“Why haven’t you been to my chamber yet, Eleanor?” A cracked, rather sad voice struck my ears as I swiftly revived from my slumber.
Her scarlet bloody looking eyes somehow were blue with agony, telling me to seek for a reason of her death or anything that happened to me and the whole palace. Everyone was deceived by the lies that had been spread by the liar. The liar was the culprit or maybe the mastermind himself. Who would have had such suspicious traits if it wasn’t James but how was he connected to the incident in the first place?
I was determined to investigate it myself even if it cost me my own life for the sake of the future. I changed my nightgown into my daily outfit and tip toed towards Captain Kenny’s room which was quite far off towards the east wing. All of the royal members were placed at the west wing while the guests were placed at the east wing.
Later, I finally arrived at the eastern wing, in front of his room. I knocked the door gently and peered a bit inside the chamber when suddenly, he opened the door and quickly pulled me right in.
“Now, you’re turning into a pervert?” He raised one of his eye-brows with the look of dissatisfaction.
“What- No! I was trying to invite you to go to my mother’s chamber...” My sentence could not be finished.
“Ah, yes. I forgot about that,” He gave a low whistle and Penelope barged in hastily from the window near his bed. “They didn’t let this so called ‘lethal’ creature enter the palace and poor Penelope had to stay outside.”
“Well, a fate that I need to endure for being a bloody dragon,” He gave a low whine.
“Putting that aside, Mammy sent me another letter this morning and the content may not be a very good one,” He said while taking out a piece of paper and handed it to me.
“Dear Kenneth Rogers and Eleanor,
You two must HURRY or the evidence will be abolished by the culprit. It seems that the crystal ball couldn’t show a viewable image of what happened when the Queen died or the face of the culprit. Now, only you two can unveil the tragedy. You two are the last resort and you two definitely MUST expose it after Eleanor is crowned as the Queen. DEFINITELY!
Yours sincerely,
MAMMY”
“How come? It’s impossible! There’s no way that the crystal ball couldn’t show any image of the culprit nor the incident!” I shrieked in dismay, feeling helpless.
“And the old wizard we met sent us the letter as well,” He shoved another letter into my hand.
“Dear Sir Kenneth and Princess Eleanor,
You have finally arrived in the palace and I praise you for that. You have one chance left so use it wisely. I swear I have done my best to help you out in finding the real culprit but my magic cannot untangle the past to witness the incident. I’m sure Mammy cannot do it as well. Even magic cannot solve this and must you use your wit to solve this riddle. I have my faith in you.
Yours truly,
Your old Wizard”
“As written, even magic cannot help us solve the mystery,” He took both the letters from my hand and put it back into safety for fear it might fall to the wrong hand.
“At least his letter is written in a normal way of which is not too old fashioned,” I interrupted.
“You got that right,” He added with a slight sneer on his face.
“And so, we’re going.”
“Wait, we need to be more careful,” He advised.
“You, yes. Me, no,” I grinned childishly.
“A princess’s escort won’t make much mess, will it?” He uttered monotonously, making his tone sounded sulky.
“You know, sometimes I wonder why aren’t you a ruler,” I paused. “You’d make such a splendid lord.”
“For a Pirate Captain, nothing is impossible since he controls everything,” He replied.
“Are you guys are going for a talk with no works or what?” Penelope moaned and I could sense that he was a bit disgusted.
“Mood-breaker,” Captain Kenny uttered.
“All the time,” I added.
“Hey!” Penelope grumbled in fury.
And so, off we went heading towards the late Queen Arianette’s chamber where it was located somewhere very secluded since she was a sacred woman herself. I wonder what was so sacred about my mother that everyone couldn’t let their guards down and tried their best to keep her line (which was who I was) alive.
“Eleanor, look out!” Captain Kenny shouted in a whispery tone, pulling me into his hold, while covering my mouth. Two guards were pacing nearby, chit chatting about an inn without any sign of awareness that someone had entered the forbidden building.
“That was a close one,” He heaved a heavy sigh.
“Yeah, a sweet escape…” I turned to face him.
Our eyes met and our nose bumped into each other. We remained silent for minutes and almost kissed when suddenly, Penelope interrupted, “I know you lovers are in the mood but don’t you think that it is not the right time? Geez, can’t you just wait for your first night?”
We averted our gazes, “For the first time, I guess Penelope has a point.” Captain Kenny released me and led us towards the appointed place. I was so embarrassed. First night?! Penelope, you’re still a baby dragon and yet how could you go and say such embarrassing words?! I wondered what Captain Kenny was thinking and I wondered where he got the map towards my mother’s chamber from. Maybe the old wizard attached it along with the letter he sent us.
“I can’t sense anything extraordinary about this room,” Captain Kenny spurted monotonously.
“Well, she might leave something for a clue,” I added convincingly.
“How about her journal?” He uttered.
“Well, if that’s the case…” I walked towards a queen bed and peered underneath it and there it was the journal.
“I wonder whether it runs in the blood or it’s just because you did the same,” He commented while holding his chin.
“I can’t tell you since you’d be looking at the same spot inside my room if I tell you,” I glared cautiously, not expecting him to ransack my room just to get my diary.
“I’d love to read yours but I’m not that low to start up with,” He smiled.
“Oh, really? Too bad I end up writing a certain ‘someone’ in it but yeah, whatever. He doesn’t even give a damn about it,” I grinned mischievously with my back facing him.
“Don’t worry, the first thing I’m going to do when we get to the ship is to ransack your room,” He replied sadistically.
“Oh, my god! Just how high is your level of a pervert?” My arms were around my body and paced a few steps away from him.
“So high to the extent of making you mine forever,” He licked his lips and at the same time, I end up blushing.
“Know your limits, idiots! I’m here,” Penelope growled in anger and I could see his blue face was blushing.
Not to waste any more time, I opened my mother’s journal and read it aloud, “I finally have a daughter of my own! I am so happy that I cried so hard when I hammock her when she was born. What a joy it was. 21st June, eighteen years ago.” I continued with my recitation, “I can’t believe that she’s plotting something behind my back! I hope that she won’t harm my daughter. 24th April, fifteen years ago.”
“It was 2 months before her actual death. Now that we know the culprit is a woman, we need to identify who is this woman. It might be your step mother,” Captain Kenny jumped into a conclusion.
I continued reading it, “Lord, I know that I’m going to die tomorrow. She had poisoned me all these time. I can’t believe it! Arabelle, if you ever read this, please take care of my daughter and my husband. I know that you have been in love with him for the whole time and I don’t understand why you let him go when you have the chance to marry him. It is okay, I’m leaving him to you and you must promise me that you will live happily ever after and give him a prince in my stead. He had always wanted a son.”
“She knew it all along that she’s going to die,” I sobbed, trying to catch a hold of myself.
“Please carry on,” Captain Kenny consoled me and hugged me lovingly.
“The unrequited love is a love of two lovers who deny their love because of their current situation,” Penelope read the next line which was the last line written in the diary.
“The unrequited love? The unrequited love! That’s the book mammy gave me on my 17th birthday!” I shrieked unbelievably.
“What happened in the end?” Captain Kenny frowned a bit.
“The dark lord has died a tragic death,
But for love’s sake he sacrificed himself,
The unrequited is once again recruited,
Both pairs are now together,
The evil beauty tried to separate them,
And that’s how the Dark Lord kept both lovers,
Unreachable,
For future to bind them together,
As husband and wife,” I recited the last poem written from the novel.
“Wait, the poem sounds familiar. Though it the story is something else, but it’s trying to tell us how your father, the king has been in love with Queen Arabelle. The Dark Lord is referred to your mother, Queen Arianette. But, who is this evil beauty?” Captain Kenny jumped into a serious conclusion again.
“It’s not my step-mother, it’s not mammy, and of course it’s not me… Could it be… But why? Then what’s the motive of plotting all these long scenes?”
“Gather all your guards and the King. They will hear me and here’s the proof, clearly written on the novel,” Captain Kenny ordered.
And so the next day, everyone was gathered. From the crews of the Devil’s crew, guards, the king himself, Prince Airill, Queen Arabelle and all the servants and maids inside the palace. The mystery would be broken soon enough.
