Poison in my Heart
By solunaterr
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or other names.
Chapter 1: First Meeting
I looked around my cluttered office and sighed. The desk was a mess and piles of papers were scattered around the room. So much to do and so little time. I kept telling myself I would clean this and never got around to it. There always something, like guarding the commander or assassinating a magician, that needed to be taken care of first.
A knock at the door drew me from my thoughts. Finally, the prisoner was here.
"Come in," I said tiredly.
The inmate walked in with two guards, and a surprised look crossed my usually expressionless face.
"A woman? The next prisoner to be executed is a woman?" I asked. She was dressed in a ripped red dress and covered with dirt and grime, the typical appearance of one who had spent a year in the dungeon. While her entire body admitted defeat, her green eyes shone with life. She was almost pretty, but her beaten appearance masked any remarkable features.
"I should have taken the time to reread your dossier." Then I motioned the guards out the door and said, "You're dismissed."
When the guards closed the door, she relaxed slightly. I motioned her into the chair in front of me, and she perched on the edge, unwilling to get comfortable.
I felt her eyes on me as I opened her folder. I glanced at the top to find her name. Yelena. It was smooth, calming. I quickly scanned the rest of the file, looking for anything else I had missed earlier. Nothing. Good.
"Yelena, today may be your lucky day," I said and watched her face for a reaction. Her eyes flashed. She looked like she wanted to say something but held it back. She bent her head forward and refused to look at me. Interesting. Her body language again suggested total obedience but her eyes said something different. What was she really thinking?
Finally I continued, "Well-behaved and respectful. You're starting to look like a good candidate." I stopped again to study her. Yelena's eyes searched my desk. I noticed her gaze rest on the black panther statues sitting on my desk. I had carved those long ago, almost 15 years, when I first moved into this office.
"You've been tried and found guilty of murdering General Brazell's only son, Reyard." Finally I made the connection. This woman had already caused me a lot of trouble. I rubbed my hand over my face.
"That explains why Brazell's here this week and why he has been unusually interested in the execution schedule," I explained, more voicing my thoughts out loud than explaining things to her.
"I suppose you're going to protest the conviction. Say you were framed or you killed out of self-defense."
They always have an excuse. Personally, I believe in second chances, but the Commander, who makes the laws, does not. You're guilty or not. There is no in between. I leaned back to listen to the pleas I had heard from hundreds of prisoners hundreds of times.
"No, sir. I killed him," Yelena whispered. That surprised me. I straightened up and looked at her. Most prisoners at least tried to avoid being killed. Then I laughed.
"This may work better than I'd planned. Yelena, I'm offering you a choice. You can either be executed, or you can be Commander Ambrose's new food taster. His last one died recently, and we need to fill the position." She looked at me with her mouth wide open. Finally, something normal.
"A fool would refuse the job," Yelena said, her voice still raspy from a year of disuse.
"Well, it's a lifetime position. The training can be lethal. After all, how can you identify poisons in the Commander's food if you don't know what they taste like?" I said casually as I straightened my desk. I smiled to myself. Only I could talk about lethal poisons in a casual manner.
"You'll get a room in the castle to sleep, but most of the day you'll be with the Commander. No days off. No husband or children. Some prisoners have chosen execution instead. At least they know exactly when they're going to die, rather than guessing if it's going to come with the next bite." I smiled evilly, as I thought of all those poisons. So easy, so sly, poisons were my weapons of choice when I was assassinating the nobles.
I once again studied her reaction. The woman's entire body shook as all of this went through her mind, and the surprise and shock showed clearly on her face.
"Who tastes the Commander's food now?" Yelena asked. Interesting. I hadn't been expecting that question. Most inmates wondered how they would be kept in line and kept from escaping.
"I do. So I'm anxious to find a replacement. Also the Code of Behavior states that someone whose life is forfeit must be offered the job," I replied.
The young woman stood up and began to pace, dragging her chains with her. After a minute or two, I began to get impatient.
"What shall I tell the executioner?" I inquired.
"I am not a fool," Yelena responded.
Good. I closed her folder and walked to my office door. Opening the door, I told the guards outside to remove her manacles and to fetch Margg. One of them stepped inside and unlocked her chains while the other walked down the hallway to the servant's wing. She touched her bloody neck and examined her red wrists. Looking faint, Yelena searched for a chair and sat down. Almost every prisoner felt dizzy after having all that extra weight removed so I wasn't worried.
While she tried to avoid blacking out, I unlocked my cabinet to pour two drinks. Wine made with fresh oranges was poured into my glass, while she received wine made with rotten fruit. I was putting away the second bottle when she finally looked up. Good. She hadn't noticed that the drinks came from separate bottles.
"While we're waiting for Margg, I thought maybe you could use a drink," I said while handing her the goblet with rotten oranges.
I then raised the other glass for a toast, "To Yelena, our newest food taster. May you last longer than your predecessor." And may you stay on my good side.
She hesitated, but I reassured her by saying, "Relax, it's a standard toast."
Yelena took a long drink and grimaced as her stomach churned. Prisoners had a hard time consuming anything other than bread and water when they were first set free.
"What are the ingredients in the wine?" I asked. Time to start training.
She took another smaller sip and replied, "Peaches sweetened with honey."
Obviously. I held back a condescending remark and said, "Good. Now take another sip. This time roll the liquid around your tongue before swallowing."
She obeyed and noticed the light citrus flavor.
"That's right. Now gargle it."
"Gargle?" Yelena asked.
I nodded and she complied.
Then, after almost spitting the liquid out, she exclaimed, "Rotten oranges!"
I laughed. The fifth time it was still funny. I then passed her my drink.
"Now do the same with mine," I instructed.
After a slight pause, she did as she was told. Relief spread across her face as she tasted fresh oranges.
"Better?" I asked and took back the cup.
"Yes."
I opened her file again and noted her ability to taste the poison. Some of the previous candidates had not been able to taste the oranges at all. They didn't last much longer. I can't have a poison taster who can't taste poisons.
As I wrote I explained, "You just had your first lesson in food tasting. Your drink was laced with a poison called Butterfly's Dust. Mine wasn't. The only way to detect Butterfly's Dust in a liquid is to gargle it. That rotten-orange flavor you tasted was the poison."
She stood up looking confused. "Is it lethal?"
"A big enough dose will kill you in two days. The symptoms don't arrive until the second day, but by then it's too late."
"Did I have a lethal dose?"
"Of course. Anything less and you wouldn't have tasted the poison."
Yelena looked like she was about to vomit but some how managed to hold it back. For that, I was grateful. Too many important papers would be ruined if she threw up all over my desk. I looked up from her file to study her face. Years of pain showed in her eyes. This "poison" just added to her long list of terrible things that had happened to her.
Returning to the task at hand, I said sternly, "I warned you the training would be dangerous. But I would hardly give you a poison your body had to fight while you suffered from malnutrition. There is an antidote to Butterfly's Dust."
I reached behind me and grabbed a bottle filled with a white liquid. When she realized she might still live, her body collapsed back into her chair. So many surprises in just a few minutes. It wasn't shocking that she hadn't realized that the antidote had not yet been offered to her.
"In answer to the question you didn't ask but should have, this-" I shook the bottle, "-is how we keep the Commander's food taster from escaping," I explained.
She looked at me, obviously not understanding what I meant.
"Yelena, you confessed to murder. We would be fools to let you serve the Commander without some guarantees. Guards watch the Commander at all times and it is doubtful you would be able to reach him with a weapon. For other forms of retaliation, we use Butterfly's Dust."
I picked up the vial and twirled it, admiring the way it poisoned.
"You need a daily dose of this to stay alive. The antidote keeps the poison from killing you. As long as you show up each morning on my office, I will give you the antidote. Miss one morning and you'll be dead by the next. Commit a crime or an act of treason and you'll be sent back to the dungeon until the poison takes you. I would avoid that fate, if I were you. The poison causes severe stomach cramps and uncontrollable vomiting. "
As I finished my explanation, Margg entered the room.
"Yelena, this is Margg. She will take care of your basic needs," I said.
Margg began to walk to the door again, expecting Yelena to follow her. Yelena hesitated and looked at the "antidote" on my desk.
"Come to my office tomorrow morning. Margg will direct you," I reassured her.
Finally, she left to hurry after Margg. When the door closed, I put my head in my hands. Something told me that this young woman was going to cause me a lot of trouble.
