Evil Lurking in the shadows

"How did he take my daughter and none of you could stop him? Where were the guards?" The king's loud voice was booming through the courtroom where everyone was standing side by side, their heads hanging low.

"What about you Alec?" The King addressed his loyal general. "You had us assured that he was a trustworthy man. Where did he find the courage to enter my Palace and steal from me?"

Some of them who dared looking up found their King's face red with anger and hands gripping on to the handles of the throne.

A servant came forward and whispered something into the general's ear before stepping back to his place.

"The laboratory personnel are here, my Lord." The general informed the King, hesitation clear in his tone due to the previous scolding.

"Let them in." He allowed the visit with a slight nod of his crowned head.

A team consisting of three men and two women in formal attires and white coats above them walked into the courtroom and stood aside after bowing to the King one by one.

One of them who looked quite aged and had thick framed glasses over his round face walked ahead and performed the act of courtesy before starting, "We are afraid we didn't find anything in the air and drink samples that could have caused the sudden unconsciousness."

He turned his head to the side and gestured to one of his team members. The one who was being gestured at walked forward and passed on the lab reports to a servant who then passed them on to the King.

The King looked at the paper's one by one that clearly showed that there was nothing unusual sprayed in the air or added to the drinks that caused all of the people present in the ballroom to pass out.

After a few seconds of frowning at the reports, he threw them off in the air and they landed on the ground near his feet. Two maids immediately ran forward to pick them up.

"Call out the best professionals from the town." The King stood up and the heads hung a little lower than before. "I want my daughter back in the Palace within two days. Spread out the word with a promise of great reward. We need to fulfill the promise we made to King Geiger." He waved his hand at the end and everyone immediately left the courtroom except the general.

"Alec, find him from anywhere. Get her back. You know our future depends on Claudia's marriage to the King. We have no other option." The king sat back down on the throne but this time his body and head weren't as taut as they were in the session but he looked tired and worried.

"Your command is my wish, my Lord." The general bowed his head before leaving.

As he was walking down the Palace corridors, something was turned off in his striking grey eyes. They didn't have the same shine in them as they used to. He served the King after the death of his father from a very young age but it hurt him when the King didn't trust him with the news of the Princess's marriage. He didn't know if it was the fact that he wasn't being informed earlier or the news itself that ached his heart.

Now he had to save the kingdom and serve his King or save his heart, a very hard choice to make.

Indeed a very hard one!

~

"But what if it was not a kidnap but she ran with that man herself. They may be…"

"Enough!" The warning tone of the King's voice caused the Queen to shut up immediately but she was satisfied that she had thrown her card and watching the King's expression she knew she threw it at the right time.

"Alright, I won't say anything. But you need to consider other options in case she couldn't be found in two days or what if we find her but she isn't pure anymore." She stopped for a moment while her hand was slowly brushing her black hair.

She looked at her husband from the mirror. His eyes were closed but there was anything but peace over his face. When he didn't respond, she continued, "King Geiger won't wait forever. You have more daughters as well. You know I have never treated Claudia any less than my own daughters but she didn't even care for you, me or her people. If it's about saving the kingdom, I am willing to marry off one of my daughters to the King." She threw her last card.

She can feel her husband's gaze on her but acted to be carelessly brushing her hair with a concerned look on her face.

In the first option, if Claudia would have married off to the foolish King, she would have gotten rid of her forever and one of her own daughters would have become the crown princess. Now that the option didn't seem to be working, what was wrong with the marriage of her elder daughter to the foolish but rich King.

She looked up in the mirror, massaging serums into her wrinkling neck and masking a smirk that threatened to escape over her thin lips.

A daughter married to be the Queen of a Kingdom and another becoming the crown princess of other until her son grows up strong enough to take over his destined throne, for her it had turned out better than expected!

She spared one last glance towards her husband who was already dozed off due to the medicine she had a maid mixed up in his tea.

"Without that smart daughter of yours, it would be so easy to get rid of you, just like I got rid of her mother." She whispered with an evil glint in her cat like narrow eyes and walked out of the room.

It was time to work on her plan.