How to cure a Dark Lord

No pulse? How could that be? I moved my finger from where I had been touching to check if I had been holding the wrong place. After a while of searching, I found it, slow and unsteady beats.

 "Hmm."I said as I examined him." Your Majesty, I don't think you're as well as you claim. You're heartbeat isn't back to normal yet."

 I watched as his brow lifted. "Really now?"

I nodded. "Yes. I'd suggest that you stay back in your chambers and get some rest. And take your medicine as well."

Mr Kellan gave me a lopsided smile. He turned to Gilbert who was still sorting papers at the desk.

"Gilbert." At the mention of his name, he came to where I stood with a slight bow.

"Ensure that the visitors are welcomed when they arrive. I will not be able to see them tonight as my physician has instructed me to rest. Let the meeting be held tomorrow." The king said in a voice that was a little too dramatic for a man like him. Gilbert took his orders anyway and left the room.

Great, one of my problems had been solved. Gilbert had left the room. Now all that was left was for the tyrant to turn around for a moment so I could carry what I had come for. My nightshade stalk.

My right hand still held my left wrist. I had never felt a pulse so low. I counted the beats, once every three seconds. That was so not normal at all. How did he manage to live like he was all right when he was not?

I looked up from his wrist and found his eyes looking unwaveringly at me. Why was he staring?

I looked back at his wrist immediately and pretended to focus on taking his pulse once more. When I looked back up again, he was still staring. The moment my eyes locked with his again, there was such an intensity they held and for the briefest moment, I saw a flicker of something in them. It send a jolt down my spine that I immediately let go of his wrist.

What was wrong with him? Or a much better question, what was wrong with me? My heartbeat had quickened and I had to take deep breaths to stabilize it. But the evil tyrant looked unaffected by it all. In fact, he even smiled.

"I don't mean to question your expertise, Miss Frieda, but do you usually get this flustered when you are treating your patients?"

I wrinkled my nose at the question. Me, flustered? He wished. Besides, my patients were usually busy trying to focus on recovering that they didn't have time to play silly games.

"I doubt that you've ever worked closely with a very attractive male." He added.

I shot him a sideways glare when he wasn't looking. Was he trying to call himself a very attractive male. Well, not that he wasn't, I thought after giving him a brief once over. But the lack of modesty...

"I'm afraid to say this, Your Majesty but you are quite wrong about that. I have in fact treated a number of very attractive males." And one of them was Rowland Calloway, the crown prince of Kerva, before you came around and wrecked things.

"The way I'm seeing it, it doesn't feel like you are the least bit afraid of telling me I'm wrong. But rather it seems that you are subtly taunting me. Frieda." The king cocked his head to the side with his hands folded over his chest.

It felt weird to hear him call me by my mane with no honorifics attached.

He stood up from the bed where he sat and walked towards me with slow menacing steps he didn't stop until my back was against the wall. He wasn't bulky but was rather on the leaner side yet he towered over me and for the first time in my life, I realized that I was small.

"It did not end so well for the last person who taunted me. It would be a shame if I snapped your slender neck right now, wouldn't it?" He asked in a voice so low it could have been a growl while staring at my neck.

Was he really going to kill me over that little comment I just made? My heart hammered in my ribcage as I stared back into his eyes.

"Then I'll never finish my treatment and get better, and I'm doing so well already." He muttered to himself and sighed. Then he walked away like nothing ever happened. Like he hadn't threatened to snap my neck moments ago.

I calmed my raging heart with a scowl. I should limit my interactions with this man if I wanted to keep my sanity. Was it normal for someone to go though so many mood swings in a minute?

The king settled himself on his desk that was now tidy.

"How bad is my case, Miss Frieda?"

So we were now back to calling me miss? I quickly found my voice and replied him before he gets into one of his moods again.

"Well, in all my years of practice, I have never seen someone with a pulse so low. The average is about two beats per second, but yours is only one in every three seconds." I informed him.

"If I'm permitted to ask," I had better use the right wordings this time. "How long have you been experiencing issues with your heart?"

He thought for a while with his thin long fingers on his chin. I noticed that he had slender feminine like fingers and slightly long nails.

"Well, my heartbeat count hasn't been like this for a while now. It used to be quite lower than this before. Your medicine has improved it quite a lot."

I nodded. "Right, that is good to hear. But we can't relent because it is still far from being normal.

This was something the king also agreed with me on. He flipped through the pages on his desk and I quickly grabbed the plant stalk from the nightstand and slipped it in my sleeve before he could notice. Now I had to get out of here.

"Well Your Majesty. It is a delight as a physician to see my patient responding to treatment. I suggest you take your meals regularly and your medicine also. And that reminds me, I have to quickly go and start making it so I'll be leaving now." I hurriedly said, inching way towards the door slowly.

The king looked up at me.

"Of course, Miss Frieda."

I gave a quick bow and walked out of the room, closing the door behind me and bolting down the hallway like a mad woman.

All this trouble for just one stalk of nightshade. Never again am I letting it out of my sight!