Chapter 8: The Truth

Ruby, Anthony, and Greta had settled into their newly constructed shack. The carpenter had made it quite comfortable and it surprised Anthony because of the short time frame, but with the money he offered to pay him, Anthony guessed that was the motivation.

* * *

Something kept bugging Ruby's mind. She hadn't been able to sleep with her mind piecing together all she'd heard from both Anthony and Greta. They also hardly talked about her parents.

She thought Greta said the queen was taken somewhere for safety. Anytime Ruby tried to ask, another thing comes up and the question would be dodged.

Today, she wasn't about to allow them to go scot-free. She had a plan.

"Anthony!"

He answered the call and came swiftly into the room. The way Ruby called him, and how he rushed into the room, she was sure he thought she had her feet stuck inside a hole, and she needed urgent help. He was panting by the time he got to the princess.

[It was good for him], Ruby thought.

"Please sit".

"GRETA!", Ruby had to shout her name louder because she was outside roasting a duck for lunch. Meanwhile, this meeting had to hurry because Ruby didn't like eating her duck cold.

"Coming...". As she entered the room, Ruby got up and hooked the door. No one was going to leave that room until she had gotten the answers she needed.

Ruby noticed the look exchanged between the both of them and that gave her an unsettling feeling. She swallowed the lump in her throat and began...

"Please have your seat, Greta". Ruby said knowing that her face was as straight as a ruler. Ruby wasn't joking around anymore and she wasn't going to take any cock and bull story from them.

"Where are my parents? What happened to them? Anthony, tell me why you're with me and not with the king, you are his personal butler. I'm all ears. Also, I am not letting any soul out of this room till I've heard the truth, myself inclusive".

A sheen of sweat had appeared on his forehead and everyone was dressed warmly because the weather in the Red Kingdom was unforgivably cold. [Where was the heat disturbing him coming from?], Ruby thought.

"Princess Ruby...", Anthony began.

[Ah! He included my title. Am I ready to hear what he has to say?] She steeled her heart and continued to listen to him.

"Princess Ruby, the king, your father, I'm deeply sorry to say, is no more. He..."

Ruby interrupted him, "ANTHONY!!! WHAT ARE YOU SAYING TO ME?!", she wailed.

Greta left where she sat and came to hold the princess in a bid to comfort her. Ruby shrugged her off still aware that Greta hadn't told her about her mother.

Ruby was getting to her and she silently prayed, with all the drop of blood in her body, that she wouldn't hear the same news twice.[ Oh God, help me!]

Ruby felt her stomach churn like it was tearing within her, with her heart breaking again and again. She couldn't contain herself. The whole room was quiet except for Ruby's deep, continuous sobbing.

She collected herself a bit and asked...

"Tell me how it happened. Was it from the blast or...?"

"No your highness... he took his own life when he noticed there was nothing that could be done again. Before that, he had told me to get you out of the palace and had prepared resources like money and some instructions..." Anthony's speech was slow with his eyes wet with tears.

"My father had to take his own life because of these invaders. Okay! Noted!".

There was a hardening she felt creeping up her soul. Ruby's innocence was slipping away.

She turned to Greta who trembled under Ruby's gaze.

"The Queen? Tell me, NOW!", Princess Ruby ordered Greta.

With her voice shaking, she began; "While I was searching for you during the bombings, I thought to check the queen's room first, thinking you'd have gone there given the situation. As I walked in, I saw her maids, all of them that personally attend to her, kneeling by her bedside. They were all crying, that was when I looked deeper and noticed the queen lying lifeless already on her bed".

She stopped for a minute as if giving Ruby time to digest what she was saying, but the enraged and sad princess stared at her with lots of tears rolling down her face, rocking herself in her own embrace. "And?", she croaked.

Greta continued amidst deep sobs; "The maids started falling themselves. Writhing with pain, some stooled on themselves, some were coughing out blood in large quantities. That was when I concluded that they must've poisoned themselves, the queen also. It had happened before I got there. Many things broke inside me and I just walked out of the room determined to find you".

Then Greta knelt before Ruby, and Anthony joined her.

"When you asked me in the tunnel about the queen, I didn't know how to begin telling you there, what I had seen. It was still unbelievable to me and I knew you'd be devastated. I am deeply sorry my princess. I had lied to you, I apologize", Greta completed with her head bowed.

Ruby got up, unlatched the door, and walked out of the room and the shack altogether.

She felt numb... and it came on and off. The next emotion that filled her was that of anger, desperation, and she decided there and then, that she must get her revenge.

[By hook or by crook, the people responsible for this must pay!]