Seven years ago, Amaravathi, the evening after Veer and Chandra’s wedding
The somber light of the crescent moon guided Chandra as she walked through the royal gardens. It wasn’t very bright, but she didn’t need a torch to guide her through the familiar paths.
Everyone expected her to stay put in the royal palace like a good bride on her wedding night, but the daylong ceremonies made her feel claustrophobic and she wanted a break, even if it could only be a short one.
She knew she needed to return before they noticed she was gone.
Now that she was married, she probably didn’t have as much freedom to indulge in nightly expeditions as before.
A weird noise caused her steps to falter. It was coming from the densely shroudedgulmohartree. The tree was in a red bloom, but at night the colors were muted to shades of periwinkle and indigo. She had meant to go in the otherdirection, but as she debated whether to investigate further, the noise stopped.
Shrugging in the darkness, she turned away, her mind once again on her own problems. The message on the parchment weighed on her mind. It was from the prince. Her husband. What did he want to talk about that couldn’t wait a few more hours when they were…forced to be together?
Chandra shied away from thinking about…that. She hoped, perhaps naively, that she could convince the prince to wait and get to know each other first.
Ever since her father told her she would be marrying him, she hardly had enough time to think, much less process, how she felt about it all.
She had refused in the beginning, of course, since she had no intention of marrying anyone or of leaving Amaravathi just yet, but her father had been unusually adamant and angry this time and refused to hear her excuses.
Chandra knew that negotiations of surrender and a marriage proposal between the kingdoms of Rajgarh and Amaravathi had been going on for weeks. In this regard, perhaps Prince Veer was as helpless as her.
Their marriage was one of political alliance, not love. And she needed to think of it that way. But was it wrong to wish for it to be otherwise. Her parents loved each other, it was tinged with bitterness and jealousy, true, but she would rather have experienced it once than never know it.
She wished she could talk to someone, but everyone had been too busy with the wedding preparations. Even her maid and best friend, Kalpana, had seemed strangely reticent and troubled these days.
Chandra had attributed it to her recent discovery of being pregnant without having the legal protection of a marriage—a situation Chandra was intent on rectifying once her weddingfestivities were completed. The best thing was at least Kalpana would now accompany her, since her lover was from Rajgarh, and she could continue as Chandra’s maid.
Maybe she could even speak to Prince Veer and see if she could get Kalpana’s would-be husband in a higher position in the army, thought Chandra.
The noise abruptly started again. This time it was more audible, and she knew instinctively that it was the sound of someone choking.
Hitching up her heavy bridal saree, she ran through the trees and came upon a small clearing. A man and a woman were locked in an embrace, but as she scrutinized closely, she realized it was not a passionate one.
The moon rose behind the desultory clouds and clearly illuminated the man’s hands locked around the woman’s throat.
“Stop,” shouted Chandra.
The man let go and the woman fell to the ground, coughing and massaging her throat. As Chandra ran toward them, she saw with a burst of horror, it was Kalpana.
Chandra turned to the man, shock coursing through her as she recognized Veer’s friend, Virat. She remembered him from her time in the Navari Woods when she was imprisoned by the prince. Confusion vied with alarm. How did the prince’s friend know Kalpana?
Virat still had the same charming smile, but as she watched closely, she noted his eyes were like stone, cold and hard with calculation.
“Kalpana, are you all right? What’s going on?” she asked, crouching and putting an arm around her maid to help her up.She ran an eye over her, looking for injuries.
Kalpana’s eyes were swollen from crying and tears tracked the kohl of her eyes down her cheeks. The imprint of Virat’s fingers stood out prominently on her neck. Anger spilled intoChandra’s blood. What if she hadn’t run across them in time? Her friend would have died at this man’s hands.
Kalpana had recovered from her coughing fit, but her voice was still hoarse, and she spoke haltingly.
“He is…the one I told you about. The father of my child. Hyadrik.”
Virat must have given a random name to keep his involvement with Kalpana a secret, thought Chandra.
“Hello, Princess,” said Virat, giving her an affable smile. “We meet again. Though not in the most opportune of moments, I have to say.”
“Just what’s going on here? Why were you trying to kill her?” she asked furiously, watching him closely. He seemed relaxed and didn’t even reach for the sword at his waist, which left Chandra with a sense of unease.
What was he so confident about, that he didn’t even think of having a weapon out? While she, on the other hand, had slipped one of her twin daggers out.He may be Prince Veer’s friend, but that didn’t mean he could do whatever he wanted.
