Patrani (The Chief Queen)

Mother in law

Aaryawati's (Veerti's) POV

"Aaryawati? What are you doing here? You were supposed to be at your maiden home right?" asked Her Majesty, Kamaladevi, who was also my Mother in law.

"Mother... I..." I stammered to provide her an explanation as she somehow magically produced keys to my prison and unlocked the door.

"Dare you people! If you dare to come out, I will slit your throat now!" I had to reluctantly shout at the prisoners who raised their hands up as defeat while I got out of the prison hurriedly and snatched the keys from my Mother In Law, Queen Kamaladevi and shut the prison.

I turned around to see her shocked expressions. Obviously, in the span of the last three years of my married life, she had never seen me getting angry or threatening three life sized dangerous prisoners or even raising my voice.

She then looked at my flat tummy and I knew it was the time for the explanation. But then I looked at the fourth opening and then looked at her questioningly. She looked at the floor sheepishly.

"If any of your told anyone about this tunnel, your families will be no more. Trust me." I threatened the three criminals and they simply nodded their heads in fear.

I grabbed the hand of my mother in law and we both went inside the tunnel, shutting the opening.

We both descended from the narrow stairs, me following her. She was guided by the steep stairs through her lantern that Sakhibhai had managed to arrange before closing the lid of the tunnel.

"Now now now.. I need explanation." Her eyes glowed under the tinge of yellow light, under the umbrella of blackness.

"Actually... I... " I tried to form coherent words, for a moment forgetting about the grave danger our kingdom was in. I was answerable to my mother in law.

"I know. You were a spy before your marriage and were trying to defend our fort, as Veerti." She simple declared the fact.

And I didn't know what happened next. My eyes released the waterworks that I had been holding for days. The guilt of cheating and lying to my family had burdened me but I had stored it somewhere back of my mind. And now, confronting it had made me vulnerable. I didn't speak anything but the tears betrayed me.

"Why do think I had insisted on my son marrying you, a plain looking woman whereas I could have fixed his alliance to a Princess belonging to more wealthy kingdom or better looks? Or why did you think that I had intentionally put the map in the old library, all out in the open for you to discover it?" She questioned.

And everything fell into pieces. She already knew about my true identity before I got married to her son. She made it convenient for me to discover the map and explore the palace so that I could overhear the Court and be an indirect part of it.

"I also knew that your pregnancy was fake. The Royal physician had been tending me for years. What made you think that she would lie to me?" Her eyes continued to stare at me while I fidgeted under the partial darkness.

"I was furious at first. You were already acting like a naive innocent woman since the day of your marriage. And then you had the audacity to lie about your pregnancy." She spoke up, her eyes spitting fire.

"I... I.. apologi... actually I did all that to save .." I tried to explain it to her.

"Save my son?" She cut me in between. "I knew that. That's why I acted upon all your lies. Because I knew that your intentions were pure. But your lies weren't." She looked disappointed.