“The location of the original monument still remains lost,” continued Veer. “Same goes for the Amphitheater of Bali. Lost to time and ignorance. How incompetent do you have to be to lose large monuments like that?
“King’s Pathway is one monument,” countered Chandra. “What about the rest of the monuments I mentioned?”
“Yes. How unfortunate that of all the ones you listed, only two remain in Amaravathi. It has lost all claim to both the Brihadeeshwar Temple and thepanch-pashuthrone. And we all know the issue about Kalpeet, don’t we?
“Maybe it isn’t Amarendra who is at fault. Perhaps it is the later generations of Amaravathi who were incapable of retaining their monuments. But then, maybe there is something to the saying ‘if the seed is weak, the tree doesn’t grow strong either.’”
The sharp intake of her breath was so satisfying to Veer. “How dare you!” she shouted, She seemed to have finally been goaded beyond bearing. “Do not forget you are standing on Amaravathi’s soil before you start insulting your host. Perhaps you should talk when Rajgarh has withstood the passage of times, like Amaravathi has done, and emerges unscathed.”
“Are you making a prediction, Princess, or is this all wishful thinking?” said Veer, still smiling, although a muscle bunched in his jaw.
Chandra’s answering smile was sweet as poison. “You misunderstand me, Prince Veer. How could I predict such a thing? I can do nothing but listen when you make pathetic claims about what you have obtained as a mere technicality rather than by the dint of your superior prowess at battle.”
Veer could feel the grind of his molars as he clenched his teeth. His smile slipped and anger rose swiftly like a tide.Chandra seemed to be taking a leaf from Queen Rathi Devi, and the memory of how they tried to get him to surrender Kalpeet was like pouring oil onto hot coals.
“You are right,” he said softly, his voice at odds with the temper steaming his blood. “When your father begged me to take you off his hands in exchange for Kalpeet, I should’ve refused.”
The moment the words left his mouth, he wished he could call them back.
Chandra’s face went pallid. Hurt bloomed in her face, her eyes widening at his gross insult.
“Veer, that’s enough,” Shota snapped in an undertone. “If you guys want to have a row, do it in private, for heaven’s sake. People are watching.”
Veer glanced at the circle of men, some of whom were openly gawking, others pretending to look elsewhere. He relaxed his hands when he realized he had clenched them into fists. She didn’t deserve his vitriol in front of others.
He was angry at himself and appalled at his loss of control. What was it about her that made it all too easy for her to get under his skin? He shook off his foul mood.
“I apologize, Princess. I shouldn’t have said that,” he said in a low voice. Her head was turned away and she gave no indication she had heard him.
* * *
“Are you sure about this?” asked Veer.
“No. But it seems a likely possibility. I wasn’t sure how you wanted me to proceed and that’s why I’m asking you,” said Shota with a meaningful look.
Veer got the gist of Shota’s unsaid words and glanced at Chandra. She was sitting alone, her sword planted on thefloor between her legs. A dull scraping noise came from the sharpening stone she was using.
Since their argument, they had been avoiding each other. Chandra spoke to only Shota or Billadev if she needed anything. Veer stopped going to watch her practice and instead contented himself with the knowledge that Vihari kept an eye on her.
He felt guilty for saying those words and wished he could unsay them. It wasn’t his intention to hurt her. She got more than enough of that from her family. He had hoped to develop a somewhat cordial relationship now that they needed her help in this quest. But something inside him snapped when he heard her sing praises of another man, when she hardly ever smiled in his direction. Even if the said man was her long-dead ancestor.
It was a sad realization that in the last seven years he hadn’t developed armor against her influence. It was time he put things in perspective and worked on cultivating, if not affable, then a polite relationship. They needed to work together to complete this quest, and he needed to rein in his baser impulses, not butt heads constantly, no matter how tempting it was.
“Let’s ask her. Maybe she knows something,” he said.
* * *
Chandra came and crouched over the map Shota had spread on the floor, anchored at the edges by misshapen stones.
Shota’s neat and precise handwriting marked the locations of the caves they had explored. The caves were, more or less, uniformly distributed through the plateau.
“See this?” Shota pointed to a blank area on the map. “This is right behind the bas-reliefs. Our last few days of exploration have revealed caves in every direction except behind these sculptures.”
“Are you even sure there is something behind those bas-reliefs? It could be rock for all you know,” Billadev said, joining them.
“Or maybe there is a way through. An entrance. Is anything marked on the original maps?” asked Chandra hopefully.
Shota spread an old palm leaf document on top of his map. “Nothing. This area was blanked out here as well.”
