Hi, here comes chapter 20:
Pamela sat at her table near the waterfall where she always used to sit. She have had her guards to move further away so that she could drop her calm mask and be able to let her emotions show. She still didn't know why she had risked telling Beetle everything and now she regretted it. If it weren't for James interfering she might have even told him about her plans to have Jenna married to Commander Martin's son to take the throne.
The sound of leaves cracking under someone's feet made her sit up alert. Before she even had time to react, she was pulled back by her shoulder and a dagger was pushed at her throat. Pamela looked at the hand holding the dagger and saw it trembling. A smile formed on her lips with the realization that the hand couldn't kill.
"Who are you?" she asked and started to get up. "You don't want to kill me." Pamela laughed and pushed the hand away as she fully stood up. She turned to see Artemis's son staring at her with rage. "Oh, Harry, welcome." James had found out their names.
Harry's eyes were red from holding back his agony. He dropped the dagger with distress. "Listen, I don't want to do anything with you. Just tell me who killed my parents?" his question made Pamela's smile fade. So, he hadn't seen her face the other night.
She took a step forward which caused Harry to take a step back. "I've heard that you have settled in the new house. Princess Artemis would have been so proud." Pamela pitied the confused look on Harry's face and it made her eyes fill with tears to do what she was about to. "Come to think of it, we share a long history." she exclaimed quietly.
"What... what are you talking... about?" Harry's voice was trembling.
"Your mother's aunt, Queen Mathilda. Your mother, Princess Artemis and your father, my brother in law, Ethen Beetle." her voice was low as she walked to him and took him by shoulder. Pamela almost embraced him so that she could whisper in his ear. "I got rid of them all." she felt Harry shudder and took a step back to look at his widened eyes that were looking at her with great fear. "Why? Because with the arrogance the royal blood had filled them with, they wanted to push me down. That arrogance had caused them to look down on me so they didn't use all their power to fight me." her voice was growing louder as she was pouring herself out. With her every word, Harry was growing paler.
His dark violet eyes now were only staring at her with bemusement. Pamela smirked at that. "Don't think that a mere dagger can fight me." she kicked the dagger away. "That isn't used in such a brawl. I, Pamela, lived a life filled with subterfuges and wars for becoming a queen. I gave my body, soul and loved ones in the way." she blinked her tears back when she thought about Brian, Cerys and Alther who had died and Beetle who she had abandoned. "If my presence daunts you then put away your hatred and join me. If you want revenge then fight me just like your parents and Princess Jenna. Those are the only ways to stand up to me."
Pamela paused when she saw Harry's legs starting to give in but pushed herself to keep the smirk. "Fight me with all your life or, just die." she finished conclusively.
Footsteps of someone running came as Harry's was silently stepping away from her. Pamela didn't say anything and just watched him increase his speed and run into the woods as James rushed to her. "Who was he? What did he want?" he asked, breathless.
Smiling, Pamela crouched and picked the dagger up. "He wanted to kill me." she said calmly and pushed the dagger in James's hand. "That boy is dangerous. Go to the house we gave to Artemis's children and take the baby."
"For what?"
"Well, she is a princess. Technically, I mean." she laughed quietly. "She deserves to be raised in the palace." Pamela felt relieved when she saw the realization in James's eyes. "I can't have such an angry child raise the baby princess. He may poison her mind."
James nodded his head and followed Pamela to her table as she sat down. "Beetle's here. Down the hill." he informed her.
Pamela's smile turned grim. "He is?" she let out a loud sigh. "Alright, you go and get the job done. I'll get him." shakily she stepped down the small wooden steps. The walk down the hill was easy as she didn't feel the hot sun on her skin or the rocks that were making her trip from time to time.
All the way, James kept the silence. Pamela was thankful for that. After a while she spotted Beetle and started walking faster until she reached him. Beetle's face was ashen as if being sick but she smiled.
"Good morning... Pamela." said Beetle with great difficulty. She had forbid him from being her son and he wasn't going to change that. The effort to call her that had exhausted him already.
"Morning," she answered curtly. "Let's have some tea." she eyed James to leave but he stayed firm and didn't move. Beetle nodded his head in agreement and they started to walk around the waterfall. Pamela had deliberately chosen another path to spend more time with Beetle.
When crossing the small river that led to her thinking spot, she almost slipped from a wet rock that James caught her from behind and Beetle looked back. James jumped on the rock in front of her and extended his hand to her. "Let me help you."
Pamela glanced at him and then at Beetle. "Can you help me?" she asked Beetle who seemed amazed by the request. She gazed at James so that he would understand that she wants to be with her son in their last peaceful meeting.
"Then I'll go and do the... job." with that James jumped back behind her and strode away.
Silently, Beetle raised his arm and she took it. Pamela circled her hand around his arm and took his hand with her left hand. Her sudden interest in showing him kindness after abandoning him was odd for Beetle.
When they reached the table, Pamela stopped. "Isn't it wonderful?" she pointed at the waterfall. "I always come here whenever I feel worried about something."
"Worry?" repeated Beetle with a smirk and turned to her. "You must have felt a lot of that in your life." his sarcasm made Pamela laugh. His smirk faded at that and he followed her to the table. She took a silver carved sword that was beside her chair and pushed it to him on the table.
"Happy birthday. A day sooner to give you your gift but the circumstances call for it." she smiled at Beetle's unbelieving face and his amusement.
Pamela acted as if nothing had happened and talked about all her joyful memories. Beetle was relucant at first but couldn't help to crack into laughter when she told her about how she had defeated the soldiers with just a hair pin. It eased her mind as well to recall those days.
"Did you have to wear the weights around your legs all the time?" Beetle asked with amusement and grinned when Pamela nodded. "Oh, I heard that the army is a rough place. How did you manage?"
"It was rough but luckily, Commander Martin didn't take it hard on me."
"Why?"
"Since I was interesting for him." Pamela remembered the night she had gained him as an ally. "He even noted that my beauty and wit if misused can bring ruin to all."
Beetle couldn't understand the Pamela's bitter tone when saying that. "Did it bother you?" he inquired with growing sympathy.
The question drew a smile on Pamela's mouth. "Bother me? It must seem like that." she said calmly. "I was a girl with nothing. I had nowhere to go so I did everything I could to be a Queen. That wretched dream and ambition to become a Queen" she gulped when saying that. "Having my friends see me as a betrayer, Brian killed and even..." she looked away from Beetle. "And abandoning my flesh and blood." Beetle looked at her crossly when she said that. He couldn't believe that she had the nerve to bring it up. "I did all those without a hesitation for becoming a Queen."
"I admire you. You are truly astonishing." Beetle commented. "So when did your dream start?"
"It must have been that night. The very night I did something the Queen herself couldn't. I stopped the rebellion from happening." she laughed with joy at remembering Martin's shocked face. "It was a dream I couldn't achieve just because I wasn't of royal blood. It was sad."
"Sad or extraordinary. That are what dreams are made of. They make you sacrifice everything on the way."
Pamela smiled and gazed at him. "Thank you for understanding." she expressed shakily and Beetle too smiled bitterly as tears blured his visage. She tried to change the subject. "Oh, that reminds me. Why are you following Jenna all the time? It doesn't suit you."
Beetle laughed at the subject. "I'm like a duck who follows the first person it sees after it's hatched."
"So was Jenna the first one you saw?" asked Pamela and waited for him to answer but he just smiled shyly. "You must love her." she said at seeing his smile. Beetle nodded his head and tried to suppress his smile. "But it doesn't have any charm. Men clinging onto women from pure love and devotion." she recalled Brian's undying love to her and it pained her. "They always get their dead bodies stumbled upon."
"Well if not a clear devotion; can't we call it a mean for me to achieve my goals as well as Jenna? It can be my not-so-wretched dream." he emphasized on Pamela's use of word. "With a dream like that, don't you think that women will fall for me?" Pamela didn't respond to that and that gave Beetle the courage to go on. "Don't you think that it's time to let go of that wretched dream?"
Pamela creased her eyebrows and leaned forward. "Why should I do that?"
Beetle gulped to get rid of the horrible feeling. "Because of me. For me." he was almost pleading.
"I don't think so." Pamela answered swiftly.
"Why?"
"For myself."
Her reply was so hard on Beetle that he had to blink to stop his tears from falling. "Don't you agree that it's just a sad temptation?" his voice was cracking as he smiled with sorrow.
Pamela saw the tear in his eyes but didn't stop smiling. "Yes, but knowing that doesn't mean I will stop trying to win. Because I am Pamela." she felt at ease at not hiding anything from him anymore. "I am just starting." she reached to take Beetle's hand but couldn't bring herself to play with his feelings like that. "So answer me this. Will you change your mind now and join me? You may die if you stay with Jenna and no one will know why. Just like Brian who died trying to save me. Everyone now believe that he died of a spider bite just because the ministers couldn't risk having Cerys... Jenna's mother's image destroyed. Tell me, will you join me in this fight?"
Beetle was breathing rapidly. He closed his eyes. "I just wish that you stop." he clutched his trouser and looked at her. "When wishing that, how can I join you?" Pamela just stared at him. She had made another enemy. An enemy out of her own son.
Pamela picked the box up along with the decree and sat on the horse. James nodded his head for her to go first. He had found the Ice faction's meeting point. It was the first time that they hadn't informed Pamela for petition signing and that worried her.
"Did you receive any answer from Commander Martin?" she asked before riding.
James gave her a letter. "He said that he'll meet us there. We better hurry." with that he brought his horse to run and so did Pamela.
They rode to the palace and used the side door to go in unnoticed. James carried Pamela's box for her. "Why did you ask me to pick between two boxes?" he asked with curiosity.
"You'll find out soon enough." she answered. By the time they arrived, the meeting had already started and Martin was waiting for them with his soldiers behind him. He had changed so much over the years and was barely recognizable.
"Long time no see, Pamela." he saluted happily and laughed. "I think you're getting back on track." he pointed at James with a wink. "So you two are together now?"
James laughed quietly but Pamela just smiled. "No we're not." she felt James's hurt gaze on her but ignored it. "Let's go in." she went into the palace garden ahead. The Ice faction members had gathered around a big table at the pavilion that was being guarded by soldiers. With Pamela's nod of head, Martin ordered his soldiers to pour in and surround the pavilion.
Ice faction members looked up from the petition. "Who is it?" one of them asked loudly. Pamela didn't rush and walked elegantly with her long sleeved navy blue dress and her bird on the crown necklace and bracelet shining in the moonlight. Followed by Martin and James she stepped next to the oldest member of the Ice faction.
"Hello my dear friends. I'm afraid that I must interrupt whatever you were doing." she said with sarcasm and before anyone could object, took the box from James's hand. She swiftly placed the box in middle of the glass table and untied the wick that was wrapped around it. Pamela studied them all before standing. "This is gunpowder." she exclaimed coolly that rose the shocked objections among the ministers. Even James and Martin were looking at her with anxiety.
A man with long white beard stood up. "What do you think you're doing? Who do you think you are?" he shouted rashly.
Pamela glanced at James from the corner of her eye. "No one can leave here until I finish talking. You may do whatever you want to those who try to leave." with that James and Martin took out their swords and stood at both sides of the entrance. She pulled the petition from the minister's hand and began to read it. "Only ten signatures on this paper and I will no longer be the Ice faction leader. I, who was the reason that Ice faction gained such power in first place, am going to be wiped off." she laughed angrily. "Of course that's no big deal. The Ice faction always just carries on. It doesn't care that its name will get disgraced for being the most coward crowd of people who ever lay foot on the planet."
"What do you know about us to talk with such insolence?" the bearded man objected again.
"I know enough." she shouted back. "Twenty-one years ago, you betrayed your leader and didn't follow her order. It must have been very sad for you as well, sitting aside, watching me hold a funeral for my dead husband and giving yourselves the boldness to ask for my help yet again. Other than that..." she eyed them with great despise. "Do you think anything else can define you?"
Another one bolt up and tried to pull the petition out of her hand. "Stop talking like you are our leader when as of tomorrow you'll be set aside." he waited to see if James or Martin would attack but Pamela raised her eyebrows for them to stand put. "Do you think we'll let you leave here alive?" he hissed.
Pamela giggled. "Such a wonderful question." her answer dropped a heavy silence over the table. "Yes, I believe I will." she retorted mockingly. "Yesterday, doing this seemed impossible for me. But why is it that I can do this now?" she let out a wry sigh. "Because I know for a fact that this faction is nothing without me. So, let's assume that I resign. You want me to try to predict the future?"
She started taking out Fyrestick charm from her small pocket. "You will lose your supporters one by one as Queen Jenna starts to dominate her power. Then slowly but surely, you'll fade into a name." she leaned down with her both hands beside the box. "Do you really want all the work we all put into making the Ice faction what it is today to get destroyed?" she shove the petition in front of their doubting eyes. "Or do you want to erase the indignity of signing this petition tonight by grasping this last chance for Ice faction to shine?"
"What opportunity?"
Pamela took out a piece of parchment and started writing while reading out aloud. "We request a deal with Eastern Snow Planes. In exchange for the 1000 soldiers that we require, we will give you the Queen's power." she finished writing and looked up. "1000 soldiers is all we need to outnumber the other element factions. I ask you to sign this." she stood back up and waited for their answer. She knew they were convincing themselves to sign it.
"What will you do if we don't?" the old man's voice rose up again.
"You will sign this but since we don't have much time; I would like to help you make up your mind." she placed the Fyrestick on the wick and in a second it was on fire. Pamela could hear her own heart beat from fear of the gunpowder actually exploding. The minsters all jumped up but couldn't go out because of Martin's soldiers. "Sign this and I'll cut the wick. However, if you don't, we'll all just disappear together."
One by the minsters shakily signed the decree. All, except the old man. Pamela cursed his stubbornness in her heart but didn't say anything or break their stare at each other. The ministers were trying to convince him to sign that he finally talked. "Is that really gunpowder?" he asked with suspicion.
Pamela grinned through fear. "We can all wait until it explodes to find out." she tried to keep her cool but as the fire was getting closer to the box's lid, she felt less confident in her plan. Maybe he really wasn't going to change his mind.
"Sir, please sign it." a young looking minister said but when she got no answer, she turned to Pamela. "He will sign it. Cut the wick." Pamela didn't move and kept her gaze.
"If I sign and it's not gunpowder then I'll_" the old minster started that Pamela jumped in.
"Will you bet your life on my bluffing?" she exclaimed desperately and looked at the fire that had almost reached the box. Pamela closed her eyes and wished that between the two boxes she had James choose; he had chosen the one with rocks in it. Her whole body was now trembling as she opened her eyes.
Martin ran to her and looked at the old minster. "Can't you see that she's shivering? Lady Pamela never lies. Do you plan to kill everyone here?" he shouted. The old minster gaze kept going back and forth between Pamela and the box that he finally made up his mind and signed the decree.
Swiftly, Pamela took Martin's sword and cut the wick. Everyone let out a sigh of relief. "I am grateful for your wise decision." she said and took the decree that the old minster picked the lid of the box. Everyone, including her were surprised to see it filled with rocks.
"Your eyes were filled with fear. How can you? Was it all pretense?" he looked up with his mouth open.
"Of course not." Pamela was quick to answer. "I too didn't know whether it was filled with stones or gunpowder. In order to deceive you, I had to deceive myself as well." Everyone were set back by her answer. "Because I, too had to be afraid." she looked at James to withdraw his sword. "If you all excuse me." she gave Martin his sword and left the amazed minsters.
Martin caught up with her. "What now?" he asked breathlessly.
Pamela was too breathless from excitement. "You go back to the border and wait for my next message." Martin started to go that she called him. "And thanks for coming again." she smiled and so did Martin. He waved to them and walked off with his soldiers. James was still silent that Pamela turned to him. "Why are you so silent?"
James's mouth cracked into amused laughter and he fanned himself wryly. "You are truly amazing." he lowered his voice. "To tell the truth I took a little peak into the boxes and chose the one with rocks." he brought his hands up in defeat as Pamela looked at him accusingly. "But that doesn't mean that I don't want to kill you for doing something so reckless when you thought there might really be gunpowder involved."
"You want to kill me?" Pamela challenged that James picked a flower from the garden and gave it to her.
"No, I want to give you this." he waited until Pamela took the flower and whistled in the night air. "Now tell me. Why the 1000 soldiers?"
Pamela winked victoriously. "I will try but this decree will never succeed." she answered James's unasked question. "I just used it as a temptation for the ministers to go along with my plan. I know Jenna, she will never fall for it." she looked up at the sky. It was almost dawn. "We need to rest tonight because tomorrow the real game begins."
Thank you so much everyone for reading my story. This is the last chapter for those who haven't read my other fanfic 'Mystery in past' that is centered around Beetle and Jenna and Pamela just appears as the antagonist. There will be chapter 21 which is a special chapter for those who have read what happens to Pamela. It's a Pamela POV on chapter 15 of 'Mystery in past'.
Please review and thank you again for reading.
