The maid could hardly breathe properly as she ran through the royal halls.
Her legs nearly gave out beneath her expensive silk gown, panic twisting her stomach so violently she thought she might vomit on the polished floors. Guards shouted after her as she pushed through corridors without permission, but she could careless. Fear had swallowed every ounce of reason inside her.
She burst into the Queen Dowager's chamber with trembling hands.
"Y-Your Majesty!" she cried out, collapsing to her knees. "The poison… the poison-"
The Queen Dowager looked up slowly from her tea.
Unlike the maid, she looked perfectly calm. Too calm.
"What about it?" she asked coldly.
The maid swallowed harshly. "The king drank it."
Silence.
Real silence.
Not the soft kind. Not the peaceful kind. This silence had teeth.
The Queen Dowager's fingers froze around her teacup.
"What?"
