Chapter 31 Help Granted Is Not Always Help Wanted
“I should’ve known you weren’t who you said you were when you bypassed me and went to Agrani to get the job you wanted,” said Aradatta, who stood with the head priest and Agrani flanking him.
A couple of temple guards stood with them.
The rest of the people were busy, taking care of the injured and clearing the large debris from the fight.
Aradatta didn’t take his hand off the pommel of his sword; distrust plainly written on his face. Girish, Billadev, and Shota were beside Veer, along with the thieves they had hired. They all had managed to survive the fight with only minor injuries.
“I know some of these people,” said Aradatta, looking at Veer’s men, his gaze narrowing when it landed on Maruthi. “They are bandits from the Borderlands, who are wanted in three kingdoms.”
“What I don’t know is your identity,” he continued, peering at Veer. “So, I’ll ask you one more time. Who are you, and what kind of business did you have here?”
“Wait. Please wait.” Chandra pushed forward to the front. “We mean you no harm. You were right. We did have a purpose in coming here but hear us out…”
Chandra glanced at Veer, who gave her a short nod, not taking his eyes off the captain.
“I’m a princess of Amaravathi, Chandrasena. And this is my husband, Prince Veer of Rajgarh.”
There was a lull and then the head priest burst out laughing. Even Aradatta seemed like he had difficulty believing her claim.
“Even if what you say is true,” said the head priest, struggling to contain his mirth, “everyone knows that the princess and her husband are bitter enemies. The chances of finding them traveling together are like finding water in the desert.” Aradatta appeared skeptical, but didn’t join in the priest’s joke.
“Shut up, fool,” said Agrani, her gravelly voice cutting through the muffled guffaws from the priest. “You better stop talking before you alienate our guests any further. They speak the truth.”
The priest stopped, eyes wide, his face frozen comically in mid-laugh, jaw slack.
“How do you know this, Agrani?” asked Aradatta.
Agrani pointed a forefinger at Chandra. “Look at her. Her forehead. The symbol. I didn’t think I’d see it adorn a living person’s forehead in my lifetime. The mark of King Amarendra.”
* * *
The fire went up with a whoosh as more broken wood was added.
The people sitting around the fire stretched their hands to it.
Days here were boiling hot, the heat broken only by the monsoons, but the hour before sunrise was still the chilliest part of the day, when mist started to settle on the vegetation and crops.
“Why would anyone attack our peaceful city?” asked Aradatta.
He and the prince sat outside on woven cots, facing each other.
“We’ve no outstanding wealth; we’re only moderately successful.
Whatever income we earn in the festival gatherings is invested back into the community.
We’ve enjoyed relative peace under the protection of the three surrounding kingdoms. But I find it hard to disbelieve what my own eyes have seen.
” He turned the arrow in his hands. He recognized it as belonging to Thianvelli’s archers, the distinct dark green shaft tied with dark hawk feathers.
“Our physician tells me that our men who have been struck with this type of arrow are poisoned,” he continued, trying to hide his anguish. He had trained some of these fallen men personally. To see them brought down by the coward’s weapon—a poison—made him seethe with helpless rage.
The woman who had introduced herself as Princess Chandrasena sat a little farther from the fire.
She had painstakingly gathered her arrows; some of them were stained with blood.
She was cleaning every one of them, washing them in tulasi-infused water and laying them out to dry on mats spread in front of the fire.
“Thianvelli’s arrows are always poisoned,” she remarked, glancing up from her task.
“Typically snake venom. It’s their signature move.
They even vary the kind of venom they use.
The antidote to it is a deeply guarded secret.
I’m sorry, even I, as one of Thianvelli’s kin, am not privy to such secrets.
The best treatment I can think of is a poultice that can leach out the poison if enough hasn’t entered the bloodstream yet. ”
Aradatta nodded heavily. The princess had already been gracious enough to share the recipe of her poultice with their physicians. Agrani was in the sick tents, supervising the making of a big batch.
At a distance, the dead bodies of Thianvelli soldiers lay piled up, waiting for burial. They were the ones who forced their way into the temple, who were shot dead by the princess’s arrows.
More bodies lay in the city and a couple near the dhvajastamba.
It didn’t escape Aradatta’s notice, the grim look on the prince’s face when they realized these soldiers had tried to climb the pillar.
There was something going on afoot that Aradatta knew nothing about, and he didn’t mind admitting it filled him with dreadful foreboding.
All summer he had felt this unease, but the knowledge that his instincts were correct didn’t bring him any satisfaction. Were it not for the presence of the prince and his men, their city would’ve been burning now.
“But this means that many of my men are incapacitated for the time being,” he said. As he spoke, his eyes went to the man seated opposite him, who was staring into the flames.
Aradatta had been a man in his prime during the war seven years ago. If not for his duty to the temple, he would have participated in the war. But rumors about the Rajgarh prince had reached even here.
Of his cunning and bloodthirstiness. The scourge of the north.
Aradatta didn’t know the reason this group of strangers were here. But he knew that Prince Veer was their leader, and knew his appeal had to go to him.
Princess Chandrasena, despite her deadly arrows, was infinitely more approachable.
She had such an innate kindness that it was easy to open up to her.
He still couldn’t believe that she had been allowed to go on such a dangerous mission.
Let alone with a man who professed to dislike her intensely.
What had King Chandraketu been thinking?
“We need help,” he stated baldly, knowing no way to dress up the simple fact.
Prince Veer didn’t blink an eye.
“Are you sure you would accept help from the scourge of the north?” he asked after a long pause.
Aradatta flushed. He was aware that he had used the word once in his hearing before.
It wasn’t an excuse, but he didn’t know the prince’s identity at that time.
“Seems to me that the bandits and the troops from Thianvelli have come for the same thing that you have. And you refuse to tell us what that is.”
“Believe me, the less you know, the better it’s going to be,” said the prince.
“But maybe if we know the cause, we could remove it permanently and make our temple safe.”
“And what would you say if I told you that it’s the idol they are coming for?” taunted Veer. “Are you going to get rid of it as well?”
A bead of sweat tracked from Aradatta’s temple to his jaw in a cold line, inducing shivers.
Apprehension rolled off him. The other members of the prince’s party avoided his eyes.
Princess Chandrasena was immersed in numbering her arrows in Brahmi.
Her lowered face had a slight frown, but she kept silent too.
Suddenly Aradatta was reminded of all the times Prince Veer, in the guise of a blacksmith, had applied for employment and he had rejected him for the lack of references.
Maybe he had been holding a grudge since that time?
He gritted his teeth. He would eat crow and beg for help if that was what it took to move this man.
“Are you saying it’s the idol?” Aradatta forced the question out of a tight throat.
Veer gave a noncommittal smile. Supercilious bastard, thought Aradatta, trying not to let his personal dislike of the man affect his judgment.
Veer’s smile only broadened, his eyes hard as ice, as if he could guess at the unspoken words. But what he said next gave Aradatta hope.
“Fear not, Captain. I have not defended this city to see it fall to Thianvelli. Though the people of your city haven’t openly accepted the sovereignty of my father’s rule, Rajgarh is willing to be broad-minded and deliver help.”
Breath wheezing out of his lungs, Aradatta rushed to deliver his gratitude. “Thank you. This means a lot to us. We shall not forget it.”
Prince Veer held up his hand. “Don’t thank me quite yet. Have you given thought to how you are going to let us help you?”
Aradatta blinked in confusion. “I was under the impression that you would be staying here for the time being…”
“Until the threat passes away? And how long is that going to take? A few days? A month? A year?” Veer shook his head. “We can’t do that. We have our own concerns, our tasks. We need to be back on our journey soon.”
Aradatta wondered again at the reason the prince was so far from his kingdom, and in the company of his estranged wife, no less.
No doubt it must be of great importance.
Curiosity niggled at him to find how the temple and the idol were involved in all this.
But he had more pressing concerns at hand, and if the prince said it was better for him not to know, he would accept that.
Agrani also had a private word with him, previously, regarding the idol.
They had known their Lord’s idol was the hiding place for some significant artifact, but it was a closely guarded secret that no one other than Agrani and a few other people knew about.
Aradatta didn’t really care about that and if the artifact was gone, all the better, as it made ensuring the city’s safety a bit easier.