The Queen They Tried to Forget

Chapter 3: The Servants' Palace

The first crossbow fired.

The arrow struck the air before Elara and shattered into silver sparks. Another followed. Then another. Each broke against a glowing barrier around her gown.

The ballroom erupted.

Guests screamed. Tables overturned. Nobles hid behind columns, clutching jewels as if wealth could save them.

The Regent shouted, "Take her alive if possible. Dead if necessary."

Before his soldiers reached her, the service doors burst open.

Kitchen boys, maids, laundry women, stable hands, footmen, gardeners, and scullery girls poured into the ballroom. They carried carving knives, fire pokers, iron trays, curtain rods, and candlesticks.

At their front stood Mara, the head laundress.

She pointed a rolling pin at the soldiers.

"You heard the bell," she called. "And you heard the princess."

The Regent scoffed. "Servants against soldiers?"

Mara smiled coldly. "Servants know every locked door in this palace."

The chandeliers dimmed.

Hidden doors opened along the walls. Passages behind paintings, staircases inside columns, old servant corridors the nobles had forgotten.

Elara had not hidden alone.

The invisible people had carried her secrets.

The soldiers found themselves surrounded. Trays slammed into faces. Wax splashed across armor. A kitchen boy chained one soldier's ankles. General Daven drew a blade from his cane.

Cassian tried to slip away.

Elara sealed the door with light.

"Please," he said. "I was young."

"You were thirty," she replied.

"I had debts. Your uncle owned me."

"You sold a princess for gambling money."

Before she could say more, the Regent retreated toward the staircase.

"He wants me in the throne room," Elara said.

Mara frowned. "Then do not go."

The Regent looked back and called, "Come to the throne room, Elara, unless you no longer care what became of your brother."

Elara froze.

She had always been told she was an only child.

Mara whispered, "Princess, that may be a lie."

"Yes," Elara said. "But if it is not, he has had twelve years to punish him."

Then she followed the Regent.