Shedding ROYAL Blood

▪︎8▪︎Your Loyalty Or Death

▪︎Amrit▪︎

Home. Nothing can be compared to the warmth and comfort of this place. Where the heart is. Where your family is. With the people who love you. Those huge Chambers of the Palace, and the soft mattresses could not give me the comfort this rough surface and my mother's lap gave me. Baba (father) went out to buy my favourite bananas. My mother cooked my favourite kheer (A milk sweet dish). I wish this moment would just stop. And I never have to move on or accept the reality of my life or go back. Just stay here and get pampered by my parents but life does not always give us what we want.

"If you wish to unburden your heart, there won't be a better time." My mother said, massaging my scalp.

I sighed loudly. "Why do you think so? I am fine."

"Fine. Happy. Contented." Her voice held some amount of mockery in it. "Meri jaan (My life), we've seen the world. If you had been happy, you wouldn't have come here. Happiness is what carries you forward and loneliness is what makes you look back and seek Refugee in all the good memories and love you can find in the world. Tell me. What happened?"

I close my eyes in pain remembering the whole Court session. How my dreams and hopes came crashing down. I hugged her tight and told her everything. "I am sorry Maa for being so unbelieving and uncaring all the time about you. I am a very bad daughter." I shook my head looking down.

"No my child. You are not a bad daughter." She gently wiped my tears. "You were just too innocent and naive and there is nothing wrong in expecting the people we love to love us back. It is me who taught you that all men are equal. But it does not apply to the Royal family. Their world is far different from ours."

"Maa, but one good thing happened amidst all this. I am not a bonded slave-girl anymore. I don't owe my life to anyone. I can live it the way I want. I am not naive anymore." I held Maa's hands and said something I never thought I would, "Maa, now that I am a free woman, you can fulfill all the dreams you had about your daughter. I've been chasing a mirage all these years. Now I want reality."

I could see how Maa was overwhelmed. She cupped my face and said, "child, parents have only one dream for their daughter. Their marriage in a respectable household. I always wanted to get you married to a merchant or a soldier."

My face paled. "Maa, I don't want to break your dreams but I don't think with my past I would get such a household. All the proposals that would come for me now would take me as a second or third wife, or to an aged man."

"Don't say that about yourself Amrit!" My mother scolded. Daughters are always perfect in their mother's eyes. "I know how pure your heart is. You are the best anyone can have. Any man would be the most fortunate to have you. And I will find such a man who is worthy of your loving, pure and untainted soul." She said and kissed my forehead. "Ok you wait here I will just go and see where your Baba is stuck." She said and walked out covering her head.

I sat there for a while looking around, eating kheer and when I looked out of the window, I felt footsteps approaching from behind. They are back. But why isn't Baba saying anything? I turned around only to be hit on the head by someone which I couldn't quite see. My eyes and brain were not focused anymore because of the blow. The last words I heard before sinking into total unconsciousness were, "Finally! Sultan would be so happy."

***

I opened my eyes and all I saw was darkness and a heavy burden on my body. I tried to move when I heard the clattering of chains and I shivered. I tried lifting my hands but they came up with heavy chains in them. No! It all came rushing through my head. I was at home... someone hit me... he talked about... "Sultan!"

'God don't let this be what I am thinking.' I tried hard to struggle but I couldn't move much. My hand reached to my neck and I removed a wide strip on which there was a mixture of familiar herbs.

Maybe this was kept wrapped around my nose all this time. That's why I didn't wake up for so long.

I angrily threw it away and shouted, "Is anybody there?"

"Yes there is." I heard the familiar dark, menacing voice from a corner. Within a moment, a fire torch lit and he was standing there with a victorious smirk on his face.

"S...Sultan?" I didn't want to look weak but tears started flowing continuously from my eyes. I was terrified. Does he really have so much power? How can he get me back from the most influential province of his enemy's Kingdom?

With some courage, I helplessly asked, "W...Why can't you just let me live in peace?"

All I knew was he was not going to let that go too easily. I have unknowingly insulted him again and again and he is too proud to forget that. "Why did you bring me here? Let me go please!" I shouted. I want to be with my parents. I had seen them after so long.

"That's the wrong question Meri Jaan. You should ask what you can do to get out of here?"

I turned my face to the other side and looked down. He was just playing with my mind. If he had to leave me so easily, he wouldn't have done so much effort to get me in the first place. "Sultan I am sorry for whatever happened but I was bound to my duty. For a person like me, a solemn pledge comes before everything else. For all I have of my identity is My loyalty."

"Hm." He said moving closer and crouched in front of me. "We will see how much of that is true."

"What?"

"Soon you will have to pledge your loyalty to me when we get married and then I would see how much truth is there in your words." He said with a smirk looking into my eyes like it was the easiest and most obvious thing to happen.

I shuddered. I don't want to be one of the many dishonored women in his life. This is not the life I had dreamed of. "M... marriage? With you?"

"Yes. From the moment I saw you, this became your destiny. To be mine."

"Please don't do this." I denied even though somewhere I knew it was inevitable.

"Tonight, in the Diwan-e-Khaas is the hearing for your crimes. I'll see you there. Till then, take care."

I kept staring at his retreating figure as he doomed the cell into darkness again before leaving.

***

I could not differentiate because of the darkness all the time, but it must be night. Because three Guards came in and started removing the chains. They asked me to walk while they kept one hand distance from me. One was infront and the two on both sides.

Now what? I would be shamed, humiliated, insulted and punished just because I did something for myself and that offended the Royal family?

As we walked toward the Royal court room, I took in the view of the Palace. It was larger, more intricate in design and the dome structure for most of the ceilings. It was built in a different colored stone unlike Kunwar Sa's palace built in Red stone.

We reached the court hall and I was surprised to see so limited people there. Why would he leave this chance to humiliate me in front of the entire Kingdom? The Guards moved away leaving me standing in the middle of the hall, right across the raised throne beautifully carved, decorated with gold and diamonds and velvety cushions on either sides.

I could feel so many eyes on me, some piteous, some glaring and some indifferent. One both sides, behind the courtiers chairs, was a huge veil behind which sat the Royal ladies. The veil was thin but it was difficult to see through.

The Sultan's arrival was announced and everyone stood up in respect. I did not have the courage to raise my eyes or look up as he walked past me without sparing a glance in the most graceful manner and ascended on the Throne.

With a hand gesture, he ordered everyone to get seated. When everyone did, he commanded in a loud voice, "start the proceedings."

As the words left his mouth, a soldier who was standing just below the two stairs of The Throne open rolled open a huge letter and started reading,

"Name. Amrit.

Accusations are...

Disobeying Royal orders

insulting age old traditions

interrupting the auspicious Honor Bride ceremony proceeding

running away from captivity

spying and passing on information to our enemies."

After hearing all the accusations he nodded and said, "Do you have to say anything about all this?"

Do I have to say anything about all this? Should I accept that I did wrong? I gathered some courage and said, "I accept that passing on information was wrong, a criminal offense. Other than that, the rest of the accusations, I was only protecting myself." I said looking at him. I don't want to meet his eyes. Nor do I want to degrade myself more by revealing that I was a slave girl.

After hearing that, he turned to one of his aged courtiers, "Shah Sahab, what does the law of governance book say about the punishment of these crimes?"

The old man looked between me and Sultan and said; "Sultan the punishment for the minor crimes of disobedience and interruption is 50 lashes in front of the public and punishment for spying is... for free men, execution of the offender in a short time and for slaves it is a little les severe."

The until now murmuring hall went silent at those words and I closed my eyes. This is it then. The end of my life.

Sultan leaned back a little and gestured to a soldier something. Everyone was as confused as me. After a few moments, the soldier came back with a tray on which was kept... Bhagwat Geeta!

What is he upto?

"This is your religious scripture right. Place your palm on it and answer my questions in truth." He ordered and my shivering hand reached for it.

"Now say only the truth to my questions."

I nodded. What choice did I have?

Sultan looked at me and said, "Did you do it on your own free will?"

My head snapped in his direction, "Answer truthfully." He commanded firmly.

"I was... asked to do it." I said honestly. How could I lie? My hand was resting on the sacred book. My lords and their divinity, purity lies in it.

"And if you had a choice, would you not do it?"

"No matter how much I justify it, but deep down I know that the use of spies to win battles is wrong. If I had a choice, I would... not do it." I said.

"I can say you were bound to do it. You have a clear conscience. This time it is forgiven but to make sure that it doesn't happen ever again, I have to be assured of your loyalty to this Sultanate and me. By a wedlock.

Your wedding with the Sultan is the only thing that gains my trust and halts your death sentence. Your loyalty or your death?"

How gracefully he turned the situation in his favor. Along with getting what he wants, he also got the love and respect of all these people. The impressed people gave him respectful looks but I could see through the mask a selfish man that he was.

And I may hate to admit it, but he saved me from being more humiliated and demeaned than I already was.

"Answer faster!" Malika-e-Jahan snapped from behind the veil.

***