Chapter 22: Chapter 22

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SARAFINA.

"Ammi !!" I scream, shaking her body. "Ammi !! Kripaya! Don't go please"

"She is gone already" I hear the queen say and my head whips up to her. Fury clouds my thoughts as I stare at her.

"You killed my Ammi" I said and stood up, my voice hoarse from tears. She moves back fear evident in her eyes.

"No Sarafina.. Don't think like that... I did not." She paused.

"You killed my Ammi !" I yell, instinctively my fist clenches.... Hard. She falls to the floor holding her neck.

"S..to..p" She chokes out.

"Stop" she chokes again. I don't understand because I am not doing anything.

"Unclench your fingers" I hear Abu say from behind me. I turn.

"What?"

"Unclench your fingers and reduce your rage... You are choking her unknowingly" He adds.

I unclench my fingers and take a deep breath. Queen Mila sighs as she stands up. "Clear the corpse" She says to a guard who had just entered.

I watch as they take her away.

My Ammi.... My Mother.

Appa is gone and just when I thought my life was finally falling into place, Ammi had to show up countering my initial knoledge of her being dead. But she is really dead now, and me? I am all alone.

All alone with no one here beside me... Not a father, not a mother, no one to call my own.

I swipe at my tears angrily and turn to Queen Mila, Ammi's words resounding in my ear. "Do not let hate blind you" I can still see her frail hands gripping mine as she said it. The look of pain in her eyes as life seeped away from her.

Then I conclude....

It is all because of her.. All because of this wicked woman standing before me.

I conclude...

I hate her, I hate Queen Mila. It is a final decision I don't want to argue. My eyes turn to Jamal still laying unconscious on the floor.

I want to help him even though I don't know how to, but I am torn between my sudden love for him and my instant hate for his mother.

I am fighting a battle within me... Struggling with my grieve. Ammi's words are still ringing im my ear, but I guess I am way past listening as I turn back and start to walk out.

"Sarafina please" I hear Queen Mila's voice...

"Don't stop her" Abu says... She is breaking down but I don't stop. I walk out quietly from her chambers.

Pooja is still standing outside when I get out, she pulls me into a hug and patted my back. It is obvious she heard everything that happened. "Let's go somewhere quiet" she says.

I really need quietness now, so I nod and follow her as she draped her hands over my shoulder.

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"You should forgive" Pooja says after we sit in silence for almost half an hour. I chuckle humorlessly.

"Really? Forgive? I don't think I am cut out for that" I say.

"You don't know the whole story, that's why you are like this"

"I know she killed my mother, what's more to know?" I snap.

"She didn't plung a knife to her side, did she?"

"Why are you on her side?" I ask curiously.

Pooja shrugs. "I'm on no one side, I'm only stating the obvious" she says.

I scoff. "She signed her death sentence, I don't need to know who plunged the knife... If she had not signed it, Ammi won't be dead" I yell the last part.

Pooja shakes her head. "That's where you get it all wrong Sarafina... They would have killed Naja even without her orders, because Naja is ruin to their plans"

I raise my brow. "What are you talking about"

"There is more where this came from... There is a kind of coup going on in the palace, it has been on for over twenty seven years"

"Coup? Twenty seven years?, what kind of coup take that long?" I'm as confused and lost as I can get. "Elaborate more" I tell her.

"First you should know the connections. Salmar...."

"My Appa?" I cut her in.

"Yes your Appa... He was best friends with Forbes the king and Maximus his brother"

"What? That's...." I trail off.

"Absurd.. You can say that again, but their circle was completed by Mila, Naja and Kayla"

"The ones I know?" I asked, still confused.

"The ones you know... They were all friends and became more than friends. Forbes for Mila, Salmar for Naja and..."

"Kayla for Maximus?" I offer. She shook her head. "At that time... Kayla and Maximus could not be matched together... Then things started to roughen up when Kayla developed feelings for Forbes or maybe she was actually jealous of Mila because Mila was going to be Queen.. She tried to seduce Forbes but failed and then she got annoyed and teamed up with Maximus who was jealous of his brother getting the throne and not him" she stopped.

I take a deep breath, digesting all what she had just said. I am shocked but I don't show it. "Go on" I tell her.

"Mila then cheated on Forbes with a man called Sahej, she had a daughter for him" her voice broke at the name. I don't make a comment.

"And Naja's mother got to find out about it.."

I remembered what the Queen said. "So she killed her?" I offered.

"Yes, she killed her and also killed Sahej... Kayla killed Naja's apprentice one of which was Naja's sister and framed Forbes because he rejected her, Forbes Father took the blame and Naja cursed his third generation or so they thought"

I started putting the pieces together. "So the curse was not really because of the apprentice's death but because of my grandmother's death" I said.

"Exactly!

" Naja tried to stop all of them but they ended up getting her banished from Zedora... Hence her fake death... With Naja out of the way Maximus set to work, he had to have the throne to himself and pass it on to Jafar... "

"Jafar??" I can't believe it.

"Jafar his son, so he had a perfect plan and used you as a bait without knowing you are the Sheba... He didn't know until later"

"How was I used as a bait?"

"Kayla sent you out of the house the day you saw the prince... The prince's coachman was paid to take the route where you would take... You met the prince and was arrested... Jafar had to help you and threaten the king of exposing his son's secret in front of the elders making him change his mind. Thereby planting doubt's in the elders mind... What is the king hiding? Will be their questions"

I won't cry, I won't cry but the tears spill..m. Jafar used me.

"He was being kind to me, I didn't know...." My voice broke..

Pooja patted me lightly. "You couldn't know... It is okay"

There is a minute of silence before Pooja finally speaks up. "It is likely Maximus spills the truth about Jamal in the next council meeting, you have to help him before then".

" I sigh. I don't know my answer yet but I don't say it.

"We should leave" I say instead. Pooja grabs my hand as I stand.

"My real name is Mohinj, I am Mila's daughter for Sahej"

I smile, I am not shocked... I have had enough shockers for a day that I don't flinch at her confession.

But there is one thing I want to know.

"How do you know all this?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Not only you has special abilities"

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