The Unventured Passions

Heir to the Throne (2)

"Come inside, be careful!"
Satyakirth held Raimoti's knuckles gently leading her inside a dark chamber which apparently seemed to be some sort of a dungeon to her.

"Why is it so dark, this place?"
Raimoti stumbled on a stone slab, as Satyakirth held her hand and wrapped his arm around her waist to support her.

"The royal infirmary, I told you." Satyakirth guided her to cross the threshold as they both entered inside the cold dark stone room, the floor a little lower than the ground, and Raimoti clutched Satya's arm instinctively.

"Why would an infirmary be this deadly? It smells of... smells of..."
Raimoti flinched her nose and narrowed her eyes to get herself acquainted with the darkness, and Satya let out a small chuckle.

"Ah... there you are!"
He walked a little ahead and pulled out something from the wall, and in a minute Raimoti saw him flicker his gas lighter to lit the fire torch.
"This is the storeroom of the infirmary Miss Mukherjee. It's a huge rectangular stretch, the front leads to the main courtyard and has capacity to treat the wounded ones, then comes the middle... And then this place, the storeroom." He paused to look around the shelves, the bright flame aiding to his purpose.
"This back door is only accessible to the king and queen ofcourse, hence led straight to the corridor to our bedroom."

Raipur felt a soft tug in her heart the way he called the royal bed chamber as 'our bedroom' and a smile stretched on her pink lips automatically.

"What's in the middle of this infirmary?" She asked instead, clearing her throat and Satya leaned closer on one of the wall racks and examined a bottle carefully.

"Huh?" He asked unmindfully, and then picked the small bottle in hand and turned around.
"The middle? It's actually... well it used to be the labour room, and a prayer room."

"Why in past tense?" Raimoti asked, walked behind him to sheath her eyes from the glaring blaze of the flame, and Satya turned around to face her.

"Because no one is born in this palace since me... None married, none had children." He breathed, and Raimoti walked past, circling him once again.

"Oh! That's so... "

"That's so?" Satya caught the trail of her words and Raimoti just sighed in response, breathing a cloud of heaviness into the already damp walls.

Raimoti walked a little away from him, towards the dark windowless walls, and a touch of her shoulder made a soft glass clank resound through the high walls.

"Careful!" Satya stretched his hand, and Raimoti smiled at the sight of golden concern flickering in his orbs. 

"That I'd be..." she moved forward, "but it still doesn't explain why this place is so dark!"

Satya smiled.
"It's the medicines. There are rare herbs and cacti that doesn't thrive in light... That's why the glass jars are all painted in black." He raised the bottle held in his hand infront of her. "See."

Raimoti saw the dark tinted small glass bottle, but before she could raise her hand to touch it, she saw a sharp change of expression on Satya's face, as he quickly pulled the bottle down and hide it behind.

"Boro Maa? What are you doing here?"
He gulped.

Boro Maa?

Raimoti turned around at once, and in the light of the golden flame, her eyes met with that of a woman's... Grey haired, fair, old, with wrinkles of experience and wisdom under her shiny eyes. She was wearing the same blue saree as the Mounis, and when she gestured a question to Satya instead to voicing it out, Raimoti understand the reason she wore that colour.