A stillness settled over the room after Goldie had made her quiet pronouncement.

What exactly did you have in mind? thought Frederick a little nervously.

Since I saw the condition the King was in, I have been wondering if there was something that I could do to help him, Goldie sent to Frederick only. In the course of my growth as a spider, I unlocked some flexibility with the sort of venom I produce. Venom to slow an enemy's vitals and gradually kill them was possible. So, why not venom to improve the enemy's vitals and produce a temporary burst of good health?

That sounds amazing, Frederick thought in response. But maybe… a little too good to be true? Goldie, in a situation like this, that has become so desperate, you have to be very careful not to promise something that you cannot actually deliver. I hate to put pressure on you, but I think you might have just taken a lot of pressure onto yourself.

I have a strong exoskeleton, Goldie sent back. I can handle it.

She hoped she had conveyed the right combination of confidence and humor. Joking was an art that she had been forced to almost entirely relearn with the help of Adon and more recently Samson.

Frederick lowered his gaze and shook his head as if lost in somber thought, but Goldie could tell he was holding back his desire to smile.

"Are you certain that you can help, noble spider?" asked Lord Callum.

No, Goldie replied, but I am confident that I can elevate the King's vitals temporarily. Whether that will be enough to fool the Empire's people, I don't know. Will they have healers examine him?

Lord Callum shook his head. "We would refuse anything intrusive. Mere proof of life is really enough; the problem in my mind has been that if the King is in obvious bad health, the Empire could claim that he has still not survived the duel by their customs. They might simply sit outside the walls and wait for him to die."

"Still better than them storming the city if he does not emerge in a day," William observed.

"Anything is better than that, yes," Lord Callum said, glaring at William. "If we had to present the King under such circumstances, we would do our best to clean him up and make him look presentable." He turned his focus to Goldie. "But you believe you can restore his health temporarily? At least to appearances?"

I think so, Goldie sent. I have not experimented with this yet. But I would like to try, and I am ready and willing to test my method on a subject if I can find someone willing.

"I would be happy to do it," Frederick said immediately.

William raised an eyebrow. He said nothing out loud, but thought loudly, with obvious intent to be overheard, You had better not do anything that harms my reckless little brother, spider.

For his part, Frederick was all smiles and trust.

I intend for us to bind our fates together when this matter is all over, he thought. It would not make sense for me to be unwilling to place myself in your hands now.

Are you certain? Goldie sent to him only, suddenly a little nervous. I had in mind that the palace might grab a prisoner or something, considering that the Princess used Adon's help to identify several traitors to the Kingdom before we visited the dungeon.

That would not work as a viable option, Frederick thought firmly. Anyone who has betrayed the Kingdom already would not be able to credibly report on their experiences. They will have heard that the Empire is outside the city walls. They will have every incentive to sabotage our efforts and try to deceive you as to the effects of your treatment, whether by minimizing the positive effects or by exaggerating them. Whereas I will tell you exactly how it affects me, without holding anything back.

I know, it's just… Goldie didn't want to finish the thought. She was afraid she might harm Frederick. Using him as a test subject felt wrong.

You know I am just as tough as my brother, right? Frederick thought. Probably just as tough as the King, even, given the condition he is in now. The perfect test subject.

"When will you be ready to participate in this experiment, Lord Frederick?" asked Lord Callum urgently.

"Right away," Frederick said.

This is happening very quickly, Goldie thought anxiously.

It needs to, Frederick thought, and the spider realized she had actually transmitted her thought instead of keeping it to herself. The sort of mistake Adon used to make. It was a measure of how nervous the spider was. If it did not happen quickly, the King would not be able to get out there and reassure the Empire of his good health today. The longer we delay, the more likely they are to decide that the King is already dead and try to storm the walls.

All right, Goldie sent.

She began preparing her venom. Inside herself, she had already attempted to formulate this special concoction once, on the previous day. She had thought about it for hours after she recognized the condition the King was in. A part of her had imagined she might cure him.

Then she had recognized the truth. Her venom, which was entirely natural in nature, would never be powerful enough to compete with the supernatural recovery aid provided by the magic-wielding healers.

Instead of thinking about curing the King, she could think about stimulating his body.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

And now she generated a venom full of stimulants and low in everything that venom was normally heavily concentrated in. She did not want to erode her subject's body or destroy the nervous system.

She wanted to produce a surge of temporary vitality.

I think I'm ready, she sent after ten minutes of this.

By this time, the others had all taken seats in the audience chamber.

"Test one, begin!" Frederick declared, grinning and baring his neck for Goldie to sink her fangs into.

Thank you, Frederick, she sent. If you were not so encouraging, I would never dare to try this.

She leaned over his soft, vulnerable neck, found a vein, and injected her experimental venom.

Frederick let out a small, pained grunt but made little other noise.

Goldie could sense his body reacting very quickly, though. After thirty seconds, his heart rate had noticeably increased, though it was hard for her to know if that was from her stimulants or from Frederick's own nervous anticipation.

He rose from his seat suddenly, almost dropping Goldie from his shoulder.

"Oh, this is some good stuff," he said. He began punching his palms, cracking his neck, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. "Forget the plan we had. Just send me out there. Right now. I can fight whoever the Empire has. They will have no doubt about whether the Kingdom's champion is alive after I get through with them, let me tell you!" He cracked his knuckles, let out a sharp hiss of air.

"You seem to be enjoying it," Lord Callum said cautiously.

"You have to try this," Frederick said insistently. He suddenly took a running leap forward. Goldie thought the wall would stop him, but he kept going, quickly laying his feet on the wall with such speed and strength that he ran up the surface almost a foot before he started to fall back down and had to catch himself. "Woo! I am invincible!"

Frederick punched the air a few times, and Goldie again felt that she might fall from his shoulder. She didn't mind it, though. This felt good. Reassuring. She had done it. Hadn't she?

"We had best get you to the King," Lord Callum said, looking at Goldie. His eyes darted to Frederick's face. "No negative effects observed?"

"I feel amazing," Frederick said. "Like a million gold coins! Never better."

"He sounds different from himself," William said after a moment. "But not necessarily unwell. Does it matter if the King is not quite himself for this meeting?"

"I cannot see why," said Lord Callum.

"The Empire will have to acknowledge that we crushed them, then!" said Frederick excitedly. "I mean, of course, that the King beat their champion." He chuckled. "Not that I would do much worse, the way I feel right now."

"All right," said Lord Callum, nodding with satisfaction. "I cannot see any reason why we would not try this, given the desperation of our situation. The King is the last man to be afraid of a little risk."

—

"Absolutely not!" said Queen Carolien, almost shouting as she glowered down at Goldie.

The spider wished there was some smaller space nearby that she could shrink into, or perhaps that she was a turtle instead of a spider. The room felt too small for her, Carolien, and Carolien's voice. One of the three had to go.

"Your Highness, please," Lord Callum began.

"My husband has just risked his life for the Kingdom, again, and now you want a mystic beast to inject him with experimental venom, in the hope that it will make him temporarily well enough to go into the lion's den and be surrounded by them. We then hope that he will not collapse while he is in their custody, when this venom wears off. And we also hope that the Empire does not breach their deal by attempting to poison him once more while he is in their custody." The Queen took a heavy step forward, exaggerating the limp she had developed since her poison-infused skirmish with the Empire's assassins months previously. "Does that sound like a worthwhile plan to you? Truly? Or are the men my husband surrounds himself with now as feckless as that worthless coward Lord Baranack was?"

"Your Highness…" said Lord Callum.

"What could have possessed you to say yes to such a plan, Lord Callum?" Carolien demanded. "Is our situation truly so perilous?"

"Yes!" interjected William bluntly. "Forgive me, Your Highness, but what is difficult to grasp about this situation? Your capital is surrounded by a besieging army. Your husband is your Kingdom's strongest warrior and only apparent hope of defense. He won a legitimate duel to determine the outcome of this war, and the Empire demands proof of life to establish his victory. How is it anything other than obvious what must be done?"

"That is true," Carolien said. "We have no other champion. Yet I would rather go out and fight the Empire myself, on my family's behalf, than risk Alistair's life again." Her voice quivered slightly, and Goldie at once saw the woman beneath the powerful front.

Queen Carolien was at once a mighty figure and a vulnerable one. She was responsible for representing her family's interests properly now that her husband had taken ill and her stepdaughter had disappeared. A great deal of pressure had suddenly fallen onto her shoulders.

"There must be some other way," the Queen insisted.

"I will take this way," said another voice.

All heads turned to face the sound. The group had been talking in the hallway outside Alistair's sickroom. They had tried to keep the noise to a reasonable volume. Apparently, they had failed.

Now the door opened, and King Alistair stepped outside, not quite in his full glory.

He wore a patient's uniform: soft white clothing, bandages, and a pallor that almost matched his clothes.

Goldie could sense from his mental state that the King was not fully himself, even in his focus, but he seemed to know what was going on. He had been listening through the door for a few minutes. He had picked up everything of importance in the conversation.

"Alistair, you cannot do this to me," Carolien pleaded. "Please think. In your condition… in your present condition, I could defeat you in combat. You cannot go before the Empire's war strategists like this. You—"

"What choice do we have, my love?" Alistair stepped in closer to his wife, and Goldie saw that his movements were even more wobbly than the Queen's exaggerated limp from earlier.

Nevertheless, he made it to Carolien, leaned down, and kissed her softly on the lips. Goldie felt the real love radiating from the two of them, and she was almost envious, if not for the fact that one or the other or both of them could easily be dead in the next day or week.

The King broke off the kiss and looked at Goldie.

"Do you believe this stimulating venom will work to revive me, Goldie?" he asked.

I do, Your Majesty, Goldie sent, resisting her nerves. This surprisingly felt like one of the most high stakes situations she had ever been in, and she had fought for her life multiple times in the garden.

But now she might be responsible for protecting—or failing to safeguard—many lives.

The King turned to Lord Callum.

"Send for my clothing," Alistair said. "I will go and confront the Empire's people today, and we will make them leave. I am every bit alive. I may not be tomorrow. I may not be in a week or a month or a year, however long they are prepared to carry out this siege. But today, I am still here, hearty enough to see them—with our friendly spider's help.

I really hope this works, Goldie thought. All eyes, and all hopes, rested on her.

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