The King’s women were all inside the woman’s hall jabbering, and the atmosphere was gladdened; it had been a long that they had this kind of environment, anything they held this gathering, it was always filled with conflict, Jealous, covetousness, and they end fighting.
“It’s good to have a good leader as the mother of the country, I can’t remember when we had this kind of happy join together without anyone telling us she is more than us”
One of the concubines called Kira said, her eyes fixed on Xena as she let out the word. She directed the word to Xena and all the concubines knew the word was directed to her, every one of them knows how pompously she behaved among them.
Picking up the cup, Nneka sipped the tea in her front and dropped the cup, her lips brushed with a smile, hearing how Kira’s tongue lashed Xena.
She had always known that bringing Xena to the king’s women’s gathering was the best place to torture her, she had gathered the meeting because of her.
She had plans under her sleeves, she wanted to water the ground before she finally showed her the true boss. Not only that, but she concluded that destroying Xena’s image in the presence of the king was the best way to make the king discard her and turn to her.
“All of us here are the same, even I, the queen, we are all called king women and that makes us one” Nneka muttered
Under her response lies the truth. We aren’t the same, I’m different from all of you. You are gifted to the king as a toy, but he married me legally, he paid my bride price.
Her mind screamed out to her ears alone.
“Thank you, queen mother, indeed you are a mother” Kira hyped the queen, without taking her disdain glanced off Xena.
Xena hummed and cleared her throat, she understood the reason behind the sudden meetings, she was aware that the Queen was behind everything just to make other concubines insult her.
She shook her head in pity, looking at the queen, she thought of how she will retaliate for the embarrassment she had just caused her.
She clenched her fist angrily, her blood boiling crazily looking at the smiling face of the queen, she shouldn’t be smiling in her presence, she should be afraid of her.
Just then she, Ahmed.
“My queen, you haven’t told us the reason for this meeting, I have some errands to run for the king and I want to avoid delaying it. Although the king won’t chastise me if I do, he hates reprimanding me still I intend to avoid misusing the opportunity, he is the king, and he is my priority”.
Her lips sent a dagger into their heart, although she was not ready for them, she sent it as a preamble. Her mind is somewhere else and can’t wait for the queen to send her away.
She seemed uncomfortable, her mind was lagging on what Jeanne said; she wanted to find out about everything, and she couldn’t afford her lie to blow off.
Kira hissed just as Xena finished speaking.
“My queen. I don’t see any reason why concubine Xena should be among us anymore. She is too pompous, and she always thinks she’s better than us all just because the king favored her” Kira said sadly,
It always saddened her whenever she remembered that the king hadn’t touched her for once, but always touched only Xena. This made them feel like killing her whenever she sighted her, and she could no longer hide the feelings, it burnt her spine.
Moreover, she remembered vividly how she begged her father to give her to the king, even when her father was against it, she pressured him until he fulfilled her wish.
Who would have thought that a pretty woman like her won’t have the king under her palm, as she thought then?
“Did you just insult me?” Xena yelled, standing to her feet, her eyes seeming with rage, her hand traveling to Kira, before she accomplished the mission of the hand, Sally sprang to her feet, and stood in the middle, stopping Xena from hitting her.
It led to a commotion between both of them, Nneka remained in her seat, and she glared at sally for stopping them from fighting, she wanted them to fight.
The noise continued until Sally called her name. She thought of stopping them, or else sally might find her weird since she was portraying herself as a peacemaker to the concubines.
Then Nneka tapped her hand on the cup, bringing everyone’s attention to her. She flashed them with a pretentious smile and calmed everyone down, just like magic, the commotion seized and Kira returned to her seat.
“I don’t want anyone here to fight, I called us all here today for an important reason” She started.
“I gathered us here today to make amends to the palace rules. We’re the pride of the society as the king’s women, I want the king to be proud of his woman, I would rather not see or hear that any one of us trespass the palace’s rules; fighting, lying, gossiping are prohibited, anyone who goes against it will feel my wrath” She announced and discharge them all.
But before Xena left her presence, she passed a warning to her, but in a joking tone.
“Concubine Xena, the rules don’t exclude you even if you are the king’s favorite. Don’t trespass against the rules. I’m in charge, not the king” it sounded more like a warning to her.
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Evans was on a horse with Aurora going to the king’s private mansion,
Aurora laid a different pillow on the bed inside the prison, hoping no one will find out until she came back. She should have been afraid, but she wasn’t.
She thought of convincing the king to find out the truth before he will decide on sending Aurora to the city for the people to inflict pain on her.
As a masked girl, the king would hear her out, but as Aurora, the king won’t stand her presence.
The horse jerked as they finally reached the mansion, it was built in an uninhabited area, there were no houses around the area, and it was a bushy area.
They hopped down from the horse, and Evans tied the horse to a tree, he looked at Aurora with a worrisome expression, he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t.
He swallowed back and pointed a direction for Aurora to follow, wanting her to go inside and wait for the king. Just as Aurora was going, Evans ran towards her and held her hand, and she faced him.
“Are you sure you will be okay?” He sounded in a friendly tone, just as he was to her before the late king died.
Seeing back his old friend, Aurora couldn’t hold herself but to jump on him and hugged him tightly, tears sprinkling down her eyes as she recollected their friendship memory.
“I will be fine, Evans, I promise you. I have to save myself and save the king from the man who lied against me, there is something fishy about him. And the only way to do it is this way.
He cares about the masked girl and would her wish” Aurora explained before she finally released Evans from their friendship embrace.
“I’m sorry Aurora for everything have done against you,” Evans said with a sincere expression.
“Don’t be, you are following the king’s order” Aurora said and put the mask on her face.
She smiled at Evans and muttered the masked girl, and both burst into laughter as the masked girl strode into the king’s private mansion.