by Kate Sander
They reached the door to the King’s and Queen’s chambers and Armend knocked, Sebastian standing a little behind him. A servant boy answered the door. “I’m sorry sir, the King and Queen were not expecting you and I’m afraid the Queen has stepped out.
Armend smiled and answered, “That’s fine. Just take us to the guest chambers and tell the King we are here. If he doesn’t want to see us we can show ourselves out. Bring us some beer after you tell the King we are here.”
The boy nodded and opened the door wide, allowing them in. He led them to the guest room and closed the door.
“Get over to the corner,” Armend said to Sebastian, shooing him with his hand, “I don’t want you to ruin this.”
Sebastian shrugged and went to the corner, sitting by the window sill. He was looking forward to winning fifty Kritz. There was a new bare-knuckle fighter in the market tonight and he wanted to place a bet.
The King strode in, looking harried and tired. “Armend. I’m surprised. You don’t usually bother me in the mornings. What do you need? And where’s that kid? I need a beer to wake up.”
“I already instructed him to bring some,” Armend said. He was trying to do his best to look sad and dejected, even though the excitement raged through him. The boy stepped through with three pints of ale and left the room.
The King collapsed on the couch and put his face in his hands, “Armend, make this good. I have a hangover and I’m not in the mood for whatever it is you and your minion have to say. Council starts soon and I need to prepare.”
“We have intercepted a letter intended for the Queen,” Armend said. The King sat up fast and his eyes bored into Armend’s face. Suddenly and without question, Armend knew he had made a terrible mistake.
The King went bright, “You have greatly overstepped your bounds.” He was so angry the words were coming one at a time. Armend stood up and backed toward the door, trying to look abashed. “How dare you! How dare you intercept a letter to my wife? It’s none of your business what my wife does and who she receives letters from. It’s not even any of my business,” The King stood up, grabbed a pint of ale from the table and threw it at the wall. It whizzed past Armend’s ear and shattered, soaking the carpet. He grabbed a second glass and took a large drink, slammed it back onto the table and started pacing the room.
“It speaks of treason, my lord,” Armend stammered.
The King whipped around and pointed at him, “I don’t give a fuck what it talks about. You’re supposed to be my uncle. You’re supposed to respect me and thus, respect my wife. Where is it?” When Armend stood still, the King said slowly, “Where. Is. It?”
Armend held it out to him. This was not going how he had planned. He looked foolish. And the embarrassment quickly morphed into anger. That stupid boy was going to let his wife do whatever she wanted because he had no backbone to control her. What kind of man lets his wife make the decisions?
The King strode forward and snatched the letter from Armend’s hands. He didn’t even read it, just threw it in the fire. The King watched it burn, back towards him. Armend’s hands shook violently. Anger clouded everything. He made a brash decision and quickly pulled the Melanthios vial out of his robes and emptied it into the King’s glass of ale.
He should have done this long ago.
“I’m sorry I overstepped,” Armend said to the King’s back. “We’ll leave. I will see you at council. I hope we can mend this. I’m just trying to take care of my nephew.”
The King grunted, ignoring them, and stared at the jumping flame. Armend and Sebastian left the chamber. Sebastian held out his hand and Armend pushed passed him, “I’m not fucking paying you. Get over it.” Armend’s face was red and he was breathing in short gasps. He strode away from Sebastian.
“Careful,” Sebastian called after him, “You don’t have a lot of friends left.”
The incomprehensible yell that Armend let loose at him made Sebastian chuckle and he followed Armend at a safe distance.
Armend knew that Sebastian would follow him and protect him, just like he knew he would pay Sebastian. He just needed time to cool off. What he just did started to hit him. Sol XVII would understand and forgive him. He was protecting Solias, and if that meant murdering his best friend’s son? Well, so be it.
A plan formulated for the aftermath. Really, this was the best way. He should have thought of it long ago.
He checked the sun and headed for the council chamber a bit early.
They entered and he dug fifty Kritz out of his robes and gave them to Sebastian. Sebastian flashed a smile and stepped to his usual corner. Armend needed him. Solias was about to change.
Armend sat and collected his thoughts. He didn’t know how any of this was going to happen, but he needed to be able to adapt. He figured he could make all of this worth his while. Solias needed a strong leader, not the snivelling offspring of a great man.
The rest of the council trickled in. Armend waited. He knew what he had to do. This would turn out for the best. The King and Queen turned up last. The King was still red in the face and avoided his gaze.
Avoid all you want, Armend thought, I will have the last laugh.
The Alchemist made his usual introduction to the meeting and the council sat down. The Queen started with some bullshit about something, and Housing answered. Armend wasn’t paying attention. He kept a close eye on the King. When nothing happened, Armend started to get worried. What if the King had thrown a temper tantrum when they left and had thrown the glass of ale? Armend had started to sweat in his robes. He didn’t have a plan if the King survived.
“And therefore,” Housing said, “I believe we need to put more money into the slums. It will help those who are less fortunate, allowing them to get better jobs and pay more stipends to the crown.”
The King coughed and pulled a bit on the top hem of his robes. Housing stumbled to a stop awkwardly. The King nodded to her and she continued, “We need to create a more positive environment for those people so they can be a productive…” She drifted off when the King coughed again.
Armend felt victorious! He had won. The King pulled on the top hem again and started to sweat. His blonde hair dripped and was sticking to the top of his head.
The Queen patted his arm and whispered, “Darling, are you alright?”
He coughed again and started gasping. His face went pale, his lips cherry red.
“Darling?”
The King slammed his fists against the table. He slouched over the table gasping then fell on his side to the floor. Everyone at the table stood up, concerned. The Queen knelt beside him and shook his shoulder.
He started to writhe on the floor, his breath rasping and rattling in his chest. His face went bright red as his lips went blue.
The Queen looked up wild eyed, “Someone go and get a healer. Hurry!” She yelled.
Goods ran out of the room. The Queen rolled the King on his back. His breathing gurgled then went silent as he tried desperately to get air into his flooded lungs. Armend ran around to him and clutched his hand.
“Sol, what happened?” he said, wiping a tear from his eye. The rest of the council chamber was quiet. Tight lipped, they stared at the end of their King. Goods rushed in with the head healer of Solias, a white haired old man whose family had served the Sol’s for generations.
“What happened?” he asked Intelligence as he ran passed. There was no time for an answer. The King was tiring, his lips were pursed and he was focusing all his energy on attempting to breathe. His eyes found the Queens and he stared at her. He tried to mouth something to her. She was crying now and clutching his hand. He blinked a few times slowly and his body relaxed.
The healer stood by his side and checked the King’s pulse. “He’s dead,” the healer said, “I’ve seen this before. It is a poison preferred by the Melanthios.” He looked around wildly at his dead leader, “He’s dead!” He yelled to the council. Housing screamed and fainted. All the others were white-faced and tight-lipped
.
The Queen was holding the dead King’s hand, rocking back and forth. Armend was still on his other side. He caught the Queen’s eye and his heart went cold. She sent him a dark look and he realized she knew. He didn’t know how, but the Queen knew Armend had killed him. Armend needed to be more cunning than ever before. He hung his head and forced the tears to come. He wept with the rest of the council.
Interlude - James
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was a light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
James put down the copy of The Lord of the Rings, his hands trembling. Liz had always loved the movies, but he wasn’t sure if she had ever read the books. He had decided to start them with her. Lizzie’s episodes, where her heart rate would spike and she would thrash in her bed, had grown to an all-time high. They were happening frequently, almost daily. He was worried, and he guessed that the doctors were as well as they called his family to this meeting.
James kissed Liz on the forehead. She had been still all day, heart rate steady, and James took it as a good sign. “I’m going for a meeting about you sis. I’ll make sure they take care of you, all right? Hang in there buddy. We will keep reading this tomorrow. I’m not sure what to move on to next. You’ll have to wake up and tell me.”
Checking his watch, James rose and left the room. It was ten to ten. He hoped his mother would show up this time. If not, he would have to check with his lawyer again about transferring Liz’s power of attorney to himself. The usual anger bubbled in his stomach when he thought of his mother.
Now was not the time to be angry. It didn’t matter that him and his mom were fighting. What mattered right now was Lizzie. He needed to be smart and make the right decision for his sister.
He walked into the conference room and Lizzie’s regular nurse, Amanda, was already there. She rose when he entered and gave him a big bear hug. James just wanted to cry on her shoulder but he managed to keep it together.
“It’s okay James. We’re good,” she said, patting his back. She was a couple of years older than him and really was beautiful. Under any other circumstances, he would have asked her on a date. He knew that under any other circumstance she would have said yes. But not here and not now.
He broke the hug, untangling himself from the long black hair. She already had a tissue out and he wiped his eyes.
“Sorry,” he said, “You’d think three years into this I would be used to it.”
Amanda shrugged and took her seat, “No worries. Nothing to apologize for. Sometimes it gets me too and I didn’t even know your sister before the accident.”
James nodded, and checked his watch again, “Any sign of my mother?”
Amanda looked down and paid a lot of attention to her nails, lips pursed. James knew she didn’t care for his mother and the lack of attention she paid her daughter. James agreed with her, but appreciated her not saying it out loud. “Nope,” came her short reply.
The door opened and the Head of Neuroscience from the University of Toronto strode in. James had never met him before, he had only spoken to him on the phone. James forgot his name. Amanda saved him and said, “James, this is Dr. Wu from Toronto. He has your sister’s case.” James rose and shook his hand. He was a tall middle-aged man, with heavily lidded eyes and short greying brown hair.
“Nice to meet you James. Thank you Ms. Nguyen for joining us as well.”
Amanda nodded and they all sat down.
“James, I was hoping your mother would be here as well. There are some important decisions to make regarding your sister and her care,” Dr. Wu said, adjusting his glasses and keeping his sisters file closed in front of him.
James reddened, “I’m sorry… She’s not handling things well right now. I’m currently working with a lawyer to transfer Liz’s power of attorney, but I’m starting my Masters and I’m having trouble finding the money to put it through.”
Dr. Wu nodded, “I understand. I am hoping that we will be able to present a very concise and thorough argument to your mother and a detailed game plan. Hopefully your mother will then give her approval for the plan and we will all be happy.”
James ignored the shame. It didn’t help him right now, and honestly the doctor had probably seen worse. This doctor clearly cared about his sister. He had the file in front of him closed, so at least he’d read it before the meeting. James hoped they could coerce his mother into making a decision that was best for Liz.
“Now,” Dr. Wu continued, “on to Elizabeth. She is in a type of coma that only a handful of people in the world are in. As you might have found in personal research, the longer people are in a vegetative state, the less likely they will wake up. Fortunately for you, the “attacks” of the thrashing and raised heart rate might mean that she isn’t exactly vegetative. This is the research my team is doing. We have another candidate in London as well, who has been showing remarkably similar behavior as your sister, but has been in a coma for almost forty years.”
James blanched. Hope seeped away. He didn’t want that fate for Liz. Forty years in a hospital in a coma seemed like hell. Tears formed and James sniffled. Amanda grabbed his hand and squeezed.
Dr. Wu gave him a minute to compose himself, “Yes,” he said, “It does sound dismal. I won’t give you any false hope. However, we are hoping that if you allow Liz to be my patient, the research may lead to a way to wake her up. If it doesn’t, we’re hoping it will allow us further developments to wake others up after her.”
James nodded and wiped his eyes with his sleeve, “Ok. That makes sense. What will it mean for us? Do we have to move her? And no more experimental drugs, right? Those last ones almost killed her.” James recalled the terror at seeing his sister’s heart rate drop to below thirty after the drugs were administered. She’d almost died. They had dragged him out of the room screaming and had to give her an electric shock to reset her heart.
“No,” Dr. Wu said, frowning, “Dr. Freedman, the man conducting those experiments, has had his license revoked and has been removed from research. We’re still not sure how he found out about your sister, but we know those drugs weren’t properly tested.”
James nodded, “But you understand my caution at trusting another doctor with her? The last one almost killed her.”
“Yes, I understand. Frankly I think Freedman should have been arrested and convicted for what he did to your sister. But, he disappeared soon after he administered the drugs. I’m not even sure if that man was a doctor. I need you to trust me. Security in this facility has been doubled. That won’t happen again. I will be one-hundred percent honest with you about your sister’s condition and what we will be doing. You will be a part of it at every step.”
“OK, what do you have in mind?”
“I have received a special clearance from this institution to conduct the research here. She will be hooked up to a machine that monitors brain waves. We will move a doctoral candidate here from my team who is working on her thesis. Your sister will be her case. She wanted to come but we didn’t want to overwhelm you in our first conversation.”
“Will it hurt her?”
The Doctors face softened, “No. It won’t. I can have it arranged so you get hooked up first so you see how it will feel. You won’t feel anything. We just have to shave a couple spots on her head to attach electrodes.”
James nodded, “OK, that’s OK then. Even if Liz doesn’t wake up, she’d want it so she helped others.”
Dr. Wu was nodding his agreement when James’ mess of a mother burst through the door. Red faced and swaying slightly, it took a minute for her eyes to focus. Hair disheveled, clothes a mess, she looked homeless. James rose to intercept her at the door. He was appreciative when he hea
rd Dr. Wu and Amanda begin to talk about plans for his sister to give them a semblance of privacy.
“Mom, what the fuck? You’re thirty minutes late,” James said harshly, grabbing her arm and steering her further to the corner, away from Amanda and Dr. Wu. “And you smell like a goddamn brewhouse.”
“Don’t swear at me,” she said, poking him in the chest, “I’m still your mother and you will give me respect.”
“Mom are you drunk?”
“No!” she said, keeping her finger where it was, “I stopped drinking last night. I just slept in, all right?”
“Where are the boys?”
“Staying with their grandparents. Don’t you dare question my parenting.”
“Of course I’m going to question your fucking parenting. Did you forget you have a daughter?”
“How dare you!” she snarled at him, “I know I have a daughter. But she’s gone, James. There’s nothing left of her. She died when her father did, in that accident.”
“Mom we’re in a hospital. Clearly she’s not dead.”
“She’s dead. She isn’t going to wake up. You need to move on, hun,” she grabbed his face with both hands as he started to weep, “She would want you to move on.”
“She’s not dead mom. I’m not giving up on her. She moves her eyes under their lids, her hands move sometimes. She’s not a vegetable. I’m not giving up on her, even if you do,” he was grabbing her hands, pleading. “Please mom. I need you. Liz needs you. She needs the boys. She needs her family. It’s the only chance she has. I know dad would never have given up on her.”
His mother was crying as well. Her face had been scarred in the accident by broken glass. That was her only injury. The boys had walked away. His father had died, and if it wasn’t for that suitcase, Liz would have been fine. They all knew that. “It wrecked me, losing your father,” she said.
“I know, mom. You’ve had your three year pity party. You need to step up. Stop getting drunk and take care of your kids. All of them. Lizzie is still here.”
