The Queen's Secret | ✓

6 | Nerium Oleander

Unable to help herself, Meeta shyly glanced back at Aaina every so often. She caught her eye once, and she swiftly turned away, only to feel a new dread filling her.

Taking a breath she turned to look at Aaina. Clearing her throat, Aaina turned to her, "What's wrong?"

Meeta looked down at her lap scrunching her fingers. The pounding of her heart grew louder in her ears and she couldn't find the words to ask her because she's never asked for anything before from Aaina. Looking up she stared straight at her, "Um-m-may I use your messenger man to write letters to my family to see how they're doing?" She winced at the long pause.

Turning her attention to the window, she replied. "No."

Meeta felt her heart drop at the blunt response, she felt a mixture of embarrassment and disappointment mixed together. After a long moment of silence, she wanted to ask why she wasn't allowed to send letters to her family or at least to her eldest sister Minna to see if she is healing well but soon decided it probably wasn't the best if she asked.

As they arrived at the palace, Meeta strode to her chambers and sat down in the balcony, her hazel eyes bright. She looked from one guard to another and squared her shoulders. "I wonder why she rejected my request?" she asked aloud to herself.

The guards looked up seeing the beautiful Queen looking at the sky, the men then exchanged glances. General Jayesh Khatri cleared his throat making the guards go back into position, he looked up and followed the men's eyes. "The Queen, huh?" He looked back at the men giving them a daring glare, a warning not to do anything idiotic. Especially, in front of the Queen.

Meeta's chest tightened. Never, not in her most fanciful dreams had she imagined that the opportunity to speak with the general arise. She could send him away so easily, fake some news of a rebellion going on, but perhaps her proposition could lead to escape.

If she got beyond the wall, she could make it. Run and run and disappear to the village to find a merchant to hand her father a letter she had written. With a black shawl and the stars now overhead looking down upon her. She could do it. She just needed to clear the wall of guards and especially that observant general of Aaina's.

But the real question is, does she have the guts to leave the palace grounds?

Meeta sought back to her senses and her fingers curled as she waited for them to vanish into the darkness. Her eyes met the generals, probing, intent. A smile tugged on Jayesh's lips, but she kept a straight face. She raised her chin. To sly pass him she would have to collaborate with his actions, she put a hand on her hip and turned away. Never has she ever been so fierce in her life before, she wanted to smile back and tell him how he was doing, but if she were to be Queen, like Aaina said, "Stand straight, raise your head high and display yourself as a strong and proper Queen."

Meeta debated whether she should just ask the king again if she could ask her messenger to send the letter for her, but..Aaina would either say no or read her letter beforehand.

Meeta growled and gathered all her courage and went on with her original plan, she wore a black kneaded dress and covered her hair and face with a jet black shawl. Walking out of her chambers she walked by the side of the walls, her hand tracing every wall when she tip-toed through the hallways. She snapped her back behind a column when a guard or a maid would pass by.

Finally, making it out of the palace walls, she wandered out to the nearest village to find a merchant that would travel for her to the Gupta Empire.

Whipping her head at all sides of the village she had yet to find the perfect messenger. She glanced over her shoulder seeing an old man closing shop with a couple sacks on his back. "Excuse me, sir," she called.

The old man stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her. Meeta's face was covered but he could see that she was a beautiful woman under those thick layers. He smiled, "What is it?"

Meeta pulled out the finely wrapped letter and handed it to him, "If you may, I need someone to send this letter to the king of the Gupta empire for me, it is important." she whispered loud enough for only him to hear.

Recognizing the voice, the old man dropped his sacks, and became weak falling to his knees "Praise! oh, your highness, I should have known sooner." he knelt down waving his arms up and down.

"Please stand, good sir." she pulled down her shawl to show her lips so that her whispering could be heard clearer. "I cannot have anyone know. If you could please, please, send this letter to him."

The merchant stood up and bowed, "Anything for you, my Queen." he became teary-eyed, feeling honored that the Queen herself would ask him to do a favor that only he was able to do.

Meeta smiled handing him a bag of gold coins, "Here take this for compensation, And again thank you for doing this." and like that, she walked away fading into the darkness, only with the stars light to guide her back into the palace.

She couldn't tell the poor old man that she was the King's daughter, her identity must remain as the previous Queen. If someone were to find out that they had switched identities for ordeals, they would be in grave danger.

When Meeta finally made it back to the palace she opened her double doors to see the King sitting on her bed worried. "Where have you been all this time!" she yelled at Meeta.

Meeta collapsed onto her bed after her meeting with the merchant. she couldn't fall asleep, despite the exhaustion in every inch of her body. After walking miles back to the palace, the bottoms of her feet throbbed and her face felt like it had been sunk in the pits of the ocean, sweating profusely.

Shifting to lie on her side to ease the pain on her legs and feet, she pulled on the Kings shirt lying her on the mattress next to her, she smiled at the freeness of movement. Before she could answer the king, Aaina had already flicked her on the forehead. She was insanely worried about Meeta, she thought something bad had happened to her, she wandered around the palace asking the maids and guards if they had seen her around, but she was nowhere to be found.

And finally the question Meeta dreaded to answer was asked. "Did you leave the palace walls?" Aaina's voice filled with anticipation and strained with uncontrollable anger. Meeta shifted her body to look away from the king, she couldn't admit it to her, not ever not in a million years. "...no..."

"Then where did you go?" Aaina asked with suspicion in her voice.

Meeta wasted away to nothing, beneath her thick black layers, her voice would not spare any words to the King. A lump clogged in her throat, which she promptly swallowed down. The softness of the mattress smothered her, and she shifted again, her sharp jaw pronounced, and her eyes slightly, but not ever so disturbingly, sunk in, she took steady breaths and let the night take her to the small pits of her dreams.

Aaina caressed her cheek, sighing from no response from Meeta's lips. She lied back more comfortably and sprawled next to her young innocent wife,

"She lies
In the quiet darkness,
This troubled woman
Bowed by
Weariness and pain
Like an
Nerium flower
In the beautiful summer,
Like a
Wind-blown delicate flower
That kills with one single touch,"

"What a troubling woman we have brought forward."