“Feeling a little better,” Katryna said. “I had something to eat and had a rest.”
Katryna’s pulse was racing, and she could feel her lungs tightening again. She did not know what to expect on the other side of the oak door.
“Good, good. Jerrem Denar and the physicians have been with your father. He is not in good shape, they say. They are unsure how much longer he has,” Rashel said solemnly.
The words cut Katryna like a sword strike. Her head slumped down. Too many emotions began to scream inside her mind all at once.
Aunt Rashel held her niece in a tight hug before whispering into her ear. “I’m just glad you arrived when you did.”
“So am I,” Katryna said.
“Let’s go in and see him.”
The moment had come. The moment Katryna had both been longing for and dreading at the same time.
The Infinity Guardsmen stepped aside to let Katryna and Aunt Rashel through into the king’s chambers. The oak door swung open with a groan like an old tree.
A thick waft of stale air hit Katryna’s nostrils. King Giliam’s room was gloomy, illuminated with the faint glow of candles and a dying fire in the hearth.
At the end of the large chamber was a canopy bed with red and white silk curtains hanging down. Rowan and Finnigan were seated next to a sickly old man who lay under a thick duvet.
The old man looked like a corpse. His skin was as pale as moonlight with sunken eyes and cracked lips. He had blue bruises all over his dried skin.
That cannot be father. It cannot be.
Aunt Rashel took Katryna’s hand. She only realised then that she had been standing frozen in place for a few moments.
The room was silent except for their uncertain footsteps as they came to Giliam’s bedside. Katryna felt tears welling from her eyes when she realised that it was in fact her father before her.
He looked so old, so frail. So close to death.
Rowan and Finn moved aside to let Katryna see their father. Rashel sat beside the old man’s sweat-stained pillow, running her fingers through his thinning wisps of hair.
Katryna felt as stiff as rock, standing beside him. No matter how hard she inhaled, she felt like she could not get enough air into her lungs.
“Father?” Katryna breathed, before kneeling at his side.
Giliam opened his bloodshot eyes, turning slowly to look at his daughter. A sort of smile spread across his wrinkled face before forming into a grimace and a deep cough.
Every move he made seemed like agony.
Giliam reached his bony hand out to feel Katryna’s face.
“Katryna?” His once proud, booming voice had shrunk into a dying man’s whimper.
“Yes, father. It’s me. I’m here now. I’m here.”
Giliam attempted another smile with his thin lips. “I am…so glad you have come,” he spoke slowly. “I missed you more… more than you could ever know.”
“Could we have a moment?” Katryna asked, looking to her other family members. Finn, Rowan, and Aunt Rashel glared at one-another and then back at Katryna before nodding and leaving the room, respecting her request for privacy.
Katryna held her father’s hand to help relieve the guilt she still bared for leaving so many years ago.
She could not help but notice how the alleged poison had devastated Giliam’s body. The king was old, but the poison had aged him by decades. Patches of skin were blue, his hair had nearly all fallen out, and his gums was bloody.
Katryna’s emotions were beginning to boil over at the sight of her father. It had been so long, and she could not accept that this was how his life was going to end. She felt the guilt swirling around in her mind in a whirlpool of pain, frustration, and fear.
So many years of pain.
“It has been a long while, hasn’t it, father?” Katryna said with a light-hearted smirk. “As soon as I got word of what happened to you and mother, I left Redwatch for home.”
“Home…” Giliam breathed.
Katryna gazed around at the room she had once looked upon so fondly as a youngster. Her parent’s quarters, the royal bedroom of the king and queen. Once full of such grandness, life, and light.
Now a dishevelled, darkened hollow.
“How are you, father?”
“Jerrem Denar… says that I do not have much time left. They know not what poison was used.” The king began coughing. Drops of blood spat from his parched lips. “There is nothing we can do, except quell some of the pain… No cure.”
“I am sorry I did not come sooner.”
“You…are here now. That is what matters.”
Creator, he looked so old. So decrepit, like a piece of fruit left out in the sun too long.
The king could barely keep his eyes open. He seemed to be going in and out of consciousness as he spoke, his gaze drifting into unseen realms.
“Do you have any idea who could have done this?” Katryna asked.
Giliam could barely muster up the energy to shake his head. His eyelids grew heavy.
“There must be something, father. Anything at all.”
Before Katryna had finished her sentence, Giliam had passed out. His hand became heavy in hers, but his chest still rose and fell ever so slightly. She patted his hand gently, wanting nothing more than to keep pushing him for answers, but knowing he needed all the rest he could get if he had any chance at all of surviving.
Katryna left Giliam’s bedside and headed back out into the hallway where Aunt Rashel, Finn and Rowan were waiting.
She felt a surge of anger beginning to boil deep down. She closed the
