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ARYA and her guards finished up with Rina and went back to the palace, forgoing the meeting she was in, when Meda called.
As soon as she alighted, a maid rushed up to her.
“Welcome Your Grace”, she bowed.
“Speak!”
“The Elders In Council are here to see you Your Grace, they are at the throne room waiting as we speak”, she said.
Arya made a face.
“What did they say they are here for?” She asked.
The maid mumbled, knowing nothing to reply. Arya understood and immediately dismissed her, after all, she was only a maid and wouldn’t know anything about that.
She turned to Dean and instructed some words to him, then walked into the palace, and straight to the throne room.
As she approached the room, she heard the men talking and arguing at the top of their voices, hmph, she scoffed.
The guard by the door opened and she entered. She slowly walked into their midst and they all got up.
“Bonafide Elders In Council of the great Shimla kingdom”, she hailed, “greetings”, she added, raising up her staff in accordance.
“Greetings Your Grace”, they replied.
She nodded and went to sit on her seat, beside the throne.
“You may sit”, she said to them and they sat.
“Okay, to what do I owe this visit this beautiful evening?” She asked and crossed her legs.
Elder Sachin, the head of the Elders In Council, spoke up.
“Rani, we are obviously not happy about the development in the palace. For a very long time now our King, King Neel has been in the hospital battling what we do not know about. The Prince, who is supposed to be around in his stead has gone into exile, no one has seen or heard anything from him. Where he is, we don’t even have an idea. Rani we are tired, we are tired of being in a kingdom without a King nor a Prince. I hope I am speaking the mind of everyone here?” He asked as he concluded.
“Sure you are Sachin, sure”, they replied in unison, nodding their heads in affirmation.
All the while, Arya smiled as she listened to them complain, she already expected it was this. Then she spoke up.
“Okay, so what do you want done? Profer a solution”, she said.
The cabinets glanced at themselves, no one has a solution, infact, they had actually come so she could tell them where they were.
“Rani, we actually expect you to know about the Prince’s whereabouts, or if you don’t, let’s begin the search for him. As for the King, he should be taken to a better hospital, maybe the hospital he is, aren’t doing their job”, Sachin spoke again.
Arya smiled so broadly.
“My husband is okay where he is, he will be fine I know that. As for my son, he would surely be back trust me, I know my son and the kind of thing he is capable of, he will be back”, she said.
The cabinets appeared unsatisfied with the reply she gave. They were expecting her to take it serious as they did.
“Well my Elders, I think this meeting is ended now”, she said and got up, “I have serious things to attend to”, and she began walking away, leaving them all in bewilderment.
“What could be more serious than this right now?” One of the elders rhetorically muffled the question.
She got to the door and halted, then turned back to them.
“I will ask the maids to bring you something, when you are tired, you know your way out, thank you”, and she left, leaving them in astonishment.
***
It was towards evening when Siddarth and Roy set out for the woods, carrying the baby along with them, still in the basket. Roy was the one who carried him.
Few hours ago, when the Queen of Shimla kingdom and her guards had entered their house with the baby, an aura enveloped him immediately, his heart instantly went out for the child. He felt the push and urge to save him.
Although he wasn’t residing at Shimla, he was a Shimla blood, and knew that this baby wasn’t an ordinary one, he needed to be saved order than killed.
So he instantly indicated interest to go carry out the task in the woods, so he could save him from there. But unfortunately, Roy was asked to go with him. He already knew what he was gonna do, no worries about that.
They had gone very deep into the woods when Siddarth stopped and began gazing around, Roy joined him.
He looked around for a while then turned to Roy.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.
“Let’s strike a deal”, he suddenly said.
Roy looked at him.
“Huh? What do you mean strike a deal? Bring the damn knife and let me do this shit”, he said.
Siddarth sighed.
“Calm down Roy. This is a little baby who knows nothing, he would probably be innocent of whatever he has been sentenced to, leave knife alone first”, he said.
“Okay, so, what do you intend doing?” Roy asked.
“Let’s save the baby Roy, just… give it out to someone and no one gonna know”, he said.
Roy’s mouth fell wide open.
“Are you out of your senses? No, are you loosing it now?” He asked.
Siddarth smiled.
“I am very well with my senses Roy”.
“Then why do you want to disobey boss’ orders? The Queen has paid us for this you know. Give me the damn knife”, he said and dropped the basket on the floor.
“Hold on boy, chill. No one gonna know about this for Christ sake, let’s save this baby”.
Roy laughed.
“I never knew you are this sympathetic, never knew you had a sympathetic heart. Look, if you won’t do this, then I will. Give me the knife”, he said and made to snatch the knife from his hands.
Siddarth reacted and dodged him. Roy laughed again.
“It seems you want this the hard way then”, he said and posed for a fight.
Siddarth laughed wryly.
“You are too small for me boy, I will defeat you within seconds. Just calm down and let’s do this amicably, no one gonna know”, he said.
Roy refused to give in, ignoring his threats and determined to win this. He took out a penknife from his back pocket and charged at Siddarth, who was rather off guard.
“You want me to disobey the boss, I rather die than do that”, Roy said, pointing the knife at him.
Siddarth eyes glistened at him.
“Die you have said, and die you shall. I’m sorry Roy, I tried telling you”, and in a flash, he dipped his left hand into his pocket and brought out a revolver, pointing it at him.
“Holy crap!” He exclaimed and made to grab the gun away from his hand.
Siddarth wasted no time, instantly, he released two bullets, and they landed on him, one sank into his forehead, the other on his outstretched right arm.
He fell down flat on the floor immediately, the red substance oozed out like tap.
Then as Siddarth stood watching him, he heard the sharp shrill cry of a baby and he instantly became at alert. He had totally forgotten about the baby within the few minutes he and Roy have been arguing.
He rushed up to the child and picked up the basket, trying his best to calm him down. The gunshots must have awoken him. He looked properly at the child and saw that his clothes were a little stained with the splash of blood from Roy, for his basket was close by.
Then as if on impulse, he looked around, there was nothing, nothing at sight. So he took the baby under a tree nearby and dropped him there, then began disposing off the body.
Having done that, he picked up the baby who by now, was drifting into sleep. He calmed down, he better do else, nothing won’t work out as planned again.
Now, he thought about where he was gonna take the baby to, for safety, and not to implicate himself, for he resolved to return to the gang immediately. The night was drawing nigh and nigh.
Intelligently, he resolved to keep the baby at the palace of the nearest kingdom to Shimla, which was Kuru. He was just gonna drop the baby at the front of the palace gate and then leave.
He walked far into the woods, taking the route he was so conversant with it, and in about an hour and few minutes, he bursted out onto a road.
From there, he crossed over to the other side and stealthily began walking towards a particular house, looking around as he did. As expected, there was just a few people around, who cared less giving him attention.
He got to the house and went in, came out few seconds later with a car key and boarded the Beetle parked at the front.
He got to Kuru at exactly 7:44pm. He parked somewhere around the palace vicinity and waited till it was 8:30 on the dot, when there was no one on the road, and he came out, carrying the basket.
He stealthily walked up to the gate and dropped the basket, then banged at the gate with all his might, then he took off straight to the car.
As he banged, the baby began crying out again and Siddarth watched from his hideout as the palace gate opened, and two people came out. Immediately, he zoomed off.