The Royal Mark-Chapter 194: Get the Hounds

After Elsa had her meal Hera took her to the garden just outside her cabin and helped her walk little by little. A month of doing nothing made her legs and knees a bit shaky, but Hera made sure to let her sit every few minutes or so.

"Mom, can I ask you more questions?" Elsa asked carefully.

"Of course, sweetheart, you can ask me anything," Hera said.

"You mentioned that your grandma said that I could be the baby in her dreams but how will I be able to wake up those mages? I think they could help a lot in defeating Arcanis and the witch queen, especially since the demon king is helping them," Elsa asked.

"I have no idea too, Elsa. I’ve read the book that my grandma gave me but there’s nothing in there. Even the location of the mages is very vague it just says snowy mountain and every mountain in Zemaria has snow during winter."

"I see. Another question, Mom... Is it okay to inform Grandma and Grandpa that I am already awake? I am sure they are worried."

"Oh, regarding that I already asked my assistant healer to send a messenger to Zemaria earlier. And also there was a news that came to Elandir a week ago. It is regarding Queen Irina and my sister, Princess Milda. Something happened when my brothers, Prince Andrius, and Prince Drake went back to the castle...

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Two weeks ago in Rügengard Castle...

"Search all of Milda’s belongings including her ladies-in-waiting... Now!" Prince Andrius exclaimed.

As soon as Prince Andrius and Prince Drake together with Elsa’s mages, Andrius quickly ordered the mages and the crown prince’s royal guards to search and look for anything suspicious in Milda’s room.

"What is going on here?" Queen Irina said as she walked towards Milda who was crying in the hallway just outside the door of her bedroom.

"I don’t know too, Mother. My brothers just dragged me out of my chamber and said that I conspired with the witch queen. I swear, Mother I don’t know what are they talking about," Milda said.

The noise and commotion in the hallway reached King Allister and quickly went there as well to check together with Mistress Valeria.

"Andrius! Drake! What are you two doing? You are humiliating your sister in front of a lot of people. Stop this and let’s talk about this in the drawing room. Let’s go!"

"No!" Prince Drake yelled angrily, surprising everyone.

Prince Drake is the jolly one among the siblings and no one had ever since him this angry before.

"Did you just shout at me, Drake?" King Allister retorted with a loud stern voice.

"I’m sorry, Father. It was not intentional. We will not stop searching Milda’s belongings until we find evidence of her alliance with the witch queen. Talking to her is useless, she will just lie about it. Just like how many times she lied about many things in the past!" Prince Drake revealed.

"I don’t know what are you talking about Drake. How could you do this to me? I am your sister, why would I ally with our enemy? What will I gain from that? Tell me!"

The king closed his eyes and sighed heavily before turning to Andrius.

"Andrius, what is this really about?"

"Father, the ship of Elsa and Christopher was not going frontline. They were supposed to go to Qiryn in secret that’s why I only sent them one ship to avoid the attention of the others. However, according to the mages, they were tracked by the witch queen because of Elsa’s amethyst necklace. Drake just confirmed that it was Hera’s necklace and she gave it to Milda before she ran away, then Milda had it enchanted with a tracking spell before giving it to Elsa."

"That is absurd! Why would your sister do that?" King Allister asked.

"Because she hates Hera and the fact that she will never be queen anywhere else. She always helps Hera sneak out in the middle of the night so that Hera does not marry Christopher. And when she found out that Hera’s daughter was the mate of the prince, her hate instantly got transferred to Elsa!" Drake exclaimed in anger.

"That is not true, Father. I wouldn’t do that. I don’t hate Hera or Elsa, they are lying! Why are you doing this to me? What have I done to you to deserve this?" Milda sobbed as she wrapped her arms around the king’s arm.

"Then why did you give that necklace to Elsa when you knew that it has a locator spell?" Drake questioned furiously.

"I didn’t know that it was enchanted! If only I had known, then I wouldn’t give that to her. I could have thrown it away!" Milda rebutted.

"You are lying! The mages here are the witnesses that the witch queen was looking for that necklace when they said that Elsa was not on the ship anymore!" Drake yelled once more.

"Enough!" Queen Irina shouted and ordered everyone, "Everybody out of my daughter’s chamber!" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"Stay! No one will leave!" Prince Andruis said while raising his hand to stop the guards who were about to walk out of the room.

"Andrius? Do you really believe those mages? For sure they wanted to destroy us! They wanted that bastard Hera to be queen and since she’s gone they now want her bastard daughter to replace her! All they want is power! Can’t you see they are trying to destroy our family!" Queen Irina howled in the hallway causing Mistress Valeria to lose her temper.

"You are the one who wants power! Staying with a man who doesn’t love you and doesn’t even love you! Watch your tongue! Do not speak ill of my daughter and granddaughter or I will cut your tongue right here, right now!" Valeria warned Irina while pointing her finger at the queen.

"You should be the one who should watch your tongue! You just committed treason against the Queen of Zemaria! Guards arrest–AHH!!!"

Queen Irina screamed in pain as Mistress Valeria pulled her hair and dragged her to the floor.

"Treason your face! Do you think I care about that? Think again!" Mistress Valeria said.

King Allister, Prince Andrius, and Prince Drake stood in their places for a few seconds, completely shocked at how the situation turned out before they realized that they had to stop the two women from pulling each other’s hair.

"Stop this nonsense you two!" the king commanded but the two old women were not hearing anything except their voices, cursing each other.

One of the mages whispered something to Andrius before he shouted, "Guards! Arrest Princess Milda and do not let anyone see her except me. She will not be released until her innocence is proven," Prince Andrius ordered making his voice loud enough to make sure that his mom could hear him.

And it was effective. Queen Irina and Mistress Valeria immediately stopped upon hearing his command and the wail of Princess Milda when the royal guards held her arms.

"It was me! It was me! Don’t do this to your sister. My baby girl is innocent. Please Andrius, she is your sister," Queen Irina begged.

But Andrius knows why his mother is doing this. The royal guards cannot search the queen’s belongings since their task is to protect the King and Queen of Zemaria no matter what, making the king and queen immune at some level.

Andrius looks at his father meaningfully, as if telepathically asking for approval.

King Allister understood what his son was asking and said, "Guards, Kaiser, and Baahu, stay with your Queen and Princess. Make sure that they will not escape. Me, my sons, and the rest will search the Queen’s room for any evidence of her alliance with our enemies."

The queen’s eyes widened in astonishment. Even though King Allister does not love her and has taken Valeria as his Royal Mistress, he never once turns his back on her. He always supported her in everything but not today.

Today she is witnessing her worst nightmare, something that she never imagined would happen.

Drake ordered the other guards to search the rooms of the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, especially the woman that he always sees sneaking out of the castle to meet the man in a cape.

"Tell me, sons, what are we looking for?" King Allister asked.

"I don’t know too, Father," Drake answered, "I used to see her lady-in-waiting meet a man in the woods. She would give him a bag of coins and he would give her something in a pouch."

"This pouch?" Mistress Valeria asked while holding up a green pouch.

"Yes, that’s it!"

Valeria opened the pouch and replied, "But there’s nothing in here."

"May I?" Arla asked for permission to see the pouch.

Valeria handed it over to her and she quickly sniffed it. "It smells like dried leaves. Could it be tea perhaps?"

"I don’t think so. Because if it is, that would be the most expensive tea ever. The coins that the lady gave were quite a lot," Drake said.

"Dasher get the hounds... If it’s tea then the hounds will locate where it was transferred," the king ordered.