CHAPTER 3
The sun shined like a brilliant flame in front of them. Devi placed her hand on her forehead to shield her eyes from the sun's magnificent glare. She and Ashok were walking down the dirt road leading to the stables.
"So..." Ashok started, breaking the silence. Devi looked up at him curiously, but Ashok just looked ahead, fixed in his usual graveness, silent. Devi's smiled softly and turned her gaze towards the path. It was lined with short trees, and marked every quarter of a kilometer with two large twin banyan trees. Various flowers like marigolds, carnations, and the likes were grown in a pattern following the colored beauty of the indra-danush. The horse shed gradually came in view as the two walked in silence.
"Ashok."
"Devi."
They said that both simultaneously, exchanged a look, and burst out laughing. Ashok lifted his arm and gestured for Devi to continue.
"I don't know." She started. "Where are we headed today?"
"To the outskirts of Pataliputra." Ashok stopped and looked at Devi. He paused for a moment, as if collecting his thoughts, before saying, "I actually lied to you Devi."
"What about?" She inquired.
"About the investigation being relatively safe. I've known you for ten years now and trust me, putting you into the any danger would be the last thing I'd want to do. But ..." He paused.
"Go on..." Devi looked at Ashok, her unwavering eyes were fixed on Ashok.
Ashok stared at Devi for a moment, gave a half smile, and said, "But I thought I could use your keen sense of detail and your speculative mind to lay a trap for Khondana."
"Khondana." She repeated. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath a few times, unsure if she felt fear or hatred for the beast incarnate. Her father was gone, she had faced endless perils, watched her friends mysteriously disappear one after the other ...all because of Khondana.
"Yes. Also known as Rajmata Helena." Ashok's face hardened as he said the name of the Macedonian wife of his grandfather, Chandragupta. She had been behind the numerous attempts on his life, his guru Chanakya's life, his father Bindusar's life, his mother Dharma's life, and now she was attacking the life and wellbeing of every single person in Magadh.
Devi stood there, deep in thought. It would be a lie to say she felt no fear. No, she felt fear; fear she had never faced before. Her outward appearance looked as if she was calmly analyzing the situation, but her inner self was chaotic. She burned for revenge, for murder, for death; but she questioned whether this was the path she wanted to walk. It was a fear of whether she should walk away from her beliefs.
Ashok, meanwhile, had been going on about how Devi didn't have to come if she didn't want to.
"No .. Let's." Devi said after a few minutes. A mysterious grin gently formed on her face.
"Huh .. what?" Ashok said. Ujjain's residential Devi had always condoned his violent "Chand" form, but towards the end of the exile, she had began to understand him a bit more going to the extent of trying to convince Dharma that Ashok was actually a good Chand because he was only targeting the despicable. Still, she would never have jumped into the fray, but would have watched from a safe distance. Kaurvaki, on the other hand, wouldn't have waited and would have been kilometers ahead flashing her sword.
"I'm with you, let's go." Devi said. Her cheerful self no longer bubbled out, rather it was replaced by a darker, colder version of herself.
"You don't seem to understand Devi, you'll have to wield a weapon." He unsheathed the sword of Chandragupta Maurya. "I want to make sure you're 100% okay with this, otherwise you can turn ---"
Devi placed her hand on top of Ashok's hand, which firmly grasped the sword's hilt. "I don't care." She interrupted. And she grabbed the majestic sword used by the founder of the Mauryan Dynasty to drive the Macedonians from the land of Bharata from Ashok's hand and walked into the stable; Ashok did not know what just happened.
Edited by shyam09 - 9 years ago
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Arjun
Cricket
