"Not surprised? Would you care to explain?" Sierra asked.
"Based on the intel I’ve gathered," Cassandra pointed to Agnes and declared, "It was Princess Agnes who planned and executed it. She even paid off assassins to kill the n behind the attempt, in fear that they would reveal the truth."
Everyone was stunned. Even King Alistair and Roxine were too. They had long heard of the rumors that Cassandra and Agnes actively plotted against Sierra. They were shocked to hear her siding with Sierra instead.
"I wouldn’t be surprised, with the resources she had then, that this assassination attempt was orchestrated by her. Let’s not forget how humiliating it was for Agnes when you heated her ti and ti again."
"LIES! Those are all lies!" Agnes’ shrill voice echoed throughout the throne room.
Her outburst earned her everyone’s attention. Everyone turned to look at her. So looked at her in shock, others looked at her in disappointnt. Agnes couldn’t understand what ca over her. She completely lost her cool when she realized Cassandra was using her as her scapegoat.
There was no turning back now, the only path left was forward.
Agnes made her way to the front. Since she had not been summoned as a witness, she was not allowed to take the stand.
"Why would you lie about this, Princess Cassandra? I thought...," Agnes crumbled to the ground in false tears.
Her lips trembled as tears rolled down her cheeks, "I thought we were friends! How could you do this to !"
Her acting amused Cassandra. She never expected Agnes to go this far. She knew exactly what Agnes was trying to do. But it was not going to work.
"Friends?" Cassandra scoffed, "Where were you when the deerphant was about to kill ?"
Taking advantage of the mont, Sierra asked her to recount what happened during the archery contest. Agnes realized she had dug her own grave, but there was nothing she could do to stop it.
She watched on in horror as Cassandra recounted her version of what happened.
"I tead up with Princess Agnes and another princess, in hopes of assisting each other in the test. While we were hunting a herd of deerphants, they started attacking us more aggressively than we had expected.
I was thrown off my horse and was about to be killed when Princess Agnes and the other princess left there to fend for myself."
Cassandra paused for a mont as she brought out her handkerchief. Her hands were trembling as she tried to speak but found herself unable to do so. She was giving Agnes a taste of her own dicine. Acting.
Sierra played along willingly, she tapped the witness stand as she comforted Cassandra, "Princess Cassandra, it must have been a very traumatic incident. Please, take your ti, we understand."
Cassandra nodded as she took a mont to regroup her thoughts before continuing her recount of the events that occurred, "If it wasn’t for Princess Sierra, I... I... would have been killed then and there."
The spectators roared to life, shocked by the revelation.
"No... no! I...," Agnes wanted to defend her actions but Sierra was not about to give her any chance to do so.
"The scorekeepers of the archery test can be brought forth to confirm this recount Princess Cassandra had made. After all, they were keeping a keen eye on all participants while the test was in session. They had to keep score on the successful kills so I’m certain they would have witnessed what happened."
With Cassandra’s statents, Sierra looked more and more credible with each passing second. On the other hand, Agnes was beginning to look like a real criminal.
"That... that’s just one occasion!"
"There’s also the ti Princess Sierra ca forward to calm my mare, Princess."
That had beco a famous topic of gossip amongst everyone in Drakin. There were a ton of witnesses there too. Everyone saw how Sierra cald the mare down. Everyone saw it with their own eyes.
"I have to confess," Cassandra continued to speak as she looked over at Sierra, "though I might have gotten off on the wrong foot with Princess Sierra in the beginning, I have since co to respect her."
She looked over to the spectators and the judge as she made her final statent, "From what I’ve experienced and seen, it is in my humble opinion, Princess Sierra is not the mastermind who plotted the assassination attempt. If it was anyone, it’s Agnes."
The spectators were riled up. Everyone was debating with one another on the new information presented. Lord Wimbly pounded the gavel on the sound block. It took quite so ti before he finally got everyone’s attention.
"Order! Order!" He yelled.
Finally, when things settled down, he addressed the court once more, "Thank you Princess Cassandra for your statents. It has helped shed new light on the matter at hand. I think we’ve heard enough from both sides.
We will now have a recess and regroup for the verdict after the discussion is complete."
With that, Lord Wimbly slamd the gavel down on the sound block twice before getting up from his seat. Everyone got up to their feet out of respect, as Lord Wimbly, King Alistair, Queen Roxine, and a number of advisors exited the throne room for their discussion.
It was to be done in private, away from the watchful eyes of the spectators or those involved in the case. As soon as they left, Agnes got up to her feet. A thousand different thoughts were going through her mind.
She was dood and it was all Sierra’s fault. No matter how hard she tried, she could never asure up to Sierra. She could not even bring her down. The perfect scenario she had crafted crumbled in her own hands. She had lost everything.
Agnes could not accept it.
Why did Sierra have everything she wanted?
"SIERRA!" Agnes yelled at the top of her voice as she lunged herself at her.
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