Part I: Death Tells Lies Upon the Queen Like an Untimely Frost
© 2024 All Rights Reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this novel are all works of fiction as is the entirety of the book. Any similarity to any real persons be they living or deceased is purely coincidental and unintentional. This work is the original concept and idea of the author and based on the other books (released or as yet unreleased) from the We Are NOT Alone ©2022-24 fanverse.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in any kind of electronic retrieval system, transmitted, recorded, by or in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or other technologies invented in the near or distant future designed to reproduce the work of others to circumvent payment for use or otherwise without the express written permission of the author.
Part I: Death Tells Lies Upon the Queen Like an Untimely Frost
As the first snowflake settled, it whispered secrets of a winter tale waiting to unfold. Indeed, storm clouds seeded the entire realm with silvery solace as the death knell of Queen Tuva started to settle in the minds and hearts of her people of Hlesey Island. She had been diagnosed with a fatal form of cancer too late. Her beloved son and the heir to the throne, Prince Tage awoke that morning to rapping at his window. He draped a sheet around his shoulders to protect himself against the burst of cold sure to enter as he opened the window to inspect the ground below. There she was, Freya, his best and dearest friend from age four or five, when they met in the forest surrounding the southern end of the castle grounds. He opened the window to hear her cries from below.
“Tage, come down; I’ve got something to show you,” she shrieked. He nodded blindly and without considering his current state of undress. He would have to forgo the pageantry of his station and just grab whatever was near. Some undershorts and shirt, some coveralls, a blue checkerboard shirt, a floppy long brimmed hat, and rain boots at the door. He scurried out the side door from the pantry, which was rarely watched or even noticed by the numerous guards, soldiers, and security forces in place to protect the royal family.
A mixture of snowflakes and hail pelted him from above. He loved this weather. It made him feel fresh, clean, and alive. After a few paces into the woods, following Freya, who had taken to running, leaping, and bounding, he kicked off the clumsy boots, preferring to feel the wet earth beneath his feet and believing it to be safer as this was an activity for which human feet were ultimately designed.
“Tage, hurry up,” Freya called to him as he weaved from stump to mud pool to log to bog to fern bank to rivulet of snowmelt water darting to a bona fide stream. Finally, he reached her.
“You’re faster than before,” he said, nestling on a log like a hawk with his bare feet curved to clutch it like his prey.
“Maybe you’re slower?” She laughed. “In here,” she directed him as she pushed away some brambles and brushes to reveal a small door built into the side of a knoll.
“Are you sure, looks like the home of a troll?” Tage argued before entering.
“Trolls? Next, you’ll be suggesting that ghosts and goblins are real.” She smiled, but then her face turned serious. Opening her flashlight to illuminate the scene, Tage suddenly saw why she brought him here. On the table was an entire pharmacology set-up, a picture of his mother, and a list of ingredients; no one had to be a specialist to figure out their purpose. Atop the list was arsenic, and at the bottom was black nightshade. “Tage, I don’t think your mother died of cancer. I think she was poisoned slowly over time and given symptoms that appeared to be like cancer.”
“By what or whom?”
“Probably not a troll, if that’s what you are thinking!”
“No, of course not, but my mother was beloved, and killing her would put me in power. In fact, I should be the prime suspect, and you’ve just led me to my own crime scene.” Tage’s heart raced, and his mind flooded with fear.
“I did not fully consider that,” Freya admitted.
“I should hope you wouldn’t! We’ve got to get some help,” Tage said, regaining control of his mind and thinking more clearly. “You go home. I’ll get Jackson. I can trust him, I think, more than anyone in that castle anyway. He’ll know what to do.” Freya hugged him. He smiled at her.
“Level-headed you always were, Tage Winter Leif Westergaard.” Tage hugged her back and then guided her out and on her way home. He hurried himself back to the castle, collecting his boots along the way.
During the entire journey his mind was racing. “Could it be? Someone intentionally took his mother’s life?” His heart was pounding harder in his chest than it ever had before. He could not wrap his mind around the notion. She was, perhaps, the most beloved, trusted, and heralded monarchs in the history of the realm. “Who could want her dead? And why?” It made no sense at all.
Upon arriving, in the clearing, he found himself face-to-face with Jackson.
“Prince Tage, where have you been? You know it is reckless to leave the castle and immediate grounds without, at least, informing me.” Jackson shouted.
Tage looked genuinely sorry, yet he appeared confident. “I’ve gathered important information that may serve the crown,” he said.
“Nonetheless, as your lead footman, other things must come first. In fact, I have been assigned to gather you and prepare you for Royal Court.”
“Royal Court?” Tage wondered. “But my mother’s burial service is today,” Tage argued. “They cannot hold RC today! And especially not without my approval, can they?”
“Never mind, the two are only distantly connected and won’t conflict,” Jackson assured him, then helped him into the castle via the stable entrance, whereby he could also be cleaned up a bit before entering the officially utilized living quarters within.
After this, Tage was shuttled from staff member to staff member for every manner of bathing and preparations for the Royal Court.
He had not been to a session of the Royal Court since the official request entered by his mother to remarry and take the hand of Duke Krog, which had been begrudgingly approved. Personally, he had begged her not to marry him; however, she was single-minded about it after the passing of her true love and former life partner, Lady Kajsa. She said he needed another parent in his life. Tage thought any other creature, be they toad or turtle, in the realm would have been a better choice.
Since birth, Tage had had two mothers, now he had none. Lady Kajsa was thrown from her steed in a fatal riding accident that rocked the realm in the fall, just after Tage’s sixteenth birthday and his official age of ascension, meaning he would be officially eligible to rise to King from that day forward. Conceived artificially using an anonymous donor to the Queen and her first lady, Tage considered himself super lucky to have them for his parents. Meanwhile, for the first time in the history of the realm, a Crown Princess was married to her first Lady, sending more than a thousand-year-old tradition to the rubbish bin and welcoming in a new era of long-needed diversity. Not everyone in the realm was as supportive as others, however, though his mother maintained her status as having been the most respected and adored monarch in history since her ascension, indicating the majority of the citizens of the realm were by her side.
In particular, Duke Krog’s family was disenchanted, as they had always pictured him ascending to the throne as the Prince and Queen’s Consort. Finally, they had their way. His bisexual mother succumbed to his wooing, though Tage was relatively certain she was never actually in love with him; rather, he felt she just needed ready and willing companionship, which he had been all too willing to provide.
“Set, Crown Prince?” Jackson asked, knocking on the door as Tage was still sealed up in his private antechamber. This was the only place in the entire castle where only he could enter and keep to himself and his thoughts. Even his mothers vowed to ensure its sanctity for him. He opened the door and peered out with his dark steel blue eyes which seemed to glow in the dark. “At last, it lives!”
“Shhh!” Tage hushed him. “That is no way to treat your future king,” Tage joked with him, knowing his most trusted palace ally could handle it. Jackson had watched over him as his highest-ranking royal footman since birth. Apart from his mothers and Freya, there was barely anyone he believed in as much.
“I stand corrected,” Jackson stated. Tage exited the antechamber quickly, quietly closing the door behind himself so as not to allow peering eyes to gain even a glance at the interior.
“Jackson, I think my mother may have been murdered. Poisoned over time. Freya and I found loads of circumstantial evidence in a burrowed out hiding hole in a ravine about a quarter mile from the edge of the river.” Tage blurted out almost fanatically.
“Are you sure?” Jackson replied.
“Quite sure of what we found, but not necessarily of the implications of the evidence.”
“We can go together tomorrow and investigate, I promise. There is already too much else on the docket for today. If it has survived this long without disruption, then surely it can wait until tomorrow?”
“I don’t know.”
“After this matter of the court, the most important thing will be ensuring that your mother is laid to rest and honored, you know that, right.”
“Right, sure. I know that. It’s just…this place…her photo…the list of poisons.”
“Crown Prince! I understand. You are shaken by the events. We all are. Please, for the sake of your realm, set it aside. I promise you it will be priority number one tomorrow.” Jackson implored him. Tage looked frustrated and confused mixed with a sense of being forlorn. Of course, Jackson was right. It could wait until tomorrow.
Moments later, they were in a royal Landaulet on the way to City Centre—home of the city’s central business district, the Houses of the Royal Government, and the Royal Court.
Inside, unbeknownst to Tage, the proceedings had already begun.
“Hereby, if it may please the RC, I, Sir Gustav Alexander, defender of the people, stand to represent Prince and Queen’s Consort Krog in the matter of Krog and the Royal House of Westergaard.”
The High Counselor of the Court, Sir Edvin Ludvig, responded for the RC, “We agree to accept you, Sir Gustav Alexander, in the matter, though it is highly irregular given that after his marriage to Queen Tuva, he should no longer be considered of the people and be defended as such.”
“Thank you, your Lordship, indeed, that is the case. Yet, because the main matter in question occurred before that event, it seems quite appropriate as he was then, not of the royal family, but still of the people,” Gustav added for the official record.
“So what matter do you bring to this Court’s attention,” Sir William Erikson inquired in turn.
At that moment, the RC room doors opened, and the Crown Prince was announced.
“Crown Prince Tage Winter Leif Westergaard for the Royal Court’s pleasure,” the trumpeter announced him officially, followed by a three note crown melody reserved exclusively for the crown prince. Everyone rose at the sound of the royal melody.
Jackson followed Tage up to the heir apparent seating box adjacent to the throne box reserved exclusively for the sovereign in RC matters. Tage’s coronation, as originally scheduled, was weeks away. Until official, no one would take the seat in the box of the sovereign.
“Welcome, Crown Prince,” Sir Edvin Ludvig announced as everyone retook their seats. “As head of the Royal Court, I, Sir Edvin Ludvig, announced just moments ago that the RC shall begin the proceedings in the matter of Krog and the House of Westergaard.” Tage choked a bit. No one had mentioned to him any such matter. He knew now was the moment for him to speak up, but he had no idea precisely what to say. He paused and held his left hand up with his palm level to the ground, as if to indicate everyone should remain still and silent. Their collective abeyance was palpable, and it singularly represented the first time he ever commanded, unintentionally, the realm.
“Pardon me, Sir Edvin of Ludvig,” Tage muttered.
Jackson leaned to whisper in his ear, “Edvin Ludvig, no ‘of’.”
“Sir Edvin Ludvig,” Tage corrected himself, “and other members of the RC, I’m not aware of such a matter having been brought to the court nor approval of such a matter against the Royal House being granted by any sovereign.” He had learned the basics of the laws of the realm as part of his overall high school education, yet he had never been afforded the opportunity to practice or exercise the procedures. He relied on chance and the presumption that the RC would forgive his lack of precision in terminology and protocols.
“Sir Ludvig, if it may please the court,” Gustav interjected, “the matter was approved by the Prince and Queen’s Consort, Lord Krog himself, upon the day of the Queen’s untimely demise.”
Jackson leaned over and whispered again into Tage’s ear, “So, he approved that the RC could hear his own case?”
“Pardon me, again, Sir Ludvig,” Tage stated firmly and cooly, “so he, Krog, Prince and Queen’s Consort, Lord Krog approved the RC to hear his own case?”
“It is irregular, Crown Prince, yes, we of the RC know that, however, yes, there is precedent, and we have accepted it and so notified you as the representative of the Royal House to be present.”Tage lowered his hand and nodded feeling like he had been subjected to some legal sleight of hand trickery.
“Let the proceeding officially begin,” Ludvig said.
“There’s little to argue, at this point,” Gustav blustered, “if I may approach the bench with some evidence.” Ludvig motioned him forward, and he started to walk toward the bench. Along the way, he veered off course to intentionally circle past the box of the heir apparent.
“In this report and DNA sample attached, is incontrovertible proof that, indeed, the former Duke Krog and current Prince and Queen’s Consort is, in fact, the biological father of the Crown Prince and heir apparent, Tage Winter Leif Westergaard.” A hushed tone overtook the entire room with no one being able to believe their ears especially, Tage whose loathing of Krog was, by now, relatively well-known throughout the realm, especially among royals no matter how distant.
Moments later, after witnessing himself the RC accept the evidence and verify the authenticity, Tage’s mind suddenly got cloudy. He could not believe that even some small part of this evil being’s blood ran in his veins. How could this person be his mystery biological sperm cell donor? He wondered how or why his mothers had hidden this vile fact from him, yet , perhaps that was exactly why — they wanted not for him to ever discover he was the direct descendent of such a heinous, spiteful, vengeful, and disgusting human being.
Because of this, he heard not the next requests nor the rulings of the court, everything was blurred, and his heart was even racing faster than his mind. While he sat strong, it was clear he was suddenly unwell. Jackson whispered in his ear, “It will be alright. This will impact nothing in the short or long run. I’m positive of it, Crown Prince.” At this exact moment, a grassy knoll enclave not far from the Royal Palace hidden underground with an entrance along the river bed was being ransacked, destroyed, burned out, and buried once and for all. Along with it, went any evidence of the planning, plotting, and eventual poisoning of Queen Tuva plus circumstantial evidence of a plot against her Princess and Royal Consort in the years prior.
