Chapter 7: Rumors

Rumors ripped through the palace when word got out Cassandra was pregnant, and Elaine heard all of them. They were delicious in the moments of her devious nature, but she never spread one, for people regarded her with little trust as is for 'spoiling the duke' and not only that but her earlier history with Corona in general.

The most popular ones that rippled through the crowd went as such: "I heard that Cassandra and the king got a little –ahem- closer these past three years. It's why he promoted her to his second in command, so they could be together privately more."

"I heard that the baby she's carrying isn't even her husband's and that it's the king's."

"I heard that they plan to overthrow the queen now that she is incapacitated and that Cass is pregnant, they will seize the throne, since he's king and all now."

"I heard that it's because of the king's father wanting his son to fully seize the throne and overthrow Corona and make it a part of the dark kingdom."

Elaine set the knives she been polishing down, withholding the urge to fling one across the table and scare the old broads out of their filth, besides that would ruin all her hard work but, enough was enough and these rumors, weather they had reached Cassandra and Eugene yet or not, needed to be brought to their light. She called a meeting with them both and shared every scrap of detail to the rumors that she knew.

They both were troubled by this and Eugene said that she needed to continue to let things be and that time would right these accusations accordingly (Which Elaine wanted to retort into the rumor of her dating of Joshua, but she still held her tongue.) Cassandra was troubled but for one of the first few times in their lives, Cassandra thanked Elaine. Elaine's heart swelled at this, no matter how rocky things had started between them perhaps there was hope that there could be a friendship between the two. And if not, they would always be tied together by an accurate arrow shot.

Cassandra led the charge through the forest, the rest of the mounted guard hot on her heels as the raced through bright forest. Bird calls rang out in the early morning, but they didn't stop to trust them. Cassandra knew that they were false (a fact she forgot years later.) and pressed further.

The guards dismounted outside a palace, Joshua having shown them the way, only to be escorted away from the palace upon arrival. They were swarmed by children and teenagers clad in ill-fitting black garments with feathers and gemstone décor upon their breast or woven into their hair.

"Don't hold back!" Cassandra called out to her troop, as they withheld from injuring the murdering band of youngsters. "If they have no fear spilling others blood then we shall have no fear ourselves!" These were bold words for she had two children of her own back home, two children who she wanted to return to.

The guards withheld a little longer until more of the unit fell at the hands of children, from then on, they charge full force and withheld nothing. From across the courtyard Cassandra noticed the sharp shooters in the viewing balconies and shot at the soldiers who were either wounded, or in a compromising position upon the court. She wouldn't stand it. Taking and going around the back she fought her share of children to get towards her own tower and fire from her own crossbow at the equally unprotected children.

She fired across at one girl, blatantly exposed and firing a rapid succession at the men under Cassandra's control, and struck her upside the neck. The girl gasped and sputtered, staring across at Cassandra with cold blue eyes, she swayed and then fell from her perch into the fray.

The children stopped fighting and looked at the girl, and then up at Cassandra, weapons dropping and children fleeing into the cracks of the palace, or the open seclusion of the forest. The guards grabbed who they could as Cassandra made her way down into the battlefield and walked towards her kill.

The girl wasn't dead, far from it, she was just missing section of skin along her neck and bleeding profusely. "Take her to the infirmary, take the rest of the injured as well."

"But what about the men?" One guard asked only to be shot down by glance.

"I wasn't saying not take them, but these are children, who either need to be put out of their misery and politely buried now or taken back to the kingdom for rehabilitation or imprisonment. Is that clear?" Cassandra asked the remaining from her former group of forty, which by now, was down to twenty-five standing, ten severely, in fact teetering on fatally injured, and then rest laid dead on the floor. "Gather up the rest of ours! We ride back!"

Overall, the altercation hadn't lasted more than two hours, with a three hour clean up and ride back. They buried the dead children in a large hole, having to put at a few of them to death due to the severity of their injuries. The rest were haphazardly loaded with the wounded to be taken back to Corona for treatment.

Elaine fondly rubbed the scar on her neck and went about her business. Rumors were going to flood throughout the palace and that was common of the day to day, and she knew that she was also at the pinnacle of them. Let the arrows fly though, she had already survived the most fatal. Arrows of mouth were nothing.

A brief flashback since I know that there hasn't been many, in the next chapter I promise we might get to see Rapunzel's baby. Any guesses on the gender?

Anyways, I want to thank you all for reading this, this far and everything, you all are amazing!

So, what do these rumors mean?

Will they be righted or continue onwards?

What will the baby look like?

What about Cassandra? How will her late pregnancy go considering that she is nearly fortyish (I don't know, if you have any guesses feel free to tell me what you think. Same for any of them. I'm terrible at keeping track of ages.)

Anyways read on, review and stay safe everyone!