Chapter 22

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Next morning

After her morning prayer, Jodha asked a maid for lemons to be brought. As soon as the maid had left her room, Jodha cut a lemon in half with her small dagger and squeezed it out. She got out a quill and paper and began to write. After she finished she let the sheet dry and wrote over it with ink:

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The light illuminated the darkness

It made things shine

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Satisfied, she rolled up the message, sealed it, and put it in the box. Then she went to her pigeons and picked out five. Luckily the cage with which Jalal had sent her the last three pigeons was a little bigger so that the 5 pigeons could fit in it. She put the pigeons in and went back to her room. She put the cage in the wooden box. Then she called for Moti.

"Shubh prabhaat Jodha. Did you sleep well?"

"Shubh prabhaat Moti. Yes, deep and firm."

"Did you find out what the ruler meant by the two sentences?"

"No, unfortunately not" she lied. "I wrote to him and asked what he meant by that. Maybe I'll get an answer." She shrugged her shoulders and made a faked bored face, hiding a smile.

"You don't believe though, that he's going to send a messenger again!" Moti replied and hoped that the correspondence would come to an end.

"No! He doesn't have to either" she grinned.

"Ah, did you see that it isn't right to communicate with him?" Moti asked hopefully.

"No! I give pigeons from me to the messenger" she laughed.

"Jodha, you are impossible! Stop doing that! If you get caught!" Moti shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"Who should catch me? Everyone knows that I like pigeons. And the keepers do what I want. Nobody notices that! Now take the box and bring it to the messenger. He should ride back and hand them over to Jalal personally. Give him the pouches. Now go!"

She gave Moti the box, a pouch of grains for the pigeons and a small pouch of gold coins.

Moti just shook her head. She knew how stubborn Jodha was and that it was pointless to talk her out of something that she had set on her mind. She went to the stables and asked a stable boy about Fadhil. The boy fetched him. Moti handed Fadhil the box and the two pouches.

"There are pigeons in the box and grains for them in one of the pouches. Feed them and give them water every day. You will only hand over the box to the young ruler personally!" She said harshly.

"That is my order! I'll only hand it over to him personally!" He took the box, impressed with her occurance.

"Khuda hafiz Moti Bai" Fadhil said goodbye and raised his palm to his forehead in greeting. Again she had veiled her face and he couldn't get a glimpse of it.

"Namaste!" Moti put her palms together in greeting and went back without looking to Jodha's room.

Fadhil stood for a moment and watched her go. Nice figure he thought impressed. Then he went to the stables and got his horse ready. Carefully he attached the box to the saddle. He packed the pouch of grains in the saddlebag and carefully tucked the one with the coins in his sash. Afterwards he led the horse out of the stable, mounted on and trotted back through the palace gate. Made his way back to Delhi.

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