Drum beats were flooding air with thud sound and intense zeal was spreading across. Incandescent sun was illuminating Ritha's face with a beautiful glow while Eagle's queen was busy studying Ritha's looks through the shreds of her mask.

Dressed in an unusual maroon dress which was draped around her chest area with a beautiful golden blouse beneath, she stood out amongst the crowd. For a moment, she was lost in gaping at her. From her coloured clothes , gold jewelries around her neck and forehead to looks, everything was contradicting their culture's beauty parameter but yet, she was inexplicably beautiful. It felt like watching another dimension of elegance and beauty. She looked around the crowd and found everyone peeking a glance or two at Augustus's second wife.

Inspecting the beauty infront of her was the only way of overpowering her anger. Here she risked everything but those fools were yet to grace her with their presence. She looked angrily at Stephano who had no other option than lowering his eyes down in shame.

'What the hell are those three doing inside and what's taking them so long? Inside the palace, Master is omnipresent to threaten us and now this lady! She'll choke me to death.'

Stephano couldn't help but think so. Of course he wanted Eagles to rule but the task which they were assigned was not an easy riddle to solve. It was a huge challenge to be in enemy's cave and toss with his food and that was the exact scenario here for them.

All he could do at this moment was to pray that those three dunces (Balbina, Aelia and Luca) don't do something stupid.

🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂🍂

Remembering suspect's position in mind, Ritha's orbs slided around in search of Aquila but due to masqueraded faces, she couldn't find where she was. An exasperated sigh slipped from her lips because of Aquila's recklessness.

Rithambara understood the fact that it was a day of celebration but it takes only a pinch of carelessness to turn jovial day into mourning one and with so many enemies around, they can't risk it even a bit.She looked back at the man and still found him roaming his eyes in every direction as if searching for something.

Adjusting Justus in his arms , Marcus glanced towards Rithambara only to find creases of tension on her forehead while her eyes were transfixed on something.

"Your highness! I can see something bothering you? May I get to know what is it? "

The pause was so heavy that Marcus felt that Ritha didn't hear the question and he was about to repeat when Ritha moved her heated gaze from the suspect towards Marcus and spoke with an identified determination,

(Author's Note : here despicable red colour symbolises impure blood of the conspirators. Gosh! I was forever stuck on this line and kept pacing around to come up with a line to describe Ritha's mindset. Don't know how it is. 😅)

Marcus's expressions turned bedazzled while confusion was lurking on his face. He was about to ask for an explaination but Rithambara excused herself saying she needs to visit Cato and it was urgent.

Marcus yelled in hushed and absurd tone, "Your highness! Celebration is going on! What is so important at this merry hour? Kindly tell me where are you going..."

He wasn't able to complete his sentence because Ritha had already excused herself and stood aloof from coalesced people coming in direct range of the guy. Now, even the young man got aware of her eyes and shifted uncomfortably. He spoke something to men standing around him and Ritha understood that he was coming up with an excuse to run from there.

Her sister in laws and their husbands were so caught in the trap of jealousy by seeing Augustus that they didn't notice the drama. Marcus kept gaping at her retrieving fame and didn't know whether he should go behind her or not. He had Justus in his hands and whom could he ask to take care of him?

Few meters away from Luca, to the left side, Aelia was standing. Cladded in her signature black cloak and a point mask with feather, her wrinkled eyes had an evil glint in them. She was the oldest woman standing amongst the maid group but her shoulder wasn't slumped even a bit. Instead, her posture was straight like a date.

Beside her, Balbina was standing glancing at Luca once in a while. Since it was a day of celebration, everyone was granted the libality of dressing up in the way they want. Dressed in shimmering red and black gown, Balbina stood out amongst the crowd of plain dressed maids. Her mask was matching her exquisite gown but a desperate look adorned her face. She knew that their highness was waiting down and further delay would heighten their queen's anger. She hoped that everything goes according to their plans.

Suddenly, a loud trumpet echoed and a howling sound erupted once again. King Atticus flapped his hands like a bird summoning that workers of palace could go in one of the ballrooms and have few entertaining moments.

Enthusiastic chit chats echoed around and workers were eager to rush inside the ballroom which created a chaotic surrounding but a perfect opportunity for the Eagles trio.

Balbina and Aelia's eyes shimmered when they saw Rithambara looking suspiciously at Luca. They all knew that the Queen would not spare them if they fail to deliver a good news to them. So, without involving Stephano or Master in their plans they conspired to kill Rithambara and raise their status in Queen's eyes.

Luca intentionally made his injuries visible and played a suspect in Ritha's eyes. He smirked when he saw her eyes zoomed on his wounds.

Bobbling his head at Balbina and Aelia, he started moving towards one of the empty hallways where soldiers weren't deployed at a fast pace.

For Ritha, this mouse and cat game had prolonged way too much and it was frustrating for her.

Balbina nudged Aelia when she saw Rithambara running in Luca's direction. Taking out her sharp knives from garter, she slipped behind them and Aelia followed her.

Luca intentionally slowed down his pace when he reached midway of empty hallway so that Ritha could catch him. Just as he anticipated, he felt a surprisingly harsh pull on his left hand which compelled him to turn around.

Without beating around the bush, Rithambara had her eyebrows raised and asked in authoritive voice, "Remove your mask. "

Blood inside Luca's body freezed with fear at the lady's voice but it was too late to panic. He stood standstill without any commotion and prayed for Balbina and Aelia to come fast to his rescue.

"I said, remove your mask!" now Ritha's voice had lost it's calmness and harshness swirled it but to her dismay, this man didn't do so.

Her face was red due to extreme anger and she spoke for the last time in a warning tone, "To your acknowledgement, let me tell you, I'm Prince Augustus's wife and as a royal member of Florence family, I summon you to remove your mask. "

Ritha's temperature heightened seeing his audacity. He dared to disobey her and had guts enough to stand there unaltered.

Before Ritha could snatch the mask from his face, his head tilted to right side in order to look at something.

Ritha's reflexes compelled her to shift towards her left but before she could fully turn around, a sharp object pierced her waist. An unintentional agonized scream came of Ritha's lips and her knees wobbled due to extreme pain.

Before she could counter attack it, her wound got punctured on the same spot again.