Chapter 49

Early the next morning, Diala ordered the physician to go pay Queen Arundel a visit. Queen Arundel had known him; he had been treating her every ailment —from weakness in the bones to headaches to vertigoes— ever since she became Queen of Linerdo. She saw him as a friend, and while everyone, including her late husband, referred to him vaguely as "the physician," she called him by his first name — Anthony.

When he arrived that morning, she had deteriorated badly. Eva stood by his side as he asked for the guard to open the dungeon so that he could examine her properly.

"I don't think I can do that, physician," the guard said. He had a guttural voice which, along with his hardened face, made him seem like a talking statue.

"Then how do you reckon I treat the Queen?" He asked the guard.

The guard remained stolid and silent. He maintained eye contact with the physician until finally, as if beaten at his own game, he yielded, pull