Chapter 28

Malin, overwhelmed by pain and ashamed of what he did, ran out of the palace. He couldn't bear seeing Revina after what he did to her, after the hurtful things he told her. So he ran and ran until he could run no more, until he could go no further, until his chest hurt. He couldn't understand why it happened, how it could have happened. His love was for Revina and only for her did his heart beat. His existence was entangled with hers, his fate intertwined with hers. How could this have happened, how could he betray her that badly, that heartlessly.

He stopped by a river that was a bout fifteen metres wide and from the upstream, a small waterfall whirred downstream. There were huge stones by the river sides, brown sand beaching the river where the water kissed the land in feeble waves. Just over the banks of the river was a green smooth grass with plenty of trees scattered all over the place. His chest thumping faster than normal, Malin sat on a big flat stone and buried his head into his palms. He couldn't comprehend anything, he couldn't fathom anything.

His shirt became wet with the tears that couldn't stop rolling from his eye. Through the curtain of his tears, he looked upstream and saw Revina, looked downstream and saw Revina, looked in front of him and saw Revina. She was everywhere, crying and tearing apart, hurt by his heartlessness. He cried more as he wished upon wishes that he could be able to turn back the hands of time and make right everything he had done, undo all the harm he had caused. His heart was bleeding, his body was tearing apart. "I hurt her, I hurt her!"

He picked himself up from the stone and walked to a raised ground on the bank of the river where grass had beautifully spread. He rested his head on the bark of a tree while sitting with his feet spread, looking up into the sky as if searching for answers in the clouds. He removed his shirt and threw it down to the grass, his mind drifting from one option to the next without success. Then he thought he heard something, something that sounded like Revina's voice, something as musical and as sweet as Revina's voice. But in his confusion, he shrugged it off. Maybe his ears were imagining things. But when he heard it again, he jumped to his feet and looked around searchingly, his eyes widened as if trying to capture the whole area in one glance.

Then he saw her. Standing behind him next to a tree with her hands dropped to her thighs, grabbing on to her trouser as tears dropped from her eyes, Revina was looking at him with an expression he couldn't understand. He couldn't tell whether she was mad at him or not, he couldn't tell whether...he couldn't tell. He felt the urge to run to her and embrace her so tightly and tell her he was very sorry. But he didn't want to hurt. Maybe it would offend her even more. He had already hurt her enough. So he just stood there and stared too, cried too. He just stood there and absorbed her pain, swallowed it in lumps of saliva and spewed it in drops of sweat and tears. He just stood there and loved her, loved her until he could take it no more and without caring about anything other than her, went down to his knees before her and poured his heart out.

Revina ran to him and grabbed him, raised him to his feet and embraced him. They cried all together in each other's shoulders like little children. Their heartbeats rhymed, their breathing matched as they clung to one another in a show of never letting go.

"It's not your fault," she said, finally breaking the embrace and looking at him in the eye through the specs of her tears. "Don't blame yourself Malin, it's not your fault."

"It is princess," he replied, trying to control his tears, trying to calm the trembling in his voice. "I betrayed you so badly my princess. Please forgive me. I don't know what came over me. I'm truly sorry Revina."

"There is nothing to forgive Malin. It wasn't you who hurt me. You can never hurt me that way, I know you are not that kind of a person. It was the one who poisoned you that hurt me. I love you and you love."

"What do you mean princess?"

"You were not yourself when you did those things. You were acting under a spell."

"What? A spell?"

"Yes my prince, Pell enthralled you."

"Pell did..." He walked back a few steps and looked away into the distance as he let her words sink. "She enthralled me?"

"She did Malin, she enthralled you," she replied as she walked closer to him, looking at him with tenderness to reassure him of his innocence. "There was nothing you could have done. You are her victim Malin so don't beat yourself. I don't blame you for doing what you did."

At first he didn't know how to react. Some part of him wanted to be happy while another part of him was still unable to shake the shame from his heart. Knowing that he was a victim of a spell made his heart feel lighter but knowing also that Pell could enthral him in such a manner broke his heart even more. He had believed he loved her, he had challenged the Emperor for her, he had hurt Revina because of her. All for what, a farce! He cursed the day he met Pell. She almost ruined his life, almost ruined everything for him and almost destroyed Revina. She was worse of a monster than Mamadu because Mamadu was an enemy you could see but she was an enemy you couldn't tell.

Even so, he still felt responsible for what happened. Somehow he thought he could have prevented it. Maybe he had led her on and made her believe there could be something between them, maybe he gave her the wrong notion. But that didn't justify what she did neither did it justify how he hurt Revina.

They held each other as they watched the river flow by, appearing from a bend and disappearing into a bend, peacefully and undeterred. The trees swayed slowly as the clouds parted from the sun, leaving the sun space to show it's dominance. It was midday and it shone with vigour and intensity, forcing them to move to a shed where they sat together, Malin spreading his legs and Revina sitting between, leaning backwards on his chest as he crossed his hands around her stomach. He hadn't fully healed but the fact that Revina was at peace and happy melted his heart. He loved her. She loved him. Why, they both didn't know, how, they couldn't tell, when was immaterial. Love is timeless and cannot be measured by the length of time or the settings of the sun. It's a mystery treasured most for its unpredictability and for the sweetness it brings to the hearts of the lovebirds. But she wanted to know at least one answer to the mystery of love.

"Why do we love each other this much yet we haven't known each other for long? We just met," she asked, looking at his eyes with a sumptuous gaze.

"I don't know princess," he replied as he kissed her on the right cheek and rubbed her shoulders with his hands. "But this is what I know. I'll die without you, life will be meaningless without you. All I know princess is that I love you and my heart beats only for you, today more than ever."

"I love you too my prince, more than I love me," she said as she pressed his hand into hers, pulling him closer to her. "My heart beats only for you too my prince and I'll pay any price jut to be with you, in this life or the next or the one after."