BACK BROTHER 9' Detective and the king's long lost brother Once upon a time a long time ago, in a land far, far away, Michaela and her family were awakened in the middle of the night by the thunder of horse hoofs and wagon wheels. When they went outside, they saw the king's coach that they had seen several times before. But they were surprised when the footman open the door and out stepped the queen. As they all bowed before the queen, Michaela asked, "Your Majesty, may we asked where the king is?" The queen replied, "He's very sick. And the doctors all say that he may die." Michaela asked, "But I'm a detective. How can I help?" The queen replied, "There was no warning. The king fell unconscious all of a sudden during dinner tonight. The doctors say that the only way he could have gotten so sick so fast is if he was poisoned." "Poisoned?!" exclaimed Michaela, "The king was loved by everyone! Who would want to poison him?!" The queen replied, "We were hoping YOU could tell us." Michaela dressed quickly and sped off in the coach with the queen. Michaela asked, "Are we at war with any other kingdoms?" "No." replied the queen. "Has anyone argued with the king? Or has anyone accused the king of being unfair?" "No." replied the queen. "What was the king doing just before he got sick?" asked Michaela. "We were eating dinner and celebrating." replied the queen. "Celebrating? Celebrating what?" asked Michaela. "The king's brother is coming to visit tomorrow." replied the queen. "Brother?" asked Michaela, "I didn't know that the king even had a brother." "None of us knew about him either. Twenty years ago, before the king married me and took over the throne of my kingdom, his brother was killed in battle, or so we thought." explained the queen. "But he survived?" asked Michaela. The queen explained, "The reason we thought he was dead, is that he was missing in battle and was presumed dead. But noone ever found his body. He was apparently found unconscious by some Catholic monks and nursed back to health." "That was twenty years ago?" asked Michaela. "What took him so long to find his brother?" asked Michaela. The queen replied, "According to his letter, he had amnesia. It apparently took twenty years to remember that he was a prince." Michaela asked, "So, the only reason you know he's still alive is because of this letter he sent?" "Yes." replied the queen. "So, you've never met him?" asked Michaela. "No," replied the queen, "noone in my kingdom except the king knows him. The king was so looking forward to seeing his brother again! He planned to make his brother the commander of the army when he gets here." When Michaela arrived at the castle, she examined the food the king was eating before he got sick. Hardly any of the food was eaten. But the wine cup was only half full. Michaela explained, "It looks like the king didn't eat enough of any of the food to get poisoned by the food. But he drank enough wine to be poisoned by the wine." So, she poured the wine from the kings cup through a cloth into a bowl. When all the wine had dripped into the bowl, Michaela exclaimed, "Aha!" "Did you find something?" asked the queen. "Yes." replied Michaela as she examined the cloth with her magnifying glass, "There was more than just wine in the king's wine cup." "Do you know what it is?" asked the queen. After a few seconds, Michaela replied, "Two things: there's a white powder and what looks like a fish scale." The queen replied, "We didn't have fish for dinner. We had chicken. How do you suppose a fish scale got into the king's wine?" Michaela held the scale up near a candle and replied, "On second thought, this looks like a snake scale." The queen replied, "That makes even less sense than a fish scale. What about the white powder? Do you think it's some kind of poison?" Michaela dipped her finger into the white powder and held out her tongue. "You're not going to taste the poison, are you?!" exclaimed the queen. Michaela tasted the white powder and exclaimed, "Just as I thought!" "Are you alright?!" exclaimed the queen. "Yes," explained Michaela, "the white powder is just sugar." "Sugar?!" asked the queen, "Why would anyone put sugar in wine?" Michaela explained, "To cover up the taste of poisonous snake venom." "Someone put snake venom into the king's wine?!" exclaimed the queen, "Why would anyone do such a thing?!" "I don't know yet." replied Michaela, "But if we can tell what kind of snake this snake scale came from, it might tell us something about the person who did it." Michaela took the snake scale to the kingdom's smartest wizard. They compared the scale to hundreds of pictures in the wizard's books. Meanwhile, trumpets sounded to welcome the king's brother to the kingdom. The queen welcomed him but then she told him about the poisoning of the king at dinner last night. "Poisoned?!" asked the prince. "Who would want to poison the king?!" "We don't know. But we're lucky he's still alive." replied the queen. "He's alive?!" exclaimed the prince with more surprise in his voice than about the poisoning, "The king is still alive?!" "Yes," replied the queen, "but he's unconscious and he's very sick." "Good." said the prince. "Good?!" replied the queen, "What's so good about the king being unconscious and sick?" The prince replied, "I mean, it's good that the king is still alive. And it's also good that I came when I did. SInce the king is unable to reign over his kingdom, "I" will take over the throne... until he wakes up.... or until he dies." "Not so fast, Your Highness!" shouted Michaela as she ran to the queen. "What?!" exclaimed the prince, "Who is this... this peasant child to question my authority?!" The queen put her arm around Michaela and explained, "This is Michaela, the world's greatest detective. It was she who discovered that the king's wine was poisoned with snake venom." "How on earth could she possibly know that?!" asked the prince. Michaela replied, "I found a snake scale in the wine. And I found sugar in the wine that was used to cover up the bitter taste of snake venom." The prince replied, "Yes, well, now that I know the king was poisoned, my first duty as king will be to find out who poisoned the king." Michaela replied, "But we already know who the poisoner is." "Who is it?" asked the prince nervously. "It's you!" exclaimed Michaela pointing. "ME?!" gasped the prince, "YOU, a mere child accuse a king of a crime?" "You're not a king. You're not even a prince." exclaimed Michaela. The whole crowd around them mumbled and murmured. "Of course I'm a prince! I'm the king's brother!" exclaimed the prince. "Guards! Arrest that little brat and throw her into the dungeon!" "Belay that order!" came a loud voice from behind the prince. When the prince turned, he saw the king being held up by two guards because he couldn't stand by himself. The king pointed at the prince and shouted, "Guards! Arrest that man. He's not my brother! He's an impostor!" After the impostor was hauled off to the dungeon, the queen hugged the king and asked Michaela, "How did you know it was the prince... the impostor who poisoned the king?" The crowd turned toward Michaela as she explained, "That snake scale I found in the king's wine was from a snake who lives only in the Burgundy region of France. Neither the king nor his brother ever lived there. But the sailing ship that brought the impostor here was from Burgundy. The impostor brought the snake here with him and paid someone to poison the king's wine with it." "But why would he do such a thing?" asked the queen. "He heard about the king's long lost brother and he knew that noone in this kingdom but the king knew what he looked like. So, he thought that if he had the king killed, noone could prevent him from taking over the throne." "Were you also responsible for the quick recovery of the king's sickness?" asked the queen. Michaela explained, "Once we knew which snake the poison came from, the wizard created a potion to counteract the poison." And so, because of the great detective work of Michaela, the world's greatest detective, a king's life was saved and an impostor was put in prison. ©2008 Bob Snook. Conditions for use: This story is free. Pay no fees or royalties. Do not sell this story or rewrite it. You may reproduce and distribute this story freely, but all copies must contain this copyright statement. http://www.bobsnook.org/kid email: bob@bobsnook.org BACK |