*Isla*
All the information that Mystica is giving me is too much for my mind to process all at once. I’m going to need a few moments to get it all into my brain. For now, I’m still stuck on trying to grasp the idea that I'm pregnant.
I’m pregnant, and my child was not only exposed to the wolfsbane that that horrible bitch Zabrina poisoned my body with, but who knows what kind of damage the medications Mystica gave me in an attempt to heal me could cause in a body so tiny and undeveloped?
Maddox is telling Mystica to stop filling my head with nonsense when I finally begin to pay attention to their discussion again, and the healer looks horribly offended. “Your Majesty!” she declares. “I am not filling her head with nonsense! It is about time that you came to understand the truth of the situation. You have to accept the fact that your beloved breeder here is more than just the title you have bestowed upon her! She is, in fact, a princess! She is from Maatua! And she does have capabilities beyond anything you have ever experienced before!”
Maddox glowers at her, but before he can say anything, I intervene, “Mystica,” I say, reaching for her hand. “Thank you for standing up for me. I appreciate how you’ve always been so quick to tell me the truth, to the best of your ability, when it comes to dealing with everything that I have faced–my past included. Maddox and I have discussed the possibility that I am from Maatua, and we will continue to discuss that point, so please don’t feel that you must keep imploring him to believe you. Truly, it hurts my heart to see you feel that you must put yourself in such a position to have to argue with your own Alpha King on my behalf.”
“It shouldn’t, dear!” she insists, patting my hand. “I fully respect the king and the power of his position, but I will never sit idly by and let false information be proclaimed as truth by anyone.”
Mystica gets another grunt out of the king, and I hope to be able to prevent her from digging herself into a further hole, but she still doesn’t seem to be listening.
My true goal in asking her to drop it had been to get back to what she’d said about a way for my child to be saved from any difficulties the poison and medications may have caused, and I don’t know how to get her back to that when Maddox still wants to assert his authority and convince her that she’s out of line talking to me about Maatua.
“The fountain?” I blurt out, catching Maddox’s eyes as he seems about ready to shout at her. “What fountain, Mystica? Where is it, and what can it do?”
“Oh, well, why even bother to tell you of its great power when clearly everything I know of Maatua from living there for decades is a work of fiction!”
I’ve heard her get snippy with Maddox several times, but this is the most irritated I’ve ever heard her, and it concerns me. I don’t want him to blurt out something he can’t take back. I think back to the gallows I know he was having erected earlier, before the storm. I can see him saying something stupid like she needs to join Zabrina and the warriors from Hill Pack tomorrow for disrespecting the king.
“It does matter,” I assure her. “It matters to me, most certainly, and I believe it matters to the king as well. He will want to do whatever is possible to help our child.”
Our child. I say the words quickly in context, but as soon as they are out of my mouth, I can’t help but look at the king. I am having a baby–another life is growing inside of my body–and Maddox is the father. This new person we have created together is part him and part me. I don’t know how anyone can say that magic doesn’t exist when they contemplate the miracle of new life.
Mystica is looking at Maddox when she says, “I’m happy to tell you, dear, but at the same time, I’d hate to anger His Royal Highness.”
“Mystica,” Maddox begins, and I can tell that he’s calmer than he was a few moments ago. Perhaps the reality of what I’ve said is beginning to sink in for him, too, and he knows he needs to at least listen to what she has to say. “That’s enough. You don’t need to take that sort of attitude with me. Just… tell Isla what the hell you’re talking about without taking shots at me.”
Mystica is still irritated, but when I squeeze her hand, she decides to do the right thing and let Maddox’s earlier statements go in favor of his new, more cool, collected persona.
The healer takes a deep breath and sits down in a chair next to my bed. I get the impression this isn’t going to be a simple answer.
“In Maatua,” she begins, “nature is not quite as important to the people as the Moon Goddess herself, but it is often a close second. We believe that the Goddess often shows herself through the beauty she brings to the earth, that the majesty of the mountains, the tranquility of the ocean, the white sands of the endless beach all work together to glorify the Moon Goddess. In turn, the Moon Goddess uses nature to bring blessings upon her people.”
“You mean like the blessings of a war where nearly every citizen died?” Maddox asks, folding his arms across his muscular chest and rocking back and forth, changing his weight from one foot to the other.
Mystica glares at him. “No! That was the doing of a nonbeliever! One who let his lust for power grow so strong, he would do anything to become king, including destroying is own country and betraying his own family.”
I know she is speaking of my own uncle when she talks, but I say nothing, wishing that Maddox wouldn’t either. I know how Mystica is, and if we allow her to speak at her own pace without interrupting, it could take an hour for her to get to the point.
I attempt to move her along with what I hope is a well-phrased question. “So the fountain was a gift from the Moon Goddess?” I ask her.
She nods, her eyes softer as they fall on my face. “Yes. It was discovered in the forest near the foot of one of the most sacred mountains near the capital city hundreds of years ago. A child was picnicking nearby with his parents when he was bitten by a deadly viper. No one had ever lived from being struck by this sort of snake. His mother used water from the fountain to wash the wound, and not only did the child live, but within a few moments, he was revived to complete health as if he’d never been bitten before!” Mystica smiles and claps her hands before raising them both to the heavens. “Hail thee, oh, sacred Goddess of the Moon.”
Another grunt came from the foot of the bed. “What if it just wasn’t a poisonous snake?” the king asks.
Mystica opens her eyes and narrows her gaze at him. “The story is true! You can ask anyone who has ever lived in Maatua.”
“Even the dead people? Why didn’t they just carry everyone who was wounded in battle to the fountain so they wouldn’t die?” I don’t like his sarcastic tone.
“If you must know, the battles were waged in the city, far away from the fountain!” she replies with a bite to her tone just as venomous as the snake, I imagine.
Maddox only shakes his head. I want to tell him to shut up, but he is the king, and doing so will only make the situation worse.
“Throughout the years, many more stories were told of people who had suffered great injuries, illnesses, even death. When they were taken to the fountain, they were always completely healed. The only limitation was that they had to get there within a few hours of their passing, or else the fountain’s powers would not work,” Mystica explains.
I look at Maddox as I think he is about to say something else snide and unnecessary, but he doesn’t speak.
“I believe, if you go to the fountain and bathe in it, even while you are still pregnant, you will heal your unborn child of any afflictions he or she may have suffered from the wolfsbane and other substances you’ve recently had in your body, dear,” she says. “Oh, how I wish I had known at the time! I would’ve been more precautious.”
“If you’d been more precautious, Mystica, Isla would be dead,” Maddox reminds her.
The healer sighs, and for once she agrees with him, nodding her head. “Perhaps this is so. But… I feel terrible for the hand I’ve played in any harm befalling the heir.”
My hands go to my abdomen. It’s just as flat as it’s always been, but I can sense the child within me now. Thinking of myself as the woman carrying the heir to the throne, the next king or queen of our lands, makes tears come to my eyes.
Maddox misinterprets them. “It’s all right, baby,” he says, rushing to the opposite side of the bed from where Mystica is sitting. “We will find a way to make sure our child is healthy.”
I take the hand he offers me, but I shake my head. “You can’t know that for certain. It’s not as if you believe in the fountain Mystica speaks of. And since you’ve already forbidden me to go to Maatua, the point is moot anyway.”
Before he can reply, Mystica says, “Forbidden her to go? To her own homeland?”
“Mystica, please,” Maddox begins. “That does not concern you. At all.”
“But it does!” the healer insists. “She is the princess! If she wants to return to her home, how can you stop her?”
“How?” Maddox asks, turning with fire burning in his eyes again. “Easily! I am the king!”
I hope that he doesn’t mention owning me again. As much as that might technically be true, it makes me feel very small to hear him shout that, even when he’s obviously mad and not thinking clearly.
“Besides, Mystica,” Maddox continues. “For all of your talk of the beauty and enchantment of Maatua, you are not mentioning one rather important detail at all! Why is it that you think Isla deserves to know all of the wonderful features of her homeland but not the ugly parts?”
“What is it you’re speaking of?” I ask him, feeling my heart rate increase. “What ugly parts?”
He stares at Mystica for a moment, silently ordering her to be the one to tell me. But she keeps her lips pressed together and her chin raised. Somehow, she’s strong enough to refuse what is all but a direct order from the Alpha.
“Fine,” he says. “I’ll tell her.” Turning back to look at me, Maddox says, “The curse.”