Poisoned Crown: His Traitorous Bride

Before setting out for the border, Altis, heir of Winterhold, secretly pledged himself to his adopted sister Katerina, promising to marry her upon his triumphant return. But before the war ended, the rebel Valen besieged the city, and the old Duke of Winterhold fell gravely ill and was dying. Only Katerina, as regent, could stabilise the army. The old Duke forced Katerina to drink a heart-devouring poison called “Holy Water” and made her swear a poisoned oath: she could only be Altis’s subject for the rest of her life. If she ever developed feelings for him or married him, the poison would trigger and pierce her heart, killing her. To preserve Altis’s legacy, Katerina drank the poison in tears, took up the regency in the crisis, fought a bloody battle to repel the rebels, and yet earned the hatred of Hughes, the shadow attendant of the late king.Hughes believed Katerina was the weak spot that held the heir back. He secretly forged a letter and sent it to the border, falsely claiming that Katerina had poisoned the old Duke of Winterhold and usurped the throne. When Altis received the letter, his faith shattered. Full of hatred, he led his troops back to the city. Aurora, the orphan girl he had saved at the border, had long secretly loved Altis. She took the opportunity to constantly sow discord between him and Katerina, hoping to replace her.After their reunion, Altis subjected Katerina to extreme humiliation and revenge, forcing her to marry him. Whenever Katerina felt something for Altis or drew close to him, the poison violently flared up, and she kept vomiting black blood. She could only deliberately pretend to be cold and harsh, bearing the infamy of “usurping witch” and enduring it all alone. Knight Commander Gareth knew the whole truth and silently protected Katerina, but Altis saw him as a rival in love and repeatedly suppressed him.Hughes’s ambition gradually revealed itself. He colluded with the rebel Valen, joined forces with Aurora to repeatedly poison Katerina and accelerate the toxin in her body, forged evidence of collusion with the enemy, and united with old nobles to force her out, sending Katerina to the gallows. At the critical moment, Altis suddenly noticed suspicious points, rode to save the dying Katerina, but still failed to uncover the truth of the poison.On their wedding day, Valen’s hundred-thousand-strong army launched a surprise attack, demanding that Altis hand Katerina over on the grounds that she had colluded with the enemy. Altis overruled all objections and protected his wife, then went to the battlefield himself. The poison in Katerina’s body worsened completely. She knew she did not have long to live. To eliminate the traitors and foreign enemies, she pretended to draw a fake defence map of the North Gate, luring Hughes and Valen into a gunpowder trap at the North Gate.She drugged Altis to trap him and went alone to the North Gate to detonate the gunpowder. Altis had been on guard and followed close behind. The gunpowder exploded and badly damaged the rebel army. Hughes, with no way out, took Katerina hostage. Katerina grabbed the blade with her bare hands to resist. Altis killed Hughes and carried the barely breathing Katerina back to the Duke of Winterhold’s estate.The physician declared that the poison had reached her heart and she could not be saved. Gareth finally exposed all the secrets in public: the poisoned vow of the Holy Water, the curse that she would be pierced through the heart if she loved, and the only antidote—Altis’s “Blood of the Oath.” Ignoring the severe pain, Altis used a hollow long needle to draw blood from his heart and fed it to Katerina. The malicious Aurora took the chance to assassinate Katerina, but Altis snapped her wrist, and she was finally exiled to the Ice Plains.The “Blood of the Oath” suppressed the poison, and Katerina survived. All conspiracies settled. Foreign enemies and traitors were all eliminated. Katerina let go of the heavy shackles in her heart and no longer deliberately pretended to be distant. The two resolved their long misunderstandings and torment, and embraced tightly in the swirling snow, staying together as the true Duke and Duchess of Winterhold.