The Queen of Heart

In the early morning birds were chirping and all the maids were busy doing their work when suddenly they heard, “the queen was murdered, the queen was murdered,” and all turned towards the voice and looked at her shocked.    Padma, the personal maid of the queen, started panting after running from the room to the stairs and said, “the Queen is dead, somebody killed her.” All ran towards the Queen’s room and were shocked to see Queen lying on the bed lifeless. Vikram’s POV     For the past two days I have been staying away from my Queen Naina and today I woke up with a dream of her death. Arggghhh, I hate these dreams.     “King, you have a meeting at 10 am with the chief minister,” said Naresh, who is one of his trusted persons.     I thought for some time and asked, “is everything okay with the Queen? I am not feeling well.”     “I will call in five minutes and get all the details about our palace,” said Naresh and went away from there, but my heart is still not at ease. It is trying to say something to me.     “King, we need to leave for our palace, there is an emergency,” said Naresh coming towards me and my heartbeat skipped a bit thinking of what might have happened to my queen.     I ran towards my car and Naresh followed me and we reached the airport in no time and till then Naresh made all the arrangements for a driver for my private jet.     As soon as I reached the palace I was shocked to see the people gathered in a large number near my palace. I slowly entered the palace and was shocked to see my queen lying lifeless in front of me.      Payal came running to me and was talking to me about something, but I was not able to register a single word in my mind. She took me near the chair and made me sit on the chair and offered me a glass of water. “King, I have…,” she was about to say something, but I showed her my hand and she walked away from there calmly.     “King, they are waiting for your orders to start the rituals,” said Naresh, coming near me.      I looked at my queen and said, “I want the murderer in front of me in two hours, and till that time no ritual will start,” and walked towards my room to change. Author’s POV     Naresh walked out of the palace and asked, “what were you doing? How did this happen?”     “We spread all over the palace, the murderer may be someone from inside,” said Pawan, the other army person.     “Don’t try to give me excuses, I want the murderer in one hour, I don’t know what you will do? How will you search? I want him in front of me in one hour,” said Naresh and started to go inside the palace when the other spoke, “how can we know, we were searching for him since morning and we didn’t get a single clue.”     “If you love your life then search for him, otherwise, you can stay here and wait for the King's order to execute you all,” said Naresh angrily and walked into the palace.     They all thought for some time and walked into the Queen’s room again and checked everything keenly, but were not able to find a single clue.     Pawan thought for some time and dialed one number and asked, “where are you? Don’t you know our Queen has been murdered?”     “I don’t think you have called me to give the information,” said the other person with a stern voice.     “We need your help,” said Pawan pleadingly.     “Get hold of Payal, don’t allow her to go anywhere, I will be there in 10 minutes,” said the voice and disconnected the call.     “Payal? Why Payal?” thought Pawan and turned towards others and said, “get hold of Payal, she should not escape from this palace.”     After some time one person came into the room and asked, “where is Payal?”     “She is there,” said Pawan pointing his finger towards the chair.     “I want privacy,” said the person and walked towards Payal.     “Nihal, we don’t have a lot of time, please make it fast,” said Pawan and walked out of the room with his men.     “Nihal I don’t know anything,” said Payal trying to free herself and he freed her hands and came near her and kissed her.     “Don’t you know Queen was murdered and we are searching for a murderer?” she asked, pushing him away.     “I can’t think of anything without tasting your tasty lips and you know that,” said Nihil getting up from the floor.     “You stupid, because of you they would have killed me,” said Payal getting angry.     “No one can kill you, you are the queen of my heart,” said Nihil and cuddled her tightly and asked, “when was the last time you saw the queen?”     “At 3 am, when I went to fill the water jug in her room,” said Payal, breaking the hug.     “At what time, they see the body?” he asked, playing with her hair and she said, “6 am.”      “Did you notice anything suspicious in her room or outside her room?” asked Nihal and walked towards the Queens’ room.     “Nihal, two of our maids are missing,” said Payal.     “When did you observe that?” asked Nihal, observing the room.     “When I was making arrangements to shift the Queen’s body downstairs, I observed they were missing and I ordered others to search for them, but they were not able to find them,” said Payal and saw something on Queen’s bed and said, “what is this?” and took the piece of torn cloth from the bed.     Nihal looked at the cloth for some time and asked, “where is the king?” and walked towards his room.     “Nihal, please don’t come to any conclusion before you get a solid proof,” said Payal following him.     “Thank you for your piece of advice, I can take a lead from here, you can leave,” said Nihal and entered the King’s chamber.     “Nihal, I was expecting you only,” said Vikram.     “Your friend,” said Nihal.     “Get hold of him and instruct Pawan to start the last rituals,” said Vikram with a stoic face.     Vikram came downstairs wearing white dress and saw that everything was ready and turned towards Nihal and he came running to him and bowed his head in front of him and said, “King, they captured him.”     “Hang him in front of everyone when the pyre is set on fire,” said Vikram and he nodded his head as okay and went away from there.     Vikram came near Naina's body and looked at her for some time and said, “I hope I am not doing injustice to you. I am sending your murderer with you, you can punish him the way you want,” and wiped off his tears.     Vikram looked here and there and called Payal and asked, “where is her personal maid?”     “King, we are searching for her, after giving the information that Queen is no more, she disappeared from the palace,” said Payal lowering her head.     Evil smirk played on his face and he looked at Naina’s dead body and winked.         All were busy making arrangements and Vikram was standing there looking at the arrangements. Nihal came near him and said, “your friend wants to meet you and he is saying it is his last wish.”     Vikram thought for some time and started to walk towards the ground where his execution arrangements had been made and cleared his throat.     “King, I didn’t do anything, please leave me,” said the man and Vikram turned towards Nihal and said, “I think his last wish of listening to him was granted, now make arrangements to hang him,” and walked towards the pyre.     “King, I am sorry for everything, please leave me, I have small kids,” said the man, but Vikram didn’t turn towards him.     Priests were chanting mantras and Vikram was just looking at the pyre without any expression. After some time one priest came and gave the long stick with burning material and asked him to set the pyre on fire.     Vikram walked towards the pyre and turned towards Nihal and then towards the pyre and put the fire to it and Payal came to him running and said something in his ear.     Vikram looked at her shocked and ran towards his men and took two knives and threw one towards the person to be hanged and the other towards the man standing behind Pawan.     Nihal and Pawan looked at him shocked and Nihal ran towards the man and untied his hands and removed the black cloth from his face.     Vikram came near him and said, “you got saved because your wife gave witness that you were with her the whole night as your kid was suffering with high fever,” and walked towards Pawan and said, “when you know that he is the husband of Padma, who was missing, then why didn’t you take him in your custody?”     Pawan started sweating and said, “King, I really don’t know his wife was missing, nobody informed me about her missing.”     Vikram turned towards Payal and she nodded her head as yes and said, “I didn’t think of spreading the information that our maids are missing, so I kept the information to myself and shared only with Nihal.”