The wedding was over, and the guests and nobles who had been in attendance had dispersed and retired.  Queen Lenore felt the hand of Gaius Dealany, her new husband, on her arm and smiled at him.
Lenore looked free and happy; odd considering her situation for the past ten years of her life.  Her hair was now loose and covered her shoulders in dark blonde waves.  Her dress was opulent; there was golden thread proliferating pure white silk, strings of tiny, delicate pearls draped around the skirt, belt, and bodice, and the magnanimously long sleeves floated.  Her skin was a golden-brown, a small betrayal to the fact that her great-grandfather had ebony skin.
Gaius Dealany was smiling in as pleased a manner as Lenore.  His dark hair was handsome and made his green eyes stand out.  His costume was similar to Lenore’s; white silk, embroidered with so much gold thread it was heavier than a sack of lead.  Instead of pearls, rubies and garnets garnished his clothes.
The wedding feast had been long over, the dancing was at an end after the musicians played for hours, and now Lenore and Gaius would enjoy a private evening, although not unlike many nights they had spent before working on a very different task.

*****

“Lenore,” Gaius whispered, touching his lips to her cheek.  “At last…”
“At last…” she echoed, remembering how many months of preparation, arguing with others, and waiting they had endured once they had decided to marry.
“I have a gift for you,” Gaius said, facing Lenore.
She looked at him expectantly, her hazel eyes searching him and the bedroom.  The walls were dark, carved wooden panels, the fireplace was large and warm, and everything was trimmed in red and gold, and embroidered with the golden dragon—the colors and symbol of Fasoria.  Perhaps the many tapestries impeded her view of his gift, whatever it was…
“It is not a gift to hold or to see.  That is, not a tangible gift.  It is a gift of knowledge.  I have finally learned the truth, Lenore!”
Lenore gasped.  Surely, it could not be.  Could Gaius have really found out the truth?  All of it?  Would her quest be finished?
“Tell me,” she whispered.  She did not wonder why he had concealed it from her until now.  Obviously he had wanted to give her the knowledge as a wedding present, although she wondered how long he had known.
“It started long ago, Lenore.  The time before your ancestor, Queen Linda, took the throne.  There was a family, an old, old family, and it was dying.  There remained but two members of the family: a son who was a philosopher with a vow of chastity, and his bastard half-sister.
“The son, Torin, had been wronged by Queen Linda in some way.  It was even before the War started.  It was such a great wrong that he felt that he must destroy her and her entire family.  So he and his sister, Bethany, set to work.  Bethany, who was a…” Gaius searched for the word, and finally said, “A woman of ungainly profession, seduced King Eric, Queen Linda’s husband, and she bore him a child.”
“I know this,” Lenore said impatiently, but her eyes still sparkling with excitement.
“The family worked for years to destroy Linda’s line, but they never succeeded.  Years ago, it was thought that they were destroyed, but in fact, they were not.  They survived, Lenore.  The family survived and even now, they cabal to destroy you, me, and your siblings.
Lenore looked terrified, and looked around, tears already crawling down her cheeks in memory of her mother and father—now dead for over ten years.
“Who?”
“It was a single man who was employed to kill your mother and father, Lenore.  A single man.  He poisoned your father, and then tried to poison your mother.  After their death, he waited.  The man waited for you to be misguided by your advisors, but your brother Daniel—”
“Stop,” Lenore sobbed.  She couldn’t take all of this.  When her father had died, she was numb.  When her mother died, she began to hurt.  She remembered when she was twelve, or perhaps older or younger, but around twelve.  The day after her mother, Queen Lena, had died, and she had seen the empty face.  She had felt so naïve, so small and young, not anywhere near being a woman, or even being a Queen.  No one was there to comfort her now.  No one but Daniel.
Daniel was her brother, four years her senior.  He was the first child of their parents, and although Lenore never believed it, others murmured that he was ashamed that he was the firstborn on their children, but was not the heir to the throne.  He had said Lenore’s name and gone down on his knees and swore to be her first vassal.  On his knees, his eyes were level with Lenore’s, and his caring blue eyes had tried to take some of her hurting away.  He had taken her into his arms and swore to help her live and to rule, and to keep her safe.
And for seven years afterwards, Daniel and Lenore had been fanatics in trying to find their father’s assassin.  They believed that their mother died of a broken heart; of a lost will to live, and so their father’s killer was also their mother’s killer.  They did not even consider that she may have died of a common ailment after giving birth.  So they searched zealously.
Some years ago, Daniel had finally found a lead, a true clue that could help them, but he had been killed, and Lenore felt truly alone, despite her many younger brothers and sisters.  Father’s death caused numbness, Mother’s death caused hurt, and Daniel’s death had caused deeper remorse and grief than anyone could ever feel.  Then she had met Gaius Dealany.
And now he would tell her the truth!  What was she waiting for!
“Go on,” she mumbled, wiping the tears away, although twice as many fell immediately.
“Daniel helped you, and then when he stumbled upon the assassin’s hiding place, he was killed.”
“By the same man?”
“Yes.”  Gaius looked at Lenore tenderly, stroked her hair, and finished his story:
“I have found out who that man is.”
Lenore felt so excited she almost retched.  Years of work, finally over!  The quarry had been found!  The killer would be tortured, have his eyes put out, his hands lopped off, and he would be branded as not only a traitor, but as the worst kind.  People would be obliged to spit in his direction.  He would be put under so much pain, he would beg to be killed, but no.  He would be given enough sustenance so that the rest of his life would be spent in agony.  And his death, if Lenore decided to grant it, would be of the most painful sort, to make up for the years of her life spend in pain after losing her father, her mother, and her brother to this man.
“My dear Lenore, I am that man.”
*****
Lenore froze for a second, thinking it could not be a joke, yet it must be.
Gaius pulled a knife from his robes and held it to Lenore’s throat, covering her mouth so she couldn’t scream.
“If you scream, I will kill you now.  But there are some questions to ask, first.”
He removed his hand from Lenore’s mouth slowly, and she gasped in air, panicking.
“What questions?” she growled, struggling against Gaius’ grip.
“…Do you want me to kill you?”
“What sort of a question is th—”
“Answer, Lenore.”
“No.”
“So I thought…  But if I let you live, I will be killed, yes?”
“You know the answer.”
Their dialogue proceeded so quickly and with such plain voices, it was if they were only in a lively discussion instead of harboring death wishes for each other.
“Lenore, I have been trying to kill you for the past ten years.  I must do so now, or the rest of my family—of the Cathasaig line, despite bearing a different name—will assassinate me.  They have nagged me and threatened me for the past two years to be done with it, but I could not.
“I was employed as a youth to poison your father, the King, and succeeded.  I failed in poisoning your mother, but her illness took care of that.  Then I had to kill you and your brother.  We decided that your siblings would be dealt with afterwards…”
Lenore listened to Gaius telling her these things, but finally she shook her head.
“Why haven’t you killed me yet?”
“Lenore, I must kill you.  My life is too dear to me to sacrifice it for a Queen, even if I love her.  For I do, Lenore.  But I have no other choice.”
“You will die no matter what you do.”
“I must kill you, Lenore.  I have a chance to get away if I do…”  Gaius looked at her face, his own visage showing how he struggled over his debacle.
Lenore remained silent.  She would die knowing this man had suffered a horrible death for this attempt on her life, whether or not he succeeded.  No one would condone him; that was certain.
Finally, Gaius lifted the knife as if to strike.
And the knife fell at a deadly speed.  Lenore didn’t know whether he dropped it or pushed it down through the air.  It could have been either, or both.