Bedlam Boyz(54)

Catt pushed Kayla ahead of her, walking quickly. "Say nothing unless she speaks to you, if you value your life," the woman said tersely to Kayla.

Not a problem, I don't want to get in that lady's way, not when she's got that "To hell with patience, I'm going to kill someone" look in her eyes!

A moment later they were in the kitchen, walking past the greasy wooden tables and cowering servants dressed in rags who were kneeling on the straw-covered stone floor.

"Who poured my glass of wine?" the Queen demanded, glancing around furiously at the terrified servants.

No one moved or spoke.

The Queen walked forward, her eyes moving over the servants' faces, and stopped in front of a kneeling woman. She's human like me, Kayla realized, seeing the woman's normal ears showing beneath her tangled mop of dark hair.

"I know what you did," the Queen said dangerously. "What did you put in my wine?"

"It wasn't me, milady," the woman wheezed, her face pale white beneath the grime. Impatiently, the Queen shoved her out of the way, searching through the items piled on the wooden table next to her, bowls and platters clattering haphazardly onto the floor. A moment later she straightened, something small and white clenched within her hand.

"What is this?" she said, turning quickly to Kayla. "This is not of my realm. Do you know what this is?"

No-Doz? What is a bottle of No-Doz doing here?

"Uh, it's pills, Your Majesty," Kayla said, looking at the white plastic bottle. "No-Doz. They're caffeine pills."

The Queen's fingers whitened on the plastic bottle, and Catt made an odd choking sound. "Caffeine!" the Queen said in a voice like ice. "Heads will roll over this," she whispered. "Heads will roll!" She turned quickly to Kayla. "Can you counter the poison, healer?"

"I think so," Kayla said uncertainly. "I mean, you didn't drink very much of it, so there's only a little in your system. . . ."

"Even small amounts of pure caffeine is deadly to our kind," the Queen said. "Work your magic, child. Heal me of this poison."

Hesitantly, Kayla touched the Queen's pale white hands. In that instant, fire welled up from within her, blossoming around her. Suddenly she could see beneath that pale skin, the swirling patterns of power and lifeblood, and the darkening stain of shadow that was moving through her body. She could see the deadly effect of the caffeine upon the Queen, and before she could blink, the magic caught her up and plunged her into the healing.

She coaxed the poison out of the Queen's blood, changing it to something harmless that drifted away. It was more difficult than anything she'd ever done before, tracing those tiny molecules of death through the Queen's body and changing each one. When she finished, she realized that Catt was holding her up, keeping her from falling onto the stone floor. The Queen was standing silently, sparks of blue fire still flickering over her skin.

"Thank you," the Queen said stiffly. Kayla thought that maybe she'd never said those two words before. "Thank you, child." The Queen glided away without another word, walking back through the kitchen. After a moment, Kayla felt strong enough to follow her. In the throne room, the Queen, calm and expressionless, seated herself without a word. The gathered courtiers watched her nervously.

"It is true, what the human child said," the Queen said at last. "I was poisoned."

The Queen's eyes traveled through the crowd, glancing at one elven lord and then another, until they fixed upon an elderly, gray-haired elven man garbed in black velvet, who was watching her with a composed face but terror in his eyes. His lips twitched once, and before he could smooth his features into another mask of impassiveness, the Queen pointed at him.

"He is responsible!" the Queen said, gesturing with a pale finger at the elderly elf. "Take him outside and make him pay for his treachery!"

How . . . how did she know?

The silent swordsman and the Redcap moved to the old elf. They had taken him by the arms and dragged him halfway across the hall before he reacted, shouting protestations of innocence and begging for mercy. The heavy twin doors of the hall shut upon his wild pleadings.

They're going to—they're going to kill that old man!

"Wait . . ." Kayla began, then saw the look in the Queen's eyes, intense hatred mixed with a cruel satisfaction, and knew that she couldn't say anything that would save the old man's life.

"Well, that's that," the Queen said, rubbing her hands together. She glanced at Kayla, who realized she was standing with her mouth open. "You have a question in your eyes, human child," she observed. "What is it?"