The King's Assassin

The young King of Barkhamsted had no choice but to give up a great amount of land to the King of Merkworth. After months of fighting, the older king, Angus, wants to make peace with the young king, Elliot. 

“Where is the representative?” King Elliot waits in his throne room. He makes no effort to try to seem patient. It has been a tiring couple of months and this is not the outcome he wanted for the kingdom. 

His advisor jumps at the sound of his voice. Though the young king is only 18, his voice booms with the decisiveness and grit of someone twice his age. “He should be here soon, Your Majesty.” His advisor hopes the representative does show up soon for his sake. 

The double doors open and the royal guards bring in a small man holding a scroll and wearing the colors of Merkworth. He walks up to the king’s thrown and bows his head. 

“His Majesty, king Angus, has sent me on his behalf. The king, being the saint he is, proposes an agreement to end the feud between our kingdoms.” 

A Saint? He brought war to us for no good reason. The young king thought to himself, but bites his tongue to hold his frustration. 

“What is the proposal?” 

“King Angus proposes you give up all your land in the far east. The land will then be a part of Merkworth territory. Do you see fit with this exchange of land?” 

King Elliot takes a deep breath before he speaks. “That would be almost half our land, nearly half of my people. Half of my farmland. This 'exchange’ is anything but fair.” His voice grows with anger. “His kingdom would then be bigger than mine. And what about all the men his army has killed. All the hundreds of widows. You cannot expect me to take this matter seriously with such outrageous notions.” 

His advisor clears his throat to grab the king’s attention. “Your Majesty, please. We must come to some agreement.” 

The young king knew this was true, but still hated the request. The representative could feel the tension in the room. 

“King Angus thought it would be easier on you to see over a smaller portion of land, since you are so young and dealing with the death of you fath-” 

King Elliot interrupts him with the banging of his hand against his thrown. “You do not speak of my father.” 

The representative drops his head. “My apologies Your Majesty.” He tries to think of another topic to ease the king’s anger. “About the widows, king Angus has invited all the widows to his home for a celebration. There they can meet new husbands. The celebration will be filled with many men of royal titles. King Angus promised to take good care of them.” 

His advisor saw the rage wipe over his face. He knew the king wouldn’t stand for it, but what other choice did the kingdom have. He opened his mouth to direct the king, but the king spoke first. 

“Fine, he can take the farmland, take the people, and take the women.” His advisor stood there in confusion and so did the representative. “Tell king Angus I hope that this exchange is satisfying for him.”  

He rose from his thrown and marched towards the door, and stops next to the representative. “And tell him I said thank you.” He continues for the door. The advisor stood there frozen but soon realizes there was more to be said before the king left the room. 

“A wagon will be waiting to take them in the morning.” 

“Thank you, they will be informed.” The door slammed behind him. 

The king moves through the hallway with a purpose, the servants clearing his path. He reaches his room and swings the door open.  

The young queen jumps, as the door swings open. She relaxes when she sees it’s only her husband. She goes back to looking out the window. 

“You scared me, Elliot.” He closes the door behind him and stares at her like he is about to apologize for something he hasn’t done yet. 

“What’s the matter? What did the representatives say?” He walks over to her and grabs her hands 

“He wants lots of land, and the people in them, and the widows.” 

“That bastard. How dare he.” She strokes her thumbs over his hand. At least now the war is finally over, you should focus on what we have now.” 

“No, this war is not over.” She looks up at him confused. 

“How so?” 

“I want him dead.” She rolls her eyes. 

“And how do you plan on doing that?” 

“I want you to pose as a widow and get close enough to him to kill him.” She searched his eyes to see if he was serious. 

“Elliot what ar-” 

“I’ve never asked anything of you. I’ve kept you out of the public eye, I’ve never asked you to sleep with me, I’ve given you everything you’ve ever wanted. I just want this one thing, Penelope. Just this one thing.” The pleading look in his face turned to impatience and she didn’t want to anger him. 

“Okay, I guess I’ll go.” She spoke in a shaky voice. 

“Good. You leave in the morning. Do not speak of this to anyone.” she nods her head, dodging his eyes. “Thank you, my queen.” 

In the morning she leaves with about a hundred widows. They all wear the same dress, a light blue, long dress with a ribbon around the waist. The other women were excited to the queen’s surprise. They looked forward to meeting princes, dukes, counts, knights, and other leaders in their kingdom. While they spoke of finding new husbands, they had no idea that the queen was accompanying them. As per her request to the king, she never made a public appearance.  

When they arrived, the sun was already down and the celebration was already underway. 

“Welcome ladies.” A tall man in armor begins helping the women off the wagon. “My name is Sir Harry.” All the women smiled at him and admired his handsome face. “I will be escorting you all to the main celebration where you can meet the other men. They are all very excited that you all are here.” 

The women were escorted to the main hall where the room was filled with only men. Some handsome, most of them ugly, but they didn't care. These men were rich and the women wasted no time introducing themselves to each man. Everyone was talking to someone, except the queen.  

She walks along the walls thinking about how she was going to kill the king. She was supposed to be a queen, tending to the garden and trying on dresses. she was not supposed to be an assassin. Her breath quickens as the thought of becoming a murderer for her husband’s sake fills her mind. It was madness.  

A hand touches her shoulder. “Are you okay dear?” She turns around to find a man maybe 3 times older than her. “I thought you might appreciate some company.” The man reeks of alcohol. 

“Thank you. You’re very kind.” The man reaches for her cheek. 

“And you are very young and beautiful.” She freezes has he caresses her face. “Do you not be nervous dear. I am a gentle king.” The king, this was him. She wanted to run, but out of fear of disappointing her husband, she went along with it. 

“Oh, you're the king who led the attack against the kingdom of Barkhamsted.” He felt proud of himself. 

“Yes, that was me. It wasn’t easy though. We had such a very little army compared to the kingdom of Barkhamsted.” 

“How did you manage?” 

“Well, I’ve actually been planning the attack for years. I had everything planned out and ready. I just waited for the old king of Barkhamsted to die.” He’s a selfish coward. The queen thought to herself, but only nodded in awe. “The young king, so hot headed and foolish didn’t stand a chance. So, I took the land that I wanted, and now my kingdom is twice the size it once was. 

“Wow, you’re very clever.” 

“Well then, maybe you’d like to hear more war stories in my private chambers.” She felt like throwing up. 

“I’d love to.” 

He stuck out an elbow and she wraps her hand around it. He began leading her out of the room and as she looks around, she notices other women were also being led out the room by other men. She is disgusted by their attitudes and doesn’t understand why the others didn’t feel that way too.  

“Here we are.” They stop in front of a large door. She spent so much time thinking about other things on the way there that she hadn’t even thought about how she was going to kill this man. “Is something wrong.” 

She needs a weapon. “Could I use the restroom first.” He could see threw the lie and smiles. 

“Don’t be nervous dear, it won’t just be you and I alone. I am a gentleman, so I’ve prepared you a friend too.” She doesn't understand what that means. He opens the door and there was another woman inside. Someone from the wagon she rode with. 

The woman smiles when she sees the king. “I’ve been waiting for you, Your Majesty.” He walks over to the woman and kisses her passionately before he sits down on the bed.  

The queen really felt like throwing up now. What do I do now? Do I kill both of them? Should I ask her for help? This woman really does want to sleep with the king though. Every thought races through her mind. 

By the bed, the king takes off the woman’s dress and throws it across the room. The queen stands there, not knowing what to do. The woman looks over at the queen. “Let me help you.” 

She walks up to the queen with sympathy in her eyes and unties the ribbon around the queen's waist and balls it in her fist. She grabs the queen's hands and leads her to the side of the bed and sits her down. The queen faces the wall as she feels the king's cold hands start to undo the back of her dress. Inside she panics, but it is soon washed away with confusion as she hears choking.  

She turns around to see the woman strangling the king with the ribbon. She stands and backs away, unable to take her eyes off the disturbing sight. The woman continues to pulls harder and harder on the ribbon as he tries to claw his way out of the hold. But his efforts weren't enough, his body starts going limp. Falling and falling and falling, then he hits the bed.  

The queen watches it all. The woman loosens her grip on the ribbon and steps away from the body. She looks up at the queen, ribbon still in hand and walks towards her. She’s about to kill me next. She stops in front of the queen and hands her the ribbon. “Thank you, I didn’t know what to do since he threw my dress across the room.” The queen took the ribbon in confusion.  

“What?” 

“My ribbon, it was still on my dress when he threw it across the room.” 

“You already planned on killing him?” 

“Of course. That’s why the king sent us all. To assassinate the men who killed our husbands and give king Elliot his land back and the land of Merkworth. Were you not informed?” 

It was a lot of information to process at one time. The queen didn’t speak at first. “No, I thought I was the only one.” 

“No, everyone was in on it, that’s why we all had on ribbons.” 

“So, everyone was planning on killing the king?” 

“Not just the king, every man here.” the woman was confused as to why, this woman was the only one who didn’t know this. Who could she be? “Come on, we leave soon.” 

Hours later, all the women were back on the wagon. No one said a thing, and that made the journey back home even longer. 

The sun was barely peaking over the horizon when they arrive. All the women get off the wagon and walk home. The queen does the same. The guards welcome her at the front doors and escort her to her private bathing room.  

Now, she lays in the tub and tries to wrap her mind around the eventful night she had. And how her husband lied to her. There's a knock at the door. 

“Who is it?” 

“It’s me, my queen.” She takes a deep breath to prepare herself for the conversation. 

“Come in.” He walks in the door, but she doesn’t meet his eyes. He watches her stare into space and instantly knows something is wrong. He sits on the stool next to the tub 

“I suppose you know of my plans to have all the widows assassinate the royals of Merkworth.” She looks up at him. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” 

“Because I wanted it to be you who killed him.” he leans forward. “Was it you who killed him?” She doesn’t want to disappoint him. 

“Yes. I killed king Angus.” a small bit of excitement pulls at the corner of his mouth. 

“How did you do it.” 

“I used the ribbon on the dress.” his small smile grew. 

“I knew you’d figure it out. That’s why I had you all wear the ribbon. Of course, I had to tell them the ribbon had a chain in them. They probably wouldn't have figured that out on their own. But not you. I knew you had what it took.” He leans in and kisses his wife.  

She doesn't speak, so he takes the opportunity to share better news. “Merkworth is ours now. Never in history has there ever been a king and queen ruling over so much land, and at our age too. We will go down in history.” She speaks because staying quite for too long would probably anger him. 

“I’m happy for us, but I never want to do that again.” She looks at him with pleading eyes. He returns it with the smile. 

“Well let's hope another situation never comes up like that again so you won’t have to go.”