Mara walked into the Palace grounds confident the guards wouldn't see through her disguise. Clean up of the massacre inside the Palace was taking a while, and continued into the night. Lights turned night to day and bustling servants in bloody livery rushed in and out cleaning and searching through her handiwork in the mess of the devastated Palace. The bodies under the sheets of the men who passed Mara's blade lined across the ground to the right with small tents of other recovered items from the thrashed interior. For her, the smell of their blood and fear around her lit nose and fired her loins.
To the left, the Queen sat in metal plated hardened leather cavalry armor at a desk with her back to a huge white carriage that seemed ready to move out. She wanted to make a show of steady strength during the night of crisis as the city seemed under attack by ghostly violent enemies. Nobody needed to know it was all a plot by the Queen's hand to retake control of the Crown from her foolish puppet husband.
Further back behind the Queen, several larger tents for the displaced nobles stood. Each had colored door flaps to denote their houses. In the far back near the south wing of the ravaged Palace, a five-pole tent for the royals stood with small pennants drooping from the points on top.
Mara eased in among the men amused at their fear and aroused by the mixing odors of semen she smelled. In her form, everyone ignored her as the King's whore as she wandered over to stand in front of the Queen at her desk.
"What is it? Why do you disturb me?" The Queen asked firmly without looking up.
Mara could smell her fear dealing with what she thought was her husband's concubine. It was amusing to Mara that she feared her savior.
"We are to see the King." Mara announced.
Clenching her jaw, the Queen looked up at her. "Tell him I have not prepared the reports he needs yet." The slender blonde said bitingly.
"We are to see the King." Mara repeated stepping up against the Queen's desk.
With a quiet sigh, Queen stood and fumbled for a shawl. Despite the plated leather armor the Queen wore, she was visibly uncomfortable in the presence of the form Mara represented.
The Queen walked in front leading the way winding through the tents huddled as if cold in the shawl as they walked to the tent of her evil husband. Across the wide dark street from the Palace, at least two people watched in the dark by a building corner.
"They are in." A tall, hugely muscled, white haired Amazon said to a man shrouded in shadow.
Mara stepped in front of the Queen at the entranceway of the tent. Beyond them, a gauzy curtain hanging in front of them partially obscured a throne and lamps illuminating the central area of the tent. Only in a few areas could the grass of the palace grounds be seen poking up from heavy rugs and skins that lined the floor. Mara smelled blood distinctly nearby and wondered if the King was already dead.
A hand flitted aside the curtain in front of them waving them forward and they entered the middle room of the apartment sized tent.
Before them, the king stood over his bloodied son disheveled and looking terrorized. Advisors and other sycophants of the Crown stood along the edges of the room looking at the floor mostly.
"Monto!" The Queen screeched running to the boy and pulling him from the King's grasp.
"You are here too Taris?" The King bellowed stepping back surprised.
The pale Queen turned and snarled at him holding her concussed child. "You ordered me here you drunk fool. What is it you sent Asmine to fetch me for?"
"Asmine?" The King looked up at Mara and his eye bulged. "Asmine! Praises, I thought you were taken by the guild." He said nervously offering her a hug.
Mara moved to him slowly and started sobbing into his robes. "It was horrible Highness. The ravages of the castle, the arrest by the guild, and finally when the Guildhouse was attacked and burnt down. I saw the creatures that did all of it. The palace, the Guildhouse all of it." Mara said sprouting tears and pushing herself into him in a tight embrace. Her right hand twitched behind him with the repressed urge to stab him.
"Tell me their names I order you!!" The King barked pulling her back to look at him.
Mara shut her eyes tightly to protect her secret and pleaded loudly. "Please sir! Mercy! There are assassins among us. Let me tell you the news where only your Highnesses can know. They're among us. They will come take me again, but I can be safe with you Highness. I can tell you before they come for you too."
The King pushed her down from him like trash as he suddenly became thoughtful. "Huh? That's it huh? The conspiracy turns to me. Those old men were trying to get rid of me after all." He muttered randomly.
Mara crawled back to him worming over the ground. "They know too much Highness. Please take me where it's safe with you." Mara pleaded pitifully from the floor tugging on his robe's hem. "They know so much. They are among us even now. They are close Highness, I fear they watch us."
The King's mind internalized the paranoia as he tried to guess the identities of his enemies. In a frenzy, he looked up at the faces of his cowering sycophants for the traitor among them. "Yes, they... They are always trying to control me. They always were... Leave us!" He bellowed. "Be gone from here!"
The crowd of advisors left quietly. Finally, only the guards were left. "Why do you stay?" The King screeched waving an arm at them too. "Leave us immediately!" He turned expectantly to Mara after they left.
Mara stood and backed up. "I will tell you about your enemies and what I heard Highnesses." She turned and dashed forward to clutch him tightly in a penetrating embrace.
"It is you." She whispered in his ear and backed away turning to the stunned Queen who still held Prince Carthin. "Menthino's activities here against the King and the guild have been completed Queen Di Sellis." She reported flatly.
Behind her, the King was frozen in shock and paling as the poison wended its way through him. A dry gasp heaved from him after a moment, and with a groan, he shook and fell to the floor to lie still.