Now, we will leave these two as the king will not divulge the whole and proper truth. What he feeds to the witch will be a sugar coated pill with only a lite sprinkling of the truth. What specifically he divulges and what he leaves to obscurity, we'll have to suss out ourselves. The king spoke true, when he said he'd taken aside three of his most trusted vassals. So, we will now join him in his chambers as we turn back the hands of time. Back before the princesses were born.
Gerard stands on his balcony, dressed as befits a monarch of his stature. When he hears a knock upon his chamber door. "Enter," he bids the persons out in the hall.
The door opens wide, allowing the entry of three men who draw near to their king and kneel at his feet. "Sire," they address their liege as one while bowing their heads.
"Rise, my faithful subjects," Gerard bids them while raising his hands for emphasis.
The three stand up.
"There is a matter of some delicacy," Gerard begins as he fixes his subordinates with a hard gaze. "That I must trust to your absolute discretion."
"Whatever you need of us, sire," one of the men assures his monarch as he takes on the role of spokesmen for the small group. "We are only too happy to oblige."
"I'm glad to hear it," Gerard replies, turns about and walks to the balcony's railing. "The matter which I will unfold, is of the gravest importance and the truth must never be spoken by either of you. Upon your oath to your king, you must swear this."
All three men bow together. "We so swear it," they return as one.
Gerard regards his vassals with a scrutinizing eye over his shoulder. "Good," he carries on and turns about. "I require you each to take a magic pill. You will then lay with one of my personal maidservants, while you are obscured by shadow. They must not know it is you."
The men listen intently to their king as he thoroughly lays out his plan. They're not certain of the matter, nor how comfortable they are with the proposed adultery, as they're good husbands to their wives and loving fathers to their children. Neither of them desire to lay with another woman, but they are finding they have little choice, lest they violate their oath to the king.
"Majesty," one of them ventures to speak while standing uneasy. "Do you decree that we, your faithful servants, are to lie with a woman other than our wives, in complete secrecy?"
Gerard nods. "I do so decree," he insists and folds his arms.
"Might I ask then, why?" the same man presses ever so delicately and extends an uneasy hand.
Gerard shakes his head. "It is of the utmost secrecy," he returns and tightens up on his arms. "And cannot be divulged."
The men bow their heads. "As you command," they reply as one while they exchange secretive glances toward one another.
The matter is settled without another word said about it. These faithful vassals each take one of the pills given to them by their liege and that very night lay with a maidservant who are left in the dark, both figuratively and literally. As far they know, their rendezvous was with the king and there was no reason to question it.
In the fullness of time, each of the maidservants shows to be with child. They're cared for by the king's personal staff and excused from their regular duties, that they might focus solely on the child they carry which they revere as though they were composed of gold, but such is the demanded behavior for the king's offspring.
All is well with the plan, but as the saying goes: 'The simple plans of mice and men, often go awry.' and a king cannot presume to be above such an edict. Case in point, one of the maidservants takes ill in the latter part of her term and cannot be cured. Her illness is far too strong for simple remedy and it's sure to infect the child.
The noble who had been her mate takes the maidservant to his home, for each of the vassals knew whom they had lain with. There, he nurses her and she soon recovers before giving birth to a healthy young girl. The man holds the child in his arms, his child, and he instantly falls in love with his daughter and cannot imagine giving her up.
Gerard calls for his new born baby, but the summons is ignored. He becomes furious, few have ever dared disobey his orders. Further, he senses treachery afoot. He sends a trusted soldier to bring his daughter home. The man sent is the very definition of stealth itself. As such, he's able to breach the domicile with none the wiser, and advances to take the child.
The infant is cradled in her mother's arms, and both are sound asleep. Slowly, the thief's hand extends, casting a shadow upon the sleeping bodies as he reaches closer and closer, but he's interrupted. The vassal had been awoken by a strange dream and left his bed to check on his newborn daughter.
The noble's eye falls upon the intruder who strikes a menacing figure in the shadows. Quickly and carefully, the vassal sets down his candle before launching himself against the thief. The two struggle and during the exchange the candle is upset from its resting place. It falls upon the floor where it spreads quickly.
The two combatants forget their struggle and take to extinguishing the flame, but neither of their efforts can halt the seemingly possessed fire which makes a beeline for the unprotected bed-covers. It instantly consumes them, creating a raging inferno that traps the sleeping inhabitants in a cage of fire.
The maidservant awakens and her eyes go wide. Her mind wrestles with the circumstance while fear seizes hold of her and will not allow her to move. She tries to call out for help, but finds she has no voice to do so. All she can do is protect the babe in her arms and hope against hope that they both make it out alive.
The vassal fights to bring the fire under control, focusing most of his efforts on the burning bed. In the meantime, the thief holds perfectly still as his mind goes blank in the face of such rampant destruction. That all changes when a pair of hands shoots above the flames, with a screaming child held within their grasp.
It's the cries that awake the thief from his trance, and without giving it a second thought he takes hold of the precious bundle. He hurries to the exit and gives one last look back before bolting out the open door. The vassal is still fighting to save the maidservant when he catches sight of his child being abducted.
It's in that moment that he has to make a choice: Chase after the thief and save his newborn daughter, or stay and save her mother. It is a difficult decision to make and one that gives him pause. With some reluctance, he opts to continue to fight the fire all the while praying that no harm comes to his child. He's in the midst of trying to suffocate the flames with his sleeping jacket, when from the corner of his eye he notes the thief's departure.
After which, he focuses all of his attentions against the inferno as he desperately struggles to free the young woman from her imprisonment, but the fire has grown too intense. Every second finds him retreating closer toward the door, further from the woman who is burning alive. Her screams fill the room, until they're suddenly silenced.
At that moment the vassal knows he has lost and it's in the very next that he hears his own family calling out to him. There are no choices left. He knows he needs to leave, if for no other reason than to spare his family being drawn into the blaze. So, with heavy heart, he gives one last look to the funeral pyre before departing the room and gathering with his family outside of the burning house.
The thief departs the home and hurries away with his prize, but stops a safe distance away to give one last look to the dwelling. The whole building is burning and the occupants have gathered outside. The family had been roused from their sleep and had taken action. They dragged the vassal, their father, out of the burning structure.
The thief continues to watch the affair unfold. He's glad to see the household has survived the fire as he would gladly kill in the king's name, but he is not a killer at heart. He heaves a sigh of relief for the survivors, but no sooner has the breath left his lungs, then a cold chill climbs the length of his spine, and somehow he knows that not everyone has made it out alive. He takes a moment and offers a silent prayer for the dead and an apology for the living before hurrying off to complete his mission.
Now are all three daughters back under the king's care and secure within his high walls, but his fear does not lay still. It whispers into his ear, warning that there may be similar actions taken by his other vassals and that they may have had some part in the traitorous action. So, he has them all arrested without further delay.
Gerard accuses his vassals of treason. They protest while careful not to say too much, all except the one involved in the fire. He says nothing, only stares. In the end there's nothing they can do. They can't break their oath to the king, for that would be an offense equal to treason. In the end their necks are surrendered to the headsman's ax and the maidens' soon follow to keep the matter truly secret.