Danika was sick and became sicker as days went by.
Baski mixed her herbs and took them to Danika's dungeon. With the help of Dargak, she'd been able to set up a small sleeping mat for Danika inside the dungeon after she'd spent two nights on the cold hard ground.
Danika woke the second day unable to move her body because it had been aching badly. As a princess, she'd always had the softest of beds, and when she was made a slave, she'd slept on the hard ground for one week before the king ordered a bedroom for her. So sleeping on a cold hard ground wasn’t something Danika was used to. Coupled with her condition and fragile health after what happened with Karandy, it was hard for her to cope.
So with the help of Sally and Dargak, Baski got a mat for Danika and occasionally snuck in food for her to eat. If other guards saw, they pretended not to and hadn't reported it to the king.
The herbs she'd given Danika on her first day in the dungeon helped with the bleedings, but it hadn’t stopped them completely, and she was still spotting occasionally.
It also helped them to discover that Karandy hadn’t succeeded in taking advantage of her. Danika had cried with relief, and Baski was just as happy. At least one out of their numerous problems had been solved.
Baski tried her best over the next couple of days to make sure she made herbs that would supply more blood to Danika's body—seeing that she had lost so much blood already—while trying to think of a way to exonerate Danika in the eyes of the king. But every single way she thought was a lead was a dead-end because Karandy was dead. It worried her that she was running out of time too.
Then, on the third day, Baski was sharing duties with the maids when a thought had come to her head. That pill Karandy used to drug Danika. If she could make powerful herbs that would flush whatever remained of those pills from her body, she could take Danika's urine and extract those remains from it. If Baski was able to do that, she could bottle the remains and take them to the king to explain that Danika was drugged. She never cheated on him.
But how would she prove that the child in Danika's body belonged to him? Baski sighed helplessly. She couldn’t.
But it wouldn't deter her. She must start somewhere.
God, where was her daughter, Remeta? It kept her awake at night, worried sick.
Remeta...please, come back to me.
“Remeta is going home.” Remeta joined Corna in the backyard. “I can't keep staying here and crying all day. I have to go the palace.”
The small boy turned towards her. “We cannot intefewe. It can be dangewous.”
Remeta shook her head pitifully. “I can't. I can't not do a thing. You don't hear their cries every night like I do. You don't!”
Corna frowned slightly. “You heaw their cwies?”
She nodded. “Every single night. My queen cries herself to sleep in that cold cell. Every night she waits for the king to pay her a visit, and then she loses hope and cries until dawn. Her health is deteriorating fast. And the king…” Tears filled her already swollen eyes just at the thought of it. “You can never understand what he's going through; none of us can. The voice of the memories in his head have increased. His demons are back in full force. He never sleeps. He developed bad habits to keep himself from thinking—from going insane. He...misses her so much, but he is so hurt. His thoughts are—and Remeta quotes—She carries another man's child when she would never be able to carry his own child. He has no seed to give. He is not man enough. Maybe that is why Danika sought another man. And now that man's seed is growing where his will never grow. He trusted her so much and made himself vulnerable to her. She must have had a good laugh at his expense.”
Corna didn't understand what most of those words meant because he was still a small child, but he understood the pain that reflected each word.
“Those are the thoughts in his head,” she finished, swiping the tears from her eyes and shaking her head. “I can't not do anything! If the spirits wanted Remeta to do nothing, then they should never fill Remeta's head with the pains of the people she cares about!”
“So what are you going to do?” Corna asked, remembering the way Remeta's queen carried him around that day at the water supply.
Remeta lifted her chin. “I'm going back to the palace. I don't know what I will do when I get there, but heavens will guide Remeta.”
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