The King and his Queen
Putting all his trust on Mir, Vinasaka strode off, not looking back and surprisingly he suddenly saw himself running beside the baby wolf who was just his carrier a while ago. As if he had also mastered the communication art with animals, they nodded at each other and he quickly climbed on its back. It was no time to chat but he could feel that Lyca had grown in size than before. Maybe the incident with the red spider lily forest had to do something he thought. They rushed out towards the palace. The entire way, the forest in between seemed to be burning with all the animals running haywire in the middle of it trying to seek shelter from the fire. Even if their bodyguards were all stationed at the palace, he was worried sick and kept praying silently throughout the way. When he finally reached the gates, he was horrified to see the heap of dead bodies lying around, probably some palace guards. The demon stench was clearly wafting in the air everywhere and as he looked up he saw something that he had been dreading all along. The queen’s chamber was lit up with some fierce lightning and the windows were open wide, shattering against the wall every now and then violently as if a typhoon was going on inside. He rushed from the outside with the help of Lyca and managed to get on the window sill.
Vinasaka definitely knew it was the work of a demon and was preparing for the worst when suddenly he was taken aback by the scene in front of him. Just then, the door of the room was forced open and King Vasu was there. Vinasaka’s head was already jumbled with the scene that was in front of him. Over that, the arrival of his father so soon left him confused as well.
“Father, how?” He wanted to ask how he managed to get here so fast but he couldn’t really complete it and didn’t feel the necessity to as he saw him rushing to the queen immediately. The scene was pretty similar to something that the king had earlier witnessed during the birth of the third prince.
The same room, the lying guards were unconscious. The only thing that was different was that this time along with the guards, there were at least about twenty demons lying dead, bloody on the floor and the queen engulfed in a red aura with her eyes completely shut off from the world. She could not listen to either her husband or her son calling out as the aura kept getting ever darker around her.
“Mother…mother,” seeing his mother not responding, Vinasaka shifted to the king instantly, “Father why is mother not responding?”
The king sighed and replied, “Don’t worry, this is her deep stance. She is in a completely meditative state so as to focus all her powers. This is the jackpot of your mother’s clan, so you don’t need to worry.” Even after saying that, King Vasu had visible drops of perspiration on his head as he thought, “But why is her aura red? It is supposed to be white.” Vinasaka wasn’t told the last bit so he relaxed a bit and asked, “So does that mean all these demons?...”
“Yes, third prince, did you think the king and queen of the Heart kingdom are just there for show?” He chuckled at his father’s statement for he momentarily forgot that his parents were two of the strongest people of the 8 chosen leaders of the world. So Vinasaka was told by his father to go out and take care of the remaining demons out there and would take care of them here.
He had no doubts, so he jumped on Lyca’s back and went towards the town. King Vasu was old indeed but he had sensed the danger here. The danger was not the demons anymore. He sat there beside his wife holding her hand and continued to chant some spells. After some two minutes of continuous flow of vitality, did the queen open her eyes, but they were bloodshot, completely red.
“As expected, the demon blood in you has indeed messed up with your meditative state.” The king stated formally as if he was speaking with a stranger yet held her hand so firmly without any intention of letting go but taking care not to hurt her in the process. She was not speaking words, no sound that she screamed could be understood by humans. She behaved like a demon who had gone out of control and did everything to protest the process. She wasn’t easy to hold but the king tried everything in order to hold her back. Just that face was his source of strength. He heard someone coming up very slowly. He wondered if the newcomer was another enemy then it was going to get really messy. But thankfully, it was none other than Utah, Mihas’ bodyguard who was left behind in the palace. Even if the king was thankful and maybe a bit relieved that it was him, he definitely didn’t look good. It was like he dragged himself out here.
“My ki-king….what are you doing?” He even had trouble breathing let alone speaking.
“Utah, don’t speak , your condition is not good.” the king said sternly without looking and instead focusing on his work.
“Your majesty, let me help,” he uttered very painfully. The reply was, “Are you in any position to? Just try not to die, that’ll be a lot of help.” Indeed he was in a very sorry state. Since he was the strongest out there, he probably tried to shield everyone by himself as a result of which his body was in such a pathetic state. One of his arm was missing while his he was barely walking with a huge diagonal cut from his right shoulder all the way towards the stomach. He had lost a lot of blood yet he smiled listening to his king. King Vasu was never really someone who would be cheerful and joke but even if he was stern he knew that he meant well and was honest.
“Yes your majesty, I’ll try.” He stood there guard so that no one was able to disturb them.
He didn’t have a lot of work now since he was only ordered not to die by his king. Utah sat there reminiscing of the time when he met the king outside in the town one spring 18 years ago. He was nothing more than a teenager who came from the kingdom of Spades to trade with the hearts kingdom. Back then, the Spades kingdom was still on good terms with the others before suddenly closing off its gates to the outsiders. The royal family were still invited in and out when there were festivals and were not unfriendly in terms but there was definitely a clear line drawn since the king of the Spades kingdom fell ill. That’s when Utah had migrated to the Heart kingdom with his little sister but was probably not taken well by the others since both of them were often bullied by others of their age.
He became really embarrassed when he remembered how he thought even King Vasu might be one of them and told him off but later when he was summoned inside the palace did he come to know what kind of silliness did he pull. Everyone thought he would probably be punished for behaving rudely with the king. However, he walked to Utah and said, “You are strong, will you help my second born with your skills? He is a very well-mannered boy.”
Since then, from a very young age, Mihas has been always under Utah’s care like his own little brother and even the entire royal family was very much like his own family, thanks to the fact that King Vasu didn’t care too much about caste.
It has been a long time, yet the process went on. Utah was getting impatient, he caught on to the fact that whatever was happening was probably not as simple as just passing some vitality. So he peeped again and asked if he could be of any use. But there was no reply. When he saw inside, there was King Vasu still chanting under his breath, while his hands bled profusely probably from all the scratch of the queen in protest. Utah was taken aback after seeing the look on the queen. She looked dreadful. Never had he once thought of the queen as scary, she was strong but timid and even if her health deteriorated rapidly after the birth of the third prince, she was still small yet graceful in her gestures and voice. Now he knew that continuing this would probably end with only the death of either. Utah was barely able to walk, when he walked forward to stop the queen but was cast back by an invisible casted shield by the king.
“But my king….you…,” he shouted with all that he had.
The king was focused and did not reply at first. Only when he said, “But you are going…to die,” almost pitifully enough did the king reply, stopping his chant, “I have wronged the queen earlier, I have given her pains she is not deserving of and the guilt still eats up my sleep even today. If this means that I can do something good for her, then it’s my order, it’s your king’s order not to interfere.”