Deceptive Queen

CH 2

YAMIRA

5 MONTHS AGO -

I am walking towards the same room for the hundredth time yet my nerves are urging me to turn around. To run away.

I have a feeling this time, the mission I'll be assigned will be nothing like my usual ones.

Yet I knock on the huge gold pleated door and don't run away.

There are no guards outside, this is really important.

I enter the room when I hear him say the word. He is sitting at his usual spot with a glass of wine in one hand and a scroll in the other.

Looking as royal as ever.

"Your Highness." I bow in front of him just for him to completely ignore it. Just the usual.

"You called me?... Your Highness." I say a little loud this time, keeping my eyes low.

"Ahh, yes...You." He turned to look at me completely.

You.

A spy's name doesn't matter. It doesn't need to be remembered.

"I, uh, have a really important task for you. I don't think anyone else can do it except...you."

He took a pause and kept the wine glass on the table in front of him and opened the scroll just to forward it to me.

I took a few steps forward to take it from him.

I carefully read the contents of the scroll without making any noise.

My eyes widen as I read one sentence after another.

I know I am a very capable spy and I am the best (All these years of rigorous training weren't for nothing), but......I was not expecting THIS.

I look at him gaining my composer. A major rule of being a spy is never to let your face defy your emotions.

"I take it that you want me to marry the emperor's son in place of Princess Avantika so I may watch them and, while I'm at it, send you important information?."

"Excellent, as always. We have trained you well. I expect nothing less from you."

I had no other choice really. I have lived the life of a spy since I was a mere child. I have lived among enemies more than I have with my own people.

I don't remember my parents or even know who they were. I don't remember anything.

I just know that the first thing I learnt was to hide my emotions and to wield a sword.

I was trained from the first moment I can remember.

I am intellectual enough to know why he would show me such an important message.

It was nothing detailed. The message with the Sihn Rajya's stamp simply said that their thoughts align with the king's thoughts and are willing to tie the nations together in a knot of marriage between the princess and the prince, Shiv Raj Thakur.

There could be no other explanation for showing me this.

Everyone knows how much the two kingdoms hate each other.

Here's a little story, about a century ago, the three neighbouring kingdoms - Sihn (Lion), the kingdom with the Golden flame, Vyaghra (Tiger), the kingdom with the Red flame and Mrigha (Deer), the kingdom of Water and medical herbs - were all friends.

Only the ones with royal blood and who are adorned with a crown can wield the power.

The monarchs of the kingdoms helped each other, the Mrigha Rajya provided the other two with Water and Medical aid and they, in turn, protected it from outside forces.

Mrigha Rajya was not much on defence since it was a land of recourses and not warriors. It was a symbol of peace calm and healing.

The three kingdoms lived in harmony until one day, both the Kings of the Sihn and the Vyaghra fell in love with the Mrigha princess.

It is said that she was the epitome of beauty. The prettiest of all.

No one asked what the princess wanted and the two Kings began an all-out war to see whose flame was superior and more worthy of the princess.

Since that day, it has become a tabu for the princesses to show their faces to the outside world. There is no one except the parents and a few helpers who have seen the princess's face.

In the end, no one got the princess but this led to a century-long hostility between the two kingdoms which was going on until a few months ago when the current monarch of Mrigha, who can wield water, decided to end this by sending a very interesting letter.

It said that if the two kingdoms do not stop the war, it will stop providing its aid.

Water and herbs, the Mrigha Rajya's assets, are some of the most important in the world.

This, of course, would impact both the kingdoms severely who are in deficit of it.

So they came to this treaty.

I know the man standing in front of me.

Hemant Rai Singh, the ruler of the kingdom of Vyaghra.

He's too wicked to just let this opportunity slip from his hands.

No one has ever seen the princess in person.

I salute his courage to plan out such a risky plan.

If we get caught, it's not only I who will lose a head.

"What do I need to do?"

"You'll be marrying the crown prince of Sihn Rajya, Shiv Raj Thakur. That is the term of the treaty. You have to be a good wife to him, please him at night and try to get some crucial information directly from him but if that doesn't go as planned, you are capable enough to sniff around to get what you need."

"Your Highness, I don't mean to undermine you by any means but, this is a risky mission."

"And I know you can do it, just keep sending us any important info that you gather secretly through the priest of the temple near the palace, he is our man. I have already planted him there. Once a month, that's all you need to do. Rest, we'll attack when they are at their lowest."

He makes it sound so simple.

"Wouldn't it be just easier if I kill him?"

"No, DO NOT kill him. We need him alive, otherwise many other kings will try to seize the opportunity if he's dead. We have to attack when they least expect it."

"What if I get caught? I know nothing of being a princess."

"Avantika will personally train you. You have five months before the marriage. You'll learn."

~

For the next few months, I spent my time learning the ways of a princess and locked in my brain all the information about my dear future husband, his family his kingdom and the power of the Golden Flame.

My mission is to gather as much crucial information from anywhere I can and to send it back to the state and indicate them whenever it's a weak point for them.

Okay, so maybe not kill him.

Here's another chapter!
Hope you liked it ❤️