Royals

6 - Caught In The Act

The next morning, rather dawn, Maisha witnessed quite an unexpected and embarrassing situation when she barged into Vikramaditya's chamber before allowing the one of the footmen to announce her presence.

She squinted her eyes shut, muttering an "ugh," as the pair dispersed followed by a curse. The woman hurriedly picked up her half torn scrambled clothes while Aditya dressed himself and ushered the woman to leave. Maisha, being a tease as she had always been, smirked at Aditya who was not really pleased with her deteriorating mannerisms.

"Oh come on, you can finish later. Go masturbate or something. But right now, you need to tell me more about that spy cause I can't find Dev. I've been searching for him for quite sometime now," she laughed a bit trying to make him feel more embarrassed.

"Oh, he's not here. He didn't accompany us back to the palace yesterday, remember?" He asked rather annoyed for being bugged so early for such a trivial matter.

"Ohhhh," she realised stretching the monosyllabic answer as Aditya guided her that the same charioteer would take her to the desired location. As she was about to depart, Aditya hesitantly called her out,"What is 'mastubate'?"

Maisha grinned, almost exploding in laughter as Aditya's fists tightened, feeling insulted. "It means touching yourself, Your Majesty." She thought he heard him say, "Why would I do that? I have people for that." But she managed to contain herself just for enough time till she ran out of west wing. Hit by the early morning breeze Maisha burst into a fit of laughter at Aditya's double meaning remark as the palace guards titled their heads, ever so slightly, at her unusual behavior for a Chief, suspecting dubious activities. He can't even do it himself. Maisha broke into another fit of laughter, twisting the words he said in utter innocence and ignorance.

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"What are you doing here?" Dev enquired defensively, eyes drilling Maisha as she stood there rather nervous in his scrutiny.

"That brut...er.... I mean His Majesty, sent me here. I speak western languages. I might be of some help." Nice save Maisha. She thought.

"Where did you learn it?" He inches towards her trying to intimidate her by his towering figure as she just sighed in defeat. She was smart to know he hated her and the entire kingdom suspected her of treachery. And by kingdom, she meant the palace. But the fact that the brute was her only hope of survival and safety in this world, made her despise the situation all the more.

"Look Dev, as much as you want me gone, I don't want to stay here either. Trust me when I say this, I hate this place, it's people and it's King. And that's why I left that night. I suspect you know who I am too, right? Because otherwise, I would've been long dead." It was Dev's turn to be silent. She was accurate.

"I don't want any of this. I just want to go home. And the only way I'll ever be able to do that is if I carry out whatever tasks that King of yours assigns me till I earn my freedom. You and I both know, he'll find me, torture me and make me regret why I was born dare I escape once more. So yes Dev, I come from far far away, farther than you can imagine and I am not a fucking spy cause I don't give a frigging damn about your dynasty."

Maisha didn't know she had so much pent up frustration. She had realised how much alone she was and how much she ached to be home. Her heart pained at the recollections of her past, her friends, her family and even her d-bag ex boyfriend. They all knew her and she realised for the first time what sense of security one felt when surrounded by familiarity.

"He's this way," Dev broke the silence rather quietly bobbing his head slightly in the direction of the suspect. His tensed frame was relaxed now as he casually jammed his hands in the pockets of loose khaki trousers. The building was made of stone and rubble and it was dim lit at night. After turning for a few times in the long corridors, and climbing down a flight of stairs into the basement, with Maisha following behind, they entered a small dingy rooms whose only source of air and light was the solid iron door that seldom opened.