Chapter 70-Fever

(NATHAN'S P.O.V)

After Prince Moises left the prison quarters, Valian and I continued to interrogate the assassin. The man insisted on saying he didn't know who hired them and they only answered the request.

“What was the request?” I asked him.

He looked up at me, “The request was to kill the Successor for the Winter Dukedom. I only heard it was a nobleman who sent the request.”, he said.

Valian and I looked at eachother.

“It could be anyone from the aristocratic faction that follows Prince Marshall”, Valian said.

“We'll have to visit some of the local bars, and gather some information”, I said.

I looked back at the man and bent down facing him.

“Where did you get the request?”, I asked.

“Ellis Tavern, a local bar in the town of Onan, on the outskirts of the central region”, he said.

“Central region, it could be someone from the palace”, I said, while looking back at Valian.

“Or someone who left the palace after the conference”, Valian said.

I looked back at the man.

“Do you know how many places got the same request?”, I asked.

“I remember hearing that two other taverns got the same request. It could've been a servant for the nobleman who made the request. Most of the time, the nobles send someone in their stead.” He said.

Valian and I looked at each other again.

Unexpectedly, someone knocked on the door and I walked over to answer it. When I opened it, I saw Duke Winter.

I bowed my head, “Duke”, I said.

When I raised my head back up he had a worried expression on his face.

“Lock him in the cell, and follow me”, he said.

I nodded my head and turned around, Valian and I placed the man into the cell and chained him to the wall. When we were done, we left the cell and followed behind Duke Winter. While walking back to the castle, Duke Winter suddenly turned around and looked directly at Valian and I.

“Rosemary is currently fighting for her life, the knife she was cut with had poison on it.”, he said.

“What?!”Valian and I shouted.

I felt my heart racing as I was fuming with anger. I was about to turn around and run back to the prison quarters until Duke Winter stopped me by grabbing my right arm. I looked over at him and saw the anger on his face as well.

“We'll find out who did this and kill them and their entire family”, he said.

I balled my fist up, as I was trying to contain my anger.

“Valian and I will head to the Central region, the assassin said he got a request from the local tavern in the town of Onan.”, I said while balling my fist up.

Duke Winter nodded his head, “In the meantime, let's focus on Rosemary, it'll be daylight soon.”, he said.

Duke Winter turned back around and we continued to walk back to the castle.

(NATALIE'S P.O.V)

When Doctor William came into the room and told us, we still had a chance to save Rosemary. Na'mah and I immediately started to work on stabilizing her body temperature. Doctor William explained to us that the poison was a low dose but it can become fatal if not treated in a timely manner. The antidote pill that I made Rosemary take a few weeks ago, is currently fighting against the poison and is causing her high fever.

I gestured for Moises to place her body into the lukewarm water.

“What kind of herbs should be used?”, Sage said, while looking through the sack Na'mah had brought into the room.

“Guduchi” I said, while pointing at the herb, “The fight between the poison and antidote is making her body hot. We need to keep her body temperature down and break this fever”, I said.

I gestured to Haley to come over and she walked over to where I was standing.

“Bring a teapot with just hot water”, I said.

She nodded and left the room.

“Yeshiva”, I called out to him.

He walked over and I placed my hand on his shoulder.

“After I make this herbal tea, you can give it to her mouth to mouth. Once she's out of the tub, we'll focus on rehydrating her. Doctor William will set up a line for her to continue the fluid treatments, but this herbal treatment will help with the fever”, I said.

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He nodded his head.

“We just have to monitor her while the antidote does its job”, I said.

I started to walk towards the bathroom where Moises and Doctor William were but was interrupted when I saw Nathan and Valian walking into the room.

“How's Rosie?”Nathan asked with a worried expression.

“She's fine, we just have to maintain her body temperature. She has a very high fever because the antidote pill and poison are fighting against each other at the moment. The fever is crucial to us at the moment.”, I said.

I gestured for him to follow me to the bathroom, while Valian walked over to Na'mah who was mixing up the herbs. Nathan and I walked into the bathroom, and Moises looked up at us as we walked in.

“He might have a lead, " the assassins said. The request came from a local tavern in the town of Onan, in the central region.”, Nathan said.

Moises, who was bent down against the tub, stood up and I traded places with him.

“We can take her out now, let's focus on the herbal treatment now,”Doctor William said.

I nodded and looked over at Nathan.

Without saying anything, Nathan nodded and leaned down as he raised Rosemary out of the tub. Since he raised her for us, it was fair to let him carry her to the bed. While walking back Into the room. I called out to Sage and she came over to where I was, we walked into the dressing room and got some clean clothes for Rosemary.

“You should get some rest, it'll be morning soon. Are you still planning to attend the tea party?”, I asked Sage.

She nodded, “I need to find out who's after me, if the Haverhill Dukedom is hostile towards me. We'll know once I attend the tea party. If anything happens after the tea party is over, we can figure out if they made the request or not.”, she said.

I placed my hand on the top of her hand.

“I'm proud of you my young duchess”, I said.

“I'll make sure no one underestimates me”, she said.

I nodded my head and we continued to walk into the room.

(SAGE P.O.V)

I felt the rage flowing inside of my body, having to watch my sister suffer again. Watching her fight for her life once again was causing something inside of me to awake.

I walked beside my mother as we entered the room. My father and the rest of the guys walked out of the room, while mother and I changed Rosie's clothes. Rosie's body was still hot to the touch but her breathing had become more stable.

When we were done changing her clothes, mother checked her temperature.

“It's still high, but it went down a few degrees”, mother said.

“What is it now?”, I asked.

“102”, mother said.

I sighed. Rosie's fever was initially 106 degrees, Doctor William explained the danger of having a fever for a long period of time.

I looked over at the time and saw it was almost six in the morning. I contemplated on whether or not, if I should still attend the tea party. Unfortunately, with the debutante and the succession ceremony being next week. We still needed to find out who will be a threat to us after the coronation.

While thinking to myself, the door suddenly opened and Haley and Na'mah walked back into the room holding a tray.

“I'll go get Yeshiva”, mother said. She got up and walked over to the door and called out for him. A second later, he came walking into the room.

Na'mah handed mother the herbs she mixed together. She placed the herbs into the teacup and poured the hot water into it and handed it to Yeshiva.

Without hesitation, Yeshiva poured the hot tea into his mouth, he leaned down while opening Rosie's mouth and kissed her as he poured the tea into her mouth. She unconsciously swallowed it as he continued to make her drink the tea until the teapot was empty.

I realized at the moment he truly loved my sister.

I walked over to him and placed my hand on his right shoulder. He turned his head and looked over at me.

“Stay here with her, I'll bring someone else to the tea party with me”, I said.

Yeshiva nodded.

Suddenly, Doctor William, Duke Winter and my father walked into the room. Doctor William walked over and went to check on Rosie again.

“Once we get her temperature down, she will be out of the critical period, the rest is up to her and how quickly she recovers”, he said.

“What's her temperature now?”, mother asked.

“101, we need to keep it from rising back up, while her immune system fights the poison”, he said.

He looked over at Yeshiva.

“Keep giving her the herbal treatment every other hour”, he said as he set up the IV line for her.

Father walked over and placed his hand on the top of my head.

“Get some rest, grandfather, set up another room. We'll be moving Rosemary to that room as well once her fever breaks.”, he said as he caressed my hair.

I nodded my head and father gave me a hug.

After my father hugged me, I turned around and followed behind Haley. Luckily the room was still on the second floor. We entered the room and I walked over to the bed.

“Young Duchess, after you get some rest, we'll start the preparations and get you ready for the tea party.”, Haley said, as she stood a few meters in front of me.

I nodded my head and flopped down onto the bed.

“I'm so exhausted”, I said.

“I hope Princess Rosemary wakes up soon, how dare someone send assassins after the future Duchess of the Winter Dukedom”, Haley said, with an upset expression.

“Wait”, I said as I rose off the bed. I suddenly remembered what the man said, the one Rosie stabbed.

Without a second thought, I ran out of the room and heard Haley coming out to me as she followed behind. I rushed back to the room, and saw my father and Duke Winter were still inside the room.

They turned towards me at the same time as I entered the room.

“Sage, what's wrong sweetie?”mother asked, and her father started to walk towards me.

“I remembered the man that Rosie stabbed, he asked which one of us was the future Duchess”, I said.

“He asked you that?”Duke Winter asked, as he walked over to where I was standing.

I nodded.

Duke Winter looked over at my father, “We need to go back to the prison quarters.” He said.

Father nodded his head.

“Go get some rest”, father said, as he kissed my forehead and left the room with Duke Winter.

(PRINCE MOISES P.O.V)

Before we headed back to the prison quarters, I gestured to Nathan, Valian and Masiro who were standing in the hallways still discussing which tavern to visit first. They followed behind my grandfather and I until we made it back outside of the castle.

We continued until we made it back to the prison quarters. Once we were back inside, we walked into the cell the assassin was in. I kicked the bars causing him to wake up and looked around.

“I told you everything”, he said, looking directly at us.

“I have a question and you better answer it”, I said.

He nodded.

“When you accepted the request, were you given a description of the target?”, I asked.

He shook his head, “No, the request was to find out who the future Duchess was and to kill her” he said.

I looked at my grandfather, “We might be dealing with someone who wasn't at the conference”, I said.

I looked back at the man.

“Do you have an idea on how the nobleman looked?” I asked.

He shook his head, “The owner of the tavern should know, he's the one who accepted the request”, he said.

Grandfather turned around and started to walk towards the door. The rest of us followed behind, grandfather glanced over and gestured to Nathan.

“You can get rid of him now,” he said.

Nathan nodded and went back to the cell.

The rest of us walked out of the building, and saw that the sun had risen and started to shine bright.

“It's going to be a long day”, grandfather said, as he looked up at the sky.