His Queen

Chapter 19

Junnut’s POV

I had thought that if by some chance I might be fortunate enough not to ever see the man from the garden, he made me angry to heights I couldn’t even begin to describe, he was a rude man with no respect for a woman’s feelings, he had no right to behave the way he did that night,

It was bad enough that he had been invading a private moment, he had to go ahead and laugh at me, that was the height of rudeness if I ever saw it, but if I was going to be honest with myself, the reason I was so angry was not because he had laughed at me, it was because I had given him reason to laugh at me, that moment when I had looked at his lips and he had smiled that knowing smile, I knew deep in my heart that I had embarrassed myself but I had not expected him to laugh so suddenly.

I just hoped and prayed that I didn’t end up having anymore encounters with him, this was what I was thinking about when I walked away from Banafsha’s chambers, she was still yet to wake up, the physician had arrived in the morning to change the dressing on her wounds and at least, it didn’t look as horrible as it had done before.

I remembered how I had felt when the physician felt removed the cloth she had wrapped around her stomach, I had taken in a sharp intake of breath, I had wondered how it was that I did not notice it all this while, she must have been in so much but that was just how she was, Banafsha was good at hiding her pain but to endure that much pain was just unthinkable,

I couldn’t begin to imagine what it was that she was thinking, had she been trying to kill herself? That was a behavior I never would have expected from her, she was always so strong and powerful but to let herself die like meant she was giving up, I wondered how much she could have been going through to think like that, my heart broke for her.

The king had visited again, he had stayed for a while, he looked at her with what was no doubt care, it was obvious to see that he worried about her, I knew he was not Banafsha’s choice but he was not as bad as I expected he will be, from what I had seen, he was a good man, other kings might have beheaded Banafsha for her disobedience but he had offered a solution that I could never had thought about in a million years.

In this whole situation, the person I felt the sorriest for was Jawhar, I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was going through at the moment, he must be feeling completely miserable, I had no idea what I would say to him to offer him comfort,

Jawhar had sacrificed most of his life for Banafsha, he had lived by her side and protected her, I had never in my wildest dream believed that she wouldn’t end up marrying him but off course we never knew what the future held for any of us.

I wondered if Jawhar knew about Banafsha’s illness because I hadn’t seen him since we arrived a few days back, I had thought he would attend the wedding at least but he hadn’t shown up and I understood him, it would have too much for him to bear.

I had been walking with no destination in mind, I had left Banafsha’s room not feeling like going to my chambers, I had decided to take a small stroll and enjoy the night’s breeze and someone I had ended up thinking about random things,

I kept walking and praying in my heart that all the issues get sorted out soon and that somehow we could find happiness among all this chaos.

I stood under the sky looking under the bright sky, the stars were twinkling brightly in the sky, I thought of Marwa and how the people were faring and how they were settling into the new rule, I wondered how they felt now they were under the rule of king Humair, for some reason I knew that he would ensure they were treated fairly and justly, I knew they will face no discrimination and that if only they could also accept that they were now people of Atrabad then they will also be happy indeed and this was something that would happen as time went on.

I continued my random stroll, looking at the sky and the shining stars remembering times when Banafsha and I had sat under the sky and connected the stars and made images, those were memories from long ago, memories that maybe I was the only I remembered, the Banafsha from those memories had long faded away and now all that was left was a warrior queen.

I stopped walking, looking around, I realized I had come to the gardens unintentionally, I was standing not too far from the stump I had sat on before, I walked towards and looked around, everywhere was quiet, only the night creatures made occasional noises, I looked behind me and then to my left and then my right,

Then I stopped, I was asking myself what exactly I was looking for, I surely wasn’t looking for him, I was absolutely sure of that, there was no way he was the one I was searching for, I repeated these words to myself countless times just to convince myself that I was right,

Once I was sure that he was not in the garden, I sat on the same stump looking up into the sky, I sat there for what seemed like forever thinking about nothing and everything, after what felt like a long time, I finally decided to stand up and return to Banafsha’s chambers.

I stood up and stretched my body, I looked to my sides once more before finally turning to leave, and there he was, a tall looming figure in the moonlight, his hair was let loose today, it came down to the base of his neck, he looked completely different with his hair down,

He was a bit closer to me tonight and so I could see his eyes, they were a pale shade of brown, he was dressed similar to what he wore on our last meeting, his eyes met mine and slowly a smile spread across his face, immediately changing his look entirely, with the cool night breeze blowing his hair and the smile on his lips, he was suddenly looking dangerous.

“A pleasure seeing you here Laylah” he said and the smile on his face widened and I suddenly wanted more than to leave this place right now.