The queen who rewote the ending

It was one in the morning, and Ishani's eyes were burning.

The desk lamp was the only light in the room. Now and then a car passed outside, and then everything went quiet again. A thick novel lay open in her lap. *The Queen of the Palace.*

"Just the last chapter," she told herself. She had been saying that for the past hour.

The story was set in the kingdom of Suryagarh. The heroine was Sanaya, innocent, beautiful and loved by everyone. The hero was Prince Rudransh, who adored her. And the villain was Ishani, the prince's childhood friend, who poisons Sanaya out of jealousy and gets caught in the end.

There was one more name that made Ishani shiver every time she read it. Veer. After the king, he was the most powerful and most dangerous man in all of Suryagarh. People said his name only in whispers.

Ishani turned to the last page. It said the villain was sentenced to death at the crossroads. At the sound of the first bell she was brought out, and exactly ten minutes later, with the third bell, the executioner's sword was raised.

That was it. That was all.

"That's it?" Ishani snapped the book shut, annoyed. "Such a brutal death? No explanation, no reason? Mr. Author, did you have some personal grudge against the villain?"

The book gave no answer. Ishani yawned, used the book as a pillow, and a moment later she was asleep.

• • •

The first thing she felt was the cold.

Stone cold, spreading from her back through her whole body.

Ishani opened her eyes. Above her was an open sky streaked with red evening light. A heavy drumbeat echoed in her ears. *Dhum... dhum... dhum...*

She tried to get up, but her hands wouldn't move. Thick iron chains bound her wrists.

"What... is this?"

Her throat was dry. She turned her head. A crowd surrounded her. Hundreds of people in old-fashioned clothes, turbans, long skirts, soldiers holding spears. Every one of them was staring at her. Some with anger, some with fear, and some with a hunger for the spectacle.

"This is a dream," she told herself. "It has to be a dream."

Just then a woman in the crowd screamed, "They finally caught the poisoner! She tried to kill Queen Sanaya!"

The ground slipped from under Ishani's feet.

Queen Sanaya. Poison. Suryagarh.

She looked at her hands. They weren't her hands. Long nails, heavy rings on her fingers, gold bangles on her wrists. Holding her breath, she looked at her clothes. A deep blue royal outfit, now filthy with dirt and sweat.

She had become the Ishani from the book.

The same Ishani whose head was about to be cut off on the last page.

"No... no, no, no..." she whispered.

Her memory flashed like lightning. She remembered everything. Every chapter, every dialogue, every turn. She even remembered that there were exactly ten minutes between the first bell and the third.

She looked up. A heavy bronze bell hung in the high tower. The echo of the first bell hadn't fully faded yet.

Ten minutes. She had only ten minutes.

"I didn't do anything!" she shouted with all her strength. "I don't know who said what..."

"Silence!" A soldier struck her shoulder with the blunt end of his spear. Pain shot through her body. Tears filled her eyes, and these tears were not fake. This wasn't a dream. The pain was real.

Trembling, she looked around. On the raised platform ahead, Maharaj Devraj sat on his throne, his face hard as stone. Beside him stood Prince Rudransh.

"Rudransh!" Ishani called out. In the book, Ishani was his childhood friend, and she had a right to call that name.

Rudransh looked at her. Only for a moment. There was no anger in his eyes. There was something else there, something Ishani couldn't understand. Then he looked away. His fists were clenched, and he kept glancing toward the big gate at the back of the crowd, as if waiting for someone.

Ishani's heart sank. In the book, Rudransh stood in this scene holding Sanaya's hand. Here, he was alone.

Her gaze moved up to the balcony.

A girl stood there in a white and pink royal dress. An innocent face, big eyes, a string of pearls in her hair. Queen Sanaya.

Ishani's breath caught.

In the book, Sanaya was crying at this moment. She fell at the king's feet and begged him to forgive Ishani, because her heart was so soft. It was considered the most emotional page in the whole novel.

But here, Sanaya wasn't crying.

She was smiling.

A slow, cold smile. Her eyes were fixed on Ishani. Then, very slowly, she ran a finger across her own neck, as if drawing a line.

Goosebumps rose on Ishani's skin.

"This isn't the story from the book," she thought. "Something has changed here. Something big."

The drumbeat grew faster.

*Dhum-dhum-dhum-dhum!*

The second bell rang. The echo bounced off the walls of the crossroads and came back.

The executioner stepped forward. A black cloth was tied over his face, and in his hand was a broad, gleaming sword. He grabbed Ishani's hair and pushed her neck down. The cold stone pressed against her cheek.

"Mama..." was all she could say.

She remembered home. Her small room, the desk lamp, the half-finished cup of tea. She remembered that before falling asleep, she had said just one thing, asking why the villain had to die such a terrible death.

Was it that very thing...

"By the king's order!" a royal messenger's voice boomed. "Ishani, who poisoned the Queen of Suryagarh, shall be put to death today, right now!"

Ishani squeezed her eyes shut.

The echo of the third bell spread across the whole crossroads.

The executioner's sword rose into the air. Ishani heard it whistle, and felt a faint pressure of air on her neck.

And then...

"Stop!"

The voice was like lightning striking the entire crossroads. Deep, cold, and used to giving orders.

The crowd stirred. People moved aside in fear. The sound of hooves rang out on the stone.

Ishani opened her eyes, trembling.

A man in black, riding a black horse, tore through the crowd. He leapt off the horse, and the next moment his sword clashed with the executioner's. Sparks flew. The blade had stopped a finger's width from Ishani's neck.

The whole crossroads fell silent.

The man stood straight. Tall, sharp-eyed, with a calm on his face that was somehow frightening. He didn't even look at Ishani. His eyes were on the king sitting on the throne.

"No one," he said in a cold voice, "will cut this neck today."

Someone in the crowd whispered his name. So softly, as if even saying it was frightening.

"Veer..."

Ishani's breath stopped.

Veer. The most dangerous villain in the book.

And then she remembered something that sent a chill down her spine.

In the book, Veer was not in this scene at all.