Chapter 4

The guards dragged queen Lena into a cell and locked her up while the king watched helplessly.

“Leave all of you.” He commanded and they all left one after another.

“Why have you done this to me?”

“For a start, you never satisfy me and finally you are infertile.”

“How can you say that?”

“I had to see a healer to know why I couldn’t give birth and I was told that I was fir for carrying many children. Who else could have been the problem if not you, huh?”

He sighed sadly and sat down

“I could not bring myself to tell you that I was the problem because I love you, my love.”

“Oh, don’t flatter me. If you did love me then you would have put me out of my misery by releasing me from our vows.”

She said bitterly and he looked at her for a while.

“Because I love you, I will release you…” he began and the Queen quickly looked up with high hopes

“…on one condition.”

“which is?”

“you will remain my wife.”

He said and she scoffed

“You don’t still understand, do you. I don’t love you at all and I don’t want to be with you. I’d rather die.”

“but you will be a queen and you will have riches.”

“and no child? No heir to all these things?”

“we will adopt a child.”

“I don’t want to be with you!” she shouted angrily and he lowered his head sadly

“Then you will die a painful death, my love.” He said and stood up to leave. Queen Lena sighed in distress and bent her head in tears.

Eleanor slowly opened her eyes and looked around her to see two men whispering among themselves. Once she thought she was captured until she heard one man say to the other;

“what are we going to do with her? She hasn’t woken up and we don’t know how fast she heals.”

Therefore, she refrained from attacking them and sat up on the wooden bed she was laid.

“who are you and where am I?” she asked and the men turned to her, one of them sighing in relief.

“thank goodness, you are awake.”

And immediately, he made to leave the room with his colleague, but she stopped them weakly

“I asked you a question!”

She shouted with her might and they turned to look at her.

“We are healers. You were brought in two weeks ago almost dead and our friend asked us to help you get better.”

Eleanor grunted in pain as she tried to stand up from the bed and the men rushed to quickly help her up.

“you must be careful, you are not yet healed completely.”

“let go off me!” she said rudely and pushed them away, standing up in pain while the healers surrendered began to leave.

“Where are you headed?” she asked weakly

“we want to inform the person that brought you here that you are awake. We won’t be long.”

“wait!” she shouted behind them and once again they turned to her.

“where is the exit?”

“what?”

“I want to go, where is the exit?”

“no! You can’t leave just yet. You need to heal completely.”

One of them answered but this angered her and she walked up to him and grabbed his cloth.

“I won’t ask you again.”

“at least, get to see who saved your life.”

The man said amidst his worry that she might strangle him to death. She, however, stared at him in little thought before letting him go.

“Fine. Be fast about it.”

She said and fell on the floor in pain while the men rushed out to fetch her savior.

While alone, Eleanor opened her cloth to see the injury mark on her stomach and immediately memories of what happened that night came back to her.

“that witch!” she grunted in pain and sighed at the sight of her blood.

“you are awake.” She heard a voice and looked up to see a dark haired man walk up to her

“yes, so I’ve been told.” She replied sarcastically amidst the pain from the wound and he chuckled softly.

“Let me get you up.”

“no, I made a deal with your healers or whatever they are called.”

She said and he squeezed his face.

“deal?”

“yes. I see the person that saved my life and then I leave.”

“you are not healed yet.”

“I am not staying here another second.”

“is it because you don’t know us?”

He asked soberly and she scoffed

“worse, because you’re all humans.”

She replied and tried to stand up on her own but fell back in pain. He looked at her in pity and stood up, offering his hand to help her up to which she reluctantly accepted.

“Where do I follow?”

“the door I came from. You will find and exit after the next room.”

She nodded and started going when he stopped her.

“You don’t have to leave, you know. We are not bad people. Not all humans are bad.”

“that is exactly what a bad person would say.”

Eleanor said and left, and on her way out she met the two healers who tried to stop her but she ignored them and left.

“Damien, why did you allow her to go?”

“I can’t force her to stay. Besides, black belts heal a lot faster than we think.”

He said and looked at them with a forced smile

“Continue your works.”

Queen Lena, after being locked up in a cell for two weeks with no visit from her husband, had lost all hope of ever getting out of her prison and still be a queen so she decided to try her luck on her husband’s soldiers. She waited for the perfect timing when the most foolish guards will be posted to guard her cell and though it was a long wait, it was worth the risk. That night, as she had correctly calculated, the two guards came to take over the previous guards and a small content smile flashed on her lips. She stood up and began pacing around until they noticed her.

“What are you thinking pacing around? Are you planning an escape?” one of them asked and she stopped pacing and faced him.

“how long do I get to stay here?”

“until you choose to stay with the king and the king alone.”

She stated blankly at him while he made to go back.

“Wait.” She stopped him and he turned.

“What is it?”

“how about I make you a deal?”

Just as she said that, the second one came forward and patted his colleague.

“Don’t believe anything she says. She has nothing to offer at this point.”

“no, I’m not yet rid of my wealth. Not until I am to be executed…”

“I just knew that was where she was headed, let’s go.” The second man insisted

“…but, I can help you both by telling you where I hid my most precious and most expensive jewelries of you let me out.”

“why should we believe you?” the first one asked with interest

“Because for now, I am still a queen and I know that you both are my only chance of leaving this place alive without having to be stuck with the king for life.”

“why don’t you just go back to your husband, fornicator?” the second guard also insisted in mockery but queen Lena didn’t mind.

“there is a vault below my chamber. A very huge vault.”

She began and immediately, the second guard stopped laughing and paid attention.

“And all of your jewelries are there?”

“I told you the vault is huge so it has many doors. All sixty-nine doors but only one is filled with gold jewelries.”

She said and the two guards looked at themselves, scoffed and turned to leave.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“you foolish queen. To collect your gold of course.” The said and continued going but the queen started laughing hard that she fell on her stomach. They both turned to her to know what was funny.

“I told you only one door has all my jewelries, but you didn’t ask me what are in the remaining sixty-eight.”

“then what are in those doors?”

“death, of course! You will never reach my gold without my help.”

Once again, they both looked at themselves and with little or no thought, they went back to her

“Tell us which door.”

“not if you set me free and help me reach the gate successfully.”

“why should we trust you?”

“Both of you have swords, and I don’t . So if I try to lie you both should kill me.”

They thought about it for a little while before finally opening the cell for her to come out and disguised her as a commoner and in the darkness, they set to leave. They successfully reached the gate and held her immediately.

“We have done our part of the deal. Now tell us.”

“it is the last door.” She said and they nodded and let her go and she ran off before anyone could try to stop her.

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