Chapter 255

Chapter 336: The Clash of the Climax

Ram had just finished feeding Anarkali her dinner and subsequently earned a childish burp from her which made them both smile at each other.

That was when he discerned the faint sound of the racket outside.

He was wondering what it might be about (and if it was only just a drunken brawl that often erupted in the late hours among some of the more aggressive guards) when the guards outside his cell were heard making a clamour and rushing out, forgetting all about them.

Ram was clueless as to the cause that set the guards bolting up the stairs, but nevertheless he walked towards the door of his dungeon cell, carrying Anarkali in his arms.

Astonishingly, he found it to be unlocked.

It seemed the guard who had escorted him, on return from the pantry, had forgotten all about locking his cell.

What carelessness! Ram thought and then smiled at Anarkali. Good carelessness!

Watchful of the territory, he walked out of their prison and tiptoed up the steep stairs to tentative freedom.

There was no sign of guards in the hallways and corridors which encouraged Ram to carry Anarkali quickly across the deserted venue and into the outside.

Which ended up being only the open courtyard of the Fortress.

A courtyard that swarmed with hundreds of the guards, who were seemingly occupied in combat.

Swiftly, Ram took cover behind a wall and leaned to observe the spectacle from the edge of the wall. He had concluded one thing in certainty: Who would the guards be fighting if not their rescuers?

And sure enough, amidst the gang of guards, he caught a glimpse of Lord Arnav, slaying them with the swords held in his either hands.

Ram was amazed at the assumption that Lord Arnav could singlehandedly fight the mammoth number of guards. And then a new thought crossed his mind: Would Lord Arnav know about the General's presence here? Shouldn't he be alerted?

It was then that Anarkali clapped her hands in glee and Ram, following her gaze, caught sight of the General's form among the chaos of antagonistic guards. But what made Ram's mouth fall open was the realization that the General was not fighting WITH the guards but AGAINST them.

Puzzled, he looked at Anarkali and shrugged.

Then he frowned pensively. Whether the General was on Lord Arnav's side or not, young Ram wasn't going to easily give in to trusting him.

He looked around and his mind began to design an escape route, around the scuffle in the courtyard, sneaking along the shadows of the moonlit fortifications of the Citadel.

But he had barely inaugurated his idea when a shadow crept behind them and indomitable hands wrenched Anarkali from Ram's arms.

Alarmed, Ram tried to react in defence but the bald man (for it was him that had stolen upon the children) rashly shoved him aside and the little boy fell to the stony floor.

By the time Ram had hastily got to his feet, the bald man had marched for the stairs at the end of the hallway, holding Anarkali but her legs like one would a lifeless chicken.

Petrified, Ram rushed after the man. The bald man had already reached the floor above and as Ram reached him, panting and pale, he was in for a shock.

The man was standing by the railing that overlooked the combating courtyard a floor below.

Ram gulped as he watched the man hold Anarkali before him, as though he intended to drop her...

Ram's feet had frozen, afraid a movement from him would provoke the man to drop her. Ram's eyebrows twisted tensely. He had to think of a way out. Fast!

And then the bald man yelled out to the crowd below, "Drop your weapons or I'll drop the kid."

The line had, of course, been intended only for the two men massacring the guards, but every hand paused its fight and every head looked up.

At the sight of the bald man dangling Anarkali by his hand, Lord Arnav's face blanched and the General's face furrowed in a grimace.

Lord Arnav looked at the General and the General shook his head, relating to the First Lord to not comply with that man's threat.

Lord Arnav was hesitant to accept this response, doubting whether it was right to trust the General's nonchalant verdict. But he knew, if Anarkali was truly the General's cure, the latter wouldn't let the man carry out the intimidation.

Thus assuring himself, Lord Arnav gave the General a nod of mutuality and then swung his swords at the guards beside him.

The bald man was incensed. The fight had resumed like his threat had meant nothing.

Instantly, he yelled out, "You asked for it!!"

Ram leapt at the bald man but too late.

The man let his fingers lose and Anarkali slipped from his hold, plummeting down fast.

Ram's heart froze as he stared down the railing in shock.

A loud "NO!!!" erupted from Lord Arnav's mouth as he felled a pair of guards and, with the heavy chains weighing down his arms and legs, he rushed for the spot where she would fall. But he knew well that he would never make it in time.

And then it happened.

The General, having continued his combat by moving closer to the spot of her possible descent, fired his shotguns at the guards rushing at him from both sides and then, leaping over a dead guard, slid to the ground just in time for his daughter to fall into his waiting hands, lifted to catch her.

Ram gasped, in relief and in distrust of the General, and then rushed for the courtyard below.

Having reached the spot, Lord Arnav turned on his heels and swung his swords at the incoming guards, shielding the fallen father and the daughter who was now sitting on his chest.

Anarkali sat crouched on her father's chest as she looked down and giggled soundlessly at him.

The General felt a warmth wash over his heart as his face broke into a difficult smile, "Hello there." He paused uncertainly and then added, "Princess."

Anarkali's delight on seeing him was on a level of ecstatic that she practically had drool dripping over his neck.

Lord Arnav shouted over his skirmish, "I can't hold them back any longer!!"

The General leapt to his feet straightaway, lifting Anarkali in one arm and a shotgun held in the other hand. He caught sight of Ram in the distance, unable to figure out a way to reach them without stepping into the courtyard and confronting the warring guards.

The General meditated on the plight for a moment. There was no way Ram could reach them nor could the General abandon Lord Arnav to fight the guards alone.

He looked at Anarkali, "Be a good girl and watch Dada fight these bad men."

Anarkali, of course, didn't understand a word, but she liked being strapped to his back, bound by a scarf and belt that had been on him. And she liked the rollercoaster feel of being rocked to and fro and wheeled in a spot as her father fought the villains who had ruthlessly kept her captive too long.

One time, in the course of the fight, as Lord Arnav turned to thwack a guard with his sword, he found Anarkali looking at him. He winked at her, and then, just to amuse her, made a face and rammed the hilt of his sword into another guard.

In the desolate dining hall that was her prison, Kushi sat brooding in the corner.

Could it be true? All things that was said... She was repulsed that her real mother, the one who had begotten her to life in this world, should have been such a despicable woman. The thought of it broke her heart.

It was not the humiliation of it but the guilt that she'd been part of the blood that caused so much pain to the man she loved.

Arnavji... I did not know...

She remembered the last glimpse she had of him before she left his cell.

The distancing, the unspeakable agony, the distrust...

She glowered at the floor. What did I do wrong? Nothing! I never knew anything about my real mother. Besides, who knows if everything the man said was true. What if he had only used the name Chandraki to taunt the easily-persuaded Arnavji into this voluntary parting?

Kushi was annoyed at her husband. Did their love mean nothing to him? She snorted sardonically. Not in the face of all that mattered in his glorious past.

She blinked away the bitter tears that threatened to rise in her eyes. I will not cry. I am not weak. If he doesn't care about our love, neither would-

Suddenly the doors crashed open and two soldiers marched in urgently.

"Get up! Get up!" One of them barked at her impatiently, "We are leaving immediately!"

"What? Why?" She was confused.

Her hesitance annoyed them and one of the guards clamped a chain around her arms and dragged her out of the room.

"Let go of me!" she declared, pulling back, "Untie these restraints! I know to walk where you lead."

The guards only ignored her as they walked ahead of them, one of them pulling hard at the chain to keep her following close.

They led her down the corridor and onto the parapet that lined along the Fortress, around its massive courtyard. She didn't know where they were taking her but, as she was being dragged along the passageway, she glanced down the parapet and gaped in astonishment at the manifestation in the courtyard below.

Smack back in the middle of the courtyard was Lord Arnav, broken chains dangling by his wrists and ankles, trouncing the guards. And with him was... the General?

Kushi gaped at the presence of General Jha attacking the guards. Something glinted in his hand and a loud shot was heard.

Kushi was astounded to realize that he and Lord Arnav were fighting the guards together. In unison. Like there had been no discord or enmity between them. And that Lord Arnav wasfine with the General wielding a gun in a land where it was forbidden by the former.

And then she saw Anarkali. She was appalled. On the General's back?! In the middle of a bloody battle?!!

As the General circled where he stood, firing shots at the guards rushing towards where both the men stood, Lord Arnav deftly swung the swords in his either hand, the hair over his forehead dancing as he felled incoming guard after guard.

A guard rushed at Lord Arnav from behind but the General had seen him and yelled out just in time for Lord Arnav to bludgeon the man with the hilt of his sword.

Just then, as Lord Arnav was returning his attention to the rest of the guards, he sensed eyes on him and involuntarily glanced upwards and caught Kushi's eye.

He blinked, surprised to find her there.

Kushi stilled. He was looking right at her.

She may have been a floor above him but she could read clearly what he felt in his eyes.

There was a reluctance in his gaze.

Kushi puckered her lips. It was probably his deterrence to accept her after having heard who she really was.

Disheartened, she looked away and complied to follow the guards leading her.

Watching her look away from him and leave churned something in him. Lord Arnav's lips parted as though to call out to her, but no words came forth.

He stared after her as she was dragged away by a couple of guards who went hurriedly ahead of her.

Glancing down, he frowned at the guards who were rushing in his direction.

He had lost her one too many times. He could not lose her again.

He brandished his sword and slashed it right and left, felling the guards, his mind filled with the fury of losing his wife.