Chapter 19

    

    

    Queen Maurice's Pov;

    

    "Your highness the venom is starting to circulate in her body. Even her bones were starting to go weaker because of it," the royal physician explained as soon as he's done checking my poor daughter.

    

    My feet suddenly felt weak and my tears were unstoppable. I almost fall to the ground, it's a good thing that Kaira is standing behind me and she was able to catch me before I even fall.

    

    "Your highness, the princess will recover. She's a strong girl, I'm pretty sure she will fight for her life," she assured me.

    

    "I agree with Kaira your highness. I have known the princess for years and I already know how brave she is," the royal physician said, trying to lighten up the burden in my heart.

    

    "I hope so, because I no longer know what to do if we lost her," I said in the middle of my tears.

    

     "You will never lose her your highness, I will do my best to save her," he promised me.

    

        "Thank you Oliver, you've been a great help in our empire for years," I told him. Then, he smiled at me.

   

      "It's my duty your highness, there's no need for you to thank me."

    

      I really don't know what to do if I lost my only daughter. She's an answered prayer for me and my husband. We've been praying to the Goddess of childbirth for such a long time and finally she blessed us with a beautiful daughter. It feels like Ana Mae was destined to be left in the woods for me to find her and be the child that I had been wishing for years. 

    

    

    "Your highness, the prince and princess of Valor and Ethmus want to see you," a palace maid suddenly came in. She's panting and I could also tell that she's nervous.

    

    

    "What's the matter? Why are they wishing to see me?" I asked.

    

    

   "It's about the crown princess. They brought a man whom they called the snake hunter." I was stunned with what she said. A snake hunter? Maybe this man knows something about the snake that bit my daughter.

    

    I was about to go out when Anatalia, my husband's sister blocked my way.

    

    

    "Where are you going Maurice?" she asked while raising her left brow. Ever since I married her brother and I ascended to the throne as queen she started to think that I'm stealing everything from her. Anatalia never welcomed me as a part of the royal family. She never pays her respect to me for she always thinks that I'm an orphan who does not deserve the queen's title.

    

    

    "Anatalia, I have a more important matter to do rather than listening to your nonsense talks," I told her which made her mad.

    

    

    "Oh really? You're making me laugh Maurice!" she said while laughing. I glared at her and held her left wrist.

    

    "Queen Maurice to you Princess Anatalia! Don't ever forget that I'm the queen!" I reminded her emphasizing the word 'queen'.

    

    

   "You are the queen because you married my brother. But it doesn't make you even higher than me. I'm a royalty by blood and you're just a royalty because of a stupid marriage!"

    

    

    "Don't ever call our marriage stupid Anatalia!" I shouted angrily at her. Kaira tried to hold my hand to stop me but I just push her away. I hate it whenever someone would insult my marriage with the king. Because for me our marriage is the best thing that happened to my life after I became an orphan. Our marriage brought me a loving husband and daughter. I was able to build my own family because of it.

    

    

    "Are you that mad that you just want to rip my shoulders off?" she said while laughing. "Listen carefully Maurice, no matter how much you dress yourself with those precious gowns of yours or cover your head with that emerald crown  it will never change the fact that you're just a rag being covered with diamonds. Unlike me, I'm a real gem because the royalty runs in my blood. And you my poor girl, wish that my brother won't get tired of you. Because if he do, you will be thrown in the streets empty handed! Without a title and the family you loved so much will no longer look at you!" she said with a smirk. She removed my hand in her wrist and walk away from me.

    

    

"Your highness, don't listen to her. The king will never abandon you. Everybody know how much he loves you," Kaira said to comfort me.

"Kaira's right your highness," Oliver added. 

"You're right, Anatalia just don't know how to get rid of her jealousy towards me," I told them before I started walking out of my daughter's room while Kaira and the palace maid followed me. I can't wait to see this snake hunter the palace maid mentioned earlier. He must know something that could help my poor daughter. 

"Where are they?" I asked the palace maid while we are walking.

"In the throne room your highness," she answered politely.

    

When we reach the throne room I found my husband sitting comfortably in his throne.

There's a young man and lady standing infront of him. They are probably the prince and princess of Valor and Ethmus. But where is the hunter?

"Attention, her royal highness Queen Maurice!" the palace guard announced my arrival. Our guests turned to face me and bowed their heads as a sign of respect. I went directly to my husband and sat beside him.

"Now that my wife is here, we can now start discussing things," my husband uttered.

"Of course your Majesty! But first let us introduce ourselves," the young man said politely. "I am Prince Lyndon the crown prince of Valor."

"And I am Princess Diane, crown princess of Ethmus," the young lady beside her added.

"It's an honor to have you in our palace your highnesses," I told them with a smile. They both smiled at me as well. I could tell that they are kind and that they will be one of the righteous rulers of the mortal world once they ascend to their thrones.

    

    

    

"You were supposed to be in the University. What brought you here?" the king asked directly.

"We came here because we wanted to help you your majesty. We know that it was not our job to investigate the accident that happened to Princess Ana Mae. But we met her in the university and from that day onwards we treated her as our friend. And friends need to help each other in times of need." Me and my husband smiled happily after hearing what the prince told us. My princess found true friends in them.

"Thank you very much for your concern to my daughter," I said to them. "But how did you investigate the matter?" 

"Your highness, we secretly sneaked inside her room in the dorm after bringing her to the infirmary," Diane said that melted my heart. They really care for my daughter that much. I don't have a doubt that they will become good friends in the future.

"And what did you find there?" my husband asked curiously.

Diane stepped forward and showed as an amulet.

"This amulet your majesty. We found it beside her bed."

My husband took it and stared at it for a few seconds. I could see the horror in his face after looking at it.

"What's in there? Our daughter did not take her amulet with her. In fact I found it inside her jewelry box when I came to check in her room the day after she left to go to the university," I  explained.

    

    

    

"This is not our daughter's amulet Maurice." I was stunned with what he said.

    

I took the amulet from his hands and read the name engraved in it.

    

"Amira Villashne?" But how? Amira was the one who hurt my daughter?

    

"Maybe she accidentally drops it there when she visited her cousin. I'm pretty sure Amira has nothing to do with that snake. She's  even afraid of it. Where will she get such dangerous animal? And besides she does not have the courage to hurt her cousin," the king exclaimed trying to make himself believe that his niece is innocent.

    

"We thought about that too your majesty. But we are aware of Amira's attitude and we heard some rumors about her bullying Ana Mae in school. So we started to investigate further. We went to the famous snake hunter in Citrine because we know that he's really an expert in snake hunting. And people always come to his door whenever they needed help on that matter. We managed to make him talk and testify against Princess Amira by paying him twice the amount Amira paid him," Diane explained that made me and my husband shock.

    

How could Amira be so selfish and cunning? I knew it from the start, she acts just like her mother. They are both greedy!