Chapter 7 - Killer

The Moretti Castle - The Castle Grounds: Princess Eva

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Two months since the Kings arrived passed wistfully and without incident. Then it happened. Sonja had been doing her own morning walk through the castle grounds when she smelled the stench of rot and debris. The way she relayed the experience brought a chill to my bones, one I hadn't felt since I had last felt the dense air of death around me.

Sonja said she hesitated at first, feeling unease. Then she followed the smell and it led her to the stables, the horses were unusually quiet and seemed to watch her with utmost interest. They knew what she would encounter, and they were scared as well.

At first, she saw nothing between the stacks of hay and she was perturbed since the foul rotting smell was strongest as she stood there. But the split second her eyes wandered upwards, there it was, a corpse. Sonja told me that she was almost certain that it was the corpse of an animal, it was so mangled that it's features were nearly unrecognizable until she saw its hands. Only bipedal beings had hands. So she screamed and it alerted guards from all across the courtyard.

Her hands trembled in mine, "Princess. Someone took a life so ruthlessly, then hung that body up like it was nothing but cured meat."

I had no words to console her, I just wished it wasn't my Sonja who had been subjected to the sight. I wish it had never happened at all.

"I don't suppose you saw anything else besides the body then?"

Sonja shook her head solemnly, "Nothing of importance."

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Father was distressed by the news of a murder in his kingdom and pleaded with the little workers and guards we had to keep the information confidential. He did not want to spread panic to the rest of the kingdom. Unsettling the peace in the lands would mean trouble.

He called the Kings to the grand hall to commune with us. It was then that I was informed for the first time the reason they came to my father. Some unknown threat was killing masses, villages full of people were found dead all around the two kings kingdoms.

Despite the accumulating facts on this threat, I still couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps the enemy was within the castle walls. Our kingdom was well hidden from even other lands, much less a threat that seemed to move with no real intent besides a lust for blood.

"The corpse was scoured for evidence and it seems to be the work of an unknown weapon, and perhaps fire. The corpse was burned in several places, right to the bone." Father announced.

I scanned the room and thought I had imagined the swift suspecting look Alexander sent his brother Kade. But when Kade glanced at his General with a dim smirk on his face, I knew my sight was clear.

Not in the habit of making assumptions, I returned my attention to my father, "That isn't exactly how fire works is it father? It spreads, the body should have burned everywhere, not just certain areas."

My father has no chance to reply when Alexander answered in his stead, "That's correct Princess."

I did not spare him a glance, awaiting my father's words.

"You are right Eva, that is the reason I've sent the royal guard out of the kingdom to search for answers regarding that."

With my knowledge of the supernatural? I held back a scoff. They would find no answers because the answer they sought was just here.

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That very same night, I stood at the castle drawbridge awaiting my usual guest.

She emerged from the treeline beyond the drawbridge much later than I was accustomed to. Her fiery red hair lifted along with the gentle breeze of the summer night.

"Evangeline. You called for me."

We embraced and her sweet smelling scent calmed the days worries embedded in my skin.

"Evening Karina."

Her rosy lips stretched into a warm smile I had grown to love. But she urged me to speak of my troubles.

"There was a murder. Burns from a flame that does not spread any further than the place it is set." I explained to her concisely.

She tilted her head in thought, the beautiful but unnatural shimmer of her dark eyes underneath the moonlight a telltale sign of her lineage, a Faerie princess.

"Perhaps Faerie magic but no Faerie would dare murder. Not under my order. But, was there anything else at the scene?"

I shook my head, "No one accounted for anything but the evidence on the corpse itself. Father mentioned a weapon? A weapon was used to kill the person."

Karina stared at me intently, in thought.

Her lips parted after a moment, "Black magic users often channel their magic through weapons and items."

"Like witches?" I offered.

"That could be. Or something else."

It then occurred to me that Faeries could sense changes in the environment around them. And Karina must have felt the presence of the 'threat' that my father spoke of. The mysterious danger that drove two powerful Kings into our territory.

I looked at Karina, "So it is real. The danger that my father awaits." It dawned on me that anything powerful enough to pass the protection of Faeries around our kingdom was a force to be reckoned with.

Karina nodded and in a morbid tone confessed, "I fear for what is to come. Murder couldn't possibly be the worst thing this strange creature desires."

She took my hand in hers, "Meet me again? I will tell you all I know of your guests and the thing they fear."

Comforted by her touch but unsettled by her words, I answered her wordlessly with a squeeze of my hand. She drifted back into the treeline and I hurried back into the castle. Into my chambers, and I pondered how things would change in a matter of hours. When I would know things that perhaps weren't in my best interest.

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