Lamp of Light

by Alex H Singh

  King Maurice cleared his throat before he spoke. “Someone praised me today.”

  “Praised? Really?”

  “I was as surprised as you look now too, my dear. It was a youth. About your age I would think. Remember the boy I told you about once? The one who ran recklessly towards the market with his cart? He collided with someone, and the cart had toppled over.”

  She nodded, remembering it all quite clearly. Her father must have seen some significance with the events of that day, because every time he told her that story, there was an odd glint in his eye.

  “Well, it was the same boy. It turns out he lost his father, and that his father had nothing but good things to say about me. It was just…odd. I’d expected some form of respectful criticism or complaint of some kind. It was refreshing.”

  Esther Anna waited for him to continue as she could sense he wasn’t finished. He seemed to be struggling with something, and in her heart, she knew it concerned her.

  “Do you remember what I’ve told you about your mother? She always knew how to make the challenging decisions. Decisions that were often for the good of the kingdom. I apologize for not mentioning this before, but I’m going to need you to think about how much good we would be doing. How much good you would be doing.” He held her hand, a bit uneasy. “I want you to know that if there had been any other option, I mean, any one at all, I would have taken it.”

  With that, he got up and walked to the door, leaving her seated on the bed, clearly confused. At the door, he turned to look at her again, as if he was about to say something, but he thought better of it and left the room in silence.

  “Hmm. Well, that was intense.” Adam cut in after a moment of silence. He walked towards her and sat on the bed. “What do you think all that was about?”

  “I have no idea…” Esther Anna replied, staring at the empty doorway. She struggled to make sense of his words, but he had been so vague that she could not make heads or tails of it.

  Adam seemed confused as well and sat across from her staring into space for a while, then her turned to her, smiling. “Cheer up, sister. You know father has always had a flair for the dramatic. It’s quite possible that whatever it is isn’t as heavy as it seems. He loves you, and I doubt he’d do anything that would put you in harm’s way, unless he wants mother to rise from the grave and give him a good ol’ knock on the head!”

  She couldn’t help smiling at the thought. Adam was right. Esther Anna knew their father loved her, and he also loved the kingdom. She only wanted to know what was needed of her.

  Maurice led his daughter towards the altar as the wedding bells chimed in the background. She looked gorgeous and he could tell from the large smile on King Pierre LaChance’s face that he thought so too. The marriage between Esther Anna and the King of Tibethia was one that would broker new ties between their two lands and bring in funds to relieve them of their current financial crises, as well as a new farming method that had been developed.

  According to the stories, Tibethia had been built on arid land. However, due to cleverness of its farmers, farming methods were developed that used as little water as possible to grow their crops, and they even implemented the use of improvised fertilizers. As a result, the crops were unnaturally resilient and were famous for growing rather large, even under even the most terrible conditions. Their kingdom’s technique was world renowned, but no one had been able to duplicate it. It was exactly what Dormality needed to turn things around.

  Pierre had taken pity on Dormality’s situation and had been more than happy to help them with whatever was needed to get back on their feet, especially considering what they were offering in return, more than willing to accept the offer of marriage. He’d seen Esther Anna at a ball and noticed her beauty, though more importantly; it was her innocence that drew him in. Since he’d lost his wife, Pierre had little interest in other women, but was intrigued by the princess. He knew that Esther Anna was a lovely young woman and reckoned her kindness and gentle demeanor might be a good example for his daughter, Noelle. She had been without a motherly figure for so long, their union would make his family whole again.

  Maurice wasn’t always sold on the idea of marrying his daughter off in favor of saving his kingdom. Arrangements like these weren’t uncommon, but he always wanted something different for her. He wanted her to have the choice over her suitors. Esther Anna did have her mother’s spirit, however, and Maurice was sure she would agree with the hope to save her kingdom. The king eventually accepted the proposal. He knew that Pierre LaChance was a good man and a noble king who would treat his daughter well and both their kingdoms would prosper. They had a meeting prior to the wedding, and Pierre and Esther Anna hit it off, with a beautiful chemistry. He spoke highly of how intelligent she was, and she’d impressed him by being well versed in places she’d never even seen.

  Then, the day had finally arrived. It was a grand ceremony, and everything was perfectly in place for Esther Anna LaPointe to be handed off to Pierre LaChance. King Maurice reached the altar and smiled brightly as he delivered her to her new husband, before going to take his place with the others. The rites proceeded without any issue. Pride shone in his eyes, as he felt the spirit of his late wife was beside him and sharing that same pride for their beautiful daughter. He sighed with relief.

  The Kingdom of Dormality had been saved once more.

  “My Queen.”

  Her lady-in-waiting greeted her, and Esther Anna smiled at the title. For so many years her father had called her the very same thing because of her mother, and now here she was an actual Queen, and now a part of the Kingdom of Tibethia. The people of Tibethia welcomed their new queen warmly, and Esther Anna LaPointe felt right at home in her new palace.

  Today, she was going to meet Pierre’s daughter, Noelle and she was both nervous and excited. The fifteen-year-old had been unable to attend the wedding as she’d been feeling under the weather and Esther Anna felt it was her duty, and would serve to foster good relations, if she checked in on her. She was led towards the other section of the castle and accompanied by two other maids.

  The guards announced her presence and then Princess Noelle ushered her in. Noelle was a beautiful young lady with a winning smile, and Esther Anna had liked her immediately. Due to their closeness in age, they looked more like sisters rather than stepmother and stepdaughter, and their relationship bloomed into a wonderful bond. Esther Anna couldn’t have asked for a more perfect companion. The girls talked about a wide range of things, especially about the subtle lifestyle differences, culture, and tradition between Dormality and Tibethia.

  The position of queen didn’t really carry as much work, though she insisted the king listen to her ideas as related to some of his policies. Pierre was so used to running the kingdom without the assistance of a queen, and after so much time he started to prefer it that way. Nevertheless, he found value in her ideas, so he listened. Aside from that, she usually had a lot free time on her hands, so Esther Anna spent some of her time with her brother or Noelle.

  Esther Anna searched the palace and couldn’t find her brother Adam, so she made her way towards Noelle’s room. As she reached the corridor, she noted the distinct lack of guards and maids around. This is quite unusual, she thought, as she hurried towards the room. Once she approached, there were odd sounds coming from inside. The queen pushed the door open and sharply gasped. She cupped a hand over her mouth and watched in horror as Noelle pranced around a maid, who she recognized as the maid Talia, hanging upside down from the ceiling, completely naked. There was an empty, claw-footed tub placed underneath her. She was paralyzed in fear as Noelle picked up stranger-looking dagger. She proceeded to make those odd and eerie sounds as she sliced the maid’s body and her blood was spilled into the tub below.

  Noelle proceeded to disrobe, and she covered herself in the woman’s blood.

  Esther Anna could not hold back her cry of disgust as she turned and ran, hoping desperately that she had not been seen or heard.
She didn’t get very far when suddenly, Noelle materialized in front of her. The queen stopped in her tracks, looking at the princess with unmistakable fear in her eyes. She could not bring herself to speak.

  Noelle looked at her with an insidious smile on her face. Her eyes rolled as she reached up, tapped Esther Anna on the forehead, and spoke in a foreign tongue.

  Everything suddenly went black.

  Over the years, Esther Anna didn’t understand why Noelle’s presence caused the hair on her neck to stand on end. She even told Adam about it, but he just brushed it off as a side effect of the changes caused by her marriage, climate due to her new locale, as she was becoming acclimated to her new palace and its staff. It was overwhelming, she agreed, but there was still something odd about the princess. Her memories were hazy between the time she’d met Noelle to the present.

  Esther Anna decided to speak with the princess, with an excuse of asking about Tibethian history, but she found the princess was not in her room. She decided to wait for her and anticipated their conversation with anxiety churning in her stomach. She’d let herself into the empty room and decided to take a quick look around as she waited. She admired the dresses and shoes and other trinkets in sight. Esther Anna approached a drawer, drawn to it for some reason, as if some invisible force pulled her towards the small enclosure. She pulled it open and found it to be full of the princess’s personal effects. Instinctively, she reached down and tapped the bottom of the drawer, smiling to herself at the hollow sound. She removed the false bottom, and there was a book hidden within.

  When she opened the book, she felt a sense of doom wash over her. As she skimmed through the text, she noticed that the book outlined spells and dark rituals, and she quickly closed it. Esther Anna placed it back into its spot in the drawer, already feeling unclean for having held it for a moment, as if she were corrupted somehow.

  Why did the princess need this book? She wondered, as she made her way out of the room.

  On one hand, there was sweet, Princess Noelle. On the other hand, there was the book she’d found, a dark tome by all standards. Esther Anna had heard of dark magic before, but most of its practitioners had been either killed or jailed since it was outlawed in most of the kingdoms. She realized then, that Noelle was not as innocent as she seemed.

  What else was she hiding?

  Chapter 2

  Present day: Kingdom of Tibethia. Forest.

  Esther Anna’s thoughts were interrupted as she heard a sound from her left, and she ducked behind a tree for cover. Could they have caught up with her so soon? She remembered the instance when Noelle materialized in front of her, the first time she’d witnessed her kill someone. How far could she really run away from someone who could just suddenly appear out of thin air? Why could she suddenly remember what happened that day? The queen even recalled the princess pressing her finger to her forehead and muttering some strange incantation.

  Did that make sense? She wondered. She wasn’t sure what to think. Her chest burned, exhausted from running for so long. She peeked from behind her hiding place and saw a deer running in the opposite direction. That must have been what she heard, she realized, as she breathed a sigh of relief.

  She sat down, realizing how much she needed the rest. Her cheek burned slightly, and she was aware of the pain now as the adrenaline rush died down a little. She reached up to touch her face, tracing the trail of dried blood on her face. The queen inspected the bruise on her leg and massaged her feet. Both feet felt raw and swollen as she touched them. She listened for the sound of rushing water amidst the other forest sounds but heard nothing of the sort. With a deep sigh, she rested back against the tree as her mind again wandered back to the events that led to her present situation…

  Earlier that day: Kingdom of Tibethia. Castle grounds.

  Esther Anna dabbed some perfume on her neck. She’d just finished a relaxing bath and got dressed, knowing that Pierre would comment about how good she smelled. It’d been three years since they wed and the love for her king had grown. He treated her well and respected her opinions, often commenting on how she was truly the one who now ran the kingdom. He always knew the right things to say.

  As she was about to leave, her eyes caught sight of the necklace that was hanging over her desk drawer. She’d taken it from Noelle’s room without asking, though she did plan to tell her. Eventually. They were like sisters, after all, and it was customary to borrow jewelry and other belongings without permission. Esther Anna figured she might not mind. She shoved aside the slight feeling of guilt and slipped it around her neck. Esther Anna was drawn to it for its beauty, and she knew her husband would admire it as well. She checked herself once more in the mirror before making her way to his room.

  As she made her way towards the room, she noticed that the guards were not at their posts. She had a rush of déjà vu and instinctively rushed towards the door. Once inside, she stopped in her tracks and gasped, petrified by this new encounter. The queen expected to find her husband in the room, and that she did. Pierre was indeed standing there, but to her surprise, she saw him facing a woman who looked identical to Esther Anna herself. The sight made her feel so lightheaded. Before she could regain her composure, the other woman produced a knife and in one fluid motion, drove the blade into Pierre’s neck.

  Esther Anna stifled a scream, her horrified gaze moving from her husband to the woman who still had the murder weapon in her hand. His eyes widened with surprise as he grabbed his neck. It was an effort in futility however, as the blood gushed out of the wound. It wasn’t long after that King Pierre LaChance perished, slain by a woman he presumed was his own wife.

  Right before her eyes, the strange and evil woman began to shift: her hair color lightened, her height was lessened by a couple of inches, and everything about her changed until her face and figure became someone familiar…the face of Princess Noelle.

  NO!

  Esther Anna was struck with a sharp pain in her head that made her stagger back. She barely registered Noelle as she passed by, hardly regarding her in this state, barely sparing her a glance. This headache came with memories, and Esther Anna began to recall things, like the sight of Noelle prancing around the naked form of one of the maids, Talia? Was it? That was when she saw the princess with the dagger that sliced through the girl’s flesh and the blood was gathered into the tub below. The princess bathed in her blood and muttered something in a strange language. She remembered it all, now.

  Tonight, Noelle had taken Esther Anna’s form to kill Pierre, with every intention of framing her for it. She had to escape, or she would be convicted and sentenced to death for something she didn’t do. Esther Anna held her head as the headache started to subside, as pieces came together, and the thought struck her: She had to get out of the palace.

  Esther Anna quickly fled, taking the stairs in bounds as she made her way down a corridor that would take her to a seldom-used exit out of the palace. It took her a moment to realize that she was barefoot, but she didn’t care, as she needed to leave the palace before they discovered the body of her beloved husband. She passed by the corridor and heard two things simultaneously: A voice that belonged to Noelle, and her name, and the princess was even sobbing.

  “The queen…Esther just killed my father! Please find her, I think she collapsed or something, she’s in the king’s quarters!” Noelle exclaimed.

  Esther Anna went down on all fours quickly before she could be spotted, and she heard the guards comply with the princess’ plea, scattering into the palace. Once it was clear, she made her way down the corridor and bounded down the stairs before arriving at the exit. It was a place Pierre had showed her before, when he first gave her a tour of the palace grounds, one he said he would use when he wanted to leave the palace unseen to mingle with the people, much like her own father would do back home. As she made her way out of the palace, Esther Anna sprinted into the forest as fast as her legs could take her; she heard the palace alarm bells sound off.

 
The search was on.

  Present time: Kingdom of Tibethia. Castle grounds.

  Noelle stared at the guards with disgust. She hated incompetence, and they knew it. What was so hard in capturing someone? Wasn’t that all they were good for? Guarding and capturing? Spineless lot. She had half a mind to flay them; after all, she was the new highest-ranking person in the Tibethia, and was effectively their new queen. She smiled at the thought.

  “What do we do, princess?” The head of the guards asked with a puzzled expression on his face as he noticed the smile. How can she smile when her father has just been killed and she’s been told that the killer is still at large?

  Defiance eh? That can be corrected, but not now. Noelle feigned her grief, “Please… you have to find her. She killed the king; didn’t you see his body?”

  The guard shifted, apparently uncomfortable in the presence of the grief-stricken princess.

  “Search everywhere. My father’s killer will not go unpunished. If she’s no longer on the castle grounds, go into the forest, that’s the only other place she could have gone. Let it be known, that nobody is to harbor the queen because she killed your king! Anyone found housing her, will be subject to the same fate that awaits her.”

  The guards nodded, obediently, and they stood at high alert. The head of the guard divided his men into teams and they dispersed, with the intent of spreading news of the queen’s unthinkable act to the people of Tibethia.