Daughter of the Naga | Lesbian Story|

Chapter 79

I felt paralyzed under a thin silk cover, but I was still conscious of my surroundings. Amarisa's tearful whispers of my name and pleading words rang softly in my ears. Through my half-closed eyes, I saw her as if through the water, the way a fish would see the sun.

Her face was as luminescent as a pale silver moon. Her tears fell in a steady flow, but I could not wipe them. Everything seemed to move around me. I could see a blurry series of palace women standing in lines. Each held lit candles and glowing lanterns along a stone causeway.

They took me on a canopied litter, going past a small lotus pond then the main water moat of a lone island temple. In the middle of the island, the golden peak of a circular building rose high into the starless sky.

It was the same site Amarisa had introduced to me during our second outing. Rajyasri was an island temple of miraculous healing.

At night, the water that surrounded it looked like an ocean of black ink. I could dimly see two figures of Naga serpents with their heads and tails entwined. Their eyes glared fiercely at whoever wished to enter the temple.

They brought me through the golden-framed threshold. The ceiling looked as if from the high vault of a luminous cavern. After a while, they lowered my body onto a hard and cold surface. The bed seemed to glow in jade-green color.

"Mother," I whispered weakly.

The sound of trickling water reverberated from the stone walls. I could still hear music humming from the outside.

The whole chamber was cold and lit with a greenish ethereal glow. I smelled flowers and incense in the cold freshness of the icy air.

The place was so cold that I shivered. There was misty vapor brushing against my skin every now and then. Despite it all, my body still raged with high fever and felt limp with numbness.

"Nikita, my love," Amarisa's melodious voice sounded close by. I opened my eyes wider to find her. She was kneeling at my bedside and touching my face longingly. The princess sobbed and continued in teary broken words. "Was it not grief enough in my worried wait since you sailed away to sea? Now you returned to me and yet here you are in agony. Please be well soon and relieve me from my taunting sorrow."

I wanted to spare her beautiful face from those hateful tears, but my limbs were powerless and my voice was lost.

"Amarisa, dear," a male voice spoke, which surprised me since I didn't expect the King's company there. "You shall rest assured. If ever anyone was under the fostering care of the gods, it was her."

"We must leave the girl now, daughter," Queen Indradevi said, sounding poised and calm as ever. "Our ancestral spirit will soon respond to the offering and chanting hymns. There is no need for you to worry yourself sick too."

"But what if she won't be well again, mother? What if she's still hurting?"

"Hear us, good child," this time it was my mother who spoke. I knew by the sound of her voice that Amarisa's grief was tantamount to hers. "Doubt not the spirit of our holy land. Do entail in our prayers for her healing. I believe the Naga Spirit shall come in due time."

Amarisa reluctantly moved away from me. But before she did, her soft hand caressed my cheek one more time.

Then another set of gentle hands pulled the blanket over my limp body. A warm kind hand placed on my forehead. I could see my mother's face better now.

"O Spirit of the Naga, I pray to you, please save my beloved child," she said softly that only I could hear. "Be gracious and kind to me and bestow us the healing of your elixir. My daughter is terribly ill. I shall vow to you a yearly fast and handsome offering. May you answer my prayer now and restore her health."