Crowns of Heritage

Chapter 26- Spy

(SAGE P.O.V)

Nashi tried to calm my mother down but she continued to hold the sword up against the maid's neck. Sylvester held his hands up, while slowly approaching towards them.

“Someone tried to poison my daughter”, Mother said, still holding onto the maid.

“Okay, just calm down, we'll figure this out and find out who did this”, Sylvester said.

Mother pushed the maid onto the ground and the maid continued to shiver out of fear. Sylvester reached his right hand out for the sword my mother was holding. she lowered the sword and Sylvester carefully removed the sword from her. Nashi stepped in front of the maid.

“Who made the tea?”, he asked, in a demanding tone.

The maid started to shiver more.

“I don't know, Master, the head maid was the one who handed me the tray that held the refreshments”, she said, while bowing down on the ground.

Nashi looked at Sylvester and gestured his head at him. Sylvester nodded and ran back into the villa.

“Earlier a maid was following me around.”, I said, looking at Nashi.

Nashi looked over at me, “Do you remember how she looks?” he asked, with a softer tone.

“She was fair-skinned, with short red hair”, I said.

Nashi put his head back and looked to be in deep thought.

“Sounds like the new maid that came a few weeks ago”, he said.

A few seconds later, Sylvester came back with an older woman, she had grayish hair and dressed differently than the other maids.

“This is Marie our head maid at the villa”, he said pointing towards her.

“Marie, I'll give you five second to explain to me, why was there poison in Princess Sage's tea. ”, he asked, in a demanding tone.

She bowed her head, “Master, I remember a maid coming up to me asking if I needed help with refreshments.”, she said, lifting her head up after bowing.

“How did she look?”, he asked.

She described the same woman that was following me around.

“Do you remember her name?”, he asked.

“Yes, It's Yulia”, she said, “After helping me she suddenly made an excuse saying she had forgotten to do the laundry. I thought it was strange but didn't mind it, since newer maids do tend to forget.”, she stated, in a respectful manner.

Sylvester gestured for the guards to come closer.

“Find her now!”, he shouted.

“Yes sir”, they shouted back and ran in different directions.

Mother walked up to me and placed her hand on top of my head.

“Are you calm now?”, I asked.

She kissed my forehead, “Not until I slice her throat.”, she said.

Nashi and Sylvester gulped loudly, “She's scary”, Sylvester said, as he held himself and pretended to shiver.

Mother started to walk towards the villa and I followed behind her. Nashi and Sylvester followed behind us as well.

Once we entered the villa, Nashi suggested we follow him to his office. Sylvester and Asiana remain downstairs with the head maid, while one of the villa's doctors treated the maid for her wound.

We walked inside of Nashi's office and one of the butlers closed the door after leaving. Nashi bowed his head down as he stood in front of us.

“I'm truly sorry, this happened in my villa”, he said.

“It's just the life of a noble”, mother said, “you can raise your head”, she stated

Nashi raised his head, “I'm sure Prince Moises will be upset if he knew this happened”, he said.

“You seemed to be close to my father”, I said.

Nashi cracked a little smile.

"He was going to be my instructor for my swordsmanship lessons.”, he said, “My father mentioned Prince Moises was excited about meeting his daughters. My father even joked about me marrying one of them. Then Prince Moises chased him with a sword afterwards.", he stated and started laughing a little.

"Wait how old are you?”, I asked, curiously, I don't remember if he told me or not.

“I'm 23”, he said, and winked his right eye at me.

I rolled my eyes and suddenly, the door to the office opened, and Sylvester walked in.

“We found the maid”, he said.

Mother rushed out of the room, and we followed behind. We walked down the stairs and saw Asiana holding down the maid, while her hands were tied behind her back and a guard stood next to her.

“I'm sorry Master”, she said while crying out.

Nashi stood in front of the maid, “Why did you put poison in Princess Sage's tea”, he asked, pointing a sword at her.

She started shivering while she bowimg to the ground.

“I'm sorry”, she cried out.

“Who do you work for?”mother asked, she bent down and grabbed the maid's head and made her look up at us.

“Countess Melanie Livens”, she said while balling her eyes out.

“Who's that?”I asked, looking at Nashi.

Nashi held his head back and sighed.

“You're a spy for Countess Melanie”, he said, and balled his fist.

“Who is that?”I asked again, getting irritated.

“She's the woman who keeps sending me marriage requests”, he said while sighing.

“What the..”, I said, getting even more annoyed.

“Put her in the prison cell”, he said, looking at the guards

The guards picked the maid up off the floor and took her out of the villa. The head maid bowed her head and went back to her duties.

(ROSEMARY P.O.V)

We've been riding for a couple of hours, and I was starting to get impatient.

“How much longer do we have until we get there?”, I asked for the third time.

“For the last time, it takes at least a whole day to get to the northern border of the kingdom Of Vanuatu by car. The Port of Torress, is a merchant city that sits in-between two kindgoms.”, grandfather explained for the third time.

I started to sigh, I couldn't wait to see my sister after she went missing three weeks ago. I was excited to finally get the chance to meet my mother, since I grew up without one. I wondered to myself, how Sage will react when she meets our father. Even though we grew up in different houses, Peyton and Nathan made sure we did everything else together. While thinking to myself, I felt Yeshiva grab my hand and gave a little squeeze. I started to smile and continued to look out the window.

“Let's take a break, I'm hungry”, I complained to my grandfather.

“No, we need to travel a little more”, he replied

“Fine”, I said, smacking my teeth.

We rode for another two hours, until we reached a border checkpoint. Grandfather showed the guard a gold tag, and we drove through the checkpoint.

“What's the tag for?”, I asked curiously,

“It's a mercenary tag”, Yeshiva answered.

I was about to ask another question until Peyton's phone started to ring.

“Hello”, she answered.

I couldn't hear what the other person was saying.

“Okay, call me if you get some more information”, she said.

She hung up the phone, and started to speak, “Duke Vernon has been released from the hospital”, she said.

“Any news on the kingdom?”, father asked.

“Still on lockdown, the royal guards are on high alert, they haven't posted any pictures of them though”, she stated.

“How are we going to sneak inside the kingdom?”, I asked, curiously.

“There's a way to sneak over the border wall without having to stop at a checkpoint”, father said, "The only problem is we have the hide Masiro's truck inside the forest that sits outside of the border, we'll have to travel the rest on foot", he added.

I looked at Yeshiva and noticed he was looking around.

“Yeshiva?”, I called out to him.

"Chief, we're being followed”, he said.

“I know,” grandfather said.

Peyton and I glanced back and saw three cars were following behind us.

“Hold on”, grandfather said and started speeding down the road.

(SAGE P.O.V)

After the poison situation had calmed down, I decided to take a bath. One of the maids that Nashi assigned to me helped me get dressed but I could feel the tension around them, because of what happened earlier today.

I heard a knock on the door, and mother walked over to open it. It was Nashi, he gestured his hand at me wanting me to follow him. I followed him into the hallway, and he bowed his head again.

“Princess Sage, I want to apologize again for what happened today”, he said.

“Please raise your head, I'm not used to the whole Princess thing”, I said.

He raised his head, and took grabbed my right hand.

“But it doesn't change the fact that you are a princess”, he said.

I knew he was going to continue with the whole princess treatment, so I decided to ask him something I was curious about.

“Countess Melanie”, I started to say.

“We have nothing to do with each other, she's been chasing after me since our academy days”, he said, as if he was trying to reassure me.

We continued to talk in the hallway, and the head maid walked past us with a couple of other maids walking behind her. They all bowed to Nashi, and some bowed to me while other ignored me.

Nashi got upset at the maids who didn't bow, “You will show Princess Sage the same respect you would show the royal family. ”, he said sternly.

The rest of the maids bowed their heads and Nashi excused them.

“Dinner is almost ready”, the head maid said.

“Okay, we shall be there shortly”, Nashi responded back.

“I'll see you at dinner”, he said, while kissing my hand and walking away.

I felt myself blushing and returned back to the room. I walked in the room and leaned up against the door holding my face with both hands.

“Sage”, my mother called out to me.

“Yes mother?”I answered, while trying to get a hold of myself.

I walked to the side of the room she was in, and saw her standing next to the window.

“You're blushing”, she said, looking at me.

I held my face again, feeling a little shy.

“You don't have to hide it, he's handsome”, she said.

I walked closer to her and leaned my head on her shoulder.

“I don't have the time to like someone”, I said.

She placed her hand on the right side of my face while I still leaned on her shoulder.

“I'm sure your sister is fine”, she said, “When I met your father, I wasn't expecting to fall for him either, but he was very persistent and charming.”, she stated.

I smiled, thinking about the stories I heard so far about them.

We heard a knock on the door and one of the maids from earlier told us dinner was ready.

Mother told me to go ahead of her and she would meet me there after she changed her clothes. I nodded my head and followed behind the maid. While walking I heard some voices, they were whispering inside one of rooms I was passing by.

“I refuse to let this happen”, I heard a familiar voice, but couldn't see who it was. The door was cracked open, and I continued to hear them whisper, “that illegitimate princess”, I heard. I started to open the door but the maid in front of me looked back. I continued to follow her as we approached the dining room.

Nashi, Sylvester and Asiana were standing in the dining room conversing together and they looked over and noticed me walking in.

“Where's your mother?”Sylvester asked.

“She said she was going to come after changing her clothes” I said.

Nashi got up and escorted me to my seat.

“How come you treat me like a princess, but Sylvester doesn’t”, I asked.

“Because he likes…”, Sylvester started to say but Asiana elbowed him in the side, causing him to drop his fork.

“Because what?”, I asked, curiously

I noticed Nashi shaking his head at Sylvester, and Asiana started to laugh.

All of sudden the door to the dining room came opened and mother was dragging one of the maids by her hair.

Nashi and Sylvester jumped out of their seat and ran towards my mother.

“What's going on Lady Natalie”, Nashi and Sylvester shouted at the same time.

“Mom”, I called out to her.

Mother pushed the maid down and placed her onto her knees while pulling her hair back showing us her face.

It was the head maid, and mother's face looked like she was ready to kill someone.

“This is the second time one of your maids tried to poison my daughter”, she said, in a very pissed off tone.

“What do you mean?”, Nashi asked, in disbelief.

“While I was on my way here, I heard your maid telling one of the butlers she was the one who put the poison in Sage's tea.”, she said.

Nashi's facial expression changed after hearing what my mother said.

“Is this true, Marie?”he asked, and stood in front of her.

“Master you have to help me, this crazy woman attacked me”, she yelled out.

“I asked you is this true?”, he shouted.

“I couldn't let you fall in love with an illegitimate princess”, she shouted out.

Nashi walked up closer and bent down in front of her face.

“Since when do a lowly maid tell her master who to love?”, he asked while putting her face close.

She started shivering, “I raised you when you after your mother passed away, I have the right to not allow this illegitimate princess to tarnish the Duke's reputation”, she yelled out.

Nashi started balling his fist up, and stood up again, “How dare you disrespect Prince Moises daughter”, he said.

He looked at one of the guards standing by the door.

“Throw her in the prison as well”, he said, and walked away from her.

The head maid started yelling and kicking as they dragged her out.

Mother went to take a seat at the dinner table, as the rest of the maids and butler were afraid to approach her.

After we had dinner, a guard came into the dining room and rushed to Nashi. He whispered something into his ear, causing Nashi to nod his head. The guard left the room and we all turned our heads towards him.

“I received information from the Duke”, he said, and turned his head to look in the direction of mother and I.

“Prince Moises is on his way here”, he said.

And mother placed her hand over her mouth and stood up causing her chair to fall over.

"Moises", she mumbled.