Chapter 233

Chapter 314: The Servant's Account

He was riding out to the South as fast as he could, trying to make in distance what was lost in time. He wasn't sure how long it would take him to catch up with them, but he was resolved to not halt his ride until he was nearer to his target.

If they were heading for the Dinister, it would mean he would have to ride continuously for two days... He couldn't risk that. He had to reach them before they reached the coast.

He regretted having not been more heedful of the strangers who had slipped into his land. There was something unguardedly suspicious of that man with his long hair and his mysterious walking stick.

But what he couldn't understand was how two men could easily ambush a carriage and effortlessly overpower the male aboard and then carry off with, not one but, three victims, helpless as they may be. Besides, he knew Kushi. She would never submit to an abduction without a fight.

There was something odd about the whole thing. There was also something extremely worrying about that man, but he couldn't put a finger on what it exactly was that unnerved him about the imposter.

Loud thunder rumbled across the skies and he pulled at the reins of his dark stallion.

Eyeing the imminent storm, he squinted into the dark distance through the wind that had picked up in its temper.

A heavy longing gnawed at his heart. How he wished he could take back the words he'd spoken to her in the morning. He'd never thought that the heartless disputes he threw at her would be the last time he'd ever speak to her. Nor did he imagine that their last vision of each other would be in a parting that was equally brutal and without affection.

I have to find you, Kushi, he resolved himself as he picked up the reins again, I will find you!

Meanwhile, out in the stable of the Raizada Castle, a nursed and swathed OmPrakash sat on an upturned wooden crate, narrating passionately the horrific account of what had ensued and left him battered a few hours ago.

Listening to their bandaged brother's story were JayPrakash and HariPrakash, the former feeding the horses and the latter feeding the raconteur, animatedly resurrected from his wrecked appearance.

"I tried to fight them! Aye, I did," spoke OmPrakash ardently, waving his hands to assert his conviction of courage, "I wouldn't let anyone harm our First Lady or our Princess!"

"How many were there?" asked JayPrakash, picking up an armful of hay to supplement the horses trough.

"Two," mentioned OmPrakash amidst a mouthful of soup that HariPrakash was spooning into his restless mouth.

"TWO?!!" JayPrakash stared at him, his load of hay dropping uselessly to the stable floor, "Only two?" OmPrakash gulped down his soup and made to speak but JayPrakash had commenced his chiding stance, "Are you telling me you couldn't defend our Lady against TWO men? What kind of bloke are you? If they'd sent me to be her escort, I would have beaten those two to pulp!"

"I meant two to begin with!" corrected OmPrakash hotly.

"There was more?" HariPrakash enquired, pausing in his spooning of the soup.

"Aye, more!" said OmPrakash with immense thrill of the narrative progress, "They seemed to fly in from every side of the carriage."

JayPrakash frowned, "Where do you think they had been hiding?"

"I hadn't seen," stated OmPrakash brutally, "I was too focused on matters at hand to pay any notice of the new approaches in the vicinity."

"Did they harm our Lady?" HariPrakash wanted to know.

"None dared," said OmPrakash and then, after a thoughtful pause, amended, "Well, none needed to."

"What do you mean?" JayPrakash asked, pushing fresher hay into the horses' trough.

OmPrakash sat up, eager to explain, "Well, you see, when the taller man, who seemed to be the boss of it all, told her to get into his carriage, she declined."

"That's our Lady!" applauded JayPrakash to which HariPrakash nodded.

But OmPrakash had a grave visage (perhaps annoyed at the frequent fraternal interruptions made in the course of his fascinating recitation) as he continued, "But that made him angry and he ordered his servant, a baldie guy, to seize the children. At this directive, our Lady stepped forward and without a single smidgeon of fear in her eye, announced that she would get into his carriage if he promised to not harm the children."

He paused to manifest the effect of the scene and found his brothers to be breathlessly attentive in their hearing of his tale. A faint smile appeared on OmPrakash's bruised face, glorying in his storytelling mastery.

Impatient by his halting, JayPrakash prodded, "And? What happened then?"

"The tall man gave his promise, and she, in order to keep hers, walked towards his carriage."

JayPrakash shook his head, "I wouldn't have trusted that man one bit if I had been there!"

"And then what happened?" HariPrakash asked, so immersed in the incident that he was absentmindedly drinking from the soup which he should have been feeding his brother.

"Then that foul boss man broke his word!!!" OmPrakash bellowed from livid memory, "As soon as our Lady was in the carriage, he locked her door and then ordered the kids to be taken by force."

"Dear Mother!" JayPrakash gaped, "How dare he!"

"I tried to stop that baldie servant of his from taking the children, which was when a swoop of dozen or so armed men came from everywhere and attacked me!"

HariPrakash put the bowl of soup down with a disheartened droop of his shoulders, "I don't think I can bear to hear any further."

One of the horses was nudging JayPrakash's elbow for more hay but the young servant was immersed in serious thought, "What do you think that man wants, taking our Lady and the children in this manner?"

"Ransom, what else!" Forgetting himself momentarily, OmPrakash slapped his hand angrily on his thigh, only to wince painfully under the impact.

HariPrakash looked at his brothers, "I heard Lal at the Industry say something about the tall man having come to Arhasia with a proposition to buy the land."

"Buy Arhasia?" OmPrakash blinked.

JayPrakash was suddenly interested, "What happened? Didn't he meet the Master?"

HariPrakash shrugged, "It seems Master didn't offer to sell it to him."

JayPrakash snapped his fingers, "So he's pissed off and decided to exact revenge by stealing Master's wife!"

"Seems to be so," nodded HariPrakash.

"I think he's going to hold her in ransom, offering to release her for the purchase of the land," pointed out JayPrakash, "But I'm counting on Master getting to her before the ransom demand is made."

HariPrakash sighed sadly, "I only hope they are all safe and the children are with her."

"What a Chaos!" said OmPrakash, "I think Master should have sold the land to the man when he could."

"Well, if he refused to give it to him he must have his reasons," enunciated JayPrakash importantly.

HariPrakash nodded in support, "He must have sensed something fishy about the whole deal."

"It's still a blundering chaos, I say," repeated OmPrakash, and then he paused thoughtfully, "But how do you suppose that man knew our Master had plans to sell the land? As far as I know, we are going to stay a year more in Arhasia and he need only receive buyers a month before his departure. He's not advertised it either, if you know what I mean."

His brothers were silent at this turn of allegation and they pondered on it for a moment.

"He must have been informed by someone," was the only conclusion they could make, voiced by JayPrakash.

"An informer!" gasped HariPrakash, staring at his brothers in disbelief.

OmPrakash's eyebrows dipped in sombre contemplation, "But who could that be?"

"I have a pretty good idea who it could be," JayPrakash said, in a tone that flaunted his crafty intelligence, "Someone who was part of the family to know enough about the departure, but is now not in good favours with the family."

There was another protracted pause in the aftermath of his riddle, at the end of which communal insight struck and all brothers ejaculated in unison, "The General!"