The Red Throne | TUQ Book Two

26 | redemption

             The palace halls were cold and lonely at night, as if they had been abandoned for a thousand years.

The stone walls, overgrown with vines glowed a dim green underneath the full moon, and the faint sound of dripping water echoed through the long, twisting stairwells.

A figure, tall and lean, cloaked in all black, emerged from the Queen's chambers, her eyes glinting in the darkness.

Locks of curly gilt locks framed her small face, and though her features were sweet and demure, her eyebrows were set into a deep frown, and her lips were taut and stern.

Lillianna Reinmar was no fool.

To the ignorant, she might seem like a simple servant, slaving away for the Queen's favour, but Lillianna had a different motive.

The Reinmar family hailed from the Cantergarrian mountains, and the folk of Cantergarre never adhered to any form of religious faith, and they built small temples within their villages instead of parishes and cordesanes.

They devoted themselves to nature and practiced witchcraft, and for thousands of years they had existed this way, living peacefully without outside intervention.

    This peaceful way of living was ruined once the Arrinella Cordesane was established in the capital city, and the people in the northeastern provinces, particularly Hasteburn and Lansbury were soon very devout worshippers.

As time grew, the people only grew more fanatical, and then a sense of responsibility was born. The need to convert every person on the continent to their faith.

The Winterbournes in the north were reluctant, but they converted anyways. The southern cities of Sutherland and Rhyland were sparsely inhabited in the past, so the House of Hasteburn set their sights elsewhere.

            The Cantergarrians.

Any man or woman who refused to convert would be locked up in their houses, which would later be burnt down, simultaneously killing them, and those who managed to escape retreated further into the mountains, far away from human contact.

The Reinmars were lucky. Lillianna's ancestors were wealthy barons, and thus the Hasteburns were unable to harm them.

The House of Reinmar survived the massacre, but their neighbours did not. The purging of Cantergarrian folk continue to this day, and Lillianna has had enough.

The members of the House of Hasteburn have reduced significantly in recent times, and all that remains of that murderous household is the head of the family, Lord Rupert, the Marquis of Hasteburn, his daughter Melissa, and his brother, the Grand Priest of the Arrinella Cordesane, Oswald Hasteburn.

In terms of power, the Marquis of Hasteburn was on par with the great Earl of Rhyland.

Lillianna knew that the Winterbournes were not any better than the Hasteburns, and she had witnessed the Queen's bloodthirst firsthand. But at the very least, the Winterbournes ruled the south with fairness and tolerance, and public burnings and executions were unheard of.

Lillianna had a goal in mind when she first accepted to become the Queen's lady-in-waiting-- it is to completely annihilate the Hasteburns using the Queen's hand.

The Marquis had been a bit too late when he proposed that the King should take his daughter as a bride-- Edmund de Chauvelot was already betrothed to Anne Winterbourne. But taking concubines were nothing out of the ordinary, and so a concubine Melissa Hasteburn became.

       Now, all that Lillianna had to do was to ensure that Melissa could never threaten the Queen's position.

She had thought about feeding the concubine with a poison that leaves her infertile, cutting off the Hasteburn line for good, but that would undoubtedly implicate the Queen.