In Line

Two samples collected, and one was remaining. How to receive the blood of a queen? The way I saw it, I had only two options. One way would have been difficult, while the other would have its challenges. I didn't want to proceed with either, but if my first plan failed, the second would be my only choice.

Queen Mother loved her garden. She built it on her own from the day that my siblings and I were born. She cultivated the rarest of plants, each more exotic than the last, but she adored one flower more than any other, her blue roses. No matter where you stood in the garden, blue roses were near. They were in every patch of green woven throughout everything. Mother once said, "to pick a rose is to pick a life." The blue rose was symbolic of the unattainable and the impossible, so to pick one was to symbolize the celebration of a life of impossibility, or so I thought. What mattered that day was not the beauty of the flower, but rather its danger. Everyone knew a rose's thorns were sharp, and that's what I needed. Queen mother was in the garden, tending to her flowers when I joined her. I couldn't hide the unease I felt for the task I was to attempt.

"What sits on your shoulders Par," Mother asked as I stood in pale silence.

"Nothing, Mother, just worry over the events of the past night," I lied.

"Something is biting at you, a mother knows when there is something wrong with her children," she said while pulling roots and clipping vines.

I picked the thorny flower, but how was I to use it? I couldn't be as forthcoming as to hold the thorn to her vein and open it.

"First father, now Louis, Sky, and I are being targeted," I confessed an unprioritized worry.

"Nothing will happen to my babies while I am here, nothing," she said.

She stood from her spot on the ground and came to offer a hug. It was the perfect opportunity. It was my only chance. Either do it then or do it never. I hugged my Queen. With a rose in hand, as we departed from the short comforting embrace, I slid the thorn down her arm.

"Oh, dear!" She exclaimed.

I didn't cut deep enough, at best, it left a scratch, but no blood flowed.

"I'm sorry, I meant to give this to you," I said, holding the rose as a gift.

I gave her the flower, knowing I'd lost my one chance.

"Thank you, Par, it means so much to me that in these troubling times, you are still my sweet boy," she said.

"Always Queen Mother," I said.

I left my mother to her gardening. I couldn't collect the last blood sample, not directly. I had only one other way. It was a terrible way. You see, some lines are never to be crossed for the sake of honor, loyalty, and good grace, but there are lines we avoid for what memories they will give us forever. A woman has a time of bleeding each month. My mother, the queen, was no exception. I did not wish to rummage through her chamber pots to find soiled wrappings, but I needed answers. It was both the most straightforward and most difficult sample I collected that day. Having to carry it in my pocket to avoid being seen with it in hand will always stay in my mind.

I had the samples.

I was on my way out of the castle to meet Santo, and to my surprise, my brother was going the same direction. We left the castle gates together.

"Where are you going," I questioned.

"Whoever tried to kill Father tried to kill me, that means it wasn't The Kingdom of Mar. Mother said she's going to end her investigation," he informed me.

"You think it's safe outside the castle so soon?"

"How long could it take to end the investigation? Mother knows how I've missed the people, and the people miss me, Brother."

"If you're sure," I said.

"I'm sure, now, where are you off to?"

I couldn't tell him the truth, but I surely could not lie, my brother would see through it. So I gave a half-truth.

"I'm meeting Santo."

"The frail inventor? You're still seeing him?"

"He's a good person, and a brilliant mind," I said.

"When I pulled together, you're group of lays, I didn't intend for you to grow this close, or this attached," he argued.

"I thought you would be happy. You have been the perfect matchmaker. Surely there must be those who you've grown attached to yourself?"

"I'm a man of the people Par, but the people always change, and I change too," he said

"That sounds lonely, Brother."

"If you want to settle down before you've reached crown age I won't stop you, but if you want to be king someday you'll learn you can't speak for the people if you belong to anyone that sleeps in your bed," he said

"How can you speak for the people if you never let them close enough to love," I joked.

"Kings don't love," he said with a severe tone.

How could my brother be so untethered?

He went his way, and I went my own. I had enough to worry about without my brother's heart on my list of situations to confront. I wasted no time riding to Santo's workshop. He was working on something outside when I arrived. It seemed to be a firework.

"This is how your name was spelled out across the sky the night of your birthday," Santo told me as I dismounted my horse.

"You made this too?" I asked as I approached.

"No, but after I figure out how to deconstruct and reconstruct it, maybe I'll make something better," he said.

"You're quite the renaissance man, aren't you?"

"You flatter me."

"Should I stop?"

"By all means, continue, it'll be the most praise I've received in a while, but I was under the impression you needed a test done," he said.

I took from my back the bag containing the samples of blood.

"Where do we begin?"

We stepped inside. His workshop was different. I remembered my first time in Santo's home. It was covered in machinery from door to wall. On that day, his tables were clear of everything but empty vials and chemicals unknown to me.

"Let's see what you have," he said as we stood opposite one another with his work table between us.

I handed him my bag, and he took from it the samples laying them out on the table one by one. I could see from the look on his face that I made a misstep somewhere.

"These aren't what I was expecting Par," he said.

"But the blood is there,"

"I'm sure it is, but I'll have to extract the blood samples before I can test them

"How long will that take?"

"To get enough blood out of sand, cloth, and ... are these," he stumbled.

I hoped he would go on without asking why one of the samples was in the form of a womanly wrapping.

"Yes," I said

"It'll take time, a long time, and there is still a chance there won't be enough to test

"I need this."

"I'll do my best, but you have to understand there is no guarantee I can give you," he admitted honestly.

"Will you do what you can?"

"Yes," he said.

"That is enough of a guarantee for me."

He got to work. It was something similar to Jin's dance. He was in his element moving and working with fluidity in his motions like that of an ocean's waves. Even with my being in his space, I could feel the passion he had for the work he did. The calculated and tedious lengths that he took were made to look simplistic and effortless. It was a show.

"You know, there are kingdoms with scholarly programs to teach the public sciences like these," Santo told me.

My eyes perked up. Despite the stakes at hand, waiting for tests to be run was uneventful.

"They don't fear knowledge; they cultivate it. I thought about moving to one of those Kingdoms," he continued.

"And leave me?"

"Your open eyes are a breath of fresh air in this place of ignorance, but you don't need me," he said.

"Perhaps I want you."

"You know I've heard rumors about you."

"Rumors?"

"You don't want to be king?" He questioned as he mixed chemicals.

"It's more than a rumor," I said.

"I'm sure you'd be exceptional," he flattered me.

"Who can you say?"

"You are not those who came before you who were afraid of change, you're not your sister who lives only to fight a war that doesn't exist, and you're not your brother who people love only until they realize how much he does not love them," he debated boldly.

"I believe I warned you about speaking this way about my family," I said.

"And now, just as you did then, you can't find falsehood in my words," he said.

"If I became king, I could never be with you. I could never be with anyone outside of royal blood or nobility."

"You can't be with me now, and yet here you sit with me, not in a castle but my home," he argued to my dismay.

"It's not the same."

"No, it's not. As King, you wouldn't live by rules. You would make them. You could change them. Whoever says you can't live your life, however, and with whoever you wish, as King, they could never control you."

It's not the conversation I wanted to have, but he spoke honestly and with more clarity on the matter than I ever had. In our silence, I noticed he stopped working.

"It's done?"

"It's done."

He had three vials on the table before us, one with Sky's blood, another with Queen Mother's, and the last with King Father's. In his hand, he held a bottle of clear liquid.

"Now what," I asked impatiently.

"Now, I add a drop of this to each sample. If they change to similar colors, we will know they are related, and of course, if their colors are not close in relation, we will know the opposite," he explained.

He prepared to move forward. He added a single drop to each vial, and we waited.

The first vile to change color was King Father's. It was dark orange. The next was Queen mother's. It was bright pink.

"These two aren't a match," he said.

I couldn't tell him who the blood belonged to, but of course, the King and Queen were not going to be a match. All that mattered was Sky's blood. If it matched King Father's, then Sky was not related to a supposedly cursed bloodline. If it matched Queen mother's, that meant Teco lied about her having a miscarriage, and Sky was her daughter. At any rate, if any test came back positive, it would prove King Teco lied to me, but If nothing came back the same, it would mean he was the most honest of all.

"It's changing," Santo expressed as he held the vial to his hey.

"How would we know if one sample is related to more than one of the others," I asked.

"The blood will separate into two different colors," he said.

If Sky weren't the daughter of the King or Queen, I would have no choice but to turn on her. I would have no choice but to turn over any evidence and all information that I uncovered. Was I ready to accuse my Sister of being disloyal? It was the moment of truth. Was Sky the true adversary? Was Teco my ally?

"There you have it, "Santo said as the colors changed and permeated.

"No matches....."