Chapter 12 - The Woman Called Orla
The return journey to the palace became a procession of secrets.
Maribel’s confession, Varron’s documents, the twin portrait, and the royal blood test would have been enough to shake the kingdom. The missing page from the birth record promised something worse: another person had carried Princess Solenne from the palace, and that person had remained hidden for eighteen years.
The page could have been destroyed, sold, or used to blackmail the queen. No one knew whether Orla was a servant, a noblewoman, or an enemy.
Lysa remembered only a woman with a blue veil.
“She smelled like lavender,” the child said. “She sang the same song every night.”
Tessa searched the palace records when they returned. There were twenty-three women named Orla who had served the royal household during the year of the disappearance. Most were dead. Three had left the kingdom. One remained in the capital.
Her name was Orla Dane.
She lived in a narrow house near the old clock tower and made candles for the cathedral.
Captain Rovan led the search party. Elara, Lysa, Tomas, and the king followed behind under heavy guard. Maribel remained in the palace under arrest, but she had given them a letter to deliver.
The house was locked from within.
Rovan knocked once.
“Orla Dane, open in the name of the king.”
No answer.
He knocked again.
Something shattered inside.
Rovan ordered the door broken.
The house smelled strongly of lavender. Candles covered every surface, their flames trembling in the draft. An elderly woman stood at the back window with a knife against her own throat.
“Do not come closer,” she said.
Lysa began to cry.
The woman stared at her. The knife fell from her hand.
“Solenne?”
The child hid behind Elara.
Orla sank to the floor.
“You lived,” she whispered.
“You took her,” Elara said.
“I saved her.”
“You hid her in an orphanage.”
“Because Varron was searching every noble household. The orphanage was the only place he did not control.”
Rovan arrested her, but the king ordered that she be questioned in a private room before any formal charge.
Orla told them that Celestine had given her Solenne just before midnight. The first queen had known she could not protect both children. She gave Seraphine to Darius and Mara, then asked Orla to carry Solenne to safety.
“Why not tell the king?” Aldric asked.
Orla looked at him with old resentment. “Because he believed Celestine was a traitor. He would have taken the child, and Varron would have found her.”
“You should have trusted me.”
“You trusted the wrong people first.”
The words silenced him.
Orla reached into a wooden chest and removed a blue veil. Sewn into its hem was a small strip of parchment.
“Celestine gave me this,” she said. “She said it was to be opened when the girls were reunited.”
Elara took it.
The message was brief.
My daughters, if you stand together, then the palace has failed to destroy you. Do not let the crown turn you against each other. One of you was raised among walls. The other was raised among roads. Both lives are real. Neither is more royal than the other.
Lysa leaned against Elara.
“She knew we would meet?”
“Your mother hoped,” Orla said. “Hope was all she had left.”
The king asked Orla about the missing second page.
The old woman’s hands tightened around the veil. “I gave it to Maribel.”
“When?”
“The night I placed Solenne in the orphanage. The queen met me outside the chapel. She promised to protect both children if I gave her proof that Solenne lived.”
“She kept the page for eighteen years,” Elara said.
“She kept it because Varron wanted it destroyed. If he learned Solenne survived, he would have hunted her.”
“Why did Maribel never reveal the truth?”
Orla looked toward the window. “Because she did not know whether the king would choose his daughters over his crown.”
King Aldric flinched.
The formal trial began three days later.
The grand court had never been so crowded. Nobles from every province arrived to hear the evidence. The king sat beneath the royal crest, but the throne beside him remained empty. Maribel stood before the court without her crown. Varron was chained at the center of the chamber.
Elara and Lysa entered together.
The court bowed.
Lysa stumbled at the sight of so many people. Elara squeezed her hand.
“Stay with me.”
“I do not know what to do.”
“Neither do I.”
“You keep saying that.”
“It keeps being true.”
The first witnesses testified: Doctor Halven, Tessa, Orla, and the guards from the orphanage. Then the documents were read aloud, including Celestine’s letters and Varron’s confession.
When Maribel’s turn came, she did not ask for mercy.
“I approved the removal of Princess Seraphine,” she said. “I allowed the court to believe she was dead. I withheld evidence. I lied to the king. I chose ambition over courage, and fear over truth.”
The court murmured.
“I did not poison Lady Celestine,” she continued. “I did not order her death. But I knew who did it and remained silent. That silence made me part of the crime.”
King Aldric stared at her.
Maribel turned toward him. “I am sorry. It is a small sentence for a large ruin, but it is the only honest one I have left.”
Varron laughed.
“You all enjoy this performance,” he said. “But none of you understands what will happen when the people learn their king could not protect his own family.”
Captain Rovan approached him. “The people will learn the truth.”
“The truth?” Varron sneered. “The truth is that kingdoms do not survive on truth. They survive on control.”
He looked toward Lysa.
“Ask the younger princess what she remembers about the night she was taken.”
Lysa pressed against Elara.
“She remembers nothing,” Aldric said.
“Then ask her what is hidden beneath her bed.”
The room fell silent.
Elara looked at Lysa.
The child’s face changed.
“I have a dream,” she whispered.
“What dream?”
“A woman puts something under my bed.”
“What woman?”
Lysa shook her head. “I do not know.”
“What does she hide?”
The girl closed her eyes.
“A red box.”
Varron smiled.
“Find it.”
That night, the palace was searched from top to bottom. Beneath the bed in the room assigned to Lysa, guards discovered a loose floorboard. Under it sat a red wooden box.
Inside was a single object.
A royal dagger stained with old blood.
The handle bore King Aldric’s seal.
The discovery changed the mood of the court. Evidence that had seemed to point toward Varron now appeared to point toward the king. Several nobles began whispering that the kingdom needed a new ruler, one untouched by the old scandal.
Elara heard them and understood the danger. Varron did not need to escape if he could make the court destroy itself.
She approached the glass case. “May I see the dagger?”
Rovan frowned. “It is evidence.”
“Then examine it with me.”
The handle was dark from age, but the royal seal had been polished recently. A thin scratch ran through the center of it.
“This was opened,” Elara said.
Halven bent over the case. “The seal is not original.”
Varron smiled. “You will say anything to protect the king.”
“The wax beneath the metal is new,” Halven continued. “Someone removed the old seal and replaced it.”
King Aldric looked toward the court. “My dagger was stolen from the royal armory eighteen years ago.”
“Why did you never report that?” Rovan asked.
The king’s expression tightened. “Because I believed it had been taken by the same traitors who took my daughter.”
Elara understood then. The dagger was not proof that Aldric had killed Celestine. It was proof that someone wanted the kingdom to believe he had.
But the person who planted it had known Lysa would be found.
That meant the conspiracy was still moving inside the palace.
Rovan ordered the palace gates closed again. No servant, noble, or guard could leave without being questioned. The decision frightened the court, but Elara understood why it was necessary. A hidden enemy could not be defeated while everyone pretended the danger had ended.
Lysa sat beside Celestine’s empty chair during the search. She kept asking whether the dagger meant the king was evil.
Elara answered honestly. “I do not know yet.”
“But you are still beside him.”
“Knowing someone is good is not the same as knowing they never made mistakes.”
Lysa considered this. “Then how do you know who to trust?”
Elara looked at the guards, the sealed doors, and the people who had finally begun to speak.
“You watch what they do when telling the truth costs them something.”
Across the chamber, Maribel stood under guard. She had been silent throughout the discovery, but her eyes remained fixed on the red box.
Elara approached her. “You know who planted it.”
“I know who had access to the room.”
May you like
“Tell me.”
Maribel lifted her gaze. “The person who carried Solenne from the nursery.”
