"The King is dead! The KING IS DEAD!"
A scream rang through the Concubine Hall as Nisha threw herself to the floor in grief. "No, this can't be!" Tears streamed down her face, ruining the make-up her handmaidens had spent hours trying to perfect.
The echo of the King's death being announced continued, as the announcers went down the hall. Earlier this evening, a meeting had been scheduled to hold in this hall, and they had all spent hours waiting for the Queen to finally attend to them. Now the sun had gone into hiding and the King's death was being announced.
How annoying! She had missed dinner for this stupid meeting.
Nisha's tears hit the roof as her hand maidens tried to pull her to her feet while her wailing heightened. But the sound of another concubine's tears threatened to overshadow hers. Through her grieving, she peeked one eye open to see who was responsible for this better performance.
Of course, it would be Mistress Ironi, always trying to outshine her.
Nisha sprung up and came crashing down immediately, thrashing around as her hand maidens tried to console her.
"Milady, please—-"
"Milady—-"
"My husband is dead! My husband!" She looked around at the crying concubines. "Our husband!" Then she turned to her handmaidens, "We never even got a chance to be together." She turned to her maidens, tears streaming down her face. "All my life I have waited for him, and now that it is finally time, he is deaddddddd!"
"Mistressssss!" They replied back in tears.
"I must see him. I must see my husband. I must be by the side of his majesty. Take me to him, I can barely walk." She ended on a note of another round of tears.
The two maids nodded quickly, helping her to her feet.
But the doors to the Hall were thrown open and for a second, every concubine halted in their grief.
"Your Majesty!" They all bowed, crying again.
The Queen looked at them with disdain. Who wouldn't? King Rarg was the most promiscuous King to ever rule the Kingdom of Suranavi. He married the Queen when they were both young and before he became King; many said they were in love. But after he was crowned, he became greedy and acquired as many concubines as he could have.
What could a person possibly use 86 concubines for? That man took in a concubine every year!
Some of them he had married since they were children. Like Nisha. She had been unfortunate to come to the castle at the age of five during the yearly festival of Suranavi and had become even more unfortunate to have impressed the King with her singing.
"She will grow to have a great voice. Beautiful too," the King had laughed and her father had nodded.
Next thing she knew, she was sent to the castle in luxurious dresses and in a carriage, while her mother wept and her father happily received boxes of gold.
Very stupid man!
All of them, stupid men!
He was right though. She grew up to have the most sonorous voice in Suranavi. Long black curly hair, brown beautiful eyes and a curvy body.
The marriage wasn't consummated on the night of her marriage, of course. She must attain the age of womanhood for that to happen. She attained that age today; 23. Earlier that day, the King had called her to prepare for him to come to her chambers. To think that his sickness hadn't erased her from his mind. He was counting down to that moment.
It was the moment when he pressed her lips to hers that she decided she would do anything to avoid her horrible fate. That act scarred her.
She ran to the temple as fast as her legs could carry her and wept. Her lips trembled in a vigorous prayer to Ma'ku that she wouldn't have to go into the bed of that wrinkly greedy man.
Her prayers had been answered too well.
On the very night of the consummation, while she wore the dress he had picked out for her, he was dead.
Dead!
It was getting very difficult not to laugh, so she cried, louder than Ironi too.
Her performance must be the best, after all, of all of them, she never got a chance to give him a child. Such a shame, a big shame.
"Ahhhhhh! My husband is dead! Our husband is dead, your Majesty!"
The Queen raised her hand and silence reigned.
"The King has gone to sleep with the ancestors."
Sniffles.
She smoothened her hands on her luxurious golden attire, the crown on her head, seated gallantly. Despite the wrinkles, it was obvious that she was a very beautiful woman.
Such a greedy King.
"We all love him, do we not?"
They all nodded.
"You must be hurt the most, Nisha." The Queen turned to her and Nisha nodded as she watched the Queen move closer and closer to her. "Of everyone here, you are the only one that hasn't experienced the full glory of the King." The Queen cupped her face. "Pure you are and you love him."
"Of course, your Majesty." Tears ran down her cheeks. "Everything I am belongs to the King. My heart, my voice, my body, all of me; for I love him."
The Queen wiped her tears away.
"Indeed, then you must lead the ritual."
Ritual?
What ritual?!
"Fear not. In the beyond, you shall experience the King's full glory."
Nisha froze in confusion.
What was she talking about?
Had the death of her husband driven her to madness?!
"You will be going with him." The Queen announced to the room. "We are all going with him!"
WHAT?!
That was a tradition that had died a long time ago! Killing the King's Queen and his concubines was a tradition long buried.
By Ma'ku, she did this!
Such an evil woman!
She wanted to die with her husband and now they must all die?!
Was this her revenge?
Tears consumed the room again and of everyone, Ironi cried the loudest. Ironi was the closest concubine to the Queen, now her grief made sense. She must have known about the Queen's plan.
"Will you still lead the Ritual, my Sweet? You know, it is best that he is led by your voice that he fell in love with."
By Ma'ku, she would kill this woman!
Nisha bowed. "It is my duty, your Majesty. I fully accept."
Well, many didn't accept. They started arguing and fighting to escape but the Heir, the Queen's oldest son, stormed in with guards that restrained them and started leading them outside the room.
Wait, their graves were prepared already?!
She had experienced nothing with her life and now she would die? What of the pleasures written in those books she had stolen and read in secret? What of the happy butterfly feeling that they claimed consumed the pits of their bellies? What of the happiness they claimed took over their hearts and sent them beating so loud that they could hear it in their ears?
What of love? What of happiness? Would she never experience all of that? Not even a little bit?
Think, Nisha! Think!
"Follow me, My Sweet." The Queen said.
"I would like to change my attire. I have ruined this one with tears and my face with grieving. I beg of you, my Queen. I want to look my best for the King."
The Queen looked at her for a moment, then nodded. "You remain pure in all you do. Make haste. The guards shall lead you to the Grounds when you are done."
Nisha kissed her hand and hurried off to her room. When the guards wanted to come in, Nisha stopped them. "Even in death, the King must be honored. Are you planning to look upon his naked concubine?"
Taken aback by the question, they apologized and stayed outside.
Her hand maidens shut the door and they lead her to her wardrobe.
"You shall be greatly missed," They wept.
Idiots, why would they ever think she would die without a fight? All these years together and they still didn't know her?
Quickly she grabbed a vase and slammed it against their heads. They hit the floor with a thud and passed out.
"Forgive me but this is for the best," she whispered before slipping away into the wardrobe and closing it firmly behind her to slip into the hidden passageway she had discovered existed in the room many years ago.
If they knew, they would have helped her escape but then if they were caught, they would be killed but this way she would escape and her maidens would have no hand in it.
Nisha ran through the passage as fast as she could, the dark didn't stop her, she had gone through this passage so many times now, she could run through it blind.
No matter what happens tonight, one thing was certain. She wasn't dying tonight and definitely not for any King she never even liked.
Quickly, she found herself in the market place. Not many knew her as the King's concubine, he had too many for them to know them all. Also, she never introduced herself as such. Another thing was that they were way too busy gossiping about the death of the King to notice anything else. Having slipped into male attire that she had stolen from someone's clothing lines, discarded all her jewelry, wiped away the make-up off her face, given her hair a terrible trim and attached a false beard to her chin and slightly above her upper lips, she would certainly be hard to recognize.
Guards poured into the market place.
"Find her!"
What?!
They knew she escaped already?! She was planning to follow the next trading boat but now—-
"Have you seen this woman?" A guard asked and she shook her head immediately, and started walking away but then another guard stopped in her tracks and looked from the painting in his hand to her face. Only then did she realize that they had her in every possible disguise including the one she was in right now.
The chase began and she ran as fast as she could into the place no one in their right minds would even run into.
The Lone Cave.
It was rumored that nothing had ever gone in there and returned.
"Mistress. You will not dare." They said as she turned to go into the cave.
She scoffed. Did they really think that she would go with them? Be buried alive for a man that stole her life away from her?!
By Ma'ku, they were fools!
"If you do this, your parents will take your place!"
Parents?
Her mother died from the grieve of her being given away a long time ago. Her father was the only one who lived.
"Tell him…" she yelled, panting, "to wear green. The King likes it!" With that, she ran into the cave, leaving everyone else in shock.
The Lone Cave was dark and quiet. But then, a buzzle of light formed right behind her and started pulling everything around it into it like a small tornado. She tried to escape, but the force was too great, And she was swallowed by this strange ball of light, thoughts filled her mind.
Well, that was one way to die.
Honestly, anything way was a better
way to go as long as she didn't die for—-
No!
Who was she lying to?!
"No! Let me go! I don't want to die!" That was the last thing she said before she vanished…
…Or died.
Who knows?