Later, when the healer came out of the chamber, he was shaking his head in puzzlement. He sat down in the only chair in the anteroom and looked to the guard captain. “It seems that she tore the skin from her face and neck with her own fingernails,” he said, “and eventually severed the major vessels in her neck, thus bleeding to death while she sat in that chair.”

The others in the room exchanged curious and even frightened glances at this news. “Why?” someone asked quietly. “Aye, wha’ would make anyone do that to themselves?”

The healer shook his head in mute answer to both questions, then looked up to the warder. “When did ye last see her alive and what were her mental state, then?”

“I seen her naught since I removed the dinner tray,” he replied, “and she seemed fine enough, then.” The healer looked down at his hands, still confused by the entire affair. “’Course, might be the wizard caused her some grief,” the warder added.

The healer looked up and glared at the man. “What wizard?” he demanded.

“Er…” the warder mumbled, shifting his feet when he found himself the object of every pair of eyes in the room. “Why, uh…Lord Calibex, sir,” he finally said. “He spent some time with the queen shortly after her dinner, then before he left said she wanted to rest until supper.”

The captain of the guard looked over to the two men who had been standing by the outer door all day. “Did ye see this wizard arrive and depart as well?” Both men slowly shook their heads. The captain pointed to the frightened warder. “Arrest him,” he told the guards.

“Nay!” the warder cried as he attempted to lose himself among the bodies present, but he was grabbed roughly by the arms. “He was here…right here, he was…I swear it,” he babbled.

The healer held up his hand to stay everyone. “Release him,” he said quietly. “Calibex was no doubt indeed here.” The warder fell to his knees when released, trembling. “I can think of no other explanation for this horrible death,” he told the men, then rose and placed his hands behind his back. “The baron must be informed, but no one else outside this room must know what has happened here. We dare not let this news spread ‘cross the land—not yet, at any rate. Is that understood by all of ye?” he asked, then glared at each man in turn. They all nodded silent assent. He pointed toward the warder. “Ye, sir, will clean up this mess and dispose of the body after full dark—in secret, aye?” the healer asked, his voice full of menace.

Still on his knees, the warder bobbed his head up and down rapidly and the rest of the small group filed slowly from the room. When they were gone, he collapsed onto the floor and silently wept.

To be continued…