The Queen Of The(His) Heart(s)

chapter 18: tere bina jeena💕

" What are u telling harkha begum, what happened? Why r u shouting like this? " Salima shot questions seeing harkha cry....
But she is just crying without telling anything....
Ruqaiya lost her calm as she was not able to find him too in this chaos...
She asks Gul, " Gul, I am ordering u to tell me what happened here? "
Gul says, " Begum sahiba, shehensha is nowhere to be found "
Salima replies, " What? "
Harkha says, " I was with him last night salima begum, but when I woke up for the morning prayers, I was not able to find him.... And I waited for the sun to rise.... And still now he has not returned..... "
Gul says, " The soldiers searched in the surrounding area too, but he is not found my lady"
Ruqaiya was not able to take it all in one go.... She is both confused and guilty, her vision becomes blurry, and a thud! Was heard.....

When she gained consciousness, she could see salima sitting by her side....
" Salima begum, what happened? Did he come back? "
" Ruqaiya... The search is still on"
Ruqaiya's eyes becomes gloomy, " Why did he leave like this? "
Harkha enters from nowhere, " U don't know why? I will tell u then, u told him to die right? And he obeyed you! "
Ruqaiya says, " That was a thing out of anger, and what r u telling harkha begum, he had gone somewhere but he is alive! "
She replies, " I am losing hope ruqaiya, it's afternoon and still he is missing, the army is not able to find him, if something happens to him, then I will say you r guilty of it! "
And harkha cries.
Ruqaiya is upset and tells, "salima begum, yeh nahi ho sakta.... He will never kill himself, he is alive, I know that.... "
Ruqaiya speaks so and so and salima calms her down.... " Ruqaiya, I understand the pain, but we can't do anything, we can only pray"
Ruqaiya says, " No I will go to search him... U ll come with me"
Salima nods and both prepares to leave....

They come back that evening...
Salima says, " Where would he go? "
Ruqaiya says, " Even I am searching the answer"
She asks the soldiers who returned, " Did u find him? "
One replies, " No padshahi begum! He is not visible in the surrounding areas , but we did not have time to search in one place, but since it's evening we need more soldiers to search the forest which is some kilometers from here"

Ruqaiya thinks for a while and something strikes her, she exclaims, "The lake"
Salima asks, " The what? "
Ruqaiya says, " Salima begum, it's a story, leave it, we ll go along with these soldiers to search him? "
Salima nods.
Ruqaiya asks the soldier, " There is lake in the middle of that forest, right? "
He replies, " Yes, there was begum sahiba, but recently no one had known it as the path is jerky... "

They set off to the forest along with harkha begum as she was adamant in coming along....
Ruqaiya says, " Salima begum plz look for any lake around here... I am sure he will be near the lake"
Salima replies, " Sure... But why do u think so? "
She says, " There was a lake here some years ago.... It was before the establishment of forts in agra.... We were very fond of that place, that during the initial years of  our marriage we would spend more time there..... But now I don't know it's exact location...... I hope he had gone there! "

All the three along with three groups of soldiers went in search for the emperor.... All promised to return at a point after sometime so that no one would be lost.....

Ruqaiya was searching everywhere, atlast she found the lake, it is not the same as it was.... There is more water now......
Then she looked at it clearly and sighed out in relief as she has finally found her man.....
The emperor was lying down and staring at the beautiful round moon at the sky, with a golden dagger he was holding close to his chest......
It's her dagger which he probably had taken along while coming from agra.....

He just simply stared and when ruqaiya approches him, he feels something and gets up and looks back in her direction..... She froze there as he saw her...... Her eyes welled up with tears waiting to break in anytime...... He was speechless as she found her way to him even after all his wrongdoing......

He approaches her and only some distance between them.... He stops and asks, " How do u know I was here? "
She replies holding back, " What do u think u were doing? Planning to run off leaving behind your wives, mother and kingdom? "
He asks, " That's not the answer.... U told me to die.... But I know I cannot kill myself as my god hate it.... U hate it... So I thought I would go far away from ur eyes..... U would live happily and I also know that u would take care of my kingdom... Am I right? "
She replies with her brave yet broken voice, " Aapke bina jeena, shayad maut se kam nahi! "
With that tears fall from her eyes and he after hearing this is happy.....
He says by taking her hands in his, " I am sorry, u have sacrificed everything that a woman could, I will never let any misunderstanding come between us... "
She replies, " I pray to God that, May death seperate us! "
With that she hugs him tight, he reciprocates with the same love, holding the grip more tightly, they did not want to lose each other after all....

Many a times in life ruqaiya wished her life was different, she wished her life could be like a normal shehzaadi.... With her husband only for her.... Or she thought to live as a normal woman who could live her life with the man of her dreams only for her.....

He too always thought about the sacrifices his wife had made in the past allowing him to marry the princesses, to conquer their kingdom just for her love towards mughal sultanat.... And she is sacrificing something every day for the family's welfare..... He is grateful for what all she has been doing....

Deep inside them is their passionate love which has ignited their hearts with burning flame, from the time  both was married......... They strive to keep them growing with the same kind of affection..... Even after some years of marital togetherness, their relationship had got aged not their love for each other.....

Everytime when the conspiracy seperates them the destiny binds them even stronger than before.....

Both wanted to be in the same position in each other's embrace, for an eternity! They came to their senses after hearing voices of soldiers searching them.....

Hloo guys, how is the story going forward? Plz do tell ur comments in the comment section as they are valuable for me...... If u like the chapter, plz do vote it.....

Until then,
Always ❤