Married For Three Nights (Complete)

Part 27

I almost wish we were all butterflies,
And lived but
Three summer days.
Three such days
With you I could fill
With more delight
Than fifty common years could
Ever contain.
-John Keats

"No!" The words tore through his chest and clamped around his throat like a vice, almost strangulating him. "I will never let this happen!" The sun has arisen from the east, golden rouge colour painted across the sky as the maids stopped working, their eyes fixed on the elder prince and ears strained to listen to every bit of juicy gossip they can.
"All of you wait outside please, we need to talk to our brother." Maya commanded and the poor girls all but trotted outside. "Mother, please we need to talk to him, please wait outside." The girls hugged their mother as she kissed both their cheeks, blessed them with all her heart and made her way outside as well but not before repeating her promise. "Don't worry, I just need to take care of a few matters here in Bundi and then if the God wishes I will leave for Benaras in a day or two."

"We will eagerly wait for you mumma." They murmured together as the queen left and for a moment Nair could not believe this was happening to him.
His wife was missing.
His sisters were banished.
And his mother was going to abandon the palace as well.

"No one is going anywhere, I will go and talk to father now." He turned around to leave but like every other twists and turns in his life, he found his sisters blocking his path as always. "Go and talk all you want but nothing can change his mind." Mohini stepped forward. "But before we leave you must know the truth." The twins looked at each other for a moment or two and hung their heads low like never before.

"You must sought out Meenakshi. You WILL do that, wouldn't you?" Mohini asked looking at him and he was truly confused.
"She is your wife now, you will find her, wouldn't you brother? And protect her?" Maya asked,confounding him even further.

"Of course, I will!" Nair spoke over them but why suddenly about her? Do you know where she is?" Hope abruptly blew high from his chest, his calm nerves fraying again and the blood through his veins getting warmer.

"No, not exactly but she is being sent to some hermitage as well. In Benaras, but not the one where we are being sent to."

"We heard their conversation last night, father and his councillors. Father was going to have Meena killed but the councillors suggested against it. They said killing one of your own is not right and now that you and Meena are man and wife, she is one of us, that she should be banished like us but not killed."

"But father was concerned that you will go after her wherever he sends her... that the only way to end it for once and for all is by executing her."

"But everyone else thought otherwise and so father settled to sent her away under some fake name and identity to Banaras, he said that no one must know... ever...that she is your wife."

"You must go and bring her back."

"And so I will." Nair replied with determination. "But she won't be the only one I will have to bring back. "

The first carriage was loaded with the trunks, one after another...thirteen in total, Nair stood and counted from the crescent balcony of his chamber, after all there was little else to do. And as soon as it was all done his sisters were rushed into yet another carriage like some precious commodities that his father thought he no longer requires.

He turned around abruptly in his position, to look away and didn't look back until he was sure the carriages were out of sight but then his mother still stood there on the empty graveled pathway with her eyes fixated on the long road ahead....after all there was little else she can do.