The Red Throne | TUQ Book Two

19 | envy

"I had laid the curse on her," my mother-in-law says. "But she will not die just yet. We must wait two fortnights, and when she is at her weakest, we shall perform another ritual to complete the curse."

The roses that she had thrown into the fireplace had begun to burn and shrivel, but instead of smelling like the flower, they smelled like blood instead.

"Mama, the smell is horrendous," I exclaimed, simultaneously covering my nose and mouth with my sleeve. "It smells like something just died in here."

My mother-in-law gave a nonchalant shrug. "You must get used to it, Anne," she says.
"This smell will linger around you for the next few weeks. When Lacey Ross dies, it will eventually dissipate. I have prepared some elugia oil beforehand, which will mask the smell from others."

"What about me, Mama ?" I urged. "I cannot stand this stench any longer!"

"You wanted to lay a curse on someone, Anne," she retorted hotly. "Did you actually think that you could just simply curse someone and get away with it ? This is a small price to pay in turn for what you wished for."

I slumped against the wall, tightly covering my nose with my hands so that I would not smell that horrific stench. The entire room smelled like a pot filled with pig's blood that had been simmered overnight, and bile begun to rise up my throat.

"Put your hand away, Anne," my mother-in-law ordered. "If you do end up suffocating yourself to death, not only will the curse not work, you will also die in vain."

I begrudgingly put my hands aside, and the awful stench filled my nostrils once more. My Lady, the King's Mother pulled out a small glass bottle from her pocket and placed it in my palm.

"This is called elugia oil," she tells me. "Spread it on your forehead and wrists each morning when you wake up, and nobody will smell it. You must do it every day without fail, Anne. Few people know about this curse, but words spread like wildfire. It would not take long for them to realise what you had done."

I stared at the bottle in my hand. The oil was thick, almost silver in colour, and it shone brilliantly in the dim lighting. "I won't forget, Mama."

When I opened my eyes the next morning, the first thing I did was to reach for the bottle, which I had put underneath my pillow. As I spread the oil on my forehead, I saw Lillianna saunter into the room and bowed deeply at the sight of me.

"Are you laughing at me, Lillianna ?" I mutter while hastily fastening the bottle cap. "I am a joke, aren't I ?
I cursed an innocent woman because I am afraid of losing my husband's affection, and now I can't even lay with him because I fear that he will smell the blood on me."

"No, not at all, Your Majesty," Lillianna says curtly. "If I were in your position, I would have done the same, perhaps even worse."

"Oh ?" I exclaimed, now deeply intrigued. "What would you do, Lillianna ?"

"I would have laid a much more vicious curse, Your Majesty. That woman had purposely humiliated you in front of everyone on your coronation feast. Don't you think that she deserves much worse than a simple wasting curse ?"

"What is a wasting curse ?"

"The curse that My Lady, the King's Mother had laid on the Dame Rivers. From this day onwards, the Dame will gradually become weaker and weaker, but she will not die unless you complete the curse, which involves burning a lock of her hair.

You can either choose to let her suffer for the rest of eternity by not completing the curse, but you will be plagued by this stench of blood for the rest of your life."