Chapter 158
CAMILLA’S P.O.V
Anxiety bubbled through me as we took the carriage into town. Christine was a bundle of nerves with how she was anxiously biting her nails and twiddling with her fingers. Even Juan’s presence did little to calm her although I could clearly tell that he was doing his best. She was torn up over something and it didn’t matter how many times I asked, she repeated the same words- you need to see it.
By the time we got to town, I was already thinking up the worst case scenarios. Christine was the first person out of the carriage and I watched as Juan went after her whispering words in her ears until her shoulders slacked and she was relatively calmer. He held her shoulders and guided her through deep breaths. I didn’t realize I was smiling and staring at them until I felt Ryker’s presence behind me.
“It is rude to stare,” he reminded me and I rolled my eyes playfully. “He is a good man, to her at least.”
“She deserves it,” I said simply before turning to face him. “When does Riley return?”
He thought about it for a second before shrugging. “I honestly do not know. I haven’t gotten a letter from her in two weeks. I know that she is fine, she just wants to take some more time away I guess. Don’t worry about my sister, she is stronger than any of us realize.”
A throat cleared in front of us and I looked forward to see Christine standing there. She looked a lot calmer than she did before with her shoulders squared and her spine straightened. Sometimes I wondered how she managed to do that so easily, she was always so put together and compartmentalized. She could be sobbing one second and the next, she is the perfect imagine of a princess. It used to scare me and a small part of me was jealous knowing I would never be as good as her at that.
“You should brace yourselves,” she warned before leading us towards what looked like a farm. I could smell the animals and the dung and it took everything for me to not cover my nose. We walked past what seemed to be a pig sty and I almost threw up. I seemed to be the only person that was bothered by the scents.
As we got closer, I felt my powers begin to buzz under my skin. I was not wearing my gloves so I quickly intertwined my fingers with Ryker’s. His eyes shot to mine immediately with worry and concern but I shook my head. Now was not the time to talk about it. A part of me hoped that if I ignored it then it would go away but it only seemed to get worse. I felt the buzz closer to the surface of my skin, as if it was crawling to get out. It pushed against every boundary and border I had until my head was pounding in my skull.
We suddenly came to a stop and I blinked in confusion when I saw a farm land or what should have been a farm land. All the crops were dead. I wasn’t sure how possible it was for all the crops in a single field to be dead at the same time but that was what I was looking at. The buzzing under my skin had intensified but I was too confused to pay attention to it.
“Why are we looking at a field?” Juan asked voicing everyone’s thoughts. “If his crops died then maybe he should try a new fertilizer or some dung. I smelled some on the way.”
“He says that they were fine yesterday but he came out this morning to this.”
“That’s not possible,” Ryker cut in. “Crops don’t just die overnight. They must have been dying for a while and he either didn’t notice or didn’t care. There isn’t much we can do about this. They’re already dead. It was probably an oversight on-”
“No,” I cut him off and everyone turned to me.” “Something happened here. I can feel it.”
“What do you mean?” Ryker asked but I paid no heed to him. I took a step closer and touched the pad of my finger to a single leaf. The immediate lurch I felt had me doubling over. The power raced out of me and would have continued had Ryker not pulled me away. “What the hell was that?”
I was dizzy and out of focus. It took me a full minute to get my mind back in order and get back on my feet. Ryker wouldn’t release me though and I could see the fear and worry in his eyes. There was also slight annoyance towards me for putting myself in danger but I needed to be sure. The moment I felt that tug of power, I knew that whatever happened here must have been magical, I just needed to confirm it.
“Someone used magic to drain the life from these,” I explained aloud. “That is why the moment I touched it, my power went out of me. It is healing magic and that is exactly what it was doing, look.”
I gestured to the single leaf and in front of our eyes, the plant unfurled and stood strong and healthy further confirming my suspicions.
“Why would someone attack the crops with magic? That sounds like a waste of time,” Christine mumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Do they plan to starve the kingdom to an early grave? There are better ways to attack.”
“I don’t think this is about an attack,” I whispered softly. I didn’t want to voice the rest of my thoughts but when I glanced over at Ryker, I could see that he was thinking the very same thing. The other two were confused and I decided it wasn’t their battle. “We should return. Offer the farmer our condolences and tell him that we will look into it. Make him believe that it was a parasite.”
Christine looked suspicious but she nodded nonetheless. “Are you sure? What if he doesn’t believe that?”
“Make him believe it,” I shrugged. “You can be very persuasive when you want to be. I have a feeling this will not be the only attack. If he believes it is a parasite then it makes it easier to convince the rest of the people.”
“What is going on, Camilla?” she asked but I shook my head.
“Nothing worth mentioning, we will be waiting for you in the carriage.”
Ryker and I walked away leaving them whispering between themselves in confusion. Once we were alone, he finally turned to me. “Do you know who did it?”
I shook my head. “I can’t say. I have never felt magic that strong before. It didn’t feel like my powers were being drawn, it felt like my entire life force was being fed on.”
“You need to learn how to control this, Camilla. I can find a witch or something, anything that can help you. This is absurd.”
“My powers aren’t something that people are accustomed to. We can ask Loris to help but I doubt there is much he can do. He is used to dealing with elementals. This is out of his pay grade.”
“Well we cannot just sit around, can we? Whoever did this, could they have known about your issues?”
I thought about it for a second before shaking my head. “No one but us knows, not even the elders. We have been very careful about this. They probably just killed the crops to scare us. I doubt this was done because of me. It could also be that it was done because of a perceived slight done by the farmer.”
The more I spoke, the less I believed it but I desperately wanted it to be true. It was easier to believe that this was a single isolated event than it being a full blown war on the brink or horizon.
“What could a farmer do to pis s off a witch that strong?” Ryker asked but I couldn’t respond.
“I don’t know and I am not sure if I want to know.”
Christine and Juan returned a few minutes later and the ride back to the palace was quiet. No one dared to speak for fear that they would say the words that no one wanted to hear. As soon as we arrived, I excused myself to my office where I began making notes. I started after we returned from the vacation house a few months ago, it was my way of being closer to my father. He had kept tons of journals so I started keeping one too. I hoped that someday they would be of use to my children and hopefully not because they were on the brink of a war.
I started making notes about the plants and my powers when I heard the door to my office creak open slightly. I looked up to see Ryker with a small smile and a mug of what smelled suspiciously like hot chocolate.
“I figured we could just use a second to relax,” he offered and I nodded immediately. He let out a sigh of relief and closed the door behind him. “It is almost like we can never catch a break here.”
I took the mug from him and took a small sip. I couldn’t stop the small moan that left my lips. “This is amazing,”
“Camilla, baby, you cannot pretend like your problems don’t exist. Something is happening here and you know it. I would like to nip this at the bud before it grows into something we cannot handle.”
“It is hard to fight something that you do not know. The only person who did was Audrey and I’m not putting her through that again. We are as blind as bats right now and all we can do is sit and wait for something to show up.”
“Nothing ever shows up without casualties.”
“I know,” I admitted softly. “Is it wrong to sometimes wish that wasn’t queen? Don’t get me wrong, I love it on a good day but there are days, like this one that make me ask if it is worth it.”
“The way I see it, I get to give my children the best life they can ever ask for. I get to make sure that the world they live in is a perfect place. I think that’s worth it all, don’t you?”
