"Two days back we received Kypho's orders to kill you. But I wasn't sure that I would get the chance so fast. I just worked on my own plans," Nora revealed. "I suggested the tea to you."
"And Flora had sniffed the poison," Eltanin mumbled, his throat choking with emotions.
Nora said, "I thought that since you were a fae, you had tolerated a small amount, and so I gave you a stronger potion next time." Nora was feeling extremely weak now. She was panting, gulping for air. "Please Your Highness," she wheezed. "Kill me…" She didn't want to spend the rest of her life in dungeons.
"What else do you know about the spy?" Tania asked, ignoring her plea.
"He— he has been—" Nora sucked in a sharp breath. "—with the High Priest of Cetus Monastery for a very long time. Kypho is the most trusted man of Menkar."
"Does he have a hunchback?" Tania wanted to confirm her suspicions.
"No," Nora frowned for a while. "He doesn't have a hunchback but has very refined features instead."
Now that contradicted Tania's theory. Her handler was a hunchback while the one who Nora is telling about didn't have one. The only man close to Menkar was this spy. He worked on his orders and only his orders. Menkar would never want her dead because she possessed a soul stone, because he had a piece of her soul with him. Menkar had higher plans. If he had tolerated Tania for so long, how could he simply give an order to kill her. So this meant that Kypho was now working on his own or he wasn't the one Tania was thinking. Or… Kypho was an entirely different person not associated with Menkar.
"B—but you can never catch Kypho," Platt said through his pain. "He is like a ghost. He—" Fafnir kicked him again and he screamed. "You can't! Kypho is too clever for all of us. He is going to avenge youuuu!" Fafnir boxed him in his stomach and he let out a blood-curdling scream. He was in so much pain that he couldn't even shift.
Eltanin dug his pocket and took a metal card out. He threw it at Platt and said, "This is the card you made to bring him in?"
Platt picked up the card from the floor and brought it to his one eye. All his attitude and arrogance vanished and he felt listless. All these years of spying had made him too bold. He had started taking things for granted. He thought that since no one could catch for ten years, how could anyone mess with him now. He was so confident when he got that metal card made for Kypho. Little did he know that the king and his General were keeping an eye on every movement of his.
Eltanin circled him, his boots splashing into his blood and then making red footprints around him. "We had our eye on you even before you got Kypho in Draka. Did you think that after what Nora did to Tania, I would stay quiet. We let Kypho in Draka so that we could catch you. And as we talk, I have my guards patrolling the streets where you live. They are waiting for my signal to catch him."
Eltanin pointed at Fafnir. "He had gone to your house the first night you tried to poison Tania."
Both Platt and Nora froze. They were being watched for so long and they didn't even know. They looked like fools who played right into the hands of their captors.
"Did you think that you could outsmart a kingdom?" Eltanin growled. "But you know what?" he said, folding his hands across his chest. "If Nora wouldn't have poisoned Tania's tea, I would have never come to know the deep seeded corruption in my kingdom. I will take this opportunity to uproot the corruption that has spread like poison in my kingdom." He looked at Fafnir. "Take him to Ileus who will swipe his cells. Get a scribe to write whatever Ileus is able to see. Let me know after that. I have to set an example out of him for others."
"Please forgive me, Your Highness," Platt said, crawling up and managing to sit. "It wasn't me who wanted to kill her. It was Kypho and Nora was the one who executed her plan. She didn't even consult me, so how am I the culprit?"
Eltanin grasped his throat and started squeezing. He peeled his lips back and bared his fangs. Aether spilled out of his eyes and his body became hot. His fingers on Platt's neck were like hot iron, burning into his skin. He snarled. "If I want, I can squeeze the life out of you, but I won't. Because I will do it later. You are the culprit because you procured wolfsbane." Saying that he shoved Platt on the floor. "Take him!"
Fafnir bowed to the king and asked, "What about Nora?"
"I have called Gordon. She will be taken to the dungeons."
"No! No!" Nora shrieked, but her voice sounded like a cat's meow. "Please don't take me to the dungeons. Kill me." Her wolf had died and she was already feeling like she had no soul left. It was too agonizing for her. Without the wolf, one became crazy and eventually died, but they died a very painful death.
"You will remain in the dungeons for the rest of your life," said Eltanin. "Keep her in an isolated row," he instructed. "And prepare the dungeon next to hers for Kypho."
Nora shrieked and screamed and tried to resist the soldiers who had come to take her, but she was no match against them. Half of her strength was gone with her wolf.
---
Kypho was holed in the house for the entire morning. Platt had some dinner left from yesterday which he ate. Cold oat bread with roasted chicken. He was getting impatient. So he went to the balcony and saw—
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