The Missing Crown

The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished. At first, the people of Wissoria did not panic. They only mourned their beloved Queen since the river’s unnatural behavior was a sign that their ruler had died in the past. But then the news went out that their current Queen had been attacked and kidnapped. And that was what caused the Wissorians to start panicking.

For many centuries ago, a curse was placed on Wissoria by the Nameless Witch who had been hanged for treason against their nation. A curse that would have sent Wissoria under the sea through various natural disasters if it wasn’t for the quick thinking and bravery of Tesfira, the Witch of Integrity. With magic so potent and powerful that it cost Tesfira her life, she had enchanted the crown of Wissoria’s King Kove to protect their nation. As long as the rightful monarch of Wissoria was alive and had the crown, the land and waters of Wissoria would never turn against its people.

Yes, the river would run backwards whenever a monarch died, but as long as the next heir was promptly crowned, Wissoria would not be in danger. As soon as the high priest declared the heir their new monarch, the river would return to normal. Usually, the crowning ceremony would take place within an hour.

It had been a day since Queen Irabel vanished.

Not only was the river still running backwards but the earth was starting to tremble randomly. To make matters worse, there was no sign of Queen Irabel. She had been on her way back from their neighboring nation, Voran, when they were attacked.

The perpetrators left no traces of who they were, the only sign they had been there at all was the wrecked carriage and the nine bodies of the Queen’s Guard.

Calluric would know, he had been among the first to the scene.

Not that anyone else knew that he had been there. Calluric was a druid who traveled alone ever since he found his tribe dead, and he preferred it that way. While the people from the castle searched the wrecked carriage, he surveyed the scene from above, using a magic spell to enhance his eyesight. They were too busy calling for Queen Irabel to even look up to see Calluric in a tree.

When Calluric saw all that he knew he was ever going to see, he left and when he was sure that he was alone, consulted the trees. Every druid had a special gift concerning nature, and Calluric was no different. His special gift was knowing the language of the trees. Where other people only saw a swaying of a branch, he heard about everyone who had passed by the tree that day. Trees, unlike most living things, could not see or hear, but their memory and sense of touch were unlike any other.

As such, remembering a dainty but old pair of feet along with a heavy pair running ahead of five swift pairs of feet was easy for them.

The trees could even tell Calluric where they were heading.

Calluric was quick to follow the trail after them and it didn’t take him long to find the tracks left behind by the Queen and the knight, who Calluric assumed the heavy pair of feet belonged to. The Queen’s Guard was always made up of ten knights, not nine.

That was hours ago and Calluric was still on their trail, though he had a feeling that he was getting close. A bad feeling though. While he had not yet found any signs that the assassins had caught up with them, Calluric could tell that the tracks belonging to the Queen became heavier and heavier as the trail went on. When he consulted the trees about this, they confirmed that the dainty pair of feet staggered a lot, like they were weak.

Of course, Queen Irabel was not young and could simply not be used to running for days on end. But she wasn’t that old either, and Calluric found enough evidence that they did stop to rest several times. It was at one of these rest stops that Calluric found an abandoned piece of cloth that had a dark purple smear on it. Then Calluric, through his own eyes and the trees’ retelling of events, found evidence that the knight had picked up Queen Irabel.

And the knight never let her down again.

The Queen had been poisoned. Calluric didn’t know what kind, but it made sense that the assassins would lace their arrows or knives with poison. It would explain why the assassins hadn’t caught up with them yet.

Why expend energy on a dying target after all?

This brought up the question of why go after the Queen and her last guard at all though. Did they not have the crown? Did they just want to make sure that she was well and truly gone? To see where they were trying to flee to?

Calluric was honestly curious about that too. Because it almost looked like they were trying to return to-

The trail led him down to a ravine. It wasn’t particularly deep or wide, but it would still be a good place to jump onto some fleeing prey. Even though Calluric wasn’t said prey, he was still careful as he descended the side of the ravine. When he reached the bottom, he walked slowly across it, keeping one eye on the trail and the other on his surroundings.

Because of this, he quickly found the suspicious mound of dirt, cleared of leaves.

There was a single flower on top of it.

His dread grew as he headed slowly to the mound of dirt, knowing what it meant but hoping that he was somehow wrong.

When Calluric reached the mound, he got down on one knee.

Maybe he was wrong, maybe someone else a long time ago was buried here. And the crown was just in the wrong hands.

Calluric reached his hand out.

He liked Queen Irabel. He never met her, but she was a good leader. He didn’t want her to-

A blade touched the side of his throat before his hand even touched the dirt.

“I would not disturb the Queen if I was you.” Calluric’s hand still in midair, he dared to tilt his head back just far enough to glimpse some of the silver armor of a Wissorian knight. Calluric sighed as he brought his head and hand down.

“Darn it,” he muttered. “I knew it was unlikely but I…”

Then Calluric clenched his fist.

“Why is it always the good leaders that die before their time?”

Silence briefly followed Calluric’s question before the blade left his neck.

“I am afraid I do not know the answer to that,” said the last of the knight’s guard, his voice solemn and apologetic. Calluric wasn’t disappointed, he hadn’t been expecting an answer. “Mister…?”

“Calluric. Just Calluric,” the druid answered as he stood up and faced the knight for the first time.

Despite his formal way of speaking, the knight did not have any wrinkles on his face or any gray strands in his dark hair. If anything, he only looked to be a few years older than Calluric himself.

Which was impressive since the red sash around his waist indicated that he was the Captain of the Guard.

“Ah, a druid,” the Captain said as his dark blue eyes landed on the two green birthmarks on Calluric’s face. Then the knight put his sword away. “No wonder you were able to find...us.”

“Yes, but the assassins are still out there,” Calluric said urgently. “Do you still have the crown? We need to get it back to Princess Ovisia before-”

The earth shook beneath their feet for three seconds.

“Before that gets worse,” Calluric finished bluntly. The Captain’s hand immediately went to touch the helmet hanging from his right, which was stuffed with some kind of green cloth.

“I have it, but I'm afraid we can not bring it to her,” he said. Before Calluric could even open his mouth to argue, the Captain continued.

“For it was Princess Ovisia who sent the assassins.”