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(Chapter 7)
The Witch is Back
Recap: "Your grace, that stare is unsettling".
"Since there is no easier way to say this", he backed off enough to avoid any immediate physical attacks he may need to fend off after he finished making the statement. "The cabinet requested we give them an heir".
"I beg your pardon but as far as my conscious can recall, I did not marry your ministry my lord".
Rishabh pulled in all his strength to avoid a laugh. "You did, however, marry the kingdom along with the king. They want a prince". She raised an eyebrow and he immediately bit his tongue. "Or a princess".
"I cannot run away from my duties but, your majesty I am not happy".
"How can we change that?"
She closed in on the air keeping them apart, took his hand in hers, and gently delivered the news of the hour.
"The mother queen is back from her pilgrimage. She will be visiting your grace in the courtyard sharp at noon".
A chill entered and exited his nerves like he was kicked off cloud nine back to reality. His mother, the tyrant queen of her times, was back. Although Rishabh only had a faint recollection of his childhood, a latent dream about his mother never left his memories. The mother queen, dressed in her ivory lace wedding gown, walked down a marble flight of stairs; her hands clutched with the hands of a stranger. The man was not his father, he was someone else.
The little prince remembered following them out to the stable, mum's laugh mixed with the silence of the last hour. She spotted Rishabh and then, it was all a blur. He received a tight slap across the face, her palm imprinting much more than discipline in the young one.
"You dare whisper this to another soul", she screamed. "I will make sure you are dead".
The next morning, he found himself surrounded by familiar nervous faces. His father paced back and forth and a dozen medical staff hovered around his bedside.
"The prince is back", a joyous woman nudged the king. It was his mother, the same mother who was the cause of his discomfort.
As his father showered kisses on his bruised face, the mother pinched his nerves ever so slightly. He knew if he breathed a word to his father, all hell would break loose.
So, he kept his silent vow for another two years until he learned something he wished he could unlearn.
"The king will die at age 60, its confirmed darling. All we ought to do is have a child. Once he is dead, who cares about the crown prince? I will be queen and I shall enthrone crown whoever I please".
"Our first born will rule the mainland. I will name him Sikander", the stranger added.
"Sikander", his mother joined in.
With the clinging of wine glasses and impure laughter, Rishabh realized what his mother had done. He would go on tell the king.
"We are bound by the royal covenant, my son. Your mother was a kind woman when I married her. She has only temporarily lost her way".
His father tried his damnedest to console the prince but, even as a child, Rishabh knew he had to accept responsibility before his time. He begged the king to declare him heir to throne at age 12.
His mother's pregnancy out of wedlock was kept a secret and thus, his leech of a half-brother was born.
Ever since his coronation, his mother had grown increasingly bitter about his treatment of Sikander. She opposed Sikander's title of Duke of the Pearl Islands. She protested his ban from the main palace even after knowing his involvement in numerous assassination attempts. Her latest annoyance with Rishabh's aristocrat wife had caused the mother queen to go on an extended leave. Now that she was back, Rishabh knew things would take a turn for the worst.
"I am not ready to face that witch".
This was the first time since his father's passing that Rishabh had disclosed his feelings toward his mother.
"Shall I make an excuse for the king", Madhubala looked concerned yet not confident enough to address the problem directly.
"She will eat you alive. I will handle this myself. Be sure not to appear in her vicinity. Her venomous fangs are wide reaching".
She straightened his military jacket, preparing her warrior lord for battle.
"May the king come out victorious", she patted his shoulder.
"May the queen pop out a child for the king".
He lowered her back into an arch and kissed her only to make a dramatic exit.
"Excuse me while swallow the status of all women being pushed back sixty years", she screamed on top of her voice hoping the king would hear her.
To be continued...
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