Dueling Kingdoms - Part 7

Author's Note:

This is a collaborative, multipart story. To gain proper context, before reading part seven, please read the following parts to see how the tale unfolds...

Part 1, written by Rowan Finley.

Part 2, written by Sibley Shamra.

Part 3, written by Rowan Finley.

Part 4, written by Sibley Shamra.

Part 5, written by Rowan Finley.

Part 6, written by Sibley Shamra.

Part 7, written by Rowan Finley - below:

As Prince Coy and Kris embraced one another, a darkly cloaked figure watched them from the far side of the rose garden. A flow of sorrowful tears hit the dusty earth below.

"I thought she said she had feelings for me... that she loved me!"

A hushed whisper said between muffled sobs. The shadowy figure was, the one and only, Prince Roy. He’d spent his entire childhood growing up with Kris. They had shared so many memories together but never a single kiss.

He'd broken away from Queen Grundel, against her desperate pleas with him to not leave again. This time, he had come alone. He'd ridden on horseback, as fast as his horse could run, to get there. His intuition told him that his brother had hired the renegades to come get Kris. He knew deep down inside that his brother wasn’t going to give up easily. Leaving the horse in the woods, he had crept up one of the sides of the fortress with a rope and dropped stealthily down into the garden area. To his complete shock and dismay, he'd found Kris and his cruel brother in the middle of a kiss. All the air in his lungs, left him.

"How could she? I don't understand!"

He yanked a rosebud off of one of the bushes, shredding the petals in anger and sadness. Full of emotion, he crumpled to the ground in dismay. His black cloak made him now appear as a large boulder in the garden. It was now very dark outside. After what felt like hours, Prince Roy, regained some semblance of composure. He stood up and climbed back up the rope that he'd previously used to climb up with. After searching in the woods, he realized that his horse had already left to go back home. It was just as well.

"Mother was right... I should have not come here. Clearly, Kris was actually in love with Prince Coy, instead… not me. It just doesn't feel possible."

Prince Roy talked aloud to himself. Kris was clearly reciprocating the passionate affection. She wasn't being forced against her own will. His evil brother was holding her waist with such confidence and pride.

Weeks later, Prince Roy was still in the midst of depression over what he had seen in the rose garden.

"Was it truly her? Could it have been someone else?”

He asked Queen Grundel one day. He didn’t look at her as he asked the, mostly, rhetorical questions. Of course Queen Grundel pounced on the vulnerable moment to respond.

"She's made her decision, Roy! Let her join the enemy. Let her go, son!"

She paused, letting her statements settle into his mind. In the next moment, one of the kingdom’s messenger spies was ushered into the room.

“Your majesty, it has been reported that knight Kris is with child and has joined the Murphinite kingdom, soon to be crowned as Prince Coy’s Queen!”

~~~~~~

The months flew by. Mitzi was one of the oldest maids that attended to Kris’s daily needs. Kris had slowly grown accustomed to being waited on hand and foot. Mitzi was her favorite maid because she was motherly, sweet, and easy to talk to.

“I’m so tired of being so emotional, Mitzi! All the time… Every day feels too unpredictable. Being a knight and training knights on how to fight was easier than this - being pregnant!”

Mitzi smiled warmly. She was helping give Kris a sponge bath.

“Feelings aren’t all bad, dear… tell me some more though…”

“Some days, I wake up and I think to myself, I’m sad. I don’t want to get out of bed and face anyone.”

“Sadness can surely cripple a soul, indeed. I’m terribly sorry you’re feeling this way…”

“Does the idea of motherhood happening very soon not make you feel any hope or excitement? You know, you can be honest with me by now.”

Suddenly, Kris couldn’t hold it in anymore. She dissolved into uncontrollable tears. Her shoulders shook with grief.

“Any day this baby will be born… And, I’m marrying a man who took advantage of me! I love him but I hate him too!”

She proceeded to tell Mitzi the whole story. Mitzi, of course, listened with impressive empathy and patience. They had formed a friendship that was built on mutual trust and respect.

Over the next several days, the other maids who helped were sent away to assist with other parts of the kingdom’s needs. Mitzi remained Kris’s only source of help because this is what Kris felt most comfortable with.

Not long following the truthful conversation, Kris’s water broke. Around thirteen hours later she began labor. Mitzi was by her side the entire time. She had helped deliver many babies in the kingdom.

After many hours of excruciating painful pushing, it was finally over.

Mitzi held the baby, which was not crying yet. Patting the baby’s chest gently and wiping the fluid off, her expression became horrified.

“Oh, dear God! He’s not breathing!”

Sadly, the baby was a stillborn. Mitz wept and held the lifeless child with Kris. They remained there for quite awhile, through the night hours. They talked and comforted one another.

The next morning, there was a knock at the door. It was Prince Coy. He’d not heard the news yet.

Mitzi answered the door with a grave expression on her face.

“Prince Coy, my deepest condolences to you…”

“Why? What happened?”

“It breaks me to bear this bad news. Your baby was born as a stillborn and shortly after giving birth, Kris… she passed away too…”

“No! It cannot be so! Where are they?”

Mitzi pointed to the bed where the stillborn lay by himself, wrapped in a blanket. Kris was not there on the bed, though there was a large cloth bag on the bed. Prince Coy wept near the bedside.

“But… where is my love, Queen Kris?”

He asked, though Kris had not been officially coronated as Queen yet because they were waiting until the child was born for the ceremony to be officiated for her. Mitzi sobbed and pointing to the large cloth bag on the bed.

“Her body rests in there.”

Prince Coy started to go closer to the cloth bag as if he was going to open it to see for himself but Mitzi stopped him.

“No, you mustn’t look! Kris’s last dying wishes before she breathed her last was that if she didn’t make it, that you wouldn’t see her body in the state of death. She blamed it on her vanity. She wanted you to remember her when she was at her best, alive!”

With tears streaming down his face, he said,

“Queen Kris… beautiful and strong woman! She’s left me for good! God, my heart breaks so!”

He looked back at the stillborn and gently kissed the small forehead.

~

The following day, the entire Murphinite kingdom held a dismal funeral procession for Kris and the infant child.

~

Away from Coy’s castle, hobbled, what appeared to be an old woman, who clutched a gnarled cane. A donkey walked alongside her. The donkey held some of her raggity bags and possessions on its back. The old woman was Kris - disguised! She was walking toward the Haus Kingdom.

With surprising fresh strength, she exclaimed to herself,

“It’s finally time for me to meet my real family!”

~~~~

Author’s Note:

Part 8 will be written by Sibley Shamra. To find her profile, follow the link below: