Chapter - 4 Prachi closed her eyes as a wave of nausea threatened to overwhelm her, brought on due to the swaying motion of the carriage. Her head hurt, probably due to getting banged on the side of the carriage due to the unusually rough roads that they had come upon after entering Saharan, and most likely due to lack of sleep.
"Stop!"
The sharp command from Ayesha brought the carriage to a jerking halt. She opened the door and stepped out, motioning her to follow. With a hand to her pounding head, she slowly came down to see Ayesha glaring at her.
"If you're going to be sick, Prachi, go and be sick elsewhere and not in the carriage!" she said annoyed. "Woh tree dikh raha hai? Go there and don't come back till you have emptied whatever you were threatening to spill all over my dress!"
"But Princess Ayesha," broke in a knight, sitting on his horse to the side of the carriage. "Ye forest bauhaut dangerous hain, filled with thieves and wild beasts. Yahan rukna khatre se khali nahi."
"Humne tumse poocha?" Ayesha demanded, shifting to the royal plural for emphasis. The knight shook his head, flushing in embarrassment. "Aur agar koi trouble aayi toh tum log kis kaam ke ho? Jitna kaha jaye utna hi karna."
Turning to her, she said, "Ab tu mera khade khade muh kya dekh rahi hai? Go!"
Prachi hid a smile as she turned to go. She was well aware of the cause of her sister's surly mood. Making her way carefully through the bushes and overgrown grass, she reached the tree, still pressing a hand to her throbbing forehead.
The site that met her eyes as she raised them to the forest area in front of her made her forget her plight and brought a gasp to her lips.
Five men with swords drawn had surrounded a man lying on the ground and were slowly advancing on him. The man pushed himself up on his knees and attempted to stand, only to fall down again making the men around him laugh and jeer at his attempts.
Then one of them smashed his sword hilt to his head, rendering him unconscious. A scream rose halfway to her throat, even as anger took root at the unfairness of the attack on a helpless man. She drew the dagger at her belt and ran amongst their midst.
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Ayesha was annoyed,
more than annoyed. She was furious! To think she had actually been worried about her sister's condition in the carriage! And that too enough to snap twice at their loyal knight without cause! She had even considered going around to the driver in the front and blistering his ears for not knowing how to drive a carriage smoothly on a rough road which was absurd in the extreme.
She watched her sister going into the woods. 'If she doesn't come back ever, it would be too soon for me,' she thought sourly. She narrowed her eyes as she saw Prachi stare transfixed at something and then felt something akin to alarm as she drew the dagger strapped to her waist and disappeared from her sight right into the forest.
"Stupid woman!" she cursed aloud, snatching the sword of a startled guard even as the knights rushed headlong into the woods. The sounds of swords clanging reached her ears over the pounding of her heart as she ran behind them, the guards shouting at her to come back.
The sight that met her eyes drained her face of colour. Twenty men were engaged in battle and more were pouring in from the woods, each with their swords drawn. She heard the sounds of her guards behind her as they rushed to support the brave knights. Her eyes scanned the scene and landed on her sister being attacked by two men and narrowly escaping their swipes.
'She's probably too worried of hurting them,' she thought in disgust, making her way towards her.
"Prachi!" she screamed, as an attacker got lucky and made a deep gash around her sister's left arm, bringing a cry of pain from her even as her dagger pierced the other.
Feeling a rage like no other, she slashed the one who had attacked clear across his chest, making sure that there was no way he could survive the wound, and put the other two who took the places of the previous ones quickly on the defensive.
She saw her sister pick up the sword of the one she had killed out of the corner of her eyes and then disappear from her view. Not worried overmuch as Prachi was better skilled with a sword than a dagger, she continued toying with the men she was engaged in mortal combat with.
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They were still trying to get to him!
Prachi saw the men make repeated attempts to get to the man in the centre and get thwarted by her guards as they were under the mistaken belief that it was she and Ayesha who were their targets and not the man bleeding profusely lying on the ground.
She quickly made her way towards him, countering the attacks of two men in the process before her knights stepped in to protect her. She crouched near him and turned him over; staring at a face that even after being covered with the blood from his head wound looked handsome to her.
She patted his cheek gently to try to wake him, saying softly, "You must wake up, I can't get you through this alone. Aapko meri help karni hogi."
The man didn't move, and she finally tried to lift him herself by putting his arm around her shoulder and her own about his waist, biting her lip to stop herself from moaning due to the pain searing through her from her head as well as the deep wound on her arm. Seeing an attacker come at them, she dropped him, breaking his fall with her left hand holding his arm and then turning to face the man, even as a groan escaped the one she had dropped.
Her sword clashed with his, and she took that moment to bring her knee up to kick his stomach hard, causing him to double over. She smashed the hilt over his head to render him unconscious and nearly grinned as she saw it was the same one who had hit the man groaning behind her the same way.
The battle was coming to an end, the attackers fleeing into the woods when they saw they were outnumbered due to the numbers they had lost. Some of her knights and guards gave chase while others stayed there for their protection.
She frantically looked around to spot her sister ignoring her throbbing head and found her directly behind her, on her knees in front of the man, wiping the blood from his face with her handkerchief and ordering the guards to arrange a space in the carriage to carry the man all the way to the castle of the King of Saharan.
She wiped the sweat from her brow and beamed a smile of approval and gratitude on the men who had fought so bravely inspite of being outnumbered at first.
As she turned to look at the man once more, her dark brown eyes clashed with eyes as dark as sin before everything went completely black around her.
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Milind groaned as he opened his eyes. His whole body felt as if he was sleeping on a bed of thorns. He couldn't believe his own stupidity! Enraged at having to marry, he had left the Palace unescorted to be alone for a while amongst the wilderness that seemed to calm him, making it easy for whoever wanted to see him killed to get to him.
Without giving him a chance to defend, the attackers had leapt down from the trees and used their swords on him, making little nicks here and there till he felt as if he would prefer death to this torment. His sword had been taken away when they had all fallen on him at once, rendering him immobile with their weight.
Then the swines had stood and laughed as each attacked one at the same time. Their amusement had ended when he had knocked two down with a swing of his fist and the only thing that had prevented him from killing all of them had been the sting of a sword used to slash his back and a sharp kick to his midsection. Then the hilt of a sword had been jammed onto his head and he remembered nothing after that.
Nothing except…the sounds of battle that had dragged him back into painful consciousness… the sound of a feminine voice asking him to help her…a lovely face with gray eyes peering down at him as she wiped the blood from his face…
"Toh aap uth gaye."
It was a statement, quietly uttered. Looking for the source he got up to find a pair of dark brown eyes staring at him, with a bowl in her hands, her long dark hair loosely tied with a ribbon.
"Please lie down, your stitches will open up again," she said with compassion in her expressive eyes.
He remembered seeing these eyes! She was the girl who had fainted at the sight of his blood which the gray-eyed one had been wiping. Somehow annoyed that the girl was so faint-hearted, he reluctantly lay down.
"Ah, Prachi, aap idhar hain!" the voice of his father came from the doorway and the sound of his quick footsteps came to him along with other unfamiliar ones. He raised his head a little to see the woman who had so bravely protected him and then gently wiped the blood from his face.
The first thing he had seen on opening his eyes again had been the blurred vision of a female with long hair engaged in combat with one of his attackers. He had seen her kick him in the stomach and then smash the hilt of the sword on his forehead. His eyes had noted it was the same man who had done the same to him, when the pain from his tortured body caused him to close his eyes. When he had opened them again, he had seen the most beautiful gray eyes set in the loveliest face imaginable, after which his eyes had slid to a girl who had fainted dead away…
'Probably due to the blood surrounding her or the one still on my face,' he had thought in disgust.
"Beta, ab aap kaisi hain?" the King asked fondly to the girl with the bowl in her hands. "I apologise most profusely for the inconvenience caused to you. I'll have those outlaws removed from the forests
right this instant!"
"Uski koi zarurat nahi, your Majesty…"
"
Uncle Pranay," his father corrected, smiling. Then walking over towards him, he sat beside his bed, lovingly smoothing the unruly curls off his forehead. "How are you feeling, son?"
"I'm fine…"
He saw his father's face harden and knew what was coming. "Aap ki
himmat kaise hui without your guards uss forest mein jaane ki! Do you realize that you are the Crown Prince? Do you remember your responsibilities towards your people, your Kingdom?"
"I do, Baba…" he said quietly, knowing he deserved every word his father was saying for his foolhardiness. "And I'm sorry. I wouldn't make this mistake again."
"Good," the King said, accepting his apology. Turning to the gray eyed beauty, he said, "And this is Princess Ayesha from Shahjahanpur."
'My soon-to-be-wife!' he realized with a jolt, looking at her gazing at his father with an odd expression on her face. Perhaps marrying a woman with this much courage, who on top of that was also a beauty, was not going to be as bad as he had thought.
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well, this is slightly longer than others...hope you liked it!
😊 Edited by gurl.enchanted - 17 years ago
