Chapter 4 - A grand funeral for the dead concubine

The night sky had already turned gray when Captain Gao and the other guards arrived at the palace.

The King was in his chambers, tossing and turing in bed when news about Captain Gao's return reached him. He flung himself up from his soft and cozy bedding and trotted towards the throne room where Captain Gao and his men were.

Immediately he entered the throne room, he saw the body lying under a white cover in an open casket.

"Is that...Is that my....Sabina?", the King asked in a low, shaky voice.

Captain Gao immediately bowed to show his respect to the King before answering, "Your loyal servant has brought the body to Your Majesty."

"I want to see her."

"Your Majesty, the body is hard to recognize. I don't think -"

"Step aside!", the King yelled.

Captain Gao lowered his head and took a step back, to allow the King see the body.

The King slowly removed the blanket and when he saw what he thought was the lifeless body of Sabina, he fell to the ground.

A feeling of despair washed over him and in that moment, he hated himself.

He had let his anger get the better of him and had ordered that Sabina be killed. Now that she was dead, his regretted his actions. His eyes started to well up with tears and a feeling a guilt wrapped around his heart.

He clenched his fist and started hitting the ground hard until his hand bled.

Captain Gao and the other guards watched on as the King cried bitterly at the loss of the the only woman he had ever loved - Sabina.

*****

The Queen Dowager sat anxiously in her quarters as she waited for news about Sabina.

"Your Highness, I'm sure the guards would not catch up with her. Please stop worrying.", her personal maid tried to assure her.

"How can I not worry? It was me who helped Sabina escape. If the King finds out, he would not stay still.", the Queen Dowager said in a trembling voice.

"The King would never find out that you helped the Royal Concubine escape. I am sure she is somewhere safe right now", her personal maid assured her again.

"I hope she is. She and the child in her.", the Queen Dowager mumbled.

The maid heard the Queen Dowager's mumble and shouted, "She is pregnant?"

The Queen Dowager quickly shushed her. The King has ears and eyes everywhere in the Palace and if he found out that she helped Sabina escape and that Sabina was pregnant, the Queen Dowager would be in trouble..

"Be careful! The palace walls have ears. Don't you forget that.", she chided her maid.

"Yes, Your Highness."

"It is just my suspicion. I may be wrong about it. No one knows, not even the King or Sabina herself. If my suspicions are right, then Sabina is really pregnant.", the Queen Dowager explained quietly.

"No one must hear of this.", she further warned her.

Suddenly, a palace maid went rushing in the Queen Dowager's quarters, spilling the news about Sabina's body which was now in the palace.

"What did you just say?", the Queen Dowager asked the palace maid, wanting her to repeat what she had just said.

"Concubine Sabina's body has been found, Your Highness.", the palace maid repeated.

The Queen Dowager immediately stood to her feet and rushed to the throne room to confirm what she had just heard.

When she entered the throne room, she saw the King on the floor in tears and Captain Gao and the other others standing close to the King with their heads lowered.

A dark depressing atmosphere consumed her as she concluded from the gloominess in the air that the body was indeed Sabina's.

Nonetheless, she moved closer to the casket in the middle of the throne room where the the lifeless body was put in.

Looking, she saw the pale body of the deceased Concubine. It was difficult to tell whether or not it was Sabina because the face was unrecognizable but the body was dressed in an embroidered robe with silver patterns on it. Such clothing were worn only by royal concubines.

Her hair was also tied in a slightly messy bun with a silver hairpin in it. It was the hairpin that was given to Sabina by the King a few weeks before.

Without a doubt, that body was Sabina's but the Queen Dowager still wasn't fully convinced. She turned her face away from the body and sighed.

Sabina was the only concubine of the King that she deeply loved and cared about which was why she had let her escape through the secret passageway in the Palace.

"If only I had not helped her escape. Then she wouldn't have died in vain like this.", the Queen Dowager thought to herself.

She turned to look at the body one last time and this time, she noticed something strange about the body.

When she was helping Sabina escape, she had given her a bracelet which she believed would keep Sabina safe. But the bracelet was not on the lifeless body which was brought in as Sabina. She looked closely at the body and knew in her heart that the body was not Sabina's.

"This is not Sabina.", she muttered under her breath.

"If this is not Sabina's body then it means -", she paused for a moment before continuing. "Sabina is still alive!", she said in a whisper before trotting out of the throne room.

*****

As soon as dawn broke the next morning, the King sent word to the ministers and other High ranking officials to be at the throne room for a court session.

The bereaved King made his way to the throne room and sat on his throne as he awaited the arrival of the officials.

Soon, the door of the throne room creaked open and all the High ranking officials as well as the ministers of Pirella Kingdom were promptly ushered in. They took their various positions in the throne room and paid their respects to the King.

For a while, the throne room was silent. All the ministers and the officials stole glances at the King's dead eyes in confusion as they awaited the King's words.

"A grand funeral would be prepared to commemorate the death of my dearest royal concubine, Sabina.", the King finally announced, breaking the awkward silence in the air.

A faint murmur of disapproval and dissatisfaction broke across the room which slowly rose with every ticking second.

It was obvious that the ministers and officials were not in support of the King's decision. After all, the concubine to be buried was a lowly ranked one and a grand funeral for such a lowly concubine was unheard of.

"I will bury her myself.", the King continued. He could not care less about what the ministers and other officials thought about his decision. He wasn't asking for their opinions, he was making a clear order.

"Within the palace walls.", the King declared.

There was a loud murmur in the throne room. All the ministers and officials were displeased with the King's order but they could not dare question his decision.

"But your Majesty, this is against the law of this Kingdom. It is a taboo for a King to bury the dead himself talk less of doing so inside the palace.", one minister managed to say in a shaky voice.

"What I decide is the law!", the King roared, making the rest of the ministers flinch at the acidity in his voice.

Everyone in that throne room knew that minister Harrington was in trouble for questioning the King.

"The funeral would take place this afternoon in the grand hall. Every member of the royal family as well as every noble in the Kingdom is to attend the funeral to honor the deceased concubine. Anyone who defies this order and fails to attend the funeral will be charged with treason and be put to death.", the King declared.

"And I will find out who helped my concubine escape from the Palace and put that person to death!", he yelled before storming out of the throne room.

All the ministers and officials bowed their heads in unison to show their compliance with the King's will despite their dissatisfaction.

Outside the throne room, the Queen Dowager clenched her fist as she had been listening in on the conservation among the members of the royal court and the King.

"You will never find out it was me!", she whispered.