Chapter 13

13

-----------------------------

"Redrik!" "Yes, Your Highness?" "Emergency delivery, no time." The Blonde Woman was pulling a very pregnant patient in behind her on a rolling white and silver bed that just barely fit through the doorway. The panicked Queen gave the two servants that had helped her roll the bed in permission to stand aside and watch if they remained quiet and behaved themselves. They were nervous but stayed silent as Redrik approached the Sultana of a foreign nation to help deliver her precious heirs. He was a studious young gentleman with platinum blonde hair, streaked with silver here and there for all the stressful work he'd been doing as of late. But nothing about him was more striking than his brilliant silver eyes. Sweat beaded his brow as he worked. He pulled his spectacles off and commanded the woman far above his station to push like her life depended on it. The first born was handed to the female servant. The second was handed to the male servant. The Blonde Woman stood by, ready to take the third and final child into her arms. But just then a gale of pure Dark Magic blasted into the room. The third child had crowned and was almost completely out now. If Redrik had been just a bit faster, everything might've been all right. At least that's what he would think punishingly to himself over and over when all was said and done. The gale of Darkness drilled right through the foreign Queen's stomach. She stopped moving entirely. Unable to give the final push needed, Redrik managed to grab the third infant out of harms way just in time. Or so he'd thought. "Rani, My Sultana!" The male servant yelled out as Rani's entire body turned coal-black and she let out a painful gasp before dying. The female servant screamed and cried. She'd tried to run to her dear Rani's side, but The Blonde Woman yanked her back into a warm embrace. "Don't touch her. This is powerful Magic. You mustn't touch her lest you carry the same fate...Redrik? Are you hurt? The Royal Physician Redrik Kulsair, the man who'd taken a vow to save human lives until his end, turned to warn The Blonde Woman with tears in his eyes, "The Magic. It's coming back! Run, My Lady!" "Not without you!" The stubborn Royal yanked Redrik and the two servants out the door with her and closed off the hospital wing as quickly as she could. The group crumpled in front of the giant iron doors. Once they'd finally caught their breath The Blonde Woman managed to ask about the babies. The two servants held their swaddled bundles tightly. The first and second were sleeping ever so soundly. Redrik's face was frozen in horror as he looked down upon the coal-black newborn and the coal-black magic spreading rapidly through his own body. There was no saving the third infant, but The Blonde Woman still wanted to stop the spread from killing her friend. She reached toward Redrik and touched his arm ever so gently. "Don't touch me! You'll be cursed too, you fool!" The Blonde Woman came to her senses. He was right, she hadn't been thinking clearly. This disease, whatever it was, wherever it came from...was highly contagious.

In the midst of the sudden hush that fell over everyone in the ward, the female servant stood up and motioned for her comrade to do the same. In her native tongue, she told him to return the living children to her homeland. In a language understood by Redrik and The Blonde Woman she stated, "Rani loved you like a sister. She would not want war between our peoples, but once our Sultan learns of her death there will surely be one. He cannot be talked to, he cannot be reasoned with. Before he travels, erase Arav's memories so that when he presents the children to Sultan Ranveer, no rage will be aimed toward the Kingdom of Krowne. No blood will be shed. Keep what happened here between you. I will go to My Sultana. Arav grabbed the young handmaiden's wrist and whispered, "Zahira, do not do this." She shook her head and released his grip. She flung the iron doors wide open and ran inside. Arav slammed them shut behind her. Zahira ran to Rani's bedside and gripped her hand tightly. The black Magic crept onto her caramel-brown skin. The gale of Darkness bounced from wall to wall. Finally, it boomeranged toward her. "I shall serve no other." Glass exploded from every window in the room. Zahira's sacrifice had not quite quelled the Magic.

"Stay here!" The Blonde Woman shouted at the men. Redrik sat in shock. Arav stood in despair. The triplets turned twins began to cry for the warmth of their mother's embrace. They would never know it. Meanwhile, The Blonde Woman was absolutely determined to chase down the Darkness that had escaped the hospital wing and eradicate it once and for all. She ran halfway across the castle miraculously keeping pace with the gale until she found herself in three year old Fiaerna's royal bed chamber. The gale was headed right for the little Princess but before The Blonde Woman could try and stop it, Fiaerna had gone and swallowed it up like a bowl of spaghetti. Then, she looked up at her mother who’d just reached the room’s entrance, wiped her mouth as if she’d just eaten a delicious meal and smiled innocently before reaching her hands out in a motion that meant she wished to be picked up by her mother. The Blonde Woman immediately fainted from the shock.