KAETHE GUIDES ME TO A part of the castle I have never seen.
Where the throne room and the queen’s rooms are made from the same drab black stone, this wing of the castle is obviously a new addition. The stone is pale gray and there are open-air windows that illuminate the space.
The scent of burning wood and damp earth lingers in the air.
There are also more people here. Humans and dark elves alike.
A human woman passes us, her curly hair pulled back from her sharp face. Paint in all different hues of blue and purple coat her tan skin. Her white smock is covered in the same array of colors. She smiles at Kae as we pass.
“Morning Kaethe, Fredric says the ovens are ready.”
“Thank you Breena. This is Princess Elvie, King Arkain’s bride-to-be.” The girl looks down at her feet and, just like Kae, attempts a curtsy. I am beginning to think most of the humans that live here do not come in contact with elves much.
“Your Majesty,” she whispers. I smile and shake my head.
“Please, just, Elvie.” I nod to her smock. “Are you a painter?”
“Yes, but I have not mastered it yet.”
“She’s being modest,” Kaethe says. “She creates the most amazing landscapes. Makes you feel like you are actually looking at them and not just paint on a canvas.”
“But my portrait work could be better. When are you going to let me paint you, Kae? You keep putting it off.” Brenna puts her hands on her hips. Kae ducks her head and looks away.
“You know, I’m not really interested in—”
“Nonsense, you would be perfect! You look just like one of Cheval’s models. I’ve been reading up on his work and his depiction of the female form is second to none.”
“Who?” Breena’s mouth drops open at Kae’s question and I chuckle softly.
“She’s right. Cheval would kill to get his hands on you,” I say. “He is a master of the art.”
“You know Cheval?” Breena says with awe.
I nod. “He came to the palace in Lysan once with a few of his models. The way he paints, you would think he was the one with magic, not us.”
“I would love to meet him. Just once.”
“Perhaps it can be arranged. He owes me a favor anyhow.” I smile at the memory.
“Really? Oh gods, that would be wonderful,” Breena sighs. “We never get any visitors here anymore.”
“Why’s that,” I ask.
“Well ever since King Arkain—”
“Breena,” Kae cuts in. “We must be going.” The two humans share some kind of look before Breena smiles at me and nods.
“Of course. See you around, Elvie.”
With that she is gone and Kae continues to lead me down the hall until we push through a pair of wooden doors. What’s beyond them is something I have never seen before.
A roaring fire in the back. Tubes of all shapes and sizes take up the entirety of the massive work table. Vials of all sorts of herbs and potions. Jars containing plants and creatures I’ve never even heard of before.
Bats’ wings. Beaverviper skulls. Dwarves’s finger bones. Scales from the southern sirens. Jar after jar contains oddity after oddity. Not to mention half of them were illegal to own in Lysan.
Leather-bound books are everywhere. Open to pages with diagrams of all different kinds of creatures. Grimoires filled with different lists on how to create the perfect potions for everlasting life, true love, and everything in between.
“What is this place?” I ask.
Kae looks around and blushes, wringing her hands on the front of her shirt.
“It’s my laboratory. Sorry it’s in such a state, I have meant to clean up here.”
“It is wonderful, Kae.”
I mean that too. Our royal alchemist back in Lysan mainly deals with our greenhouse. How to maximize our crop outputs to make our southern region more fruitful. This is a true merging of magic and science.
“When did you start studying alchemy?” I ask. Kae comes to stand next to me as I thumb my way through one of her books. A guide on how venom from the eels of Skull Bay can be used to bring down fevers caused by a poisonous beaverviper bite.
“I came to Myrkorvin when I was around twelve. I was able to get in with an older alchemist who thought I showed promise and sponsored me to go to the royal academy. That’s where King Arkain found me.” She laughs softly. “I was a bit of a rebel, using ingredients even my elven professors wouldn’t touch. I guess that made the king think I was perfect for the task he had for me.”
“What task?” I ask. Kae swallows and covers her face in her hands.
“I should not have said anything,” she mutters. I give her an appraising stare and she sighs. “But I guess if you are to be queen there’s no harm in telling you. Come.”
Kaethe guides me back towards one of the roaring fires. There are more glass tubes set up with a variety of herbs laid out.
“The king has tasked me with creating an antidote to orc’s teeth arrows.”
I scrunch my nose. “Orcs use their own teeth as arrowheads?”
Kaethe shakes her head. “No, it is just what they call them. They are arrows dipped in a poison made from flowers that only bloom on the Brokenbone Mountains. One hundred percent deadly. Just pricking yourself with one means you will drop dead within moments.” Kae sighs. “The orcs have a natural immunity to them but I am certain it is something that we can replicate. Or at the very least find a way to nullify the poison enough to not be deadly.”
I am quiet for a moment, considering what she said. “This is quite the task to put you in charge of. What is the importance of these arrows to the king?”
Kaethe contemplates this for a moment and I think she’s not going to tell me, but she surprises me and does.
“An orc’s teeth arrow killed King Arkain’s father. The poison is so painful and so fast-acting that you will wish for death. King Arkain has vowed that no elf should fall victim to that same fate.” She pauses. “And if the orcs wish to go to war again, then we should be prepared to defeat them.”
“Is there a chance of that happening?” I ask, but Kae just shrugs and goes back to the tubes in front of her.
Taking one of the bright green leaves of the liverworm she mushes it into a fine paste in a stone bowl. Spreading a thin layer into one of the glass tubes she pours a boiling, dark brown liquid into it that smells of rotting flesh. The mixture bubbles and snaps.
“We all have a small amount of the poison, so I can only keep trying to perfect it so many times…” She trails off as she drops the smallest amount of black goo into the glass container. The liquid hisses for a second and pulses with a glowing white light.
Before the black completely spreads, eroding the mixture and turning the beaker completely back.
“Fuck,” Kae curses and then covers her mouth. “Sorry, this happens every time. Each time I think I’ve cracked it, this is what happens. The poison is so strong, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I place a hand on her shoulder and smile.
“You’ll get it, you just have to keep at it.” She nods and then smiles as something catches her eyes in the corner.
Walking over to one of the other work tables, she pulls out a green leather-bound book. Mistress Grisella’s Botany for Beginners. How cute. Kae skims through the pages until her head pops back up.
“Since you’re so good with plants would you mind helping me regrow some of the herbs we are low on?” She asks me. “It will be a while before we can get back to the market in Moonbourne and I am dangerously low on merc weed.”
“I’d love to.”
That is how the rest of our morning and afternoon goes. Kae brings me a plant and using my magic I help regrow it and make new blooms. Over and over again. Back in Lysan using this much magic would cause massive headaches and fatigue. Here, with the richness of the free magic so freely flowing, it is taking me barely a thought to get the plants to grow.
I do not realize how late it has grown until sweat begins to trickle down my brow and two armed palace guards walk into the laboratory.
Two female dark elves are with them. Dark hair pulled back into tight buns. Clawed hands are clasped in front of muted black dresses. They bow and the taller one on the left speaks, her white fangs shining with each word.
“Your Majesty, we have come to collect you and prepare you for dinner with the king.”
I nod and wipe my sweaty palms on my cloak. Turning to Kae, I smile.
“I enjoyed today, thank you.”
“I did as well,” Kae says, a small smile tugging at her lips. I glance down at the table and pick up one of the almost empty jars.
“Tomorrow I’ll come back and we can do more lily of the valley.”
“That sounds like a plan. See you tomorrow.”
I nod and follow the two dark elf females out of the lab. It seems that my first full day in Myrkorvin went well. I may have just acquired my first friend, but with each step I take closer to the queen’s rooms unease grows in my belly.
A friend was easy enough to make. Now I must see if I can do the same thing with my soon-to-be husband.
