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 thedagger. 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 youforgotten 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.”
