The Witch of Storn

Chapter 6

There are certain instances that will occur during the course of one's life, no matter its length, when you know that you are well and truly done for. At this time Rey was experiencing one such moment of her own.

Oh s**t, she thought. I'm well and truly f——d.

At that moment every eye in the large hall was fixed on her. She wondered if they could see the drop of sweat sliding down the side of her face.

What do I say? They're waiting for a reply!

Desperately she cast her gaze about the hall. It stopped on the Duke of Storm sitting next to the King. He had a smile on his face as he looked at her and for some reason it calmed Rey down.

That's right. She reassured herself. There's someone in high places on my side.

She dusted off the skirts of her immaculate dress and curtseyed to her audience.

I just have to deny everything, don't I? I can do that, easy peasy lemon squeezy.

It was silly, Rey knew, but it was all she had.

"Your Majesty, Your Highnesses." She made her greetings and returned to standing on both feet. The King and the Lords acknowledged her with a nod each. Then the King placed his gavel on the table, folding his hands in front of him.

"You stand accused of attempting to murder the accuser, Miss Sylphia Thalar. Lady Rhaenar, please make your defense."

Rey nodded, clasping her hands together before her.

"Thank you, Your Majesty." She paused, and then carried on. "All I have to say is this: I did not try to kill anyone."

The crowd rustled and shifted. Well, what had they been expecting? Was she supposed to break down sobbing and then confess her dark, dirty deeds? Rey frowned at the crowd. Even if Rhaenar had done it, Rey knew absolutely nil about it, so there was nothing to confess. Over at the high table her father gave her a little nod, looking somewhat pleased. One person wasn’t pleased though. Below the high table, the glaring boy from before sent her such a heated look that Rey almost took a step back. She sent him one right back, although it didn't seem to have affected him. Their staring contest ended when the King spoke again.

"Is that all you have to say, Lady Rhaenar? No explanation for how you came to serve something so obviously toxic to Miss Thalar at your tea? For it seems that here in the Academy Miss Thalar's gifts are not a secret."

On the other side of the King Lord Stallis nodded in agreement.

"Your Majesty? If I may...?"

When the King nodded in permission he turned back to Rey.

"Lady Rhaenar, were you aware of Miss Thalar's gifts?"

Rey was stumped. Did Rhaenar know or not? She snuck a quick peek at the glaring boy. He was staring at her steadily, like he was waiting for her to make just one little mistake. She decided to play it safe.

"That is correct."

Lord Stallis hummed and leaned back in his chair.

"So why did you serve a cake with tiger nuts in it?"

The hall held still with bated breath, waiting for an answer. All the while Rey turned her brain upside down, searching for an answer that wouldn't implicate her further. Is it too late to plead amnesia?!

She quickly said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Am I allowed to ask questions?"

Lord Stallis glanced at the King, who nodded. He looked back to her.

"You may."

She thanked him with a nod and looked directly across the room at Sylphia, who had resumed her seat at some point in the trial. The sight of the seat irritated Rey, and her voice came out colder than she had intended, causing the other girl to flinch and sink deeper into her seat.

"Did you know there were tiger nuts in the cake?"

Timidly the girl replied in the affirmative.

"So why did you eat it?"

"I - I didn't think it would be in such a large dose."

Rey had to bite her tongue to keep herself calm. Did the other have no brains at all? Weren't you supposed to avoid any sort of food that caused allergic reactions to you? Was she suicidal? If she was why was she dragging Rhaenar into it?

She wanted to scream at Sylphia and shake some common sense into her. Instead she asked another question in a cool, collected voice.

"Were there other cakes at the tea? Cakes with safer ingredients for you?"

Sylphia replied, "Yes, there were." It was clear she didn't understand why Rey was asking these questions. Rey didn't bother to explain, turning away from Sylphia. She bowed slightly at the stage.

"I'm through, Your Highness."

Lord Stallis looked Rey up and down again, this time with a sort of smile on his face. Two seats from him her father was grinning so hard she could see the whites of his teeth from her spot high above the room. The room was noisy with speculation and the King picked up his gavel again. Soon silence returned to the hall.

"Are you finished, Lord Stallis?" The King asked, placing his chin on the unoccupied hand casually. The Lord frowned at his propped up head but replied with only a "Yes". The King moved his attention to Rey.

"So you claim innocence? Why should we believe you? You still haven't told us how the dose came to be so heavy so as to send Miss Sylphia into spasms."

Rey faltered. "Y-yes," No! Why is it now of all times that I stutter?! She cleared her throat and tried again.

"Yes, Your Highness, I plead innocent. As to how the dose came to be so heavy, I don't know about that. I wasn't the one who baked it, after all."

The King nodded and banged his gavel. Rey's hopes for acquittal were immediately crushed when he announced, "All witnesses please rise."

Curiously she looked around the room. At the edge of the circle of seats stood her maid, the one who had attended to her. Feeling slightly cheered by having someone who knew her well as a witness, she searched for the other witnesses. No others were familiar so she returned her gaze to the stage.

In horror she stared at the stage.

This can't be happening, she thought desperately, praying for anyone to hear, please let him not be a witness.

Unfortunately he remained standing, smirking at Rey. Annoyingly the smirk on his lips looked like a piece of priceless art instead of the trash it truly was.

Her stomach roiled again. Glaring boy who didn't like her for some reason was a witness. She sighed, fighting the urge to sit on the floor. She was so done with the entire thing. Maybe she would wake up soon and discover it was all a dream. Please let it be a dream!

*******

Well, so far so good. Her maid and the other witnesses except glaring boy had testified, all saying she had chosen the menu and ingredients but had had nothing to do with it. There had been one snag, though.

One of the witnesses, the cook who baked the cake had testified that Rey and her friends had been in the kitchen while she was still mixing the batter for the cake. They had been helping out, bringing fruit and other ingredients to her from the stores.

She added that two girls had bumped into each other while one of them was scooping tiger nuts into the batter, and then she had poured the whole thing into the batter. When the King asked how much it was, she replied that a normal serving would be one handful of nuts. Unfortunately in this case the whole tin had been poured in. Lord Stallis asked how large a tin was and the cook replied that it was as long as an adult man's hand from wrist to fingers and as wide as a head.

Rey had started sweating slightly when the cook said that Rhaenar had been the one who bumped into the other girl. The King asked her if she had done it deliberately and she replied in the negative. She wanted to add that Rhaenar had no motive but she didn't know if that was true and didn't want to widen the hole she was already in.

All the time she wondered what had actually happened. If Sylphia knew she was allergic why didn't she just eat something else? Her father asked this too, and the girl responded that in small doses she could actually have the nuts, but an entire tin would definitely kill her. Rey felt even worse. What had actually gone on at that tea party?

Finally it was time for the glaring boy to give his account of events. As he stood up the guar stepped forward. Rey wasn't surprised; it was glaringly telling that the boy was an important person. However, the words that left the guard's lips made her close her eyes in despair.

"His Royal Majesty, Prince Rylan Lux Fyr!"

It seemed to be too common as she had thought it more than once just that day, but all Rey could think was, Oh s**t. Things were definitely stinking.

*******

At last the trial was at its dénouement, one last act before the final scene and the curtains dropped. Rey wondered if this was her dénouement too. Would her life carry on after the events of this day? Would she get to explore this new world, to get intoxicated on that purple ambrosia she had drunk for breakfast? Or would this be the last time she saw any other human being? How did punishments look like in this new world? Was she going to be locked up in a tower for the rest of her life? Imprisoned in a room bricked off from the world until she starved to death? Pulled apart by her limbs-

Stop it Rey. Nothing's going to happen to you. She tried to reassure herself.

She didn't feel very positive about her chances of living, if she was being completely honest with herself. The trial had been a mess, especially after the Prince had spoken. He had revealed that Rhaenar had an intense dislike for Sylphia, and she often insulted her and pulled pranks on the poor girl. The reason for all that was apparently the Prince himself, being Rhaenar's fiancé and Rhaenar had felt threatened by Sylphia's friendship with him. At that Rey had scoffed, wondering why she would be engaged to someone who didn't harbor any good feelings towards her. It seemed it really was true though, since the King and her father didn't look surprised.

Rey suppressed a shiver. I'm way too young to be engaged! Why would I even want to be engaged to him?

It was clear he loathed Rhaenar, from the glares he directed at her and the disgust in his voice when he mentioned all Sylphia had gone through at Rhaenar's hands. Rey's fists clenched when he began to list the things that Rhaenar had done, but they unclenched just as fast. She struggled to restrain her eyes from rolling all the way into the back of their sockets.

Hiding her shoes? Spilling her ink over her clothes? That's just child's play! Why is he making it out like Rhaenar had made the girl live in hell?

Lord Stallis had said so, and her father agreed. The Prince replied proudly that he was in love with Sylphia, so he could not stand her being slighted. The crowd went wild, exclaiming and buzzing in a frenzy. Above the Prince his father dropped his head into his hands while her father glared at the i***t.

The only person who didn't care about his proclamation of love was not Sylphia, with blazing cheeks and hands over her face. It was Rey standing opposite her. She was relieved he had no romantic feelings for her, although anyone looking at him could have guessed it from his attitude.

However, this situation was strangely reminiscent of typical romance novels from Earth. The dread in the pit that was Rey's stomach began to grow in size as she mentally assigned the roles in the romance novel.

The sweet, innocent heroine - Sylphia.

The handsome, rich love interest - Prince Whatever His Name Is.

The jilted ex/unloved fiancé of the love interest - ?

A shiver ran down her spine as she filled in the blanks. The jilted ex who harassed the nice and blameless heroine all for the love of the male lead, who always ended up facing karmic justice? Who was she?

No other person than Rhaenar.