Or perhaps he was just Mr Kellan's lookalike. But the resemblance was too uncanny so he had to be the one. The golden-brown eyes were just the same. Along with the lean physique and silky black hair, only now his hair wasn't tied in the usual ponytail, but instead, left to rest on his broad shoulders.
"Mr Kellan?" I asked, not really able to believe my eyes.
"Mr Kellan? No. Its 'His Majesty' to you." His deep calm voice spoke out with a sliver of mockery.
No way. It couldn't be. Even the facial expressions were the same. How could Kellan be the Dark Lord? Didn't Gilbert say he had gone to the docks?
"But how?" I asked, my voice sounded like a cry.
"How?" He asked me slightly tilting his head. "You want to know how I'm the Dark Lord? Isn't Mr Kellan worthy of being the Dark Lord too?"
I blinked at that moment. He had said the exact thing during breakfast two days ago.
"Pardon my manners." I heard him say. "I believe I have never formally introduced myself to you. My name is Kellan, the Dark Lord and ruler of Kerva."
It took a while before I came to terms with the information he was trying to pass across.
"But, why did you pretend to be the Dark Lord's right hand man then?"
I saw his shoulders lift in a shrug. "Because I wanted to. " was his simple reply but I knew that couldn't be the only reason.
"You don't look too convinced." He said, an amused smile playing on his lips. "Unless you think I had some other motive for playing Mr Kellan. Care to share your thoughts?"
I immediately shook my head. Even if I had any thoughts, he'd be the last person I'd be sharing them with.
"That is mine, I presume?" He asked with eyes pointing to the pot of medicine I was holding in my hands. Oh no! I had almost forgotten the reason why I was here in the first place.
I nodded. "Yes, Mr Kellan." I received a sharp look before realizing I was wrong and then corrected it with "Your majesty. You're supposed to drink it while it is still hot." I looked at his outstretched arm and hesitated a bit about giving him the medicine. Back then when I didn't know who the Dark Lord was, it was easier for me to want to kill him. But now that I knew he was Mr Kellan, I wasn't so sure.
Mr Kellan took the teapot from me and went ahead to get a teacup. He poured the medicine into the teacup and took a whiff of it. My heartbeat spiked. Could he smell the nightshade in the medicine? No, nightshade had no smell.
"It smells too good to be medicine. Don't you agree?" He asked and took another whiff. My eyes followed his every action, waiting in anticipation.
He noticed me from the corner of his eyes. "You're staring at me too much. Would you like a taste too?" He asked. Why would I want a taste of my medicine? If I wanted to taste it so badly, wouldn't I have done so at the infirmary? Sorry to decline but I wasn't too eager to know what nightshade tasted like.
I shook my head. He can have the poison all to himself.
"You're just being polite. Here, you can take a sip. I won't mind." He said and thrust the cup into my hand, waiting for me to drink it.
I had heard that the royal cooks had to taste the food they made themselves in front of the royals to ensure it wasn't poisoned? Was that what he was doing? Trying to know if I poisoned the medicine? If he was, then he was absolutely crazy. Even if I would die from nightshade poisoning, he wouldn't have already put me to death before I knew what being killed by nightshade would be like. I had nothing to lose. If this convinced him, so be it.
I brought the cup to my lips only to have it snatched from my hand. "No, no." He waved his index finger at me. "This brew is for the king. You can go and get yours." He said and swallowed all the medicine in one gulp. He wiped his lips with his sleeve and handed the empty teapot back to me. I stared at him with a bemused expression.
"I believe you are satisfied with the amount of medicine I took." He said to me. "If that is all, I'd like to get back to work." He used his chin to point at the door so I could get going.
Get back to work my foot. If he called gazing at the nightsky from his balcony work then he seriously was sick.
I remembered to bow and then I left the room where I found Gilbert was waiting for me.
As soon as I made eye contact with Gilbert, I could tell something was off.
"Gilbert..." I called his name. But he just took my hand and led me away from the hallway and down the stairs. I yanked my hand from his grip with a scowl.
"I demand an answer." I told Gilbert in a low voice. "Did you always know that Mr Kellan was the Dark Lord?"
He looked away and then back at me. Then he nodded. "Yes. Mr Kellan Calloway is the Dark Lord."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Then I realized it was a dumb question to ask. If the butler was allowed to tell me then he would have.
"Who else know about this?" I asked him.
"The elite staff." He replied me. That means Mirabel didn't know about it either. I could trust her.
What I wanted to know so bad was why he was pretending to be someone else then. He had been the one to reassuring me that all would be okay and yet he was the Dark Lord who would put me to death in the end.
Why hadn't I noticed the pale skin and the dark hair? Mr Kellan was the only person Twilight obeyed because he was the horse's master! No wonder he knew the Dark Lord's symptoms so well.
I retired to my room for the night, giving a bow to the guards who guarded my door.
The day I had breakfast with Mr Kellan, I really had breakfast with the Dark Lord, only that I had no idea it was really him. Now that I think about it, I had always seen Mr Kellan around in the castle, we just weren't formally introduced until that day in the stables when we met officially.
I wonder how the king must have felt seeing me being all cordial with his stallion. The day I had told him that abducting people and forcefully bringing them to the castke wasn't proper host behavior and he promised not to snitch on me.
Of course he wouldn't snitch on me because there was nobody to tattle to. He was the Dark Lord himself. I buried my face into my pillows and screamed. Gosh I was so screwed.