Chapter 19 - The Silverhand

Before the King and the Royal Court, Sir George delivered the cure and claimed that the assault and destruction of the Keep were his doing alone. But he didn't divulge anything about the Pentalium as he didn't know yet who to trust.

The King, pleased with the knight, tasked Sir George with leading the Kingdom's alchemists in reproducing the vials he had obtained from the Keep. The Royal Court was in awe of this knight's actions, all but one: Abigail Silverhand.

Abigail Silverhand is the head of a royal family situated south of the Kingdom and a member of the Pentalium. Upon hearing George's bold claim attack on the Doctor, Agibail used her connections within the Royal Court and Pentalium to track the alchemists assigned to George. She took her time killing them, appearing as an accident, and sabotaging the lab, delaying the cure from reaching the hands of the public.

With their illness worsening, the people began to trust in any herbs, incense, and tea that they could get to relieve the pain. Abigail immediately crafted less effective cures and sold them to the market as snake oil. This oil significantly improved one's health, nearly enough to save them from dying.

Her snake oil garnered a lot of support from the citizens. She became a hero in their eyes and even a person they could trust more than the King. Over a few weeks, the Silverhand helped so many of the Kingdom's citizens that they began following them, praising them as their savior.

She became the voice of the commoners in the Royal Court, lending her ear and giving them hope that they could rise again from this epidemic. Abigail gave the people what they wanted: stability in times of need and a leader who would save them in their most desperate hour. She offered her land in the south to her subjects and allowed them to toil on their own volition, ensuring their land would grow and be fruitful.

The people cheered her across the streets of the Kingdom.

"A place where you shall have your fill!"

"She gave us shelter when the King can't even secure our homes."

"Abigail lead us to salvation. What did the King do for us in these trying times?"

These words are not from any Pentalium agents but the citizens whose lives Abigail saved. They believed in her more than the King.

The Royal Court applauded Abigail for the first few months, considering her actions did unite their people. However, other royal families recognized Abigail's popularity over the King and became weary of her growing power.

Abigail doesn't need to use her Sense. When the power scale tipped towards her, she could already tell the other royal families feared her. One day, Abigail grew too confident and even jokingly said before the Royal Court that maybe the King should step down and she should take the throne.

"Treason!" yelled the King. "We are working on a permanent cure for the pandemic. To save this Kingdom! And here you dare to threaten me?!"

"You might have the throne, your Grace, but not all people's hearts," Abigail said smugly.

Abigal knew this would result in her removal from the Court, but this was her plan. Her removal from the Royal Court caused outrage among the citizens since they championed Abigail more than the other royal families; they viewed this as a way to silence them from the Court.

Abigail's removal led the citizens to turn their backs on the King and flock to Abigail. Abigail welcomed them, giving them new lives as miners, farmers, and other workers and making them new members of the Silverhand homestead. Abigail garnered their support, trust, and loyalty to the point that she assembled them into her militia.

There were still citizens loyal to the King, but each day that George didn't make the cure, the Silverhand grew in power, and the rift between the royal families and the commoners widened.

Things turned around when George successfully replicated the cure. The King wasted no time and ordered his knights to distribute it across the Kingdom. For a time, the Kingdom was at peace. Its people celebrated the return of their health! Taverns, streets, markets, town squares, and even the remote villages on the outskirts of the Kingdom started to celebrate.

It was a valiant effort, but Pentalium will never let this Kingdom off its grip.

At the height of the pandemic, the Lenatos gave their tea for free to help soothe the coughing pain of the sick. Their action landed them on the favorable side of the people but less popular than the Silverhand. The King, wishing to use the goodwill the Lenato had over the citizens living with the Silverhand, tasked Duke Lenato, with the assistance of Rolfe and his knights, to distribute the vials to the southern parts of the Kingdom.

The Silverhand eagerly drank the cure to rid themselves of the sickness that had plagued their lives for almost a year. They awaited their salvation, but those vials were their undoing. Wailing and cries of agony filled the Silverhand homestead. Half of the vials they drank were poison. Abigail survived, but some of her people didn't. The weak and old immediately died, and those who survived swore vengeance.

Once the news reached them, none of the Royal Court spoke. They understood what was about to happen. None of them knew who poisoned the Silverhand; it didn't matter. The supporters of the Silverhand saw this as an act of war! And when the King almost achieved peace, a civil war erupted.

--------------------------------

The Princess was reading reports and examining the minor details others might have missed. She knows Pentalium is responsible for the poisoning and the civil war. Still, she is no closer to finding the truth.

She reflected on her findings and concluded that she suspected two things might have happened.

Her first hunch: Duke Lenato is a prideful man. Behind Lenato's friendly facade is a man who seeks his glory. With her experience with the Duke, he hates it when others overshadow him. In this case, the Silverhand is the most favored of the citizens. The Princess thought that the Duke and his son, Rolfe, poisoned the vials to kill their rival family. But the Lenato had an alibi; the vials they gave were sealed and locked. Her agents confirmed this as well.

Her second hunch: Abigail Silverhand poisoned her people. None of the King's men are famous with the Silverhand; the only family they tolerate are the Lenatos. The Silverhand drank the potion AFTER the knights left. The poisoning cannot be placed on Rolfe's knights but on the one who handled the vials after they left, Abigail. It made the Princess curious that Abigail survived the poisoning when it was fatal to most. It was like she came prepared to counteract the poison, a self-inflicted poison.

Her theories lack foundation and need more evidence to support her claim. Lost in her thoughts, she accidentally pushed reports from her spies across the Kingdom. She immediately put them back together in their place when she noticed these were William and John's findings. She is impressed by how the two boys have improved since then.

"We are not the only ones who seek Pentalium. Ingrid's tribe and the Frosthold are victims of their cruelty! If we want to fight back, we must let them in!" William's words still echo within her. He started this movement with John to assemble a group to stand against the powers of Pentalium.

She was against this as she feared creating a group might catch the attention of their enemies. Still, John convinced her with one sentence: "Eldric would do anything to save this Kingdom."

She grabs some reports and reads the boys' progress for the past few months.

George trains William to hone his emotions, mental fortitude, and quick thinking. Without balance, William is no better than a thug seeking vengeance. William needs to be more than a boy swinging his sword and be a man who can protect his loved ones. William took George's lesson to heart. In time, it helped William master his emotions. His strength shone when he led seven Tarwood farmers to fight against the bandits.

Meanwhile, Berg took John under his wing. Unlike William, whose physical prowess excels compared to most boys at their age, John has an aptitude for learning. Berg cultivated the boy's curious mind, developing John in engineering, alchemy, and politics. In time, John became a master of crafts. With his charms, John created his ring of spies within the Kingdom without the Princess or Berg noticing it.

She leans back in her chair while clutching the paper that wrote the order for Eldric's death. She is proud of what the boys have accomplished, but now, she fears Pentalium will soon notice them. And Tarwood's lives will be in peril.

"I was livid at the boys when they returned from their fight against the Doctor. I asked them not to do anything drastic, but they didn't listen. If they only listened. But with the Doctor dead, nobody will believe us even if I show them the journal that William found." She mutters while praying to God to give her a sign that they are doing the right thing.

The Princess was lost in her deep thoughts when a door creaking returned her to her senses. George Frosthold and his grandfather, Berg, arrived at her small makeshift office in Tarwood.

"We checked all the families living near the Keep, and they match. The Doctor took in the exiled royal families into her care. They became loyal to her and turned them into her private army." Berg said while handing the Princess a report of their recent visit to the Keep.

"This sounds familiar to what the Silverhand is doing right now," George said while delivering her a letter from John.

The Princess read the letter and was happy about it. She then read aloud the last few words to the Frostholds: "My spies told me the Silverhand's reason for the digging in the middle of a civil war is they found an old cave with a painting on it. It sounds like what William saw in Ingrid's old home in the mountains. It could be Zonian in origins."

"I got to hand it to you; they learned well," Berg said.

"Let's hope they won't repeat their last mistake." The Princess remarked on the boy's hasty nature, which led to the death of their only lead.

"The boys said you were furious. I hope you are not still mad about what they did. After all, if they didn't rush to my aid, I might not last another night in that accursed place." Goerge reminds the Princess of what the boys did to save him.

"I don't hold any grudge against them; after all, they still manage to stop the Doctor and her armies of rats. But we missed this opportunity to expose Pentalium before my father." The Princess replied with heavy regret in her voice.

"Suppose they did your way. Could you have exposed her as the Doctor and revealed the Pentalium to the public?" George asked as she massaged the scars he had received that day.

"I can sway the majority to my side. But now, I doubt it. With the war going on, the Court can change instantly. Putting out the fire of rebellion is the first thing the Court- No, everyone wants." The Princess replied with a look of worry all over her face.

"The question is, whose rebellion will win? The Pentalium's? Or our little merry band?" Berg followed.

"Have faith. The boys had already defeated the Chief and the Doctor. They are more capable than most. And all they need is our support and guidance." just right after George said this, a dove flew into the room, eating the Princess' leftover bread by the table.

She took this as a sign that God had answered her prayer. "We have to place our faith in them." She immediately wrote a parchment with her signature and handed it to Berg.

"Abigail poisoned the Silverhand household. The Rolfe's knights guarded the vials with their lives. No one can tamper with the cure from when it left my father's labs and during transit. The only explanation is that Abigail replaced the vials once the knights had left." The Princess's charges are grievous, but she seems confident with her deduction.

"That is an accusation that Abigail won't confess easily, Princess," Berg said.

"The Frosthold is the only family that the whole Kingdom tolerates, as you are the one who replicated the cure. Even those whose loyalty is Silverhand still venerate your deeds. But you can only do so much once you arrive there. Bring your new squires with you; William and John will be eager to prove themselves." The Princess sends the two knights on their way. She looked at the dove beside her and prayed they could end this civil war soon.