Chapter 2 - The Serpent’s Nest
By midnight, the palace was in utter chaos. Whispers spread through the servant quarters, the barracks, and the noble suites like wildfire. The lost princess had returned, brought to light not by a grand knight, but by a pitcher of ice water thrown by her cousin.
In the royal west wing, Mara sat in a tub of warm water scented with rose oils. Three senior handmaidens washed the grease and grime of seventeen years in the scullery from her skin, weeping silent tears of sympathy as they worked around the small, faint burn scars on her arms—scars left from her time working near the palace hearths.
Across the palace, in the heavily guarded East Tower, Duke Vane—the King’s younger brother and Celeste’s father—stood by a arched window, staring out at the torchlit courtyard below. He was a tall, lean man with sharp gray eyes and a smile that rarely reached his cold gaze.
The door to his study burst open as two guards escorted Celeste inside, locking the door behind her per the King's orders for room arrest.
"Father!" Celeste cried, rushing to him and gripping his velvet doublet. "She’s alive! The kitchen girl—she has the mark! Uncle locked me in my room! He knows!"
"Silence, Celeste!" Duke Vane hissed, striking his hand against his oak desk. "Do not lose your composure like a hysterical peasant!"
"How can I be calm?!" Celeste cried, tears ruining her face powder. "For seventeen years you told me the infant was dead! You told me the fire took her, and that the throne was mine by birthright once Uncle died of his grief!"
Duke Vane turned his back to the window, his eyes narrowing to sharp slits. "The infant should have been dead. The nurse was paid twenty thousand gold crowns to ensure the cradle remained inside the flames. The fool must have lost her nerve and dropped the child in the lower town before fleeing the kingdom."
Celeste gasped, taking a step back. "You... you ordered the fire?"
"I did what was necessary for our branch of the family to rule!" Vane growled, grabbing Celeste’s chin in his iron grip. "Listen to me closely, girl. Your uncle is old and frail. His heart is weak. The announcement of his daughter’s survival has given him a brief surge of strength, but he will not survive another shock. We still have half the Royal Guard on our payroll, and Lord Corvus commands the eastern garrisons."
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"What are you going to do?" Celeste whispered.
"The princess revealed herself tonight," Vane said, a dark, murderous smile touching his lips. "Which means she must die tonight, before she can learn how to use her bloodline’s power."
