How to cure a Dark Lord

"What?" I blinked. Mr Kellan just stared back at me.

 I scoffed. This ought to be a joke. A very funny one. The Dark Lord was sick and he wanted me, of all the physicians in Kerva and beyond. Me, to cure him. This is definitely a joke.

 But the man wasn't smiling. He still had a slight smirk on his face due to my surprise, or rather, shock.

 "Yes Milady."

"But why? Why me? Why not anyone else? Why not ask my father? He was the best physician in the whole land in his day." I asked him incredulously.

 "Well I can't answer that. The king himself made this decision." Mr Kellan told me. I exhaled and tried to calm myself. I couldn't expect his servant to know everything. If I wanted answers, I'd have to meet with the king himself. And with the way I've seen the castle and kingdom being run, I wasn't sure I'd be getting a satisfying or an even sane answer.

 "Okay then. What exactly is wrong with His Majesty?" Surely his servant and right hand man would know that at least.

 "He suffers from pain at the left side of his chest. It used to be occasional and less painful but now it is frequent and apparently it hurts a lot." He explained.

 My mind got to work immediately. Pain in the chest? It could be a symptom of many conditions; pneumonia, indigestion, tuberculosis, a lung infection, asthma or a heart problem. I needed to know the exact one to be able to come up with a treatment procedure.

 "Does he have a cough?" I asked.

Mr Kellan shook his head. "Not really."

 "Does he usually feel a burning sensation in his chest?"

 "Not exactly."

"Does he have rapid breaths or short breaths?"

 "Yes. Sometimes."

"Is his heartbeat irregular?"

 "Yes."

"Does it get too fast or too slow?"

 "Too slow at times."

"Does he get lightheaded?"

 "Yes, he does." He answered and I nodded.

"Well, Mr Kellan, judging from your responses, I'd say His Majesty has issues with his heart." I'm surprised he has one in the first place, I said to myself. "So a cure can be made with that in mind. What does the Royal Head Physician say about his illness?"

 "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Did the head physician not know about the Dark Lord's illness?

 "Yes. Well, he really can't say much anyway because he's dead." Mr Kellan said.

 "Dead?" I asked.

"Yes Milady. The Dark Lord killed him five years ago."

Oh great! I felt like throwing my hands up in the air. Well, I wasn't too surprised that the Dark Lord had him killed. But how was Mr Kellan saying it with such a straight face and a smile? He must have gotten used to the deaths since he was the Dark Lord's right hand man.

 I exhaled to keep calm. I felt I was quickly losing my cool, which was not a good trait of a physician.

 "Well, didn't His Majesty have other physicians who tried to cure him within that five year period?"

 Mr Kellan nodded and then frowned as if in thought. "Yes. His Majesty has had seventeen physicians after the Royal Head Physician."

Seventeen, over a five year period? Wasn't that a little too much? Wait...don't tell me...

 "What happened to those other seventeen?" I asked with a shaky voice.

A kind smile appeared on Mr Kellan's face.

 "I think you already know, Miss Frieda."

Suddenly, I felt light headed. He killed all of them. The Dark Lord killed all seventeen of them.

 "Woah. Careful Miss." He said as he steadied me, keeping me from slumping on the floor.

 "The dark Lord had seventeen other physician from all over Kerva who had tried to heal him. They all failed so he put them to death."

 A wave of nausea hit me. Mr Kellan helped me into a seat. My mind only registered one thing. He killed them because they failed. He killed them because they failed.

 "If all those other physicians failed, what makes him think I'll succeed?" I thought out loud.

 "I don't know." Mr Kellan told me. "But for your own sake I hope that you do."

I wanted to cry, I really wanted to scream but I could do neither and I didn't even know why. So The Dark Lord expected me to cure him of an illness that seventeen physicians prior to me couldn't even cure? How was I supposed to achieve that? By magic? It was most likely that I would lose my life in the hands of that evil tyrant.

Wait, maybe this was all an elaborate plan to make me pay for what my father did. For letting Rowland stay at our place. He had always wanted to kill me but he only wanted to do it with style. If so then the man was clearly deranged.

 Because if he wasn't deranged, why would he put physicians to death because they weren't able to cure him. Seventeen for that matter. The world needed as many care givers as it could get and here he was killing the precious few that were available.

 I managed to end the conversation with Mr Kellan and I returned to my room, not coming out or speaking to anyone for the entire day. I needed time to think. 

There was no way I would possibly be able to find a cure for the Dark Lord's illness.

"You get to create your treatment procedure and test it for fourteen days. If during that fourteen days, you are able to cure his highness, or if he makes significant improvements, you will be duly rewarded and he'll let you go back to your village, or you might stay in the capital if you wish.

"If you fail, however..."

Mr Kellan didn't have to finish his statement that morning for me to know what was coming to me. I did not have the option of backing out either.

I tossed and turned in bed. I couldn't sleep well. And when I did sleep, I had a dream. It was papa's words coming back to me.

 "If the crown prince is successful in overthrowing the tyrant, we will take part in his glory. And I will die a happy man knowing that I played a part in it." Why were these particular words coming back to me? Was Papa trying to tell me something?

I sat up and immediately conceived a plan in my mind.

 I was going to die anyway because there was no way I could possibly come up with a cure for the king. One that hadn't been tried by someone else. From what Mr Kellan had said, I had fourteen days.

 But if I die, I was going to take the Dark Lord with me. And that would be by poisoning.