Heart Over Sword-Chapter 168: Poisons & Perfumes

Evanna soon retired for the night, suddenly finding the festivities too well festive for her mood. She had stayed an hour after Conrad left, the other woman did not return, and the vacant chair by her side made her feel empty. She did not like it one bit. Conrad knew how much she had to prove herself and how much she had to overcome; the smallest rewards made a considerable difference in her life. So far, those rewards were as simple as most of the servants no longer gossiped about her. Evanna had spent quite a bit of her time in the servants’ quarters and learnt a lot about their duties, talking to them as though they were her friends. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

The Prince was still discreet, but he was not discreet enough. King Osian had advised her about Conrad and his needs, and the Queen had been sneering at her, overly enjoying herself. Luckily, her mother’s back was to her, and her siblings had already gone to bed. Although Evanna did wonder how Loraven would deal with the Prince, she’d seen her mother’s swords and heard her many tales.

Evanna shook her head and stopped pacing inside of her chambers. As soon as the princess had arrived after the banquet, she climbed down from the balcony and waited for Ger, but he did not come. It made her feel even more lonely, and so she’d climbed back up, bathed, and was dressed for bed. Once Maggie left her chambers, she’d tossed and turned in bed, her thoughts running wild about her fiancé until she couldn’t lie down any longer. Reading did not distract her, and pacing seemed to make her focus more on the issue that was the Prince.

It was not until that lady started to flirt with Conrad that Evanna realised she had these feelings towards him. The princess knew she found him attractive, but nobody could deny his looks, yet as quickly as she realised it was more than his looks she liked, she wanted to crush these so-called feelings down. That was how she would get hurt. Romance, unfortunately, was a luxury for people like them; in fact, if her father sought an alliance elsewhere, she could have married a man twice her age. But she knew her father would never do that to her.

With a yawn, the princess finally returned to bed. All the pacing worked, and soon she fell into a deep slumber. Evanna didn’t know how long she had slept, but the princess started to stir at some point in the night. Her brows drew together, and she clutched onto her pillow tighter after pulling the covers closer to her body. She’d felt a sudden chill run down her spine, and it took her a second longer than usual for her to realise what that meant.

Evanna’s eyes snapped open when she heard the slightest sound of movement near her bed and the presence of another being in her room. She sucked in her breath, a scream catching in her throat in fear at the sudden gleam of a knife swinging down towards her. The princess rolled to the side and gasped as the dagger pierced her skin, cutting down the side of her ribs as she reached for her hidden blade. Evanna clenched her teeth, ignoring the pain and swung out with the knife catching the assassin across the face. The hooded figure stumbled back, and Evanna kneeled upright on the bed, her body tense and her startled features fixated on the large figure.

Evanna watched them, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room, and for a few tense seconds, they stared at one another. The man’s features were covered, but she saw his blue eyes lower to her injured side. Then he abruptly spun around and started sprinting for the double doors. Evanna’s hand reacted before her mind caught up, and she threw her dagger at him, it caught him on the shoulder, and he groaned but did not stop from bursting through the doors.

The princess stumbled out of bed and gasped again at the searing pain throbbing from her side. She rushed forwards, her hand clasping to the burning sensation of her side as she heard the sounds of metal clattering on the ground in the hallway. Evanna stopped upon seeing her guards dead on the ground, fresh blood spilling across the marble floors.

"Assassin!" Evanna shouted as loud as she could. "Help!"

Guards rushed in her direction, and she pointed to where the dark cloaked figure was running off to. They chased after him, and she started to follow until she began to gasp for breath, and fire seemed to ripple across her body. She put her hand against her head and grit her teeth.

"Your highness!" She turned to see one of her guards come to her side. His eyes were wide as he looked at her gown. "We need the royal physician!" He shouted over his shoulder and started to reach for her. But the princess stepped back, her eyes wide. "Princess, please. I will not hurt you." His hands were up as though he was calming a wild animal, but the fear prickling at her chest wasn’t what made her back away from him.

"Evanna?!"

Evanna ignored whoever called to her head snapped in the direction of her mother’s quarters. "Princess, you are hurt!" The guard called after her as she dashed towards her mother’s chambers. Her heart was pounding wildly as the fear gripped her throat, and she started to breathe harshly as she burst through Loraven’s doors.

"Evanna!" Conrad grabbed her hand, but she yanked it free, glaring at him before stepping further into her mother’s chambers. The bed had been slept in, but there was no one beneath the sheets.

"Mother!?" Evanna clambered forwards and gasped as she saw her mother sprawled out on the floor, face down, her hand reaching out. The princess rushed forwards and kneeled by her side, turning Loraven onto her side and checking to see if she was still breathing. Evanna sighed in relief, but it didn’t last long; her breathing was laboured, and she didn’t respond after the princess slapped her on the cheek a few times.

"It will be alright. We’re always fine, right? Just hold on," Evanna sniffled as she smelt her mother’s breath and realised she had been poisoned. The young princess already knew the blade the assassin cut her with was poisoned; it only made sense as to why he never finished the job and escaped instead. But luckily, she could still move her body and make sense of everything, but she wasn’t completely immune; whatever poison was used, Evanna had not taken it before. So there was a tiny window she had left to treat her mother.

Evanna looked up after Conrad lowered by her side and opened the leather chest that Loraven had been reaching for. Evanna’s eyes brightened, and she leaned over, grimacing at the pain, the throbbing in her head and sudden dizziness unbalancing her. Conrad gripped her arm and steadied her, but he pressed his lips together after she looked at him sternly.

The chest was full of vials that helped with poisoning. One of a few secret classes Evanna took with her mother involved potions and poisons and how to counteract them. Luckily though, Evanna knew from the smell on her mother’s breath what potion she could use. It would only neutralise it until the physician was there.

She reached for the green vial. "Do you know what you’re doing?" Conrad asked, his hand covering hers, stilling her movement to pour the contents into her mother’s mouth.

Evanna glared at him. "I have much experience with poison. Now release me."

Conrad raised a brow but didn’t say anything more as he watched Evanna tilt her mother’s head up and pour the liquid into her mouth. The doors burst open again, and the royal physician arrived; he looked between Evanna and her mother, deciding who was more urgent.

"This looks worse than it is. It is just a scratch," Evanna muttered as the room spun again. The physician nodded and started checking Loraven over; her breathing had returned to normal. "I just gave her some figweed. She has been poisoned."

The physician looked up at her in surprise. "Very well. Well done, princess, her airways seemed to have reopened." He turned back and looked at some of the servants standing nearby. "Help her onto the bed. I need to create a concoction to help rid the poison from her body."

While the physician’s back was to her and the servants started to lift her mother to the large bed. Evanna reached for another vial in the chest, uncorking it and shot It back. "Take her blood so the poison can be tested," She said, but her voice came out as a gargle. Her throat was tightening, and she looked at Conrad with wide eyes. "Tell him..." Her voice was barely a whisper now.

"Evanna?" Conrad grabbed her by the shoulders after she dropped the vial and her limbs went numb. "Evanna! We need help here!" Her body collapsed forwards in Conrad’s arms as black dots started to appear in her vision, and her lids became heavy.

"Stay awake. Stay with me, Evanna!" Conrad growled angrily, his voice echoing in her mind.

"Why... Are you.. angry? Y-you don’t get to be angry, Prince," She muttered breathlessly and just as she was losing consciousness, she inhaled the too sweeter fragrance that was obviously a woman’s perfume. It was a gentle reminder of where her fiancé had been that evening.

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