• PROLOGE:

    It was pouring rain when the news arrived.
    The Queen sat in her chair, her long red dress touching the floor, hands shaking, she opened the letter. She dropped the damp parchment, weeping in despair.
    The parchment read:

    To my dear Queen,
    The war is over and we are coming home. The war is over and we are coming home. However, I have dreadful news, the King is dead.

    Sir Horton

    Hearing the door open, the Queen looks up as the chamber maid comes into the room. While helping the pregnant woman up the stairs the maid tries to comfort her. Loosing her balance the Queen falls to the floor. "It is coming." she cries. Taking her hand, the chamber maid hurries her to her bed. As she closes her eyes the Queen sees the chamber maid turn and hurry out the door. A moment later the chamber maid returns with the midwife.

    The Queen was given two beautiful babies the next day. She planned to give them both a blessing, although something changed her mind. One moment after the birth, the village fortune teller came through the door. The guards trying to stop her she says,
    “My Queen, it is wonderful news that you are blessed with a child, excuse me, two children. Although I must tell you that you’re children shall be separated-“
    “’Shall’? Are you cursing my children?” shouted the Queen as the guards grab Barta the fortune teller. ”Oh, no my Queen never shall I curse your children. It is not me who would choose such. But there is one who would, Bargieta, the witch who serves the King of the West. The night my Queen was in labor, I saw as I was walking, a woman by the window of our Queens quarters. I had no time to stop the woman, although I do know some magic of my own, and pulled down her hood, there I saw Bargieta. She was a spy coming to see if the prophecy was true. Apparently the King of the West has a fortune teller and she told him that you would have a child. So he sent Bargieta.”
    “How would you know all this? You must be a spy too.” said one of the guards.
    “Oh, but you forget I am a fortune teller.”
    “Then why did you not tell the Queen or her guards?”
    “The guards are lazy. All they do is eat.” Barta dangerously says as the guards turn green with rage.
    “Thank you for telling me this, Barta. You may go.” Says the Queen.
    Bowing, Barta leaves the room.

    ***

    The night was dark. Although the man on the horse was afraid, he was more afraid of what his master might do to him if he failed to carry out his mission. One month since the birth and his King had a plan and he was the one who had to do it. He had to travel hundreds of miles just to drown two little babies. What a pain. He thought as he galloped through the trees.
    Soon he came to the castle. Carefully, he threw a rope with a loop at the end. Yes! The rope was tightly fastened around a flag pole at the top of the wall. The man started to climb, up the rope he went. He climbed and he climbed.
    Finally, up ahead in the fog he could see a window. Was that it? Was that the window he needed? He looked in the window. The man seemed to be luckier than he had been in years. In the room were two cribs, just what he was looking for.
    Carefully, quietly he crawls threw the window. In the cribs are two sleeping infants.
    He reaches his hands for the first child. His hands closing around the sleeping baby, he reaches for the second…a crash filed the room. He looks to the floor, his arm must have knocked the candle from the night stand, for it was on the floor, it light the curtain on fire. Panicking, the man left the second child to flee for his life.
    He went out the window with the (now wide awake and crying) child,