princess is kind," Smiled the Duchess.
The Duchess presented her own gifts, three chests of treasures containing headset, gold, pearls, silver, any precious things you could think of. The other people at the scene gave their silent respect, truly the Dukes household cannot be bested.