A night without end

The Queen who never was..

She was never the Queen . Her sister was. She was never the docile woman everyone saw her to be. It was because no one knew her but her most trusted guards. But if the King had one blind spot it was her. For to him , she never grew. She as the fifteen year old little girl, whom he made to dress up as the Queen he banished. The heavy veils, the ornate head dress, the jewels all hid the body swap that happened one dark night. The guilty person , her elder sister, had fallen in love with a cousin. The Queen had come to be with her sister, without any knowledge of any love between her elder sister and their father's favorite nephew. But she would know during the journey of the deep love they felt for each other. But then she realised her folly again. Like most things the love was never reciprocated. Their cousin did not love her elder sister but loved the love. It was difficult for the fifteen year old self others to understand this. She always wondered how did the King suspect and concluded it must have been the cousin himself.

He was after all his uncle's favorite, his uncle, the King did not care much about his daughters as he had a lot of them. He did not have a son at that time and hence his nephew imagined himself as the next inline to the throne. The beautiful eldest daughter was hence given in marrage to the King of the strong and powerful Kingdom bordering the deserts. The alliance had also come from the nomads but then the father was pondering of giving his second daughter in marriage there. His second daughter was wild and could hunt. So while the ceremony occured between his eldest Ratri, her father commented to his important son in law that his second daughter's marriage would be better given to the nomadic King. His important King groom took all responsibilities which he gladly gave away choosing to concentrate of governance of his father large state and also if his eleventh child would be a son. The child was indeed a son which led him to further forget about the second daughter he had, especially when the news arrived that she had unfortunately perishedd to a sudden cold.

It was said that the King had dragged his newly wedded wife to the dungeons where he drowned her into the mountain stream holding her head under water because she would not accept any dis honourable act. But it was after she gave birth to the boy the King chose as the crowned Prince. It was said only one person knew and witnessed and it was the cousin brother Rattir. Rattir, if indeed he saw anything that night, was frrever quiet on the topic with a kind of silence that arose from deep fear of the sinister.

But no one told the sister. When he ordered the sister to pick up queenly duties at sixteen, joining her one evening , shoving her innocence aside, it was said he celebrated her absolute innocence and naiveity an absolute abandon and a kind of demonic celebration that sent her personal guards into tears. But he King soon realised abandon and pleasure was best had where he could indulge and not think or care for consequences, the girl was stable, she did not look at any man, including him, but kept her head down and concentrated on being a figure head. Ceremonies saw her, few heard her and she did not cause any confusion or rather cause any sound . The wild hunting days long forgotten, her bows and arrows were kept away, while the cousin teased her mercilessly, she showed a rare decorum of absolute no reaction, drawing a rare appreciation from the King. The appreciation grew as much it was possible for the King. He forgot about her, but was proud of finding a woman who would just be that, a Queen. He had others to have his demonic joys, to her he gave the baby that her sister had given birth to. He threatened her with throwing her out of the palace gates should she try any connection with her fallen sister.

But post that he left her alone, undisturbed and protected, he did not dare disrupt the Queen for the effort of finding another would have been enormous.

They however forgot that the dummy Queen believed what the guards have told her, that her sister was in the dungeons. She believed and behaved with decorum, trying to find an entry to the dungeon, to save her. In her effort she dug many channels trough her walls with help from her dedicated guards who had come with her sister to the Palace during the marriage . They were sworn to protect her as that was the last wish of her sister. They knew that the earlier Queen was not alive but they never told her may be because she never asked. As years passed she did not really age. She started saying spells for her sister and all the people in the dungeon and started believing that the underground spring was elixir of life. Nomadic tribes that visited her with their fares, told her stories of their magical water that could save lives if they were given at the source. The King knew ofcourse of the Queen's obsession with colourful bangles that she purchased from the nomads and often distributed. He did not mind. A child he would smile and say. Give her more. But when the news came of the magical water without the details of the queen's obsession , he started to believe it too. He knew of the spring and he knew of some things he had done there but he did not know the source. Where was the source. He connected the elixir to the ancient line of the nomads.

Ultimately it was the Queen who located the source. She during some digging of hers found underground water, as refreshing as life itself that was springing and flowing into the deserts through labrynthine pathways. She commissioned a well so that villagers can drink it.. but the well was too deep for use of any villagers as the water level will not rise beyond a few inches and flowed in the other direction. The King wanted to punish the Queen for suddenly stepping out of the Palace and then digging the channels which he now believed was her obsession to finding the elixir of life but one look at her and he was stunned. She still looked that sixteen year old he had plucked to become his Queen.

"Let her be.." was the only word the King said to his surprised cohorts who were booing for another death by drowning. The King went so far to pass a statement that day, "No one shall ever harm the Queen. " Why did the King concort a complicated story with the nomadic King to steal his water and why did the nomadic King not see it coming may forever be a case of confusion.But one thing was certain. In a way , the Queen who never was meant to be the Queen, was responsible for the greed for the magical water. Like the death of her elder sister , no one told her of this too. To them she was still the fifteen year old young girl, who had the focus and aim of the best Archer of all lands.