Revelations

King Maxwell had just settled down in his chambers when his frantic mistress walked in tearful.

“What now, Mary?” he asked with a tired tone.

“I…I made Zania soup to get her better and she threw it at me. It hurts,” she reported before bursting out into tears.

“You went to Zania’s chambers?” he asked sharply. “Did I not tell you stay away from her?” he added, not impressed. So much was irritating him about his so called mistress recently.

“You did, but she was not well and I wanted to cheer her up,” Mary explained with misty eyes.

“With that tummy? How do you think you can cheer her up with that glaring at her?” he asked. The pregnancy was a regret he could not undo. He blamed his queen for it as well. Had she not ran off to her lover as usual, he would not have drunk himself into a stupor and ended up impregnating a woman he had already cut tires with. He still had no recollection of what really happened that night his mistress conceived.

His harsh tone made her shrink. The man who used to dot over her had changed. She could see herself losing out unless she got rid of her rival.

“I was trying to be nice and she burned me with soup and you don’t care,” she sulked and accused, pulling at his heart strings. Despite her irritating actions, at least Mary never cheated on him.

“Look, she’s going through a lot. The game reserve and the animals dying like that is devastating, especially to her,” he explained.

“I know, Max. I am keeping my distance from her. She is the one who always starts fights with me. I just wish she could be nice.”

The king let out a sigh. “I know that she can be difficult. Stay away from her, okay?”

She nodded her head and went around to massage his shoulders. It was time for her to bury his wife once and for all.

“I still can’t believe that she killed all those poor animals because you refused to divorce her. She must really love that man,” she said with a disapproving tone. Her words raised the jealousy he did not seem to control and prompted him to turn to look at her.

“What?” he ask, unable to hide his shock.

Lady Mary dropped her jaw and placed her hand over her mouth to feign surprise.

“You didn’t know?”

“What?” he asked again. His brain refused to believe that the woman who named every animal in the reserve would be cruel enough to kill them like that.

“The elders investigated the matter. The game ranger was instructed by the queen to destroy everything. He is held up in the dungeon. Daddy told me. I thought they told you,” she continued to shock him.

King Maxwell was already flying to the dungeon by the time Lady Mary completed her sentence.

The guards bowed respectfully when they saw him approaching.

“Where is the ranger?”

The guards exchanged worried looks before one came forward to respond.

“He hung himself this morning, Sire. He left this,” the guard explained before passing on the suicide note to the king.

“Why is it that all these prisoners are able to kill themselves under your watch?” he roared before opening the note. He shook his head at the content. It seemed that his queen cared for nothing at all beside her lover. The poor ranger could not live with himself for killing all those animals while following her orders.

He was storming to his queen’s chambers to confront her when a frantic maid informed him that the queen has pushed his mistress down the stairs.

“My baby…my baby!” a devastated Mary’s screams could be heard from the ground floor. By the time the king arrived to her side, she was soaked with blood. The midwife confirmed the miscarriage to the devastated mother and fuming king. Lady Mary was inconsolable at the news.

“She killed our child, Max. How can she kill our child?” she asked before weeping bitterly.

An hour later, Queen Zania exited her chambers with her suitcase, oblivious to the crime she apparently committed. She was at the ground floor, ready to leave King Maxwell’s castle forever when he showed up mad as hell.

“You killed my child,” he accused while she stared blankly at him. She wondered what lies is mistress fabricated about her this time, but she did not bother to ask, nor defend herself. It did not matter what she said, he would believe his mistress anyway. She long stopped trying to get him to listen to her side of the story.

“Do you have anything to say?” he roared, his fists clenched. It was taking everything in him not to tear her apart right there and then.

“Divorce, Maxwell. I want divorce,” she said coldly, reminding him of everything she did to push his hand. Killing the animals was extreme, let alone pushing his mistress and killing his child.

“Guards! Throw this evil woman in the dungeon!” he commanded, but the guards hesitated. Queen Zania was royalty. Despite the lies Lady Mary perpetuated about her, they loved her still.

“Disobey me and you are all dead,” the king’s words got the guards nervously exchanging looks. Their king was furious and would definitely punish them if they disobeyed.

Queen Zania strangely did not care what happened to her. All the losses and her recent miscarriage left her numb. She let go of her suitcase, nodded her head at the guards and followed behind them.

“Drag her there!” King Maxwell roared, giving the guards no choice but to do as instructed. Her nonchalant, not remorseful attitude was ticking him off.

“Forgive us, Your Highness,” the guards mumbled under their breaths.

“This is not your doing. There is nothing to forgive,” she told them as they locked her in the dungeon. She was not surprised when two days later, she was informed of her fate. Her husband had decided to have her executed for fabricated accusations.

“I no longer love you. You were not worth it,” she whispered before a strange peace washed over her as her she received her sentence.

It was a day later when the king’s anger dissipated and he went to the dungeon to release his queen.

“Where is she?” he asked the guards, who could not look him in the eye. They were mourning their queen, whose body was just lying unburied in the dungeon. Even those who were originally from his tribe, despised him for what he had done. A full-blown rebellion was on the way to rebel against their king. As things stood, the island would have no ruler soon.

“Her body is in the dungeon, Sire,” one guard informed him which a croaky voice.

“Excuse me?”

No one spoke as he hurried inside and got greeted by his queen’s lifeless body.

He dropped on his knees and wept bitterly until the guards were utterly confused. As far as they knew, he hated his queen. They could not understand why he was weeping for her when he gave the execution order.