Chapter 103

Rabba Ve, everyone!!!!

I am so excited!!!! Finally, the GREAT 176 is here!!!!

Loved all your wonderful comments on the last one, especially thank you for loving Payal and Master Shashi……….

Oh my! I almost feel like dancing when I think of 176!! 176! 176! 176!!!

Okay, okay, I will calm down. (Lin, hold yourself darling, you have a chapter to narrate! Wipe that stupid grin off your face!).

Fine, I am all ready. And you?

Then get ready for another of Aquiline's blockbusters!!!

Chapter 176: Clash of the Intents

Riding through the dark forest, Shadow sped like the wind, his strong legs pushing dirt as he galloped over the roots and ducked under low branches, making short way towards the South Temple.

Kushi squeezed her eyes shut for the panic of riding on a horseback was suddenly upon her and she tried to calm her mind, mumbling prayers for strength.

Lord Arnav, his gaze narrowed, was focused on the path they were taking, pulling at the reins consistent with the way the trees barred the way and around which they had to go.

As they rode, Kushi's hair, which had been tied in a bun, loosened. The little white flowers in her hair streamed away with the wind after first having slid over his cheeks and then her hair and veil were caressing his face.

He closed his eyes, overcome by the spellbinding moment.

At the speed in which they were moving and the two riders being distracted in their own worlds, it was certain that Shadow alone could not have sensed the incoming danger in time to avoid it.

He had barely rode them halfway through the forest, when suddenly, out of the darkness, a white horse charged at them, knocking the black horse to the ground.

Shadow neighed in warning as he fell to the ground, and Lord Arnav having smelt the intrusion before seeing it, opened his eyes just in time to see the white horse smash into Shadow.

Without even a fraction of a second's delay, Lord Arnav's arm was around Kushi's waist and as the horse beneath them fell to the ground, he leapt off the horseback, in an almost cat-like movement, holding his wife by her waist.

The leap off the horse sent them hurtling to the ground, rolling once or twice until they came to a stop with him above her.

Kushi paled in the panic, not knowing what had happened, and as her back pressed to the ground gently, her husband's weight upon her, she looked up at Lord Arnav's face, his arm securely around her.

But his eyes were not on her face. He was looking at the fallen Shadow.

As though he had been slapped, he let go of Kushi, leaving her lying there, and rushed to where his horse lay.

Kushi watched fearfully as his trembling hands pressed upon Shadow's motionless head.

Suddenly, Shadow lifted his head and neighed assuredly.

Both Lord Arnav and Kushi sighed in relief and, as Lord Arnav helped the sturdy horse to its feet, Kushi sat up and her gaze slid towards where the white horse stood.

Her heart froze on seeing the General seated on Lightning.

He was the last person she wanted to meet after the horrible ceremony she had just endured.

And then she realized the General was not looking at her but at Lord Arnav.

She looked at Lord Arnav and saw the First Lord standing beside his horse that appeared unharmed, back on its hoofs again.

Shadow was probably frowning at Lightning for the surprise collision, but Kushi's attention was on Lord Arnav's hand, slipping under Shadow's saddle.

At first, she assumed it was to check for any bruises under the saddle but when she saw him draw out a long sheath that had been concealed under the saddle, she gasped.

Lord Arnav glanced icily at the General who was alighting from his horse's back, his boots meeting the ground with a determined thump.

As the General walked towards the forest clearing between them, his glance skipped over Kushi, noting the white veil on her head and she was certain she had seen him wince slightly.

As the First Lord unsheathed the long blade and held it before him, its length glinting in the moonlight, the General too withdrew a sword from the sheath at his belt.

Kushi was astounded, and found herself incapable of moving from the ground where she was crouched. What were they doing? Was Lord Arnav going to attack his sister's husband because the latter smashed into the former's horse?

The only sound was the cold wind blowing over the treetops that surrounded them. Kushi held her breath and the horses stilled and stared as the men glared at each other, their swords held firmly in their grasp.

And then before she knew it, Lord Arnav yelled a curse and rushed at the General, who casually lifted his sword and parried the other's approach. Lord Arnav's sword clanked with the General's.

She couldn't hear what they were speaking over the blowing wind, the loud noise of their boots brushing on the leaves and the swords clanking and slashing, but she could see their mouths move and knew they were talking. What were they talking about? The horse accident? Or was there something else?

"I told you that girl was mine!!" the General yelled, raising his sword.

Lord Arnav ducked the blow, "You will not have Kushi, EVER!!"

The First Lord swung his sword at the General but the General thrust his sword and blocked the other's move, "This is all your fault! She was my only chance!"

"I am you only chance now. You will harm neither my sister nor my wife."

The General grunted, his sword slashing Lord Arnav's sleeve near his shoulder, but the First Lord had moved fast and saved his skin from being touched by the General's quick sword. Kushi's fingers clenched at the ground for support.

"You defiled your brother's marriage with your absence!" the General grinned evilly, and then his eyes fell on the gold ring glinting on Lord Arnav's hand that held the sword, "Wait till you come to the South Temple and everyone sees what you've done!"

"I don't care!" Lord Arnav snarled and swung his sword at the General, but the latter stepped away unharmed.

As they prepared for the next round, the General's gaze fell on Kushi again, where she sat immobilized on the forest floor, staring at them palely. His heart sank and his rage awoke as he turned to frown at Lord Arnav, who was about to rush at the General.

"You fool!" the General growled, "That village girl is my cure!"

Lord Arnav was staggered, "What?! Kushi?...Cure?" His shock turned to disgust, "That's ridiculous!!"

"It may be for you," uttered the angry General, furiously swiping the sword at Lord Arnav who deflected it with his sword, "You don't even care about getting your curse cured. You just carry on with your rotting life, suffering the pains and the nightmares..."

"A person cannot be a cure to one's curse!" retorted Lord Arnav, stepping back to gather his poise better, "Your strain of thought is irrational!"

"When I was cursed, I was also told my cure," said the General hotly, swinging his sword expertly as he walked around Lord Arnav and the other moved accordingly, such that they seemed to be walking in a circle, "Unlike you, I didn't block out the words but took it to my memory. I know that girl is my cure!"

"This is darn idiocy! Utter madness!" Lord Arnav roared and rushed at the other with his sword, but the General stepped away and spinning where he stood, slashed below Lord Arnav's knee, again only cutting his cloth and not harming his skin because Lord Arnav had been quick to move.

"Madness it will be for you but not for me," the General mumbled and then he watched Lord Arnav gather himself from the near miss.

"So desperate to get cured," muttered Lord Arnav, panting, as he frowned at the General, "That you blind your reasons and... " A memory came to his mind, "You transformed in front of Master Gupta!"

"He was too prying and had somehow sniffed my little secret," reasoned the General, clutching his sword's hilt for the next blow he was to bestow on the other, "At least I had the heart to not kill him."

He smashed his sword against Lord Arnav's sword that had been lifted in time to fend off the other's deadly blow.

When they fought each other, it was unlike any other fights they had involved in. It was nothing akin to how they fought with any other man. Here, skill and power were needed in redoubled doses.

"Letting a person's memory be marred willfully is unjustifiable," Lord Arnav growled, while struggling to push the General's sword away with his sword.

"I never regret what I do, Master Menace," the General smirked as their swords withdrew with a slicing sound and the men stepped away, both of them panting slightly, their foreheads sweating, "With the intrusive father out of the way, the daughter was open to be preyed upon."

"Well, it's too late now," Lord Arnav said victoriously, "She's my wife."

"Then I shall simply have to eradicate you," the General said coolly, grasping the hilt of his sword hard.

"Try me!" Lord Arnav's eyes glinted determinedly, lifting his sword.

All this while, Kushi sat transfixed to the ground, equally fascinated and fearful of what she was seeing. Almost like a dance, the two powerful men were slashing swords and attempting to attack each other. She could not hear any word they were uttering but she knew they were furious at each other. Extremely furious. The way they fought showed how much they hated each other. Hated each other enough to……...….kill?

Kushi gasped at the realization and struggled to her feet.

Shadow and Lightning, standing apart on either side of the clearing, had also been engrossed in the battle between their Masters, when they noticed something white move from the corner of their eyes.

The horses stared in shock as Kushi marched from where she had lain towards the clearing where the man fought and both the horses were greatly disturbed.

For though they were enemies, the one trait they shared was their affection for the young girl. They couldn't let her near the warzone, nor could they interrupt her for it was understandably forbidden to step into the clearing when the Masters fought.

Shadow neighed desperately at Kushi as she walked past him and Lightning trampled her hoofs restlessly in the ground, her eyes worriedly on the girl heading towards trouble.

But Kushi was determined, oblivious to the horses' messages, for she knew that though Lord Arnav was superior at swordfighting against Master Aman and Lord Akash, he could not beat the General, a man well-versed in warfare and fencing.

Lord Arnav stood no chance against the General, having earned a few cuts on his cloths already. Besides, she had Lady Anjali and the child to think of………

Their swords clanked and their grunts rose in the air as they fought themselves to a wearied state. But their resolve could not be exhausted and they continued fighting with unbendable vigour.

Moving swiftly, Lord Arnav railed his sword, aiming for the other's chest, but the General was faster in his sword moves and his blade swung at the rear of Lord Arnav's legs, bringing the sword's flat side to slap hard under Lord Anrav's knees, sending the latter crashing to the ground as the General, in his crouched poise, watched Lord Arnav's sword slip out of his hand.

Straightening up, the General stepped forward and kicked the fallen sword farther away and came to stand before Lord Arnav where he lay in the shock of the fall, wincing from the hurt his back had endured.

"It's a good thing you married her, in a way," whispered the triumphant General, as he held his sword vertically above Lord Arnav, the sharp tip inches away the latter's chest.

Panting as he lay there with his dizzying head, Lord Arnav's expressionless gaze was on the General's face, whose wet hair fell on his forehead, as he eyed the fallen enemy, "You see, in the threat of killing you, I can ask your newly wedded wife to succumb to my will."

He lifted his sword a little to gather the force of the thrust and plunged the sword down, aiming for Lord Arnav's heart, when, in a white flurry, Kushi fell upon Lord Arnav's chest, her eyes squeezed shut.

"KUSHI!!!!" Lord Arnav's tired arms were suddenly around her, shielding her back from the incoming sword.

But there was no incoming sword.

The General's sword halted inches away from the white of Kushi's veil that covered the length of her back.

Staggering backwards, he dropped his sword to the ground, shaken by the close call. If that sword had plunged into Lord Arnav's chest through Kushi's heart, the General would never have forgiven himself.

Angered at how Kushi had interfered with her own safety forgotten, the General stormed towards her, pulling her up off her husband by her shoulders.

Lord Arnav scowled though his head was still dizzying.

Kushi was so shocked by the General's pull that her legs took a moment to find steady ground and then she was staring up at the General's scowling face, "What do you think you were doing, you idiot girl!!! You could have gotten yourself killed!"

Kushi gritted her teeth, "Are you blind? You were going to kill your wife's brother!"

"A beast deserves to die but not a maiden!" yelled the General and Kushi stared at him, clueless.

Beast? "Oh, I am looking at a bigger beast than the one I am married too!" she remarked hotly, not quite comprehending the actual meaning of the word 'beast' in the General's utterance.

Lord Arnav had got to his feet already, too shaken to believe that Kushi had endangered herself to fall under the General's sword, but he remained silent when he heard Kushi's next words, which she spoke, glaring up at his face.

"I cannot let you two fight yourselves to death! Understand?" she frowned at Lord Arnav who could only stare at her, his senses disabled by the fight, the fall and the near death, "You are now my husband and your life matters to me. I do not want to be a widow on the day I became your wife!"

Before Lord Arnav could respond, Kushi had turned on the General, the ends of her veil fluttering in the wind, "Despicable though you are, I am pleading, LEAVE MY HUSBAND ALONE. If you harm him, I shall not let you walk unpunished the way I let you walk off tonight."

The General, too, could only stare in astonishment, unmoving, until Kushi yelled at the General's face, "I said LEAVE!!"

Then to Kushi's surprise, the General's expression turned to one of dejection. Of a hopeless loss.

He looked at Kushi sadly, as though it pained him, and his hand reached up to touch her face but he didn't. He stopped his hand mid-air and withdrew, looking away.

And then, with a sigh that rose from his depths, he turned away to his horse, picking up his sword on his way, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

As soon as the General had left the place on his white horse and silence had returned to the cold night, Kushi turned to her husband but he had already moved towards Shadow.

"You!" Kushi yelled, marching towards him, but he pointedly ignored her as he returned his sword to its sheath and the sheath to the saddle clasp.

"So this was the reason, wasn't it?" Kushi continued angrily, for she had heard the last words of the General before the sword had been brought down, "Why could you not tell me! Why didn't you ask after the truth? Did you think that that man and I-?"

"I saw the letters you'd written to him!" he yelled at her face, hatred raging in his eyes.

Kushi was stunned first by the knowledge that he'd seen the letters and even more by the hatred she saw in his eyes but she soon recovered from it and tried to reason him to the truth.

"Did you read them?" Kushi asked but he didn't answer. He just busied himself in adjusting the saddle on Shadow.

Kushi pulled at his arm, and he stopped to scowl at her.

"Did you READ them?" Kushi repeated her question sternly.

Lord Arnav yanked his hand free of her and frowned, "No, they were burned before I could."

Relief and anger ransacked Kushi's resolve, and she sighed, her words bitter, "It's sad that a sensible man like you would let anger take the better of you. If you'd read the letters you would have seen for yourself that I had only seen that man as a friend, as a brother-"

"Lies! All lies!" yelled Lord Arnav, and then he moved towards her, and spoke as though warning her, "And if it is the truth, let me get one thing clear for you, Kushi. This is my sister at stake here and I will have NOTHING tamper with her happiness!"

Kushi clenched the sides of her gown in her fists, as she glared up at him, "I know you are willing to destroy others and wreck even your own happiness to keep your sister smiling. Take the truth as you will! I don't really care now because it's too late. You have wounded me by binding my marriage on LIES when I had always dreamed my marriage would be out of-"

She stopped suddenly, and he stared at her, his searching eyes gazing into her yeaning ones, but the moment passed, and they looked away, hating to hurt and be hurt by the other.

Without alerting her, Lord Arnav moved to her and lifted her onto the horse and she sat there smugly, frowning into the distance, angry tears welling up in her eyes.

Lord Arnav climbed up behind her and picked up the reins, finding her angered silence greatly disconcerting.

"You shouldn't have fallen on me when he held his sword over me," grumbled a reluctant Lord Arnav.

She didn't reply and he was furious, "Did you hear what I just told you!"

"Next time, I won't bother to interfere, then; let him slice that sword through your heart," she hissed angrily and then she spoke no more.

Lord Arnav was content with the answer it seemed for he didn't retort.

Shadow shook his head exasperatedly, not wanting to comment on the events of the night yet and when his Master mumbled, "Let's go, Shadow!" he only geared up and raced for the South Temple as fast as his legs could manage, knowing the worrying part had not yet arrived.

Talk about headstrong Masters! That reckless Lightning would support me on that! Though I will never stoop so low as to ask it of her!

Overall reactions to 176?

Okay, on a serious note, I need you all to listen very carefully. There are matters to take care of at home and my Project is waiting to be finished. So do be kind and understand when I tell you, I will not be regular for the next few weeks. I will, if possible, update once every week. But I am unable to be here like how I used to the past week. I will return in full form as soon as my Project is over and some things are settled. But I will return and you know it. I can't have Aura update the chapters either because she is more stuck in her Project than me and we are both helpless. Do try and understand……..but I assure you, I will update once a week and because I am updating personally, the Index will be edited accordingly. So do not stalk. Always check if the title of the post has changed from the old chapter number and you will know. Thank you. Love you all, you are the most wonderful set of readers and friends in the world!!