Conquering His Cold Heart

He nervously scratched his brow and leaned closer to Anastasia. He anxiously wiped the cream off of her lips and asked her in a scared voice, “Didn’t that food taste weird? Are you feeling some discomfort somewhere? Any pain? Anything abnormal?”

Seeing Caspian that frantic, and hearing him ask all those questions, something finally dawned upon Anastasia. She recalled her teacher once mentioning the smells of varieties of poison in one of her lessons.

Her teacher had made her take a whiff of a vial of poison that gave off a minty smell and had said, ‘It is the most used poison because it easily blends in with the food’s smell. If you are served some food that has a minty smell, then make sure to have the person who served it to taste that food first.’

Anastasia covered her mouth with a distraught look on her face. The thought that everyone was constantly trying to take her life ever since the day she came to Sorvando became too unsettling for her.

‘I should have rather spent my remaining life peacefully in Orsenia than becoming greedy and coming here. At least no one tried to kill me in Orsenia.’ The rims of her eyes were fighting to hold off her tears.

Caspian’s heart sank when he saw her like that. He thought that the poison was already taking effect and he hastily picked up Anastasia in his arms, “I will take you to the physician. Please hold on.”

“Wait!” Anastasia whispered while trying hard to swallow her tears, “It was the tea that had poison. I didn’t drink any.”

Caspian didn’t know what to think of that statement from Anastasia. He had countless questions in his mind but he didn’t think there was time for any chit-chat. “What if the food that you ate also had poison? I’m not going to take any chances, not with you.”

.....

He gazed at the wet eyes of Anastasia and instructed her in a haste, “Hold on to me tightly. If you get scared then tight shut your eyes. We will reach there in no time.”

Anastasia didn’t debate with him any further because what he said was also true. ‘The smell of poison in the dessert could have been masked by that strong smell of tangerine!’ she thought to herself.

She then put her arms around Caspian’s neck and tightly clutched her wrist with her palm.

“Are you ready?” Caspian was already walking down the corridor and the moment she nodded, Caspian ran as though he was the embodiment of speed itself.

‘Oh, holy mother of God!’ Anastasia was so scared by that whiplashing run that she instantly closed her eyes and buried her face in Caspian’s chest.

The second they were out of the castle, Caspian pushed his heels and lifted himself and Anastasia in the air.

Anastasia gasped and opened her eyes to check what had happened. She peeked over Caspian’s shoulder. The full moon looked bigger and closer for some reason. She slowly turned her head to look around and was startled to see the tall trees below them.

Her whole body turned stiff fearing that Caspian would mistakenly drop her to the ground.

Caspian felt the stiffness of her body. He slowed down a little so that Anastasia would feel a little less frightened. “We are almost there,” Caspian shouted while the cool summer breeze was hitting both of them.

Obviously, this was her first time flying and she felt like her stomach would get upset because of the fear of height and speed rather than the suspected poisoning. Anastasia buried her face in his chest again and prayed in her heart that they would reach their destination soon.

From one of the towers of the Kilerth Castle, a shadow was watching Caspian flying under the light of the moon. ‘Where is he going at this hour? Did something happen?’

That shadow jumped down from the tower and began to follow Caspian from below.

The physician was a human who lived in a nearby town called Silver Keep. It was the only town in the Kingdom of Sorvando that was full of humans. All the others parts of the Kingdom were occupied by vampires for generations.

When the King and the Queen reached over the human settlement, Caspian slowly descended to the ground. He immediately rushed inside that physician’s home which also served as a clinic.

“Carl! Are you home?” Caspian shouted at the top of his lungs and gently made Anastasia lay down on a bed.

Carl was a middle-aged human with grey hair and a round belly. He was the same physician who had looked after Anastasia and Tilla the other night.

“Your Majesty?” Carl came running from the other room to see the King and the Queen. “Did something happen to Her Majesty again?” he asked while darting his eyes at Anastasia.

“Someone poisoned her food. Check if she has ingested the poison or not.” Caspian hastily ordered that physician and watched him instantly check Anastasia’s eyes, her lips, and her tongue.

Without saying a word, Carl took out his pocket watch and began taking Anastasia’s pulse.

While the physician was counting the pulse, Caspian could hear the loud ticking sound of the watch that it made every second. With each second, his anxiety was also building up. That one minute felt like forever for Caspian.

Carl finally looked at Caspian and asked, “Do you know what kind of poison it was?”

“The stain of that poison looked light purple,” he replied. Other than that, he had no knowledge about the poisons that would be lethal to humans.

And Anastasia also shared what she knew, “The tea smelled like mint. I think there is a poison that smells like that. But I did not drink that tea. I had dessert though. There was no such smell coming off from it.”

“Hmm...” Carl touched his chin and looked like he was thinking something.

Caspian was already getting restless, waiting for that ‘slow’ human to speak. He couldn’t bear it anymore and he shouted indignantly, “Well? Is she poisoned or not? Spit it out already!”

Carl was unfazed by that furious King. He would have the patient’s family yelling at him all the time so this was nothing new to him.

And he replied the King in a calm and soothing voice of his, “From the initial inspection, it does not look like Her Majesty has been poisoned. However, I will have to keep her under observation to make sure that she is indeed clean.”

Carl walked over to the drawer to take something out and explained further, “There are a variety of poisons that match the descriptions you two have given me. And some of them start affecting the patient after about an hour or two. So Her Majesty will have to stay here for a while.”

Caspian was at great unease knowing that there still was a chance his wife could have been poisoned. He was engulfed by the flaming rage. And he wanted to rip that maid’s heart out at that very moment and kill everyone else who was involved in this heinous assassination attempt.

“Caspian? Is something wrong?” Caspian heard a voice coming from behind him. He turned around to see that Vincent was standing at the door.

Vincent glanced at Anastasia and asked in a cold but worried voice, “Is Her Majesty ill again?”

Caspian swooshed over to Vincent’s side and blurted out, “Vincent, I’m glad that you are here. A maid served Anastasia some poisoned food. Stay by her side, will you? I have to catch that maid before she tries to run away.”

“Sure,” Vincent readily accepted and the moment he did, Caspian was already gone.

Vincent walked inside the room and quietly stood in one corner, keeping an eye on the physician. Caspian had a reputation of being a cruel King. And he didn’t want Carl to try something funny to harm the Queen as a way to get back at Caspian.

While waiting, Carl asked a few more questions to Anastasia about her health. And Anastasia was very careful while giving replies because she didn’t want this physician to know about her chronic illness.

While Carl and Anastasia were busy with the conversation, Vincent was the first one to hear someone screaming in agony in a distance. But he just ignored it thinking the humans liked to scream at night.

However, the screaming and crying became louder and louder. And a woman with bloodied clothes and a huge bite mark on her stomach appeared at the door. “Mr. Carl! Please help me!”