bitter water // dreamnotfound

sixteen

the news had spread like wildfire despite the king and queen’s best efforts.

Of course, they didn’t want to conceal the truth. They couldn’t suppress a mattering death from an entire kingdom; especially since it was the loss of the oldest prince, the upcoming king, the one everyone was counting on. They just didn’t want it to be announced by anybody but them. Wilbur was fully aware that if it emerged from the grounds of the castle and surfaced into the town, it would send the citizens into full-blown panic mode. Because the identity of the assassin was unbeknownst to everyone but the middle prince, nobody would be able to discover the news and remain calm.

When Niki had turned the handle and entered the bedroom to ask him but a simple question, her heart had been instantly shredded to pieces with no remorse and no sign of falter. The scene of her dear and treasured son bleeding out on his floor was something she wasn’t at all prepared for. It was so much more than horrific. She didn’t have a clue what to do, her mind couldn’t process the fact that her beloved boy was laying inertly with a knife split through his chest. It didn’t feel like real life. Just like Eret had believed it to be nothing but a nightmare at the moment, so did she. Niki had immediately cried out for help and rushed to his side, but he was long gone. It was evident, even to her. Her own lungs felt heavy and tense, she couldn’t scream anymore or else her voice threatened to become strained and hoarse. It already felt like she couldn’t breathe.

His hands were icy and stiff in her own. She didn’t care about the blood that now painted gruesome patterns on her gown, it was the least of her worries. “Eret… Dear...”

Niki began to weep. She didn’t know why she hadn’t begun to sooner. The poor queen cried the hardest she had ever cried before. She wasn’t ready for him to leave this world quite yet. Niki just wanted more than anything for him to outlive her by years and lead the healthiest and greatest kingdom the world had ever seen. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve this at all. All the struggles… All the barriers, all the challenges. He worked through all of them so diligently, why would someone do this? She just wanted him to be happy… was that too much of a request?

Niki’s chest ached at the thought of his bed remaining empty for the rest of her life.

Tears dripped from her chin to dampen the fabric of his puffy sleeves. Niki was pleading for someone, anyone to come and help. To come and reassure her that this wasn’t happening, that she was just having an awful nightmare. That her darling son wasn’t dead in her arms.

Wilbur had heard her cries echoing through the halls and quickly came to her aid, along with two guards. However, he ordered them to stay outside the room unless beckoned. The second the king entered the room, not a thing felt right. He didn’t even cry, he just felt entirely empty. He no longer had three sons.

“Wil… please. Please tell me this isn’t real. Please, please, Wilbur. What... did I do wrong?...” Niki’s voice was soft, yet tremulous... and entirely broken. She hated herself for not checking on him sooner. Maybe, just maybe, if she had done so, he wouldn’t be dead.

“Niki…”

He didn’t speak for a good ten seconds, he just watched the cheerful supportiveness drain from his wife. It was a disheartening thing to witness.

“Niki, you did nothing wrong… This isn’t your liability.”

The king crouched beside Niki, taking her into his arms. As disconnected as they often felt, now was the time she needed him most; thankfully he was able to pick up on the signal. It was discernible that she was not going to be the same for a long, long time, if ever. Wilbur frequently felt like she’d be much better off without him in her life, so as she wept into his chest, he wondered about how much less grief she’d be in if they had never been betrothed.

---

The news quickly clouded the kingdom, bringing prominent concern and grief to every individual. Nobody knew how the word got out since neither Queen Niki nor King Wilbur had made any official statements. The pair received word from a gate guard that it was spreading through the town like a fire on a wooden pathway. They assumed a guard that had been present at the scene let something slip to an untrustworthy ear.

Normally, death was welcomed.

Everyone was told day and night that the afterlife would be better, life was short and temporary, there was nothing to fear. They were told that they should look forward to it if anything. However, it was different this time. It wasn’t just a farmer with a wife and no children that had passed, or a two-day-old baby born to a poor family that most likely wouldn’t have an impact on the world. It was a prince who had been trained for over a decade and a half on how to be a perfect king. The two other princes were never trained as much as Eret had been.

That meant that Clay would be pushed to be next in line… and everyone knew how that went last time.

“Have you heard the news?”

“The prince… he was killed.”

“Prince Alastair is dead!”

“He was found stabbed in the back and the chest in his bedroom.”

“King Alastair will be no more…”

“Prince Clay… He can’t become king… can he?”

“The weapon was a dagger… I heard it was crafted by a metalworker in this town. It would make sense, but it’s just so scary.”

The dagger used to murder Prince Alastair sat in a crown official coroner’s office, still stained with the blood of its victim. It had gone public that the dagger was made by none other than the town’s youngest blacksmith, George Davidson.