The Spell and Riddles

Suspense Short Story – The Spell and Riddles
Photo credit: clarita from morguefile.com

I had been looking around for that jewel for long inside the palace. Living abroad all these years I had earned enough money to live a life of luxury for two life times. I came to my ancestral home,  got it renovated and started living there as a loner. I did not hire anyone for running my house. I started doing every little chore and it gave me pep and joy.

Renting the house out to students was another idea that did away with my loneliness. One day when I was alone I went  inside the palace and did a little bit of investigation as I was intrigued by the mystery that surrounded it. I had no fear for anything now, as I had had whatever I wanted in life and was ready to meet devil or death in the face and ask what was new. The palace had earned the reputation of being haunted as it was uninhabited for long. Romantic though it was for a story setting or movie making, people feared approaching it. They said that those who tried to buy it, died mysterious deaths. The owner lived outside the country, it was said, and came once in way to have a look at it.

But my real interest in the palace was kindled when I came across a painting inside a huge marble flower pot. I found the pot on my very first visit to the palace, inside the huge courtyard. I thought of using the flower pot for my garden and brought it over to my place. A little bit of digging and I hit upon the painting.  As I had been interested in antiques and the paintings of the old masters, and being a painter myself, I cleaned the painting. It portrayed some queen, life size, wearing expensive jewellery and the intriguing aspect of it was that it was done, not by an Indian painter, but by a foreign hand. With my experience I could easily make that out.

One of the jewellery worn by the queen was more prominent than the others. It seemed a diamond necklace of immense value, each one of the diamond was oval in shape and the size of the queen’s eyes. I counted and they were twenty two in all. As I went on studying the painting, I kept on looking at the diamonds. The glitter was brought out neatly and something in the glitter  took me by storm. I could find script inside the diamonds, a script which I could read and understand. The language was my mother tongue.

I was astounded when I realised that they were the step by step instructions for finding the necklace inside the palace. You might wonder why I had not laid my hands on the necklace immediately. The painting was half burnt! The last two diamonds on the right were burnt three fourths. Also I had to write down the instructions painstakingly, for, it was not easy to make out the letters; they were camouflaged well by the painter himself, for one thing, and for another, the dirt had done its part in concealing them. It took me over one year to complete the message and I had been searching the palace ever since, for almost four years now. The last letters seemed the vital thread for the location of the necklace and without them I wondered whether it was a wild goose chase. Nevertheless I wanted to spend my whole life on it.

The message conveyed that all the other jewellery were stolen or robbed and the necklace was the only on that remained.

I was startled to see someone in the palace. A young man was snooping around, opening chests, drawers, peeping inside the cupboards and looking under the cots.

“Young man, what are you looking for?”

I called out. He seemed terrified by the sudden noise from behind and almost jumped in fear.  When I saw his half turned face, I knew he was one of the boys who had rented my house.

They were four of them, studying in the same college and could not get hostel accommodation. They could neither get rooms for rent in the city.  Seeing the to let board in my house they came to enquire. A couple of days of stay, they were scared to their wit’s end. In the middle of the night they heard voices, flicker of lights and laughter from the palace, they said. They could not sleep. After a while they did not complain as they could not find a better place in the city. Moreover I offered to cook for them if they helped me around and that was an unexpected offer which they could not resist.

One of the boys was puny and had an inquisitive look. He seemed a person who wanted to know the whys and wherefores of everything. I was absolutely right. It was this boy who was standing in the palace.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said much relieved after seeing me. “What are you doing here?” he questioned me.

“I have been living next to this palace for long and so I take a peep into it off and on, just out of curiosity. I don’t fear for my life, as I do not have anyone to live for. Your courage is amazing,” I observed.

“We had been enquiring about this palace from people and heard that the thing found here have a spell on them, and even if one touches any of these things one would become mad or die very soon,” he said thoughtfully.

“So have you been experimenting ? Do you want to know if it’s true or not?” I enquired.

“I have been brought up in very unnatural surroundings. My parents died when I was very young. No one among my relatives wanted to shoulder the responsibility of bringing up an orphan. But I am a survivor. I fought all odds in life. I have a bank balance now to aid me in my education. I want to live, I don’t fear death,” he smiled at me.

He surely was an odd looking fellow, feather light and looked as if he would fly away if the wind blew a bit harder. Yet he gave an impression of enormous inner strength.

I could understand him. He had come for ‘the treasure’, having heard the story somewhere. If he were able to sell it abroad, he would become a multimillionaire.

Here’s your chance, young man, I said to myself and smiled before I left.

Much earlier that day I had moved the marble flower pot and also the painting to their original places in the palace. I did make a few changes in the riddles and the location of the necklace.

I did not want to deprive the palace of its mystery of a hidden treasure. So I did not take the necklace.

I was gratified at the success of my adventure, helped by my brilliance in laying my hands on the treasure. I didn’t bother about the fact that I died immediately on touching it.

The necklace indeed was a magnificent piece, a national treasure, and was worth dying several deaths for.

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