Chapter 7 The Stranger Who Was Not #2
The queen descended into a contemplative silence.
She gave Guruji an inscrutable look and then gazed away into the distance.
“I say let’s put this vote with the triumvirate,” she said as if coming to a decision.
“We can ask the general what he thinks about the situation. This is, after all, why we have a three-person council to decide what is best for Amaravathi.”
Guruji’s jaw clenched as he stared hard at the queen.
The purpose of the three-person council was to make sure power didn’t concentrate in one person’s hands.
But since their crown prince, Bhupathi, went missing, appointing his mother in his stead, things had changed.
The general was in the queen’s pocket and agreed to whatever she said.
Guruji, like the shrewd politician he was, had foreseen this eventuality. He had established his own network of loyal men to counter this specific possibility.
While the queen and Guruji were locked in a stare down, Chandra chanced to look at the prince to see how he was taking all this.
His eyes glittered in a mostly impassive face.
But a slight, imperceptible curl to his mouth revealed his disgust. Chandra didn’t really blame him.
Even she was ashamed with her stepmother’s machinations.
And to have this argument in front of their enemy was bad on so many levels that she couldn’t understand why Guruji didn’t put an end to it, instead of prolonging it.
A sudden movement of the prince’s hand caused Chandra to tense. She saw the dagger fly before she heard the swish of its throw.
Acting on instinct, she leaped forward, bumping Guruji out of the way and stumbling right into its path.
The blade cracked against the glass bangles on her forearms, which she held up in a defensive posture, causing the jewelry to splinter. She had forgotten she wasn’t wearing her gauntlets. The knife fell on the grass, while a long trickle of blood wept down her elbow.
The next moment, both parties drew swords.
A deadly silence fell.
“How dare you attack our princess in broad daylight!” said Guruji, his voice a booming thunder.
Chandra examined the shallow cut and realized it was caused by a broken glass bangle rather than the blade of the dagger. Mentally, she re-created the trajectory of the dagger throw and frowned in confusion.
The dagger wasn’t aimed at her. It was, in fact, not directed toward any person.
Had she not interfered, it would have thumped harmlessly into the solid wood between Guruji’s and Rathi Devi’s seats.
If she had thought before acting, she could’ve realized it. But seeing a known enemy finger a knife had blanked out her mind for a few minutes. It was only in hindsight she was realizing these things.
Given the blink-and-you-miss-it nature of the event, it wasn’t surprising that no one had realized this yet.
She waited for the prince to deny the accusation. But to her surprise, he kept calm, causing everyone to draw their own conclusions.
Not even a minute later, an arrow sailed through the air, aiming straight for the prince, who held up a gauntleted arm to block it. He was so fast his hand blurred, which meant he knew the location of the hidden sentries and anticipated the arrow’s direction.
His men, too, unsheathed their swords in battle readiness.
“Call off your archers, Guruji, or this will turn into a bloodbath, and I have no intention of leaving this meeting empty-handed,” growled Veer.
“We agreed to this meeting in peace, but you have broken those terms. We ask that you leave,” said Guruji, his voice quiet with suppressed fury.
“But, Guruji…” objected Queen Rathi. The sudden attack by the prince had knocked that ever-present false smile off her face. She looked shaken.
“He is right, Queen. This is not safe,” reiterated the general of Amaravathi, his sword drawn and ready.
The moment suspended at a knife’s edge of tension.
And then Veer gave the signal to his guards to lower their arms.
“You don’t have the right to be speaking about the terms of agreement, Your Majesty.
” His voice was low and all the more powerful for it.
Everyone stopped. The infamous person known as the “scourge of the north” was speaking.
“You promised me Prince Bhupathi would be here when you agreed to a meeting. But I see no sign of him. Where is he?” he asked softly.
The edge of anger that crept into the prince’s question was not missed.
Rathi Devi seemed to struggle to form words. Her eyes flicked toward Guruji, who offered no help.
“I’m afraid, I have a bit of bad news,” she stammered. “Prince Bhupathi is not here. He has gone searching for a cure for the affliction that ails my husband.”
“So. Prince Bhupathi isn’t here. I did wonder why you wanted to meet in Devarakonda instead of Tripura.
” The prince’s eyes flicked toward her once more.
Even if he had just gotten here, it couldn’t have escaped his attention that she was banned from the capital.
He seemed to have an inclination of where this was going, if the disdainful twist to his mouth was any indication.
“You get me here under false pretenses and haggle with me for Kalpeet worse than a fishwife, and insulted my wife partway into the negotiations,” he continued into the silent audience. “And you’re surprised why I reacted the way I did?”
Chandra didn’t escape the irony of the last sentence. Neither the prince nor the queen cared about her feelings. She was nothing more than a pawn in this chess game they were playing.
“It’s best if you remember that you are dealing with me, not my father. You seem to be under the impression that we are desperate for help and only you can provide it. Have you forgotten that King Amarendra is an ancestor to the royal families of both Amaravathi and Thianvelli?”
Everyone went silent as they digested this information.
“Are you saying you were able to obtain help from the royal family of Thianvelli?” asked Guruji in a hushed voice. “But King Harideva’s widow and son are on the run. No one knows their whereabouts.”
“Don’t be so hasty to say no one, Guruji,” said Veer enigmatically.
“I never said we would be averse to helping Rajgarh,” the queen backtracked rapidly.
“If you have taken any offense at my earlier words, then I apologize. I was perhaps a little overzealous. So what if my son isn’t here?
Chandrasena is an acceptable substitute.
She is her father’s daughter, after all.
You could use her to prove the claim that heirs of Amaravathi can operate the key.
And who would object to a wife traveling with her husband? ”
“Cease your arguments, please,” called Veer.
“They don’t do you any favors. Keep in mind, I am the son of the emperor of Saptavarsha, even if you haven’t accepted my father’s sovereignty.
What we consider ours, we fight to defend it to death.
Kalpeet is now a part of Rajgarh. The only way we will ever part with it is if you defeat me in battle.
If you are that interested in getting it back, maybe we should look into engaging in another war.
Let us see how Amaravathi will fare with both its king and crown prince absent. ”
Veer’s subtle threat silenced Queen Rathi Devi’s protest, and she stared wide-eyed at him. The mixture of loathing and fear on her face was unmistakable to everyone.
“And as for the princess. I need some confirmation that she can indeed operate the key before I agree to take her with me on the journey. Will you please step forward, Princess?”
Chandra looked at Guruji, silently asking for his permission.
Guruji shook his head minutely.
“Princess…” called Veer again and this time there was enough warning to tense up her neck muscles.
Their rules and customs dictated that she obey her husband.
At least in front of the assembly of the most important people in Amaravathi, she was duty bound to submit to his command.
But…she didn’t want to go against Guruji, either, who, as the teacher to the royal family, commanded an equal respect.
And the Prince knew it.
Seeing no choice, she picked up his dagger lying on the ground and went toward him under the pretext of returning it.
A sarcastic smile played on his lips. He was enjoying dragging her into one of his sick games of domination.
“Pity if you had forgotten a clever knife such as this. It seems to have gone blunt, though,” she said softly, offering it to him hilt first.
“How clever of you, Princess. I am impressed,” he said, but his eyes conveyed the opposite meaning. This close, his hatred was hot enough to scorch stronger than the sun.
The prince’s eyes flicked to the cut on her forearm, with its steady trickle of blood.
From the folds of his garment, he brought forth a lotus bud made of an onyx-sheened metal and offered it to her.
A blue iridescence began on the edge of the petals as her hand drew near. When she touched it, it burst into bloom, revealing the interior. Brilliant blue completely enveloped the flower.
A soft gasp escaped her, and she almost dropped the lotus.
It was surprisingly warm and light in her hand, as if she were really holding a live flower instead of a metal imitation of it.
The inner row of the petals had six prominent empty spots. In the center was an inverted cone-like receptacle, surrounded by delicate stamens.
The surface of the circular receptacle rippled and formed a clear, reflective surface.
“How strange! It’s showing an image of this hollow,” she remarked.
“That’s because the next key piece is right here in this hollow,” said Shota. “Will you please add that lotus petal to the key, Princess?”
Hesitantly, Chandra walked toward the key piece resting in its box. Everyone seemed to have forgotten the arguments that had taken place moments earlier, too spellbound by the lotus key’s enchantment.
“It needs blood to recognize you and activate itself,” called Shota.
She nodded and squeezed a drop of her blood onto the key piece. It was absorbed without trace and emitted a blue light.
The lotus petal floated through the air and seamlessly inserted itself into a gap in the key, changing its golden color to the same black hue as the rest of the lotus. The image in the center of the receptacle rippled and changed to that of a warren of caves.
She took a sharp breath, recognizing it instantly.
“Do you know the place, Princess?” asked Veer.
She nodded. “The caves of Amaravathi. But what does it mean?”
Veer gave her a considerate look.
“It means you are coming with me,” he said.