
Lashy, you have missed a beautiful chance to entertain us.. You could have easily developed this into 4 more chapters!

Crumb 1) Farooq had Akbar mutilated to please Khalil
1) It was the day of the 'flogging' - the day Shehzaade was going to have Akbar punished. The mania of the lonely Prince had been successfully fanned in such a manner that he wouldn't be tempted go 'light' on his best man whatsoever.
If it all went to plan, the outcome of the flogging would render Ustaad a weaker opponent!
'THAT should be good enough to bring my secret pact with that rotten man to an end!' Surely, the risk he'd undertaken just now was a solid repayment for that brute's help earlier, in dredging up information about the safe-house, against Akbar! 'A SOLID repayment! Hopefully it'd get him to stop sending his thuggish friends after me again'
'Where is Farooq Sahib?'
'Farooq Sahib? I... I... I am not sure...'
'Are my network of spies SLEEPING?'
Crumb 4) FS was found amidst clothes being packed.
'Found dead? In his own Haveli? Amidst trunks and clothes he was packing to leave?
Farooq Sahib had stayed under the radar to keep away from the Shehzaade for a while, as he'd planned earlier. And a few days later, during the height of the duel-frenzy, slipped off to his summer house to pack up and leave (possibly for Mecca again), as is obvious from a later fact, that his house was scattered with trunk of packed clothes.
Crumb 5) Their brooklet conversation
'Whoever might have done such a thing to him... or HAD such a thing done to him...'
Indicative of the fact that Heera suspects someone HAD something done to him, before looking at her husband - a.k.a she suspects her husband was involved in this assassination. Because she now knows too well, that the Ustaad is NOT the type to leave loose ends. Happened once with her messengers, and they all suffered for it - he will not let such a villain to wreak havoc in their lives again.
Which is why Heera later goes on to add - quietly assuring him - that even though she's a kind-hearted healer, she cannot complain that FS was killed. (I.e. she does not disapprove of her husband's actions to silence the Satan, if that were the case)
Crumb 6) Their grins put the discussion to an end.
The husband and wife shared a grin - hers a knowing grin, and his a telling one.
1) Akbar's spy network are vastly better at collecting information. They would've had the resources to find out where FS was, even if the Shehzaade's spies didn't.
2) After the duel, while leaving the capital, Akbar would've quietly instructed one of his men - one of his 'faster' riders (not the 'famous faces like Azeez/Ibrahim/Sayyid' so they're not spotted missing by any of Shehzaade's spies) - to finish off this one last assignment. Because once their group leave the Capital state, it'd be difficult for any of them to return again because of the Shehzaade's conditions.
3) Thus, one of his men rides off to the summer house, while the rest of the group is simultaneously leaving; and poisons Farooq Sahib.
4) As for - what when the Shehzaade finds out.
Well, as instructed by his Ustaad, he must've left clues behind showing that it was 'Khalil's thuggish friends' who were responsible for it.😉 So if anyone would be caught for the murder - it would be Khalil's friends!
Two birds with one stone, or is that three, Akbar style? 😉
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