Desert Heat

CHAPTER THIRTY- EIGHT: THE ENEMY

The queen looked away from her stepson and looked at the world beyond her window, while King Aziz stood on the spot, helplessly.

"I am sorry, my son; the death of your brother has shattered my world." The queen apologized to him, and he accepted the apology. King Aziz walked towards the queen and sat her down, while he again grabbed a chair and sat opposite his stepmother.

"Mother, I know that you are not handling Amaan's death very well, and even though my brother and I were not the best of friends, I still miss him very much." King Aziz confessed, and he really did mean it. His stepmother raised her head and looked up at King Aziz.

"When you find all the evidence that you need, I want her arrested." His stepmother told him, but King Aziz knew that it was hopeless to charge Shishma.

"Mother, I don't think she did it." The king confessed, and this left the queen in shock, as she did not believe that her stepson sided with Shishma.

"I cannot believe you, my son; you are defending your brother's murderer, and you do it with no shame!" The queen yelled at her son as more tears filled her eyes.

"Mother I know that you are questioning why I am doing this, but I have a feeling that Shishma is an innocent mother," King Aziz answered, and his reply made the queen come to a pause; she stared at him in disbelief.

"That is impossible; I told her that I would inform Amaan about her affair, and she probably killed him to escape his wrath," the queen informed her stepson, but the king was still not convinced.

"I know, Mother, but what she told me makes so much sense; in fact, I feel that it correlates with what my wife was saying."

"How so?" The queen's mother asked him as she tried to understand what her son was trying to say.

"Mother, I think that someone within the palace is trying to end my life, and it is unfortunate that Shishma is the scapegoat," King Aziz explained to his mother, and his words took her by shock. The queen stumbled over to the window, and she held onto the frame for support. King Aziz walked over to his stepmother and held her right before she fell.

"Mother, please calm down!" King Aziz told his stepmother, who slowly came to her feet and thanked her son for holding her.

"Please, my son, I want you to gather all the guards, maidens, and every servant we have. Each and every one of them must be questioned!" The queen spat her words in anger, and his stepmother's anger was concerning.

"Mother, please calm down." King Aziz tried to calm her down, but the queen was far too upset to calm down.

"Calm down? There is a threat to your life; how can I be calm?" The queen questioned her son; even though the King wanted his stepmother to calm down, he could still understand that she feared the worst.

"Mother, nothing will happen to me; I have placed the entire palace under lockdown; no one can come in and out of this palace unless I say otherwise." King Aziz informed his mother, his voice stern and sure. He was indeed shaping up to be the people's king.

"That is good; we need to catch the culprit; Let us go and interrogate that murderer." The queen told her son; she tried to move past him, but the King stopped her.

"No, Mother, you will do no such thing. You are sick, and therefore you have to stay in your room."

"But son—" the queen tried to explain, but King Aziz was not having any of it.

"But nothing, Mother—I will stay here with you. I will call the helpers to get us some tea."

"No, let me call for tea, my son; you have had a rough day, and I do not want you stressing any longer," the Queen mother told the king. King Aziz sadly watched as his stepmother walked over to the phone and called for their tea, and within minutes, the tea had arrived.

The helper placed the tray of tea on the table; the queen thanked the helper, and the young woman left her and the queen. King Aziz watched as his stepmother poured both of them a cup of tea, and he carefully watched how gracefully his stepmother poured the tea into his cup.

"Thank you, mother."

"You are welcome; now have your tea before it gets cold." His stepmother told him, and the king smiled. Even after he became king, his stepmother still treated him like a little boy.

"Won't you have yours?" The king asked his stepmother, but she smiled at him.

"My son, you know that I do not drink warm tea," his stepmother reminded him.

"Oh my goodness, Mother, forgive me; I forgot," King Aziz told his stepmother. He picked up his cup of tea from the table and had a few sips of it, and as the sweet taste hit his lips, he was reminded of how much he loved Hamidin.

"I apologize again for my actions, my son. I lost Amaan, and I refuse to lose you too." The queen told her son. King Aziz understood why his stepmother was upset; she had lost her husband, and a few months ago, she also lost her son, and her stepson's life was threatened.

"No need to apologize—everything is—Mother, I feel dizzy." The king told his stepmother as the room around him began spinning. The queen quickly stood up from the chair and moved closer to her son.

The king placed his hand over his chest as it tightened, and a strong pain overtook him. He tried speaking, but every time he tried to speak, he was pained. Never in his life had he experienced this much pain before, and his stepmother stood beside him, holding his hands in hers.

"My son, what is the matter? What are you feeling?" His stepmother asked him, panic laced in her voice. With so much pain consuming King Aziz, he slumped onto the floor, and his stepmother sat beside him.

"My son, you need to get up now, please." His stepmother begged him, but the king was too weak to get up. Beads of sweat ran down from his forehead; he was slowly running out of breath. The king's eyes rolled repeatedly, and he was left staring at the cup of tea on the table.

"Mother, I think I have been poisoned." The king told the queen with what felt like his last breath. The queen's eyes widened in shock, but then a smile appeared on her face.

"Well, if that is the case, my son, then I think it is best that you start dying soon." The queen replied to her stepson, King Aziz, with a smile on her face. With shock written over the king's face, he watched as his stepmother walked to her chair, sat down, and looked at him lying on the floor.

"Mother, what are you saying?" King Aziz asked his stepmother, and he struggled to get those words out of his mouth as the pain in his chest kept getting worse as the seconds went by.

"I said what you heard, my boy; now hurry up and die. I have been waiting a long time for this day, and the longer you take to die, the longer it will take to get the crown to my people." The queen told her stepson, and this left King Aziz baffled by his stepmother's actions.

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