After that it was pretty much quiet in the Counsel room where I had to stay because everyone was pretending that they were all here to protect me. It was all a trap and I wish we had some of the games I had brought to keep us occupied. Mark and Francois were busy pretending to tell everyone I was here. Stella was chatting away trying to keep my mind off of what was really going on. Nancy was just sitting in her chair looking lost. Nemus was just sitting there as well, but he looked a little nervous and a little like he was scheming. It was another half hour before Mark and Francois came in from "spreading the word of my arrival" to stay with us until the end of this. They both looked like someone had just died.
    It was then that I noticed how close to Nemus that I was. I couldn't sit there for any longer, not if I was to keep from giving something away. 
    "Is it hot in here?" I asked the general public and got out of my chair. The plan was for me to go over and open the door and then sit in the chair in between Mark and Francois. Was being the key word because the moment I got out of my chair, Nemus reached over the table and grabbed my arm. It took me a moment to understand what was going on, and before I could do anything, Nemus had me by both arms in front of him. 
    Francois seemed to know what was going on right away because the moment Nemus had touched me, I heard him draw his sword. Francois had pulled it out of the sheath so fast the I could hear it cut through the air and take aim at Nemus. Or me if you wanted to be specific because there was no way of getting to Nemus without going through me. Everyone else reacted at the same time after that. Stella and Nancy stumbled into the far corner of the room and Mark stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over. He moved to stand in front of Stella and Nancy, but my guess was that he was more interested in protecting Stella than Nancy. 
    There was a pregnant silence and Nemus whispered "now" from behind me. I knew exactly what he was talking about and I felt myself go cold and pale. That was truly and oh shit moment if there ever was one. Francois seemed to hear this too because he paled a little too.
     We all stood very still, not daring to move.  
 
It was dangerous for all of us to be in such a small proximity when Francois was holding a sword an out for blood. Nemus’s in particular, but you could never really be sure how things were going to turn out when Francois had something pointy in his hand with is spastic movements and all. I found myself trusting him completely.
            Nemus’s cold hands were holding me in front of him, a meat shield. He stunk and his clammy hands were like steal vices around my upper arms. I was going to be sick. Even thinking about Nemus touching me made gag and if was much worse than I could have ever imagined.
            “Kill her.’ Nemus was shouting. “Kill her and get it over with, Steve.”
            “Please, no.” I was trying really hard not to cry. “I don’t want to die.” My eyes were tearing up, even though I was blinking as hard as I could. I really didn’t want to cry or beg, not if it wasn’t going to help me save my life. That wasn’t the way I wanted to go, if I had to go.
            Francois was looking helpless, so I tried my best not to look at hi. Mark and Stella didn’t look anymore helpful and Nancy was just standing in the corner looking spooked. Looking at their faces wasn’t going to help. I took several deep breaths and closed my eyes.
            “Nemus.” My voice came out so even that it even scared me a little. Who knew I could be so calm under pressure? “You haven’t done anything we can’t forgive yet.” This is what all the cops said on T.V. and I hoped that it would talk Nemus down from killing me. “We can still fix this and no one has to die.”
            Nemus didn’t respond. I hoped that he was thinking about letting me go, but instead of loosening his grip he tightened it. There was going to be bruises there, if I survived long enough to let them form. I was beginning to believe that Nemus wasn’t going to let himself be talked out of this, no matter how pretty of words I used or how forgiving I promised to be.
            “No.” He said and I could hear in his voice that he was not going to back down from his plan. “Steve.” Nemus barked and turned me so I was angled toward Francois. I opened my eyes to meet his; I knew I was going to die. Ghostly hands wrapped around my neck and started to squeeze. This in turn started to cut off my air ways. Things were starting to get fuzzy around the edges and Francois was starting to move.
            It was a little disconcerting how everything slowed down. I was really going to die; I started to make that connection in my head. As much as I thought that I wasn’t afraid to die, I was. I was afraid and this hurt so much!
            Suddenly, I was jerked to one side as Nemus pushed me away from him. There was a strange burning in one of my shoulders that I couldn’t make sense of. I was being strangled, and the pain should be in my neck, not my shoulder. Francois also looked pained, but he started to move again in the opposite direction of me. Black spots were beginning to appear in front of my vision and my knees were turning into rubber. Without Nemus holding me in place, I stumbled into a corner and dropped to me knees.
            Mark rushed over and it appeared that he was grappling with something. Steve, my brain made the connection after a moment. Mark was trying to save me from Steve. For a moment the ghost hands came off of my throat and I started to gasp for air. The black spots lightened and my eyes focused just enough to see Francois run Nemus through the stomach.
            As blood started to gush out of Nemus’s wound, I gagged and turned away. The smell was worse now. Nemus started to moan and it soon became very clear that he was in a lot of pain. It served him right, but I couldn’t make any sense of what was happening at the time. I never knew that Zombies bled before now. How very odd that Nemus should be laying on the floor gushing blood like he had a pulse to push it out of his body.
            I vaguely wondered if Francois was having flash backs of his duel with Emile over Henrietta. Was I worth killing for? I wondered this as Steve’s hands closed around my wind pipe and cut off my air once again. All of this fighting and I was still going to die. None of this had helped besides now both Nemus and I were going to die instead of just one of us.
            Francois was screaming something at Nemus, his calm lying shattered on the ground beside him, that I didn’t understand. Mark was still trying to fight off Steve and save me. Stella and Nancy were frozen in the corner, watching in horror as I slowly and painfully died. These were the last things that I was going to see. This was the last time I would probably see any of them, and I was sad. This was it. Damn, I was going to die a virgin.
            Afterwards, when I thought back on all of this it seemed funny that particular thought had even crossed my mind. It didn’t belong with any of the other thoughts that were buzzing around my brain. I would blame it on the lack of oxygen to my brain and being so afraid and never tell anyone about it. Too embarrassing, but the thought told me that I wasn’t ready to die just yet. There was too much in life, weather that be with normal humans or Zombies, which I hadn’t done yet, and I found the strength inside me to start thrashing around. I tried to claw at Steve’s hands, but I think I ended up hurting myself more than I had ever hurt him.
            All at once, the pressure at my neck was gone. I looked around to see what was going on. Beyond Mark, Francois was holding a bloody sword in one hand and panting very hard. His face was splattered in blood and his blond hair turned dark with swear. He had driven his sword through Nemus’s heart and killed him. Francois had fought hard to kill Nemus, who must have been stronger than I had ever given him credit for.
            “Be gone ghost, your master is dead now.” Francois said and I felt Steve leave. This was done with and I wasn’t dead. It might have just been that I was going in to shock, but I started to laugh. Laughing hurt quite a bit, especially in my shoulder, but I couldn’t stop. I was going to live.
            Even Francois smiled over to me as he dropped to his knees. He was exhausted I thought. I reached up to inspect my hurting shoulder. When I pulled my hand away, there was warm blood on my finger tips. My blood.
            “Oh.” I said as I finally understood the burning and pain. Francois had accidentally stabbed me when he was trying to save me. “I’m hurt.” I heard Francois rasp out a laugh from across the room.
            “That’s one way to put it, Majesty.” He was still lying on the floor.
            Mark came over and looked at my shoulder. “You’ll need a doctor.” He said gravely. “But you’ll live.” Those were the most comforting three words that I had ever heard. I’d live. Hearing Mark say them made them real, even though I knew that I was not going to die before Mark had told me.
            “Are you okay, Francois?” I asked next.
            “Nothing that won’t heal.”
            “Nancy? Stella?”
            Stella found her voice first, and it came out shaky. “We’re fine.” She called from their corner.
            “Why would Nemus do this?’ Nancy was muttering. Even though she had hated me, she had never even thought about killing me.
            None of us had an answer and before I could think of one, Antony and Erica walked through the doors into the battle ground.
            They both paused in the door way, not knowing quite what to do. Antony was the first to come to his senses and rush over to me. Mark was already pressing the shreds of Nemus’s shirt on to my shoulder to make the bleeding stop, so all Antony could do was ask me if I was alright.
            “Just peachy.” I smiled. “But perhaps you could go fetch someone to stitch me up?”
            Antony was out the door like a bullet from a gun. Erica was still standing in the doorway a little more than stunned.
            “We had an emergency.” I told her. “Nemus was the one trying to kill me. Francois killed him.” It was strange to say it out loud. Strange to say it so matter of factly.
            “Nemus is dead?” Erica asked to clarify. I nodded and pointed to the body, which still lay where Francois had left it. She couldn’t quite hide he happiness.
            It wasn’t long before Antony brought a doctor and I was hauled to my room. I don’t remember much after that because I think I must have passed out on the way there. The pain was unbearable when I was being moved.    
            When I woke up, I was in my bed lying on my back. The covers were pulled up to my chin, and from the rough feeling of cotton on my skin I had the feeling that the doctor had had to take my shirt off to get to the wound. Lovely.
            “Is Francois okay?” I asked without even looking to see if someone was there, because someone had to be there.            
            “I’m fine.” Came Francois’ beautiful baritone voice from the corner of the room. He must be sitting at my desk from where his voice was coming from.
            “Good. I’d hate for my most valiant knight to die, and over something as stupid as an assassination attempt, how silly.” I tried to make light of the situation, but I really was glad that he was doing okay. “How long have I been asleep?”
            “About a day.” Francois got out of his chair and handed me a shirt off the floor when he saw me sitting up. My shoulder started to sting and I let out all the breath that I had in my lungs in a hiss through gritted teeth. “Take it easy, that wasn’t a shallow wound.” His voice sounded apologetic.
            As I started to try and sit up again Francois slid his arm under my shoulders and helped. He also had to help me put my shirt on because it was all I could do to keep from crying as I raised my arm above my head.
            In movies and books they never tell you what happens after the hero has been seriously hurt. They never tell you how much it hurts to survive being stabbed and strangled, and it seriously sucked. It was slightly embarrassing too because you couldn’t dress yourself and the only other person in the room was a guy.
            “Thanks, Francois.” I said as I got out of bed. “You know, for saving my life and everything.”  
           "It's my job." Francois gave an awkward little shrug. "What else was I supposed to do, let you die?"
       There was nothing to be done with him, he just didn't get it. He could have let me die. "Nemus seemed more than happy to let me die." I told him.
    "I am certainly not Nemus." He sounded a little offended that I would even think to compare him to the snake that was Nemus. Maybe he should have been too; it was not a nice thing to say about anyone.
    "You certainly are not.' I agreed and then turned my head to look at him. Jesus Christ Almightily in Heaven that hurt. "Would you hand me a mirror please?" There were going to be bruises in the shape of Steve's fingers all over my neck, and several claw marks from when I decided that I did not want to die just yet.
    "I'm not sure you want to see." Francois said it, but he still got out of his chair and brought the hand mirror to my bed. I noticed how slowly he moved, he must still be in some pain too. How sweet of him to come and watch over me. I wondered if he was doing it because he liked me or because he thought that it was his duty to protect me as I took the mirror from his hand.
    Raising it so that I was able to see the reflection of my neck I saw that Francois had been right. Maybe it would have been better if I had never looked in the mirror. There would be no covering this up with makeup, not even stage make up. Scarves and turtle necks would be the only answer for school and in front of my parents. Down here I wouldn't bother. Two clear hand prints wee visible around my neck and several fingers too. The scratches that I had left were a deep angry red and puckered. It was not a pretty sight. I wondered how Francois kept from cringing when he looked at it.
    "I should go tell everybody I'm okay." I sighed and started to get out of bed. 
    "I don't think that you're well enough, Majesty." Francois said and tried to gently push me back to the pillows. 
    "Do you know what un phallocrate means, Francois?' I sighed. He looked stunned for a moment.
    "It means 'a male chauvinist pig'." Francois told me. Another phrase Kara had taught me.
    "Yeah, well you're being one. Stop it." I pushed his hands away from me and got out of bed. I looked even worse in the full length mirror. A hairbrush and make up helped a little, even though I skipped the make up on my neck. "Where are they?' I asked Francois.
    "In Mark and Stella's room." He was still frowning at me. Truth be told, he was probally right because I was a little light headed, but I was never going to tell him that. 
    We met with everyone and they were all glad to see that I was alright, especially Erica. There were gentle hugs, and even those hurt my arms. I had completely forgotten about the bruises that Nemus had left on my arms. Even Nancy got up and told me how glad that she was that I was alright. That was a little surprising, but at least I knew she wasn't going to flip out and pull a Nemus any time soon.
    As I went to sit down in a chair that Mark had brought for me, I stumbled slightly. Francois caught me by my elbow just in time to stop me from falling. He steadied my for a moment and then helped me in to the chair.
    "Has anyone come to a decision about what to do with Nemus's body?' It was hard to talk about, but I needed some closure on this and this was the only way I was going to get it.
    "We were going to burn in, Majesty." Nancy said from her corner. "That's how we always deal with traitors." I wondered how hard it was for her to say this as Nemus seemed to be the only one who had shared her dislike for me.
    "Alright." I nodded. Without a body he wouldn't be able to hurt me anymore. "Has anything been said to the citizens?" Not that I knew what the reaction to that would be, but I thought that I should know.
    "No." Mark said. "I don't think any specifics will be mentioned, but we will tell them that Nemus was a traitor."
    "How will they take that?"
    "Some will be angry, but most will be glad that he did not hurt you." Francois said from my side. "He was not very popular."
    There were a few other things that we discussed, but at the end I was too tired to pay any attention to that. I only had one more question to ask, and then I would be off to bed again. Who knew that almost being killed would take so much out of you?
    "When do you think that I can go home again?" I really wanted to see my family and give them all great big hugs. Near death experiences have a way of changing a person and giving them perspective.
    "In a few days, I think the doctor said." Mark said. "We want to make sure that you won't have any complications that you can’t explain you way out of." How thoughtful of them.
    "I think I'm going to go to bed then, if there's nothing else you need from me." No one spoke up, so I stood and opened the door. Francois was right behind me, and when he offered me his arm in the hall I took it without complaint.
    "Lucy, wait." Erica called out from just inside the door. She must have been having trouble getting through the mass of people that had congregated inside Mark and Stella's room. Once she caught up we started to slowly walk down the hallway towards my room, with me still clinging to Francois to keep from falling on my ass.
    "You sure you're all right, Lucy?" Erica asked me.
    "Yeah, just a little tired from the whole thing. I'll be up to a hundred percent in a few days." Francois walked silently behind us.
    "If you need anything just ask, okay? Don't be all hard headed about this."
    "I'm clinging to Francois just to stay on my feet; do you think I have that option?" I asked Erica.
    She laughed a little bit. "I guess not." Erica must have been a little relieved to know that I was going to be fine.
    Erica left us at my door, but Francois walked in with me. He had to because I was still holding on to his arm for support. After helping me back into bed, Francois took his post in the desk chair he had positioned by the door, except that he had moved it by the head of my bed. Like where people sit when they're visiting a sick person in the hospital. I was so tired, but I had one question that I just had to ask Francois before I fell asleep.
    "Was I worth killing for, Francois?"
    "Absolutely." He smiled at me and sat back in his chair.
    That was the first night since I found out about Steve that I dared to sleep with my door unlocked and a window open. The night air was cool and smelt of rain. I slept the best I had since the day on the tour of the realm in what Zombie time would be around a month ago.