The Wishing Princess - Chapter 23

23. The Princess and the Queen

"Kill her!" the Queen ordered. "Kill her now!"

Not a single person moved to obey her. All eyes were upon the Princess. She was clasping her hands at her wounds. Step by step, she walked toward the Queen.

The Queen could stand it no longer. She walked past the Guards toward the Princess and pulled out her pistol. She aimed at the Princess, the barrel pointed to her chest. Her finger upon the trigger. The Queen look at the picture given by the gun sight. She saw the Princess's delicate face.

The Queen saw the Princess's lips moving, but could not hear any sound. "What is the Princess saying?" Slowly, painfully, the Princess took one step after another toward the Queen. The Queen tried to read the Princess's lips.

"So cold... So dark... So painful..." The princess was saying it over and over. Her face was pale, and her eyes was glassy. There was no life in her eyes. She stared straight ahead. She saw nothing but darkness.

"So cold... So dark... So painful..." The princess didn't see the Queen standing there pointing her pistol at her. The Queen kept her aim at the Princess as she walked past.

"So cold... So dark... So painful..." The Queen just stared at the Princess. The Princess was dead and she didn't know it. The Queen looked at the Princess's clothes and saw that it was soaked with blood, all the way. As her gaze fell to the ground, the Queen saw that the Princess left a trail of blood upon her path, marking her death march on the desert sand.

"So cold... So dark... So painful..." as the Princess reached the Guards, they parted, yielding to the Princess. At last, her strenght failed her. She has lost too much blood. She sank to her knees, and finally dropped to the sand, and lie there. All the Guards moved to protect her.

The Guards parted when the Queen came. The Queen looked at the Princess, then dying among her Guards. She was pale, and bleeding profusely.

"Why do you oppose me so?" the Queen asked the Princess.

"Please don't kill the child. He hasn't done anything." said the Princess.

"That child will one day take over my kingdom and rule throughout the lands." said the Queen.

"You must be so proud," said the Princess, "to have such a fine heir."

"Heir?!" The Queen did not think that way. The old prune. Childless Queen. The Queen who did not marry, did not have heir.

"The child is prophesied to rule throughout the lands. What better kingdom would be best to raise him, but the biggest of them all?" The Princess said. "There is no kingdom bigger than yours."

And the Queen was stunned! The prophesy is true! She who had no child, will one day die, and without a clear heir, in-fighting and bickering will fragment and destroy her kingdom. Here was a neat solution, and she had overlooked it!

With deep pangs of regrets, she realized, then, that none of this had been necessary. Had she trusted the rest of the kingdom, and worked with them, she could have had the child entrusted to her without bloodshed. But now it's too late. Too many lives had been lost, and everyone hated her.

"There is no hope for peace. Too many lives have been lost." The Queen told the Princess as much.

"There is always hope for peace, as long as life exists." The princess said, "But especially now, that everyone is here."

The Queen shook her head. It was too late for her. She then looked around her and was surprised to see everybody mingled with everybody else. Her Guards, her troops, the various kings of the kingdoms and their troops. All gathered together around her and the Princess.