The pigeon had seen a lot of castles, but the castle of Jaiselmer was the one it found to be the most bright and richly adorned it had seen till now. The castle lamps never wavered, and the pigeon sat on the pedestal called chabutro, the four-sided pigeonhouse, made in every house of the Western side of the subcontinent of Bharata, and waited till the queen came to see the message.
The queen came in a red ghaghra choli with her hair open and without jewels. The guards led by Kamil helped her walk to the birdhouse and she ordered them to wait outside.
The queen saw the bird and patted it till it spat out the letter. Crumpled and yellow.
She curled the paper and straightened it to see the words. It was the royal parchment.
She read the contents and was baffled.
The King of Ajmer had sent the message that he was arriving in jaiselmer to see the beautiful city and meet the people of his queen's homeland.
Liar.
The queen thought to herself.
But then, if people wrote what they wished in formal citations, then the courts would turn into a battlefield in no time.
So she resorted to not wincing or sneering and snarking at his arrival. She prepared herself, and now it was time to prepare her daughter. Wishing for nine months of freedom, her jailer was coming to take her away.
She remembered the talk she had with Kanika.
"Mother, can I come inside?"
"Sure darling what happened?"
"I think he will come soon."
"Who?"
"King of Ajmer, my dear husband."
"Not so dear is he?"
"Umm yes, but-"
"No buts Kanika. At least be honest with me."
Her tears glistened in the lamp lights. The queen lifted her chin up to see her eyes, to read them. What lay hidden in them?
"What did he do? Tell me."
"I shouldn't Mother. You taught me that-"
"Forget whatever I taught you! I was different! Now I have changed. For the better or the worse? I don't know. But I do know is to raise your voice. If I had raised my voice earlier, then many scars on my heart would have been absent. But they are still there, Still fresh and new. They still hurt, You think they will fade away with time, but no, they don't."
"I don't know how to say this mother. He was so good. He was so charming and loving. But then suddenly he put forth a condition. A condition that put me in such a dilemma. He asked something of me."
"What did he ask?"
Kanika stepped back and looked anywhere but into the queen's eyes.
"I can't Mother. It is just too, devious"
"Devious is my specialty, you know?"
She nodded beneath a veil of tears.
"What is it that he asked for? Trade links? Share in the kingdom? What?"
"He is too greedy to ask for something like that Mother. H-he w-wan-nts th-the-"
"Th-h-he-"
YOU ARE READING
The Forbidden Sitar
Historical Fiction[Under editing process] |18th Century CE| Queen Jashoda desperately wants to escape it all. With her ignorant husband liberated from the trap of life, her children fighting over his throne and the court officials already planning to get her off her...
