Shefali held Aai's palms tightly and tried to stand up like every day during dusk when the light met the shadow.
"It hurts"
Shefali gasped but did not sit back.
"Don't rush things"
Aai said in a concerned way.
Shefali grinned and kept moving her feet until they reached the door frame.
"You did it, child"
Aai smiled touching her head affectionately.
Shefali's eyes moved to the courtyard outside.
She could hear the bells of the home temple ring from there. Her eyes moved to the beautiful orange hue of the sky.
"Why don't you sit here for a while? It's been so many days you are staying in this room"
Aai said, slowly taking her to the border of the pavement.
Shefali sat down and her legs hung from the edge.
She breathes in fresh air.
Aai walked inside as soon as she remembered what time it was.
Shefali sighed looking at the sky.
She felt good having made a huge improvement. She is already so tired of staying in bed. Shefali has always been an explorer. Sitting in one place forever is just not her thing.
She so earnestly craved her home back in Muksadabad and the people there but suddenly out of nowhere a tiny string of attachment pulled her back to the place she had been staying in for over a few months now.
She hummed a tune and started detangling her hair over her shoulder as she watched the birds fly all over the red sky.
She glanced at the temple at times when she heard the bell ring.
There was a priest inside and surprisingly no royal member of the palace was present inside.
Even when Shefali did not mention it to anyone, she really wanted to visit that distant temple on the far western hills that are always so faintly visible from here. That might also be a reason why she had suddenly found a few colors in her heart that wanted to step on the marble stairs of this tiny temple as well.
A chaos drew her attention out of the blue.
"We want justice!"
A few men surpassed the guards and threw a woman on the stairs that led to the pavement of the palace.
The girl was young and her sindoor was rubbed off of her forehead.
The girl groned in pain still lying on the stairs.
Shefali gasped at the sudden horror.
Her dupatta was torn and no jewels embodied the girl's skin anymore.
In a flash of lightning, the sight of Rekha made itself very clear in Shefali's eyes.
"The king is not well, go away"
The soldiers guarding the door of the inner palace informed quite irritatedly.
"They'll kill me... don't do this to me"
The girl cried from the stairs.
The soldiers did not seem to take any of it to their ears.
"Baisa,"
The teary girl ran up the stairs and held Shefali's legs which were not in direct contact with the ground.
"Please call Rana... I beg you"
YOU ARE READING
𝟏𝟓𝟐𝟗: 𝐀 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐚𝐣𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐚| Indian Historical Fiction
Historical Fiction𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 Ⅰ 𝐎𝐅 𝐑𝐀𝐉𝐏𝐔𝐓𝐈-𝐁𝐀𝐈𝐒𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐎𝐆𝐘 Shefali Roy had lost her parents in a pandemic when she was just one year old. That was the first time she was orphaned. The next time she was orphaned was when she was seventeen. The army of...
