Chapter 22 The Reluctant Rescue
Chandra made her way toward the village market, where she planned to buy some things needed at the temple. Her mind drifted over Matangi’s words and Veer’s plan.
Her husband was a hard man prone to make unilateral decisions, which she knew from her prior experience with him, but this was taking it a bit too far.
She recalled the time in the Navari Woods seven years ago, when he had forced her to spend a night with him.
* * *
Seven years ago…
Chandra’s captors had mercifully left her hands free, but the burn from earlier, when she had twisted the rope around her wrists, still stung.
She was massaging them absently when she saw him walk out of the tent set up a short distance from the shrine.
The flaps of the tent barely went back to their position when she hailed him.
“Prince Veer. A word if you please?”
He glanced at her in passing, and Chandra had to quell her astonishment.
The prince had cleaned up from his dunk in the stagnant well water, and she realized he wasn’t as ill-favored as she first assumed.
He had shaved his beard, revealing sharp features, an aquiline nose and a firm jaw.
His eyes, however, were his most unnerving feature—deep set and coal black with sharp intelligence.
To be honest, she had recognized him only by his great height.
She saw his eyes go to her hands and Chandra tried to hide her bruised wrists. Her elbow had a long scratch she had sustained when battling the prince. She had refused to have medicine applied, even when it was offered.
Chandra blinked. Were there yellow glints in his eyes or was it just an illusion?
“Oh? Are you trying your hand at being polite now, Princess?” he said casually. “What is it?”
Chandra cleared her throat, ignoring his jab. “These woods are… I assume you know the legend behind them?”
“That some Nature Spirits descend from the heavens on this day? Yes, I’ve heard of it.”
She nodded. “Traditionally, my sisters and I, as the princesses of Amaravathi, are required to do a special puja and make an offering. We believe people who partake of this offering won’t be harmed. But…”
“But?” He made his way toward her and crouched to her level, giving her his complete attention.
“It’s just a belief.” She shrugged. “People live in these woods. But on this particular day, no one ever stays back in this area to test it out. Are you planning to stay here tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Can’t you change your plans?”
“I don’t believe in these Nature Spirits, Princess,” he said, dismissing her concerns, but his eyes never left hers.
Her mouth compressed. “Very well. But don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Just because you don’t believe in them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. This place will be dangerous come nightfall.
You should at least care about your men.
Or let me prepare the offering. You can watch while I cook to make sure there are no shenanigans. It may offer some protection.”
Veer rubbed his clean-shaven jaw and glanced at his men. She noticed a small scar in one corner of his jaw and wondered what caused that injury. It seemed as if someone had taken a swing at him.
“What kind of danger are we talking about?” he asked finally.
“I don’t know,” she admitted.
“So. You want me and my men to move out of a place we are currently camped in because you believe in some superstitious nonsense about Nature Spirits visiting the shrine. And you want us to eat an offering made by you, a daughter of a known enemy.” He lifted his disbelieving eyes to her.
“Do you honestly think I’m that gullible?
Or am I to believe you are doing this out of the kindness of your heart? ”
Chandra flushed with anger. “You don’t want to know what I really think of you,” she snapped and then lowered her voice as if in apology.
“I offered my help because I haven’t eaten the offering either, and I’d like to finish the ceremony you so rudely interrupted before.
It’s important to us in Amaravathi and for the continued prosperity of this grove. ”
Veer leaned closer, and her heart raced. She wished she could blame it on the dangerous aura he exuded. “I am agreeable, Princess, but I have a condition.”
“What is it?” She leaned back slightly, trying to be unobtrusive about it.
His scent of pine and mint wrapped around her.
She wondered how he had managed to get rid of the odor of the ditch when they were stationed this deep in the woods, where there was a lack of comforts like a leisurely bath or scented soaps.
“Your injuries,” he remarked, his eyes once again on her wrists. “You haven’t let anyone treat them. I’ll let you complete the ceremony and make the offering. But only after you let us dress that wound. It wouldn’t be good to send you back home without doing this basic courtesy.”
“You are sending me home?” she asked, surprised, forgetting everything else.
“Yes, tomorrow.”
“Then why make me stay here tonight?” she asked in bewilderment. “If you plan to let me go?”
“To teach you a lesson,” he said as he got up.
She set her teeth and called him choice names under her breath as he walked away.
But he paused and grinned at her over his shoulder. “You’ll have to up your game, Princess, I’ve been called worse.” Her breath caught at his smile. There was no malice there, but rather an invitation to join in the mirth. She got the feeling he enjoyed his notoriety.
The grove, surrounded by old trees, was quite beautiful, and welcomingly cool under the shade.
A small shrine was built at one end. The idol housed inside, was a simple arched rock, liberally anointed with turmeric and kumkum that it had lost all definition.
It was nearing dusk, and the group of men were retiring for the night, eating their evening meal.
Chandra leaned back against a tree, finishing off her own meal. She had completed a short puja and prepared the offering, which was a simple dish of rice cooked with tamarind, turmeric, and other spices.
One of Veer’s close friends, Virat, peppered her with a lot of questions about the Nature Spirits. He was so charming and seemed genuinely interested in the legend that she almost forgot that he was ordered to keep an eye on her, to make sure she didn’t tamper with their food.
Most of the soldiers had left after Veer gave them the option to wait out tonight elsewhere. But quite a few of them stayed behind. They were scrupulously polite when she offered them the meal she had cooked and were effusive in both their praise and thanks.
She washed her hands and felt a prickling along her back and knew Veer was watching her. He had been busy all afternoon, giving orders and organizing his men, but toward the evening he sat at the trunk of a dead tree, hands tucked behind his head.
His eyes were closed to slits, but she felt intuitively that he wasn’t asleep or as relaxed as he pretended to be. Several times, she sensed his gaze on her, or perhaps she was just mistaken because he drew her eye, and she had found herself watching him discreetly.
She filled a shallow bowl made of stitched leaves with the prepared rice dish and went toward him. He sat up, confirming that he wasn’t asleep. She cleared her throat when she was in front of him. “I have the offering if you would like to partake of it too.”
Veer waited, making no move to accept it. Her eyebrows began to pleat in vexation.
“It occurs to me, Princess,” he spoke in a soft voice, “that maybe I was foolish in letting an enemy cook for us.”
Her mouth dropped in outrage. “Your friend watched while I was cooking the entire time, and I ate the same thing I gave your men.”
“But you could still have found a way to say…lace a sleeping draught into the offering. You wouldn’t die of it so you might have no problem taking it. And there might be Amaravathi’s soldiers waiting for us to fall asleep so they can rescue you.”
“And when might I have had the time to think up and relay my grand scheme to Amaravathi?” she asked, exasperated. “Are you always this suspicious and paranoid?”
Veer gave her a slow smile that made her stomach flutter. “Only when I come across a princess who fights like a warrior.” But he cupped his hands to receive the offering.
He ate in silence and then said, “Earlier, I’d offered my men the option to wait this night out of the grove. I am offering you the same choice. A few kosas away, I have another camp set up. You can wait there tonight. I’ll have a few men accompany you there, if you wish.”
“But…you’re staying in this place?”
“Yes. Virat isn’t the only one interested in witnessing this event. What do you say, Princess?”
“I…I want to stay.” At his raised eyebrows, she clarified. “Because for one, I don’t know what you are planning here and I would prefer to keep an eye on you, and for another, I’d rather be with the devil I know.”
“Keep an eye on us?” A supercilious brow went up. “Are you forgetting you are still a prisoner, Princess?”
They whiled away the hours of the night; the soldiers sat around a campfire and exchanged stories.
They had given her a blanket, and she tried to get some sleep but had instead listened to the conversation with interest. The soldiers had some great anecdotes—some funny, some sad, some nostalgic, some ribald; although, they had tried to keep those to a minimum—in deference to her presence.
She came to the slow realization that these people from Rajgarh were not so different from their peers in Amaravathi.
She thought about her sisters and wondered how they were faring and if they were worried about her.
Veer, too, had sat a little removed, listening with a smile.
Occasionally their eyes would meet, and she would look away, too disconcerted by his gaze that seemed to see more than she was willing to show.
Why did this man, out of all others, make her so unsettled? She was baffled by her reaction to him.