The King's Mistress

Chapter 128: To See You Again

Opal looked up at Sierra. She stretched out the length of her body and nuzzled next to her cheek. It was as if she was saying her goodbyes. Exchanging one last look, Opal did as she had asked and slithered away.

With Opal taken care of, there was one final thing she needed to do. Midnight and Macadamia would be safe in the stables, so she need not worry about them. But her prized possession, her twin swords, had to be hidden away.

Sierra walked deeper into the forest, only stopping to take a few sips of water from the nearby flowing river. Once she felt like she’d walked further in, she found a spot near a tree, marked it, and began digging.

Once the pit was deep enough, she placed her swords in it and covered them back up. Using the trunk of the tree as support, she got back up to her feet. She placed her hand on the tree trunk.

"I’ll survive, and I’ll be back," she muttered to herself.

There was only one place left to go.

Sierra dragged herself through the forest. There were a couple of times she thought she heard footsteps coming in the distance. She immediately got down to hide. She did not move until she was fairly certain there was no one else out there. As her surroundings began to lighten, Sierra knew the cover of night was diminishing quickly.

She staggered her way out of the forest and made her way through the castle, carefully avoiding all the patrolling guards and passing maids and servants. The castle was still on high alert. But there was no doubt an entire night of searching for her had caused the castle staff to be fatigued.

Sierra did not know how long she’d been walking and hiding. Eventually, she found her way to the King’s Quarters. She touched the wall, looking for the secret entrance to enter.

"There it is," she whispered to herself, her voice raspy.

She pressed the hidden button and entered the darkened passageway. She kept walking and walking until she collapsed at the other end. She reached her hand out to touch the door before her. She was so close to him now. They were likely only separated by the wall in front of her.

"My love..." she called out.

In her mind, things were different. She would have made it to the door and as it opened and she saw him, she wanted to apologize and assure him that she had nothing to do with the assassination attempt.

But could she still do so now? Sierra gritted her teeth. She wanted to live, she wanted to survive. She made a promise to her father. She was going to keep it no matter what it took.

She reached up towards the walls and creased her fingers on the protruding bricks for support. She felt the indents on the wall and finally found the button. With all the strength she had left in her, she pressed it as hard as she could.

The wall shifted, causing her to lose her support as the light shone into the darkened tunnel. Sierra squinted her eyes as she collapsed onto the ground. She was instantly overwhelmed by a comforting scent, one she had become familiar with.

Someone cradled her in her arms, calling her name. Sierra struggled to open her eyes, focusing on the voice that was speaking to her.

"Alistair?" She croaked as her vision finally focused on his face.

She reached her hand out to cup his. He held onto her.

"Sierra, Sierra! Stay with me!"

Alistair was stunned when the door to his secret passageway opened on its own. He was even more surprised when a familiar figure collapsed on the ground before him. For a fraction of a second, he did not know what to do.

He stood there, blank-faced.

Then, he leaped into action immediately. He cradled her in his arms and called her name repeatedly to get her attention. Her eyes were flickering, she was losing consciousness. When she called out his name, he almost melted to the ground. But he held it together, for her.

What Sierra had not realized was that Alistair was not alone in his room. He was in fact, receiving two visitors when she appeared in the secret passageway. There was a man and woman in the room, both of whom were not residents of the Drakin.

They had come from a distant land.

"Let me take a look at her," the woman spoke swiftly as she came to Alistair’s aid.

One look at the wound on Sierra’s stomach was all she needed to see to realize how dire the situation is. Coupled with her sweat-covered forehead and pale lips, the situation did not favor Sierra.

A snake-like creature was coiled on the woman’s wrist. The creature peered at Sierra for a moment before slithering off the woman’s wrist to take a closer look.

"Lay her down on the ground, Your Majesty," the woman spoke again as she rolled up her sleeves.

"Vy, what are you going to do?" The man asked, but the wound did not look good.

The woman named Vy turned to Alistair, "You won’t be able to call the royal doctors for this, I assume?" freёwebnovel.com

Alistair nodded in response.

Vy understood the situation. Returning her attention to Sierra, she placed her hands over the wound on her abdomen. Despite Ida’s efforts to stitch it up, Sierra’s movement from place to place had caused it to open up again.

A soft flow of green light was emitted from Vy’s palms.

Alistair flustered, "What are you-"

"She’s trying to cast a healing spell, Your Majesty," the snake-like creature hissed.

Similar to Opal, the snake-like creature had color-changing scales. But, his were in shades of black and dark purple. Unlike most other snakes, his scales were extremely keeled.

Alistair had never seen a snake quite like this one, and most certainly had never met one that could speak. But he did not have time or energy to satisfy his curiosity about the snake-like creature.

His top priority was Sierra.