Hanes, still holding me by the wrist, led me to another room down the corridor. A few maids and butlers passing by bowed but furtively glanced at the two of us. Anyone passing by would be able to see how unsettled Hanes was.
When we stopped in front of a room with high oak doors, I finally recovered my scattered senses and wrenched my wrist out of his grasp.
"What are you doing?" I demanded sharply, massaging my wrist with my other hand.
Hanes glanced around, at the eyes and ears which were pretending not to watch and hear. "We can't talk here." He opened the door, his voice still shaky.
Only then did I realise the hard facade of anger had given way to something like anxiety. He looked so unnerved that for a moment, I almost felt a pang of sympathy for the man who'd killed an innocent messenger from Irennia.
I needed to at least understand what was going on, anyway. What was it that made this man lose his cool. Stiffly, I followed him into the room.
As soon as the door was closed, he let out a shuddering breath, and then came up close to me, his grey eyes intensely locked into mine. "Did you drink the tea?"
"What tea- you mean at the tea table just now? Y-es." I didn't like how this conversation was starting.
Hanes let out a sharp exhale, and impatiently pushed back his hair. "How are you feeling now? Anything like dizziness, sudden fatigue, sleepiness, pain?" he pressed.
"No, and I only drank maybe two small sips. Can you tell me what's going on? You just marched in there and dragged me out, I think I deserve an explanation."
At that, Hanes's hardened face slackened, and after sinking into his chair, he called out loudly. "Hyle!"
The doors opened, and Hyle, who seemed to have as usual appeared silently and out of nowhere, bowed. "Yes sire."
"Summon my physician, Wergel. Get him to arrive here as soon as possible...to check for poisoning."
Hyle seemed hardly perturbed by the order. He glanced at me, bowed, and left the room again.
After Hyle had walked out, Hanes looked at me, and added formally and with his usual composure, "My apologies, Lady Helena, for pulling you out without explanation. But... I need you to be as guarded and wary as you were before. This is not a good time to be so...naive."
"Naive? What do you mean?"
Hanes winced, and pulled out the chair in front of him. "Please, take a seat."
I did, and he spoke, looking straight at me. "The palace, is not the kind of a place you can simply dine and drink with anyone. You let down your guard and you risk two things: either being immediately or slowly poisoned, and being framed as trying to kill that someone else you're dining or drinking with."
At that, I swallowed, hard. "Killed?"
"What did Lady Narcia say to you?"
To side with her and bring you down from your throne. To start war in my country. "Nothing much." I was hoping my voice didn't crack just a little bit at the end.
Hanes's mouth twisting into a bemused smile. "You used to be better at lying before. With your memories you have also lost your ability to survive in the palace. So tell me, why did you invite the Empress for dinner tonight?"
"Are you going to tell me that's dangerous too?"
"Without doubt, yes. You might not remember but you and the Empress were not on good terms. Even if you were, inevitably your relationship as Empress and First Lady Concubine creates the expectation that you're not."
"I thought she might become a friend."
Hanes looked at me blankly, like I was speaking another language. Then, a few seconds after, he let out a mirthless laugh under his breath, and then, pulled his chair nearer to me. "Then why not I, Helena?" he asked, softly.
So up close, I saw the lighter, bluish colours in his grey eyes, a light but long and smooth scar across his right eyebrow. I was close enough to see the corners of his mouth uplift slightly in an amused smirk, and to see the slight dimple that formed on his left cheek. He smelled like something sickly sweet, and something a little bitter.
I lowered my eyes, swallowing. No, I had to get my shit together. He was a cruel, ruthless-
The cold tip of his finger touched my chin, and he lifted my face slightly. "You've suddenly become so polite and shy," he muttered, and then withdrew, shrugging. "Not so fun anymore. What happened to calling me a...bastard? And where did you learn such language?"
"You just answered your own question, Your Majesty," I said coolly, leaning back in my chair. "Why not you."
Hanes's smile deepened. "Touché, my lady."
Two short raps came on the door. "Physician Wergel, Your Majesty," Hyle's voice came through.
"It seems from your manner of talking that you seem very healthy and well," Hanes said smoothly, shrugging, "but it is always good to be safe."
"Pity I didn't drink the tea with you," I shot back in a whisper.
Hanes grinned. "Exactly my sentiments, Lady Helena." Then, he rose to his feet. "You may enter."
~ * ~
Physician Wergel, the physician in charge of Hanes, was a sixty-odd year old man who was wire-thin but was as muscular as my cop colleagues. Although he wore a slightly loose white robe that seemed to be the attire of physicians in the castle, from the sinewy, lean muscles under his arms which showed when he rolled up his sleeves and the way he moved, I could tell he was, perhaps, no ordinary physician.
With the ease and leisure of someone who had all the time on his hands, he entered and bowed toward the two of us. His dark eyes, set wide apart and framed by round wire glasses, his wide, set lips and his nonchalant, serene demeanour reminded me of a wise, ancient tortoise.
"Greetings to Your Majesty and Lady Helena." He pronounced each word very carefully and clearly. "Lady Helena, if you would like, please lie down on the bed. I will proceed with the examination."
It was only then I realised that I was probably in Hanes's room. It was spacious, but surprisingly, smaller than my room. The walls were devoid of any paintings or decorations, and even the floor was bare marble without any carpets or furnishings.
There was only his bed with crisp white sheets- as if he never slept in it- a large oak table, which occupied the most space in the whole room, with stacks of papers and a quill pen, and the tea table with three chairs.
"What, you don't want to lie down on the bed of a bastard?" Hanes whispered in my ear, smiling.
Ignoring his words, I lay myself on the bed and tucked myself into the sheets. Hyle left the room, closing the door behind him, and Hanes sat himself in the chair of the oak table. The physician inclined his head slightly, and sat himself on a stool by my side.
"If I might roll up your sleeve, my lady-"
"Please, feel free," I said awkwardly. It was hard not cringing every time I heard the address 'my lady'.
Wergel nodded. He rolled up my sleeve, pressed his two fingers on my pulse, and closed his eyes. Feeling rather awkward looking at the physician, I glanced around the room, and I saw Hanes looking through papers at his table, the quill pen in hand.
Finally, Wergel opened his eyes. "Please breathe in slowly, and then out." I did, and he nodded slowly, pulling out a silver chopstick-like object from his set of tools. "Please open your mouth."
He was probably testing for poison like this, like how they used to in the olden days. I did, and after a while, he pulled out the cold stick from my mouth. Quite slowly, carefully, he uncapped a small glass tube from his kit, and put the stick into the tube.
While he was waiting, looking at the tube, he asked, "May I ask how your condition is like? With your respiratory condition. When you have your attacks, is it harder to breathe than it was before?"
I stiffened a little. Right. I hadn't fully internalized- or accepted- the fact yet. That this Helena Katrine's body was ill, down with the very illness that had killed Hanes's mother.
"Um.. I can't remember how it was like before."
Wergel nodded, again very slowly. "Yes. Then recently, I heard that you have experienced some attacks quite frequently... what were the symptoms, and how did you feel?"
"It was like...my airways were constricted. I couldn't breathe even when I tried, and it was like something was stuck...in my chest. It got worse with time, and my vision blurred."
"We will have to watch the progress, but it seems that your condition is worsening. The frequency and severity of your attacks are both increasing. Do you feel that the medication you are taking is helping? That your physician prescribed you with."
"Oh, the black one...I'm not sure."
Wergel, as he was examining the tube, stopped, and looked at me in the eye. "Black, my lady?"
"Y-es."
"May I know how it tastes like? Any smell?"
"It doesn't smell like anything. But it's very bitter."
Wergel put down the tube. "And who is giving that medication to you?"
"Um- usually Regica gives it to me."
"Has the physician ever directly given you the medication before? As far as your memories are concerned."
"No, not so far."
Hanes, who had risen from his chair, looked at Wergel. Wergel rose to his feet, and pushed his glasses up his nose. "There is no sign of poisoning, Your Majesty. But as for the medication that Lady Helena has been taking...as far as I know, there is no such medication that can be prescribed to alleviate her condition."
I didn't like how this turn of events was going.
Hanes clenched his eyes shut, and when he opened them again, they were the color of the calm, quiet anger I'd seen in front of Narcia. "Hyle!" he shouted.
The door opened, and Hyle stood at the entrance, waiting for the command. "Bring Regica Ursulwa and Nefal Estel here, right now. And have all belongings of the two seized, now."
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