VIII

There was a gentle knock on the door and Helen left to the door.

Helen stared at the Queen's personal maid with her effort not to make her disdain visible visibly fruitless.

"My master is taking her bath. As soon as she is done, I will ask her if she wants to have dinner with the Queen," Helen replied to the request of the servant asking her to tell Aurora to go to the Queen's chamber for her dinner.

"Her royal highness wants your Princess Aurora to come over to her place for dinner. She says it is an order not a request," the Queen's maid told Helen with the disdain she felt towards the princess and Helen clearly audible in her voice.

"I will deliver your request to the princess when she is done with her bath," Helen told her bent on not accepting the words of the Queen as an order to her master.

"I said it is an order not a request," the Queen's made shouted as her patient began running out.

She hated Aurora and Helen as much as every other servant in the palace did or perhaps even more because she was the Queen's maid and she has watched the king treat Aurora better than his wife.

The bath tub the princess Aurora was most likely using right now was one of the things her master has desired but her husband the Queen gave it to that bad luck who should have been sent out of the palace long ago with the witch she always stays with.

"What is happening?" Aurora asked when she heard a shout from outside. She gasped placing her hand on her throat, why the hell does her voice sound so much like a boy, deeper?

"I heard a man's voice," the servant sudden said as she tried to enter the room but she was stopped by Helen who calculated fast enough to put her leg in the woman's way making her fall to her face. The marble fall must have left a serious injury in her forehead.

"Now, you should get that treated," Helen said as she pulled the woman up and pushed her outside before shutting the door behind her. "Who was that?" Helen asked when she stood before her master whose facial features looked handsome not prettily gorgeous and beautiful.

"I don't know. I think there is more to the concoction Darlene made for me. I hope it won't turn the other parts to that of a man. I don't want to die as a man but as the woman I am," Aurora said as she looked down to her body which was now wrapped in a wool knitted towel.

"Should I go and find her?" Helen asked worriedly.

"No, she would have gone back into the woods or she might have left the kingdom totally since her job here is done. She is done teaching me," Aurora replied and she knew this was all for her own good.

It was more dangerous for a lady leaving the city alone than for a young boy to leave the kingdom. A lot of young boys travel nowadays in search of fame or a place for them to start their family.

"Yes, but if I leave now, I might still find her in the woods," Helen replied.

Helen did not like the manly appearance her master now had. It was very good looking but nothing compared to her naturally beautiful appearance that did not seize to steal the hearts of the men in the kingdom despite all the rumors that was spread around the kingdom about how she was a bad luck and a curse, the reason behind the death of more than half of the royal family in the massacre.

"I will like to eat chicken and a nice vegetable soup. I want any vegetable soup but it must be chicken meat for dinner. I might not get any to eat after leaving this city," she said with her deepened voice sounding very strange to her.

She tried to make it lighter and increase the pitch but that only made her sound weird.

"Don't try too much you will hurt you throat. You should only talk that way until the effect is gone. It is actually not as deep as other men but it is still deep. You are lucky it is not as deep as my brother's voice was," Helen said and smiled as she remembered her brother's deep voice.

Aurora reached for her maid and pats her shoulder gently. She could still remember how traumatized the five year old girl was when she saw her.

She saw herself in the girl and wanted to do anything to help her. Her teacher brought her to Aurora as though she knew that Aurora will end up keeping the girl by her side.

Helen's family was also massacred by the werewolves and Helen has a very good memory that she is unable to forget things no matter how hard she tries.

She was in a better situation than Helen although their case was similar. Helen's family was also killed right in front of her in the little village where they lived and she was left alone by the werewolves.

"I am fine. Are you going to eat with the Queen?" Helen asked although she knew she was going to receive a negative answer from her master.

She only wanted to confirm since Aurora might want to have her last meal I'm the palace with her family.

"No," Aurora gave her the answer she expected. The last time she had dinner in the Queen's chamber with the other princesses, she got poisoned.

Since then she made a vow never to eat anything from them and she had all her meals prepared by her personal maid alone.

"I knew you won't," Helen said clapping her hands. "Even if they insist, you can't go because now you look like a man and you will scare them with your voice." Helen was sincerely happy because she did not want a repetition of what happened in the past.

She was also surprised that the Queen was bold enough to suddenly invite her for dinner after what happened.

The king was very angry with the Queen when Aurora got poisoned that the Queen has been scared of inviting Aurora for any meal. This was very confusing and surprising. What was her aim?

"You shouldn't be rude to them again since I will be leaving," Aurora tried to advise Helen. When she is gone, Helen will be alone.