Thirst of Power (Complete)

Part 24: The endless night

A small shiver ran down her spine in the fear of unknown, the warm night seemingly turning frost with every moment that passed.
Never had she felt this alarmed  of stillness. The seemingly endless stretch of placid tranquility stifled her senses and the cold air of garden felt tempting.

'But it isn't the time for that.'

With this untimely arrival of Chandra all her plans and strategies hence fell down and crumpled like a palace of cards as a result leaving her open in vulnerability.

Moving in the darkness, she gripped the handle of water jug from her bedstead, treating herself with a massive gulp of water.

'Yes, she had lied but it wasn't as simple as that, was it?
She had lied right in front of the whole court and that meant just one thing, a crime against the throne. '

And after all that, her  purpose still as unaccomplished as it had always been.

Her ears strained to listen to the in growing sound of foot steps towards her chamber and for a moment she stopped breathing.
'Oh lord! Help me!' With a silent prayer to the supreme power she prepared herself for the upcoming fight.

It was absolute helplessness that had pulled her low to step down to this extent and play such underhanded tricks.

Her sister was dying, her virtue was gone and that Chandra had found himself a beautiful young wife and lived right under their noses,her sister had become nothing short of a laughing stock.

'Oh!' How she wanted everything to go back to normal, go back to how it had always been.

How she wished, she had never coaxed her sister to go and seduce that sham of a prince into her bed.
And she wouldn't have done so, if not for the silent lusty gazes her old characterless husband had recently started sending towards her young sister.

Afraid of both to loose, the title of empress for being the favorite wife of that old bastard to her own sister at the cost of being a sex slave of the old king, she had told her sister to catch the young prince as her husband. 'Seducing seeming the easiest way around.'

But all that had gone against her and more. the farce story of engagement being the last ace she had held in her arsenal, using it right when Chandra was gone and she can bet the target was on spot, the weakest link of their marriage, Devika's spontaneous reactions.

And had everything been as planned, Devika would have left the palace by morning, the location only known to her and she could have easily used that to her favor, intimidating that darned prince who was very obliviously head over heels for that wife of his to get him to agree to marry her sister in order to reach his wife.

But that was just a illusion now, the reality instead was so frightening that it had her wishing that she had never created this lie in the first place.

"My queen, your presence had been requested at the court as per the wishes of his majesty."

"Yes!" She gulped, standing up, sending the water jug rolling on the floor in her abrupt distress. "Yes! I am coming." She sighed.

***

The numerous fire torches and golden lanterns suspended from the ceiling and walls illuminated the court room, the darkness of night long foregone as the courtiers and scholars waited and so did the king.

'Indeed, the King waited.' And that made him even more furious than he already was, having been woken up in the middle of the night for some nuisance of a woman.

Darting a burning gaze towards his younger son, he slowly gauged his gestures and mannerism this evening, for if and when he got the slightest of sign that he had been sprouting lies against his favorite bed mate for nothing, he might just snap his neck into two. He just might!

But being said that though, it really didn't look like he had been lying. A month ago he had openly disregarded the royal orders and rode away into the wilderness sending his whole army in a wild goose chase for so long, just because he hadn't wanted to marry some girl he had bedded.

Now all of a sudden what indeed can com-pulse him to do so now?

As much as he had hated to acknowledge it, the two generals and officers sent along with him to this expenditure to Dehra, just swore on their blood that the last 3 days had been spent in Dehra and the prince had stayed with them all throughout, taking a detour to chitrakoot for some engagement seemingly impossible.

'And now this waiting!' 

'Darn it!' he was the king, the master and he is NOT supposed to wait for anyone in a court full of people.

"Send Sunayna a message that if she and her sister didn't present themselves in court room right this moment, I'll have them announced as culprit without any trial and they would be forced to bear it's consequences without mercy."

His chilling proclamation had queen Sunayna's feet halting outside just for a heart beat, unable to foresee and fathom where this night will end up but her instincts told her that there's one large gnawing abyss right in front of her, concealed in the darkness for the time being.

And she might fall right into it. She just might!

'Oh!' Walking through the throngs of people assembled in the middle of the night was harder than what she had imagined.

If tuning out the burning gazes piercing right through her veil, darted from every which direction wasn't enough there were those preposterous remarks and taunts impossible to brush off. The murmurs as she walked down the aisle that had her blood boiling with rage.

"Where's her sister, bedding someone else to trap as a husband right now, is she?"

"Or is she already engaged?" Now that bought a round of chuckles amongst the crowd.

But she didn't stop, not when her head throbbed with tension, not when her eyes wanted to shut the scenes off, not when her insides wanted to shriek out to stop!'

'No!" She did not stop and kept her head held as high as she could, as steady as possible.

She was a royal by birth and grace wasn't simply her accessory but her Armour and birth right and she will keep it no matter what.

"At last!" Chandra sniggered, Sunayna noted, his hands clasping his wife's in a protective stance who stood beside him.

"I thought you will never show up, mother!" And that beckoned yet another bought of chuckles from the bystanders, none missing the gibe behind, 'Mother'.

"Silence!" The King ordered and silence it was, until the king himself indicated the announcer.

"We are gathered here in this urgent session of court on the appeal of his highness, prince Chandra and...his wife...., in accordance to his earlier statements he vouched that there had been no official engagement between him and princess Sukanya and hence...Queen Sunayna and her sister have been charged with the highest order of crime, a crime against the throne. They had been not only accused of not only misleading and deciting to his majesty and our king but of being mendacious and treacherous to her own husband and lord."

"That's untrue!" She bellowed, her mind running in hundred different directions at the same time, trying to come up with something...anything to control the affair.

"Don't speak until you are asked to!" The scathing reply of the king had Synayna taken aback momentarily.

'This doesn't mean well!' She realized as soon as the shock wore off, slowly recognizing the meaning behind it all. 

'Her verdict had been decided much-much before she had stepped into this room. 

The game was over, because the king knew the truth.'

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