“Oh,” I said, impressed, but I was astonished.“What is this? What caused the blast?” I asked, intrigued.
The head commander forced a smile.
“It is gunpowder.”
And I tried to behave incognito.“Oh, what is that? I didn’t know about it.”
I said, taking the gun from his hand and aiming at another apple, faking a wide, impressed, and radiant smile.
“Mehrangarh imports this. We buy this powder from Songarh and use it in these guns. Our army is going to use it too. What do you think about it?” he said, and I didn’t understand why, suddenly, just a day after the brothel incident, he was telling me about gunpowder.
That only meant one thing. Either he was right or just covering up for something.
“Impressive! I love it, Rashmika. Thank you so much,” I said, smiling at her, and she smiled back.
“Yes, I know you’d love it,” she said. I pulled its handle, and a strong thunder ran through my body, making me shake and fumble.
“Oh my goodness, it’s powerful,” I said, attempting to act normal, but inside I was freaking out.
I knew this ruthless commander was up to something and had grown suspicious of me. There was no way he would come with Rashmika. Who would send a commander with the princess?
Well, Eklavya went too. However, we were three brothers and could direct an army, while Mehrangarh could not.
And suddenly, I remembered.
“Where’s Eklavya?” I asked, glancing at Rashmika as her smile faltered.
“He came with us, too,” she said slowly, and I furrowed my brows.
“Oh, so my princess has protection from two commanders,” I said, returning to my seat.
She laughed softly, then looked at her commander and said,“You can go.”
He walked away, and the attendants began serving us.
I spent the afternoon with her, having lunch and chatting for a while, trying hard not to give off any hints.
I didn’t know if Rashmika was naïve or acting like one. The commander came here to teach me how to use the gun, leading me to believe they were using gunpowder for it, as if they were proposing a business deal.
Smart.
Making money from both sides.
I turned to Rashmika and asked,“Did you hear a rumour going around that scary noises come from the other side of the mountains?”
Her brows thinned in a line as she shook her head.“No, I don’t think so,” she said.“I mean, we’re close to the mountains. If anything came from the other side, we’d be the ones to know first,” she said.
“That’s true,” I replied, standing up from the couch.“You should rest now because I need to meet my brothers and take care of the feast preparations.”
She nodded and left. I immediately returned to my bedroom and sat on the couch.
I needed to find out what that big thing was. There was no way that gun could’ve killed our army since they couldn’t import it in large numbers without attracting attention, and they were no saints who would show me the gun before importing it.
That only meant these guns were a cover-up; their gunpowder had more uses. Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.
If a three-foot gun could shoot gunpowder to kill one person, then there could be a big gun that could shoot gunpowder in enormous quantities, which could kill many people at once. The fact that coastal fishermen belonged to various kingdoms prevented its importation; others must have already known this if we hadn’t.
I felt restless and went to meet Eklavya. After talking to him, I realised he didn’t know about it, but he told me that frequent meetings were happening at the back of the palace, where they stored war weapons.
