THE 50TH QUEEN

Chapter 11: The secret marriage?

Next morning, like every other day, all queens were gossiping about things happening in the palace. But today they had a hot and burning topic to discuss.... the king's 50th queen.
Queen Rohini was always the first one to start the chat "has anyone of you seen queen Yogita's face? Yesterday i tried a lot but she was not ready to show it to us."
"You are right jiji!" Queen Ashwini replied."i also tried but she got annoyed. And i thought of course king married her with his own wish unlike us, what if she go to the king and do backbitching. He will definitely throw us out of the mansion."
Queen Arushi said to queen Ashwini "what are you saying Ashwini? Do you think that maharaj is such a kind of person? He cares for us all and will never do anything like this."
"Yes Arushi is right" said queen Krithi "he is very kind hearted. Don't forget he accepted us when we needed someone to support."
Queen Ashwini replied "yes, yes i know. But the point is that queen Yogita did not show her face! What should be done to reveal her face?"
Queen Arushi said "lets leave this matter to queen Ramawati. She will deal with her herself."
Other queens asked "what? How?"
Queen Arushi pointed in the direction of the room of queen Ramawati infront of which they saw queen Ramawati was shouting on Queen Yogita "listen you.... whatever your name is... Stay in your limits okay!"
Queen Yogita replied "i know my limits very well. And I don't think i have offended you in any way."
Then Queen Ramawati said "oh really! What were you doing in my room that also in my absence?" Did you married the king to steal things here in the mansion?"
"Excuse me Queen Ramawati!" Queen Yogita said "i already told you that i came to your room to call you as Maharaja asked for you. no one told me that you are not in the room. And not this came in my dream too. So kindly you stay in your limits and stop speaking nonsense!"
All the queens watching this scene were spellbound. They have never seen anyone including the king to speak to queen ramawati in such temper. This was totally shocking and unpredictable. However every queen present there was enjoying this scene as someone has finally come to show queen Ramawati her place.
"How dare you speak to me like that!" Queen Ramawati shouted. She said "you don't even look like a royal. Which kingdom do you belong?"
"I belong to Rudrabhoomi" queen Yogita replied.
"Oh seriously? Rudrabhoomi had only one princess and that too is now married to king Jaivant. Atleast do some research before lying." Queen Ramawati commented.
Queen Yogita said "Are your ears not working properly? when did i say i was the princess of Rudrabhoomi? I clearly said i belong to Rudrabhoomi. That means i am one of the person who lived there.. that's it."
Queen Ramawati replied with an evil smile "see. I told you... You don't even smell like royals. You must have come from a low class insignificant family that you even afraid of showing your face!"
Before Queen Yogita could say or do anything, a voice from behind came "I extremely apologize to interrupt, but queen Ramawati, queen Yogita has taken a pledge that she will not show her face to anyone except me. Do you have any problem with this?"
This was the voice of King Samarthya.
Queen Ramawati replied "of course not maharaj! Who am i to have problems about anything related to your beloved wife? After all she is the only one out of 50, whom you married with your own wish. But I didn't know that marrying some lowclass women is indeed your passion." She said while looking towards queen yogita and other queens sitting a few meters away.
After a pause she said to the king "and kindly don't send your queen 50th to call me. You have a lot of servants, use them instead.
Anyway, I don't feel like talking, so i am going for some rest. I will come to talk to you, when i feel so. Good bye." She went in her kaksh and slammed the door.
The king and queen yogita left standing infront of the door. When the king looked towards, the other queens also started to go after bowing slightly towards the king.
King asked queen Yogita to come to his kaksh.
After a short while both king and queen Yogita went to king's room.
The moment they reached inside, Advit finally removed his veil, and quickly went to sit on the bed to relax himself.
"Oh my god" he said "this queen Ramawati of yours is such a stress to mind. If you hadn't come, I surely have killed her!"
Samarthya also went to sit on the devaan lying nearby and said "i told you so. She is hard to deal with. But how did you messed up with her?"
Advit replied "actually, i saw her going somewhere, so i found this as an opportunity and went in her room to find something related to the issue. But before i could find something, i heard her voice and i came out. She saw me coming out and then all the things happened. For an excuse i said i went to call her because you asked for her."
Samarthya said "so to avoid that storm coming to you, you deviated it to me?"
Advit started laughing.
Samarthya continued "it means you didn't find anything, right?"
Advit replied "actually not. But i find it very strange that she has so much information related to Rudrabhoomi."
"What do you mean?" The king asked.
Advit said "Adyant, do you know that queen Sulakshna has a daughter too and where she is?"
Samarthya replied "yes i know she has a daughter and she married her in secret to some other kingdom but i don't know where she is now and whom she married."
"Exactly!" Advit replied. "You are the king of heelshila! Even you don't know whom princess Saumya is married to! But queen Ramawati knows. Isn't it strange?"
Samarthya replied "what does that mean?...."
"That means" advit said "she is either too close to queen Sulakshna or too close to king Jaivant!"
"King Jaivant?" Samarthya asked.
"Yes, queen Sulakshna married her daughter, princess Saumya to a very cruel king of south, king Jaivant. He hates the kings of north and many rumours are there that he wants to occupy north too. This is also his demand that his marriage will be held in a secret way and no one from north should be involved in the marriage ceremony."
Then Samarthya asked "but why did queen Sulakshna married her daughter to such a weird and cruel king?"
Advit replied "cause she possess no heart. She is a woman who only cares for money and power and nothing else. She herself pushed her own daughter in the hell just to have more power and money."
Advit's eyes were fixed in air and it can be easily seen that he said each and every word with a heavy heart.
Samarthya said as he wanted to know more "as you worked in the mansion, you must have known princess Saumya personally."
Advit replied with a soft smile "yes, she is one of the most beautiful and kind person i have ever seen. I still remember, When we were in the mansion, she always tried to help me, support me but nothing was in her hands. However every time i got punished by flogging, she used to be the person who treated my wounds, helped me heal. She didn't talk much, but her love can be seen by her deeds. She herself was ruthlessly scolded by that cruel queen. And one day suddenly, king Jaivant came to the mansion without informing anybody and saw princess Saumya. He knew that queen Sulakshna is a greedy person and then said.."
"What?" Samarthya asked.
Advit stood up from the bed and replied "he said that he found the princess beautiful and want to make her his wife. In turn he will give his 1/4th treasures. Queen Sulakshna got shocked. But her hunger for gold was bigger than her mother heart. After a hasitation, she finally agreed.
The day that marriage was fixed, the princess cried and cried, lying in the feet of the queen, asked her not to punish her in this way, but not a single drop of tear fell from those cruel eyes of queen. Princess understood that she could not do anything now and finally surrendered herself to the destiny."
Advit's eyes were in tears while he was telling this story to Samarthya.
Samarthya too got very angry after listening to what happened to the princess.
He said "If i knew all this is going on, i would have passed my sword through those monster's souls."
Advit said with tears in his eyes "although i was very young at that time, i asked her that i will help her if she wants to escape, but she denied and married king Jaivant. I still wonder how she is now and hope she is alright."
Samarthya was standing still. He wanted to console Advit but didn't know how. Finally he uttered "Don't worry, she must be fine."
Advit nodded while wiping his tears and said "anyways we were discussing about queen Ramawati and look i have inserted my own topic in between."
Samarthya said "its ok. Just do not think a lot. Go get some rest. We will talk later."
Advit smiled politely towards Samarthya and nodded. Then after covering his face again with dupatta, he went out of king's room.
After a short while, when the king was about to go to take some rest, a servant came to the king with a scroll letter.