King Atanu was sitting on his throne, holding a
glass of wine while Marc was summoned in front of him. Atanu was informed that
Marc was a foreigner and was caught inquiring about him with a small girl and
was involved in fighting with a person of the city.
“Why are you here?” Atanu asked him.
“My lord, forgive me if I have done anything wrong.
I only wished to meet you. I have heard a lot about you. I am a traveller and a
writer and I wish to write about you. The world needs more rulers like you and
the people out there must know about you,” said Marc.
“Times are not good and we cannot put faith in a
foreigner. We have been betrayed several times and if anything goes wrong I
will be held responsible for putting so many lives in danger. You seem like a
nice person but I am afraid I cannot help you. You can stay here for the night
but you must leave early in the morning and never return to our kingdom,” Atanu
said firmly and asked the guards to take him to the guest room.
Tamina walked in as her eyes met Marc’s. She handed
him his bag and he didn’t say a word to her. He walked towards the guest room.
“Father,” Tamina said in a low tone.
“I have told you several times not to talk to
foreigners. Why did you bring him here?” Atanu was upset.
“I am sorry father but had I left him with the
people of our city they would have killed him,” she said.
“You remember what happened the last time we put
faith in a foreigner right? I hope you have learnt something from your
experience,” Atanu said and left.
Tamina stood there, thinking about her past. How
she ruined everything and almost brought her kingdom down and put many lives on
risk because she fell for a foreigner, who was nothing more than a pawn of
other rulers who wanted to dethrone Atanu.
Since that day, Tamina has kept her heart locked
for everyone. She never allowed anyone to come near her. She was afraid more
about her father and the people of the city and had vowed to her to keep
herself away from such distraction.
She has grown tougher since then and she has
forgotten about what love feels like. She has closed all the doors of her heart
and all she wanted to do was carry the legacy of her father. But after reading
the handwritten note by Marc, her heart felt something that it never felt till
now. She was amused at the fact that how she can get so easily drawn to
someone’s writing. But she admired the truth in his writings and she wished to
read more. But he will be gone tomorrow morning and she cannot meet him during
the night.
Tamina walked in to her room, she was tired and she
wanted to take a bath. But she wished to be left alone, so she asked the
helpers to leave her alone.
She sat down in front of the mirror and stared at
herself. She was not like this once, she reflected. There was a time when
Tamina enjoyed reading and jotting down her feelings in form of poetry. But
time has changed and so she has. Not that she didn’t feel like, but she
couldn’t.
And today after reading the handwritten note, she
couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was refreshing and at the same time painful
to learn about someone’s misery. Especially, when you are a misery.
She was taken aback by his words that claimed he
believed in true love and he shall wait for his one. Tamina smirked at the
thought of it, “how can someone be so pure?” She thought and dismissed her
thought.
“No one is pure. Everyone is here to take other’s
advantage,” she said to herself. She took off her clothes and walked in to the
bathroom. She filled the tub with water and relaxed herself by taking a long
bath. She wanted to wash away all the memories of her past but it kept coming
back. Though she had moved ahead, but every time her heart felt something, she
would put a stop to her feelings.
It felt as if she was still punishing her for
getting attracted to someone, who only cared about power and money. And every
single day she punished herself for she believed that it was because of her
mistake, her father had to suffer so much.
“But not all are like that,” she thought. But she
dismissed her thought immediately. She didn’t know why she was thinking about
all this, but she did know who was behind all this. And she wanted him to stay
for some more time. She had no clue why she felt about it the way she was
feeling, but something inside kept telling her to stop him. But she didn’t know
how.
Marc was lying on the bed and thinking about a way
through which he could convince King Atanu to allow him to stay in the castle.
He was here for a purpose and he wanted to fulfil it before leaving. But he
didn’t know the complexity of this kingdom, he didn’t know something has
happened here in the past, which has changed the people of Atanu.
But no one would tell him anything and he didn’t
know whom to ask. He took his bag and took out the note. He realised that it
was not folded in the same way how he had left.
“She read it,” he said to himself and smiled at
him. He remembered the moment she was returning his bag, her eyes were moist.
He was maybe mad at her for summoning him in front of her father and didn’t
notice. And now he knew that she read his note, and she liked it, liked it so
much that it brought tears to her eyes.
“Only she can help me to stay here,” he said to
himself. “But how?” he kept thinking. “I cannot meet her at this hour, if
someone sees me I am dead,” he kept thinking. “But I can take a chance,” his
mind said. “You will be dead,” his heart assured him.
He kept tossing from one side to the other side of
the bed. He knew he had only a few hours before the dawn breaks and he will be
thrown outside this kingdom by Atanu’s men. He got up immediately, took his bag
and peeked through the door, there were two guards outside his room. He cannot
fight them and he cannot bluff them either. They were tall and strong and wide
awake.
He opened the window, but he couldn’t figure out
which was Tamina’s room. Even if he jumps out of the window, he cannot find her
room. He didn’t know what to do, he kept his bag and went back to the bed.
“Let’s sleep. I will think about this tomorrow,” he
said to himself and he heard a murmur outside his room. He sat down on the bed,
he was nervous. “What if they decide to execute me?” he thought and grabbed his
bag.
The door creaked and entered a few guards, followed
by Tamina. One of the guard poked Marc and signalled him to get up as the
princess was here.
“You wait outside and give the room to us,” Tamina
ordered her guards. They obliged to her and shut the door from outside.
“I was thinking about you,” Marc said. Tamina face
was red, she didn’t like anyone talking with her like this.
“I am princess Tamina for you and I am not here to
make love to you,” she said.
“Why are you here anyway?” Marc asked her
irritably.
Tamina let out a sigh of relief. She walked towards
the window and said, “A few years ago, we were betrayed by a foreigner. Since
then my father has been extremely cautious about foreigners and he never allow
them in our city. I want to help you.”
“Why you want to help me?” Marc asked her.
“I have been living a nightmare since that
happened. I need my own freedom and that can happen only if my father realises
that not all foreigner are mean and they mean no harm for our city. If he is
able to gain that trust then you can do your work and at the same time, it will
help me to gain my freedom,” she said.
“You are doing this because you think if your
father allow me to stay here, he won’t budge you with these guards and all?”
Marc asked her and burst into laughter.
“He will kill me and lock you in the dungeon if he
came to know about the truth. I would rather live and write than die because
the Princess of Atanu has gone mad,” Marc said.
There was a brief pause. Tamina was thinking how to
make marc understand the reason why she was requesting him to do something for
her. She knew she was not telling him the truth and maybe that is why she
couldn’t be any more convincing. But she didn’t wish to tell him the truth
about her, after all she didn’t even know him.
“Very well then. Be ready. You will leave this
kingdom before the sunrise and if we see you here again, don’t expect any help
from me,” Tamina said and left.
A few hours later, Marc was escorted from the
castle. The guards were asked to drop him outside the city and make sure he
doesn’t return. Tamina was standing at her window, when he was leaving. She
stood there watching him go away. She had no clue why she tried to stop him.
She had no clue why she almost spilled the truth. And she had no clue why she
was awake only to see him once before he leaves.
Before going to sleep, Tamina walked into the guest
room where Marc had stayed. She sat on the bed, and she felt something
underneath the matt. She got up and put her hand underneath the mat, and it was
a piece of paper folded in a twisted way.
She unfolded the piece of paper and it was the same
note that she had read. Marc had left it for her.
Along with the handwritten
note, there was another one. She unfolded the piece of paper and started
reading,
"Does
it hurt?" The mind asked
"Yes,
it hurts. But it is only a phase, which will pass soon enough," replied
the heart.
"How
can you be so optimistic all the time?" The mind asked again
"Because
you are not helping and I can't let this soul to fall into another void because
of the fears that you keep generating every now and then," the heart
replied.
"I
am trying not to but there are times when I can't do much about it," the
mind said.
"Then
don't lose hope at least. Together we can make everything right. We just need
to be in sync and then see how things change," the heart replied.
"Hmmm...
I guess you are right," the mind said.
"I
am always but often the soul listens to you. Hope they had heard me, they would
never have been in this phase in the first place. But it is fine. We can still
make things right. Just hold my hand and walk with me through the storm that
lies ahead. Nothing will go wrong," the heart said and extended a hand
towards the mind. The mind this time grabbed it tightly.
She folded
the piece of both the papers and walked upstairs into her room. She took out a
small case, unlocked it and kept both the papers in it. The case had hundreds
of papers with her thoughts scribbled on them.
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