Chapter 6 - Bloodline of the Fallen Queen
The subterranean tomb became an arena of imminent slaughter beneath the flickering torchlight.
Thirty crossbows were trained directly on Ella, Adrian, and the five loyal guards standing before the tomb.
Lady Beatrice stepped forward, her expensive purple gown trailing through the damp moss and dust.
"Hand over the Blood Codex, Adrian, and I will grant the girl a swift, painless death," Beatrice offered.
"You will touch nothing in this sacred place, you murdering leech!" Adrian snarled, raising his blade.
"Always so sentimental, just like your foolish father," Beatrice sneered, adjusting her grip on her weapon.
"Eleanor was weak. She cared about the starving wretches in the slums more than the power of our empire."
"She was a queen loved by her people, while you are reviled by all," Ella spoke out, stepping forward.
She walked past Nathan’s shield, standing in plain view of the thirty loaded crossbows.
"Ella, get back!" Adrian warned, trying to pull her behind him, but she gently brushed his hand away.
"Look at me, Beatrice," Ella commanded, her voice vibrating with authority that stunned the mercenaries.
"For ten years, you walked past me in the palace corridors while I scrubbed your spilled wine from the tiles."
"You kicked my hands when I was not fast enough to clear your path," Ella continued, her tone steady.
"You threw scraps of stale bread to the floor and watched me starve while you feasted on roasted boar."
"You thought poverty and dirt had erased what I was, but blood remembers what greed tries to kill."
Beatrice let out a nervous, high-pitched laugh, though her fingers trembled slightly on the crossbow trigger.
"You are nothing but an insolent beggar dressed in rags! Fire on them!" Beatrice shrieked to her men.
Before a single bolt could fly, Ella slammed her glass-clad foot down onto the ancient sanctuary floor.
The glass slipper resonated with the ancient bedrock of the tomb, releasing a seismic shockwave.
A deafening chime, like a thousand crystal bells tolling at once, erupted from the shoe.
A blinding dome of azure magic expanded outward from the marble sarcophagus, knocking the mercenaries back.
The crossbow bolts were fired in panic, but they shattered instantly into harmless splinters against the light.
The mercenaries cried out in terror as the invisible kinetic force slammed them against the damp walls.
Weapons clattered to the stone floor as the sellswords scrambled backward toward the bronze gates.
"Cowards! Stand your ground and kill them!" Beatrice screamed, her voice cracking with pure hysteria.
"It is the Queen's Ward!" one mercenary captain yelled in panic, clutching his broken wrist.
"The tomb is cursed! House Valmont cannot protect us against the ancient blood!" the soldier fled.
Within seconds, the thirty hired killers abandoned their employer, fleeing blindly up the dark tunnels.
Beatrice stood alone in the center of the chamber, her loaded crossbow trembling wildly in her grasp.
The azure light receded slowly, settling back into the glass slipper upon Ella’s unyielding foot.
Adrian did not waste a single second of hesitation; he lunged forward with devastating royal speed.
With a single sweep of his sword arm, he knocked the crossbow from Beatrice's withered hands.
The weapon clattered across the flagstones, discharging harmlessly into a distant limestone pillar.
Adrian grabbed Beatrice by the collar of her purple gown, shoving her backward against a cold column.
"It is over, Aunt," Adrian whispered, the tip of his steel short sword resting against her throat.
Beatrice gasped for breath, her pale skin covered in cold sweat as she looked into the prince's eyes.
"You cannot kill me," Beatrice hissed, her voice filled with desperate, venomous defiance.
"The Council will not accept the word of an orphan and a rebellious prince without a trial!"
"They will not have to take our word," Ella said, stepping up beside Adrian with the Blood Codex in hand.
She had broken the crystal seal of the book using a single drop of her blood upon the clasp.
She turned the heavy silver-bound pages until she reached the final proclamation written in Eleanor's hand.
Attached to the parchment was the royal signet ring of Queen Eleanor, glowing with ancient enchantments.
"This contains the full confession of the physician who poisoned my father on your orders," Nathan added.
Nathan pulled a folded document from beneath his armored breastplate, his scarred face grim.
"The physician repented on his deathbed last week, Beatrice. I have kept his testimony hidden until tonight."
Beatrice’s eyes widened to their absolute limit as the realization of total defeat crushed her soul.
Every escape route had been sealed, every conspiracy exposed to the blinding light of truth.
"Bind her hands with iron," Adrian commanded Nathan, stepping back and sheathing his royal blade.
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"The High Council convenes in the Grand Hall in one hour," Ella declared, her hazel eyes sharp as steel.
"And the kingdom will finally witness the fall of House Valmont."
