...55...
FRENEMY
The empress candidates from earlier stared frustratedly at the paper afore her.
She was beginning to hate with passion the paper's colour, that pale shade of yellow.
It was now the fourth message or more appropriately the fourth threat.
She had actually been counting.
This time, it bore the same message as the first.
She went to the candle and lit it herself without employing the services of her aide.
She stared at the now soot stained sickening yellow paper one more time.
She truly felt tempted to throw up as she held the end to the fire.
She held it steadily as the fire consumed it—slowly at first, then burning more quickly as the fire spread fast.
She dropped it on the floor and watched intently as the rest burnt into ashes.
When it was done dissipating, she turned away from the gray ashes and went to seat at her writing table.
She was fed up, as she had had enough of this threats.
She and her aide had always kept watch, at top alert since the first message had been delivered, but they had never caught the deliverer, and more kept coming after that.
It was infuriating.
'Who could this be?' she murmured to herself.
'One of my hidden enemies? One of my opponents? Or is this just some servant blackmailing me for wealth?' she pondered.
She shifted on one foot.
'But why -if it is a servant- has such not requested for anything at all? Why? Whatever did the person want regardless of the identity?'
She sighed as she buried her face in her palms which were resting on the table.
'Well, there is no way that I can know for sure as I do not know the sender and I cannot send whosoever it is a message.'
She hissed as she stood to her feet.
'This is bad. I have to quickly find a way out of this before it swallows me.'
A knock came on her door and she turned towards the wooden structure.
'Yes, who is it?' she all but snapped, not needing the disturbance of any of the maids right then.
'It is I My Lady,' her aide's voice reached her from the other side.
'If it is you, then come in,' she all but snapped at her.
'Yes My Lady.'
Then the door opened and her aide stepped inside the room and shut the door.
'My Lady,' she said with a bow.
'What is it now?' Her voice was obviously not pleased.
'I have been knocking for such a long time My Lady.'
'I heard only one knock,' she said with an exasperated sigh.
Her aides eyes widened.
'You did not hear the rest?' her aide asked in surprise.
'Are you deaf? I just told you that I heard only one knock. Did I not?!' she snapped irritatedly at her.
'I'm sorry My Lady. Please forgive me My Lady,' her aide apologized with a small voice and a rather deep bow.
'I did not,' she continued in a more calm voice after a while. 'I was probably too lost in my thoughts to hear them,' she explained to her. 'So, what actually brings you?' she proceeded to inquire.
The aide hesitated for a moment before she spoke.
'The Emperor has summoned every of the empress candidates to the investigation grounds.'
Her heart skipped a beat at her aide's words.
She almost began to panic.
'Is it what I think that it is?' she asked her aide in angst as her face completely went pale.
'I fear that I do not have the answer to that My Lady. But it is a good thing that all seven were called upon and not just a selected few. It may mean nothing, this we see,' she assured her mistress with her words.
'Probably. But I hope that it is true what you say.'
'I hope so too.'
There was silence for a while.
'You are to go there alongside me. I shall be questioned too.'
'You were summoned too?' she said in fright.
Her aide nodded at her.
'I fear so.'
'Fuck!' she cursed.
Her heart rate skyrocketed at once, the organ threatening to beat itself out of her chest.
'The seven were called upon alongside their aides. Be rest assured that you were not singled out on this My Lady.'
But she couldn't relax, fidgeting with her nails in angst.
'We will stick with the alibi we made up right?' her aide nodded. 'If you are asked a difficult question, the phrase "I cannot remember it" is the best of answer, better even than the 'I do not know" phrase, you hear?' she adviced her.
Her voice was trembling now.
She nodded.
'Yes My Lady, I get it.'
'Do not let the Emperor goad you into loosening up and becoming less vigilant you hear?' she continued. 'He is actually a very cunny man. The moment he succeeds, you will begin to implicate yourself without even knowing I swear.'
'I will beware of him My Lady. I shall be alert at all times.'
'Let me get ready. Go and get me the assisting maids of my quarters,' she ordered her.
'Yes My Lady. I shall return very quickly,' she assured her.
And then, after a bow, she turned and left the room.
A few minutes later, three maids, the ones assigned to her alongside her aide trooped into her bedroom after a knock and a go ahead from her.
They helped her with dressing up and getting ready while her heart was pounding in her ears.
Sweat beaded constantly on her head and one of the maids stood by to clean it off her skin.
Still, nothing pacified her because she felt as if everything would soon come to light.
Soon, she was ready to leave.
'You may leave,' she told them when they were done.
She turned to her aide when they were long gone.
'Do well to remember what I said,' she warned again. 'If it gets worse, you can feign one of your fainting spells you know?'
'Yes My Lady. I will do well remember everything that we agreed upon.'
She swallowed.
'That is very good,' she commended her aide, a move that was more to reassure herself.
She patted her dress down.
'Let us go,' she said.
'Yes My Lady.'
They walked towards the door and left the bedroom, her aide shutting the door behind her.
They left the reclining area and stepped outside.
Her aide locked the door securely and they quickly left for the investigation grounds to go and answer the Emperor's summon.
When they got there, the others had already arrived except for one, the one who had fallen from high grace, the Princess of the Draco Kingdom.
She did not dwell on that.
And when it was her turn, the emperor questioned her.
She held her head up high and answered every question confidently, sticking to the alibi that she and her aide had made up.
The emperor did not actually bother her much.
And she congratulated herself for scaling through the sessions without faltering even once.
She sashayed out of the questioning from when she was done to go and welter in her victory.
That was when she nearly collided into another empress candidate as she turned a corner.
'Watch it!' the lady had snapped at her angrily.
She had apologized because the Lady's clan was above hers and nothing else.
'I am sorry. I did not see you there, or rather I did not expect to see you there,' she corrected.
'It is fine,' she said after a moment. 'I should not have yelled. I am just queasy and that is why.'
'It is not a problem. After all,' she told her, 'everyone is really upset at the moment. We are all being accused because of that wench.'
'Oh how I wish that it was I who had cut the saddles of her horse,' the other lady mused.
She nearly gasped.
'I would have made sure that her death was imminent. And what a fulfilling thing that would have been. I do not think she is recovered yet since we are yet to see her up and about as always. But, it ain't critical either.'
The lady stared straight into her eyes, pure undiluted rage just dancing behind her irises.
'Still, it infuriates me because someone did a rather poor job of trying to eliminate her and also trying to cover their tracks it seems to me.'
'I guess so,' was her reply.
Her heart beat with glee at having someone else wish the same thing as her.
'If were to have been me, she would have been long dead. She would have died on the spot.'
'She will be soon. She has to be if there will be any hope of any one of us becoming empress.'
'She is the cause of so many misfortune. And she has thereby made an enemy in me,' she told her. 'If only I knew who the link was.'
'You say?' the other lady said as her eyes widened.
Had the link also visited this lady?
'The link you say?' she asked again in a bid to clarify just what she had heard.
'Yes, the link. If only I knew who this person was.'
'What Link?' she asked her as some sort of fear began to narrow her lungs and squeeze out oxygen.
Was this lady standing before her the link?
Was she doing this to taunt her?
'I have to hurry along now. Why don't you come over to my quarters and let us chat over tea at noon tomorrow?' she invited.
'Tea?'
Her brows quirked.
'Is that alright with you?'the lady asked, hesitating.
She did not know how to reply to that question.
It could easily be a trap for her.
'Noon it is,' she finally said.
She would think it over later.
The other lady smiled at her contentedly and they parted ways then.
'Do you think that she is the link?' she asked her aide when they were once again alone.
'I do not know what to think at all my lady. But, she knows something that we do not I am sure.'
'Therefore I should meet her?' she pressed.
Her aided nodded.
'I will watch over her the whole if tomorrow. If I notice anything out if place, we will declare you unwell for the meeting.'
She nodded.
That sounded like a good foolproof plan at this point.
'And if we get there and anything is amiss, we have my fainting spell and your loud screams to wedge against her.'
'So be it.'
'Yes My Lady.'
'Let us go,' she said to her and they began to make their way back to their allocated quarters.
Somewhere, that same eyes watched them depart with a sinister smile on his lips.
This was really getting more juicy and tasty.
He needn't do much work because everything was actually falling into place on its own.
Noon arrived much too early the next day to the Lady's chagrin.
She waited and received the go ahead from her aide before both of them journeyed to the other Lady's quarters for the tea meeting.
They arrived right on time.
The other lady had even prepared everything before their arrival.
They simply shared pleasantries and she was invited to sit.
She took a seat with a slightly trembling heart.
'Sunflower tea or hibiscus tea?' the other Lady's aide asked her mistress who turned to her.
'My guest, which of them do you prefer?' the other lady asked her with a cheerful disposition.
'Hibiscus tea, with a little bit of fresh milk,' she answered.
'You heard her,' she said to her aide who nodded. 'As for me, I will have my usual as always.'
Her aide nodded and went away to bring the tea.
'The weather is lovely.'
'Yes, I agree. It is a bright day with a clear heaven.'
'Let us get down to business,' the other lady said to her in a more serious voice, business like even.
Her cheerful disposition was instantly gone in a breath.
'Yes, Let's.'
But the next thing she heard from her made her to choke on her own saliva.
'I know that you cut the saddles. No need to beat about the bush.'
She instantly paled at the revelation.
The cup shook as her hands trembled from the shock.
'H-how? H-how di-did you f-find that out?' she managed to stammer.
'How else? The link,' the other lady said with a scoff. 'Or did you think I was a witch?'
Her eyes widened.
'The link?' she asked, 'you mean the link on the yellow paper?'
She nodded.
Her jaw grew slack and goosebumps filled every inch of her now pyrexic skin.
'I actually thought that I told you that yesterday. Or did I not do so and thought I did?' she asked.
The lady noticed the sarcasm dripping between the words.
But, she overlooked it because her secret out in the open was more concerning than that.
'You did mention the link. I thought you were the link,' she said in a small voice.
Guilt was already wrapping around her, threatening to choke her like an anaconda would.
'I am not,' she said to her with an obviously amused laughter.
She tried to remain composed but failed woefully.
'He must have told you that for a reason,' she said. 'Unless you are-'
She felt the blood drain from her face all the way to her feet.
She saw nothing through her wide eyes as her heart thudded like a truck against her ribcage.
The other lady laughed again at her ashen palour.
'I told you, I am not the link. And yes, you are right. He brought us together because we have the same goals.'
She continued after a long pause.
'And also, I was threatened too. It is not only you who have things to hide,' she told her.
Confusion wrapped around her larnyx and pharynyx simultaneously.
It took much effort for her to push out the next words.
'But you didn't-'
She was crudely interupted before she could say much.
'I hired someone from the royal clinic to mix poison in that wench's cosmetics before they were delivered to the royal manor.'
She gasped, liquid sloshing out of the shaky cup in her hand.
The other lady paid her no attention and continued talking.
'The link discovered it and intercepted it.'
'He did?" She asked.
She was confused and wondering what exactly was going on at these turns of events.
The other lady nodded.
'He or she or it, whosoever it is saved me from execution because the Emperor was bound to find out.'
'Really?'
'Yes, that person is some sort of frenemy from what I see. If the cosmetics had gotten to its destination, I would have been suspected instantly from the way the mission was carried out he proved. He corrected my mistake and he also did yours.'
She quriked a brow at her.
'My mistake?' she demanded with a look of utter confusion.
The other lady took a nonchalant sip of her drink before speaking.
'He is the one who stopped the explosion from going off. I bet you wondered why only the fireworks and not the explosion went off.'
She gaped as light filled her eyes at the revelation.
'Yes, I did. I thought my aide did not light it properly.'
The other lady shook her head.
'No, she did. He dismembered it. Why you may ask? It is because you were foolish. How could you use rare explosives from your clan? Of course you will be the very first suspect.'
Her stupidity instantly dawned on her the moment it was pointed out.
'Only royalty from your clan can provide and dabble in such or did you not know?'
She leaned forward.
"What were you thinking?" She asked, staring at her eyebal to eyeball.
She swallowed.
'I am just realizing what sort of fool I had been. I would have been caught without any effort.'
She sighed softly.
'So albeit he threatened me, he saved my neck from destruction?'
'Yes he did. He truly is a frenemy. Your frenemy, our frenemy, and we do have a common goal don't we?'
'Which is?'
'To eliminate that sleazy concubine,' she said with so much hatred.
The venom in her voice matched the hatred in her own heart.
'The link has a better plan and it will benefit us all.'
'So you are saying that he has a better plan to have that whore dead without pointing fingers at ourselves?'
The lady nodded at her question.
'So, are you in?'
'Where else will I be?'
They both smiled at each other as the other's aide arrived with their requested tea.
Her mistress glanced at her and then eyed her slowly.
'Seven hundred years just for two little cups of tea?'
'The kitchen maids are slow. I wonder why they assigned those three slugs to you My Lady.'
'Whatever,' she waved her aside after she had served the tea.
She bowed and left again.
'To her death!' she toasted raising her cup.
The other lady raised hers and returned the gesture.
'To our victory!'
'To both!'
Then, she took her tea, sniffed it and then she drank.
'To both!' she ascertained.
She leaned back to look at her aide who gave her the go ahead signal to drink the tea because she hadn't noticed anything amiss.
She tasted the tea.
Maybe it was because she was happy, but it tasted like paradise.
She leaned back, sighed in pleasure and enjoyed the flavourful tea.
Three weeks later, Xiera ran like a mad woman through the halls to the conference room.
There was fire on the mountain and she was seeking out the Emperor.
She was breathless when she burst into the conference room unannounced.
Everyone turned to her and some began to grumble at her disrespect.
She ignored them and went up to the Emperor.
She offered a bow of respect.
'My Lord,' she offered in a breathless voice.
'What is it Xiera?' he asked her, knowing fully well that she would not just barge in without cause.
'My Lord, it is My Lady. She is missing,' she informed him.
The Emperor stood to his feet at her words, his eyes alert.
'Was she not touring the gardens with you?' he asked her with angst.
'She was My Lord. But now, My Lady, she is gone. She has vanished without even a single trace.'
...OmaPhinaPhire