Stalker Saomom, dear peepli, sweet Bubly, dear Sonia, Arhasian Poetess Medha, new visitor Roshni, Surya, dear Vrinda, sweet Dingle, Darya dear, casker, sweet harsh, dear Vidya, darling Farwa, march, farha, sweet kushipugly, dear khusiarnav, angeldream, sweet Heta, Shamin, avid reader and her monkey fans, deep decoder Hoopoe, pristineblue, flowers4u, bea_room, Mxk, guessing girl saga twilight, sweet bablio, penrith, dear music, Jammy dear, Keerthi, Idealist, my sweet friend Shas and darling Jonashi…….. I am in a hurry tonight and didn't want to break the promise I kept so made the time to update. But I have read your comments, laughed over your humour and felt my heart move with your expressed emotions!! I love listening to how you are taking this tale of mine! It helps me to focus on what matters in the future chapters...
Answering just one question raised my saomom and then by Jonashi: Lady Lavanya is not a bright one like Kushi to connect the implied meanings possible in a dialogue that sounded to her like Arnav was too cruel and inhuman by saying there is no humanness in him. She is given the guest room because no sounds penetrate through the door and walls of the guest room but Kushi's tiny wardrobe room is right under the stairway outside and adding to the fact that she is a keen one, led her to stumble across the dark secret existing in the Castle. However, with ardent respect to Lady Anjali's kind wish, she has bottled away her curiosity regarding the mysterious incident with great efforts. But her alert mind never sleeps and Lord Arnav's secret will be hers to know one dark night (which is many many chapters away so let's not talk of it now).
And yes, as hoopoe, said right now, never thought we'd come across such sweet inspiring encouraging friends in this little Inn of ours. Eh, not ours, but the InnKeeper's.
And welcome to the world of this Arhasian Tale, dear SaniyaBano. Though you are annoyingly spamming away, *wink* I am delighted to officially welcome you on behalf of all my readers and Comrades.
Oh and Heta, the answer to the personal riddle of mine given with the pictures of the Karva Chauth scene in the show is what Leafs wrote. One of her favourites too!
Now, coming to our tale, the following chapter needs to be read with a lot of care and attention before I can let you have the next chapter………And like I said, it is not size that matters, but the substance in it.
Chapter Ninety Nine: Sleeplessness
Something furry ran over her feet and Kushi jerked awake and gasped, "Who is there?"
The only reply she was offered was the ceaseless sound of dripping water from somewhere outside the cell and then she heard something scuttling in the corner of the dark cell room.
She tried to stand on her feet but, having remained unconscious for a long while, her legs had numbed and, even worse than her legs, was her chained arm. It had been held above her head the entire time. There was absolutely no life in it but when she tugged at it, pain rocketed up her shoulder and she shrieked and dug her mouth into her hand to muffle her scream.
The pain in her arm was unbearable and she waited for a long time, cautious of any shuffling from the corner, before moving her limbs and arms, trying to making it a less painful effort.
Slowly, she managed to feel life in her appendages and struggled herself to her feet, her hands clutching the cold bars for support. She leaned against the bars, her feet firmly pressed onto the cold floor and then she peeped out through the bars. She could not see nothing but the looming darkness.
"Is any one there?" she called out hopefully, with as much strength as she could muster, towards the possible direction of the many cold steps and the metal door from her incoherent memory.
More scrapping in the corner of the room from behind her brought her to look over her shoulder. The light from the hole in corner of the celling was often flashed by darkness caused by bats flying outside. The place smelled of stagnated water and moss and……….…Kushi realised fearfully, of dead rats.
She yanked at the hand that was chained but the more she kept struggling against the bonds, the more her wrist bruised where the metal cut into her skin and she winced as her bleeding wrist smarted at each pull. Finally, exhausted and wounded, she gave up and looked out into the darkness again.
She held the bars and cried out, "Please, someone! Anyone!"
Tears streamed down her face and the darkness around her suffocated her little heart, "Please," she moaned against the bars, her teardrop sliding down one cold metal bar, "Anyone………."
And then she slid to the ground, crouched, hugging the bars, away from the scuttling sounds in the corner behind her, and cried herself to another troubled sleep.
Many distances above her, her condemner tossed about in his bed.
He found himself in the dark forest again and this time he was not running away but chained to a tree by his arm. He tugged and pulled and yanked at the chain but it was too thick to break. He heard someone approach him from behind and he turned around, crouching low, his wild eyes cold and alert.
It was the lady in the dark hood. She stood watching him and though he could not see her face, he knew she was smirking.
"Was it you?" he growled, tugging at the chain that held him enslaved to the tree.
"Could have been," murmured the woman, in her windy whisper.
"Untie me this instant," he said, his free hand fisting in her direction.
"I cannot," shrugged the woman, unmoving from where she stood.
"Why not?" he ordered, pulling at the chain and wincing inwardly when his wrist cut from the clasp.
"Because I do not have the key," said the woman and then she began to move away.
He looked up and yelled, "No, wait! Tell me who has the key!"
But it was too late. The dark lady had already vanished, but in her place, lay a lifeless young girl. Her hair lay spread out on the cold forest ground and dead leaves blew over her gown. Her lips were blue and her skin seemed cold and pale.
However, he was not looking at her face but at her neck for, reposing on her unmoving chest, was a key, hung from the chain around her neck.
"Kushi!" he jerked awake, breaking into a sweat, and stared into the darkness. He was in his room, on his bed but his hand still smarted from the remainder of the presence of a metal clasp around it.
A few rooms away, downstairs, Rahim Chacha sat in his bed, looking out into the darkness in the room.
Every servant was in a restless sleep and he knew how the family was also having trouble sleeping with the latest incident lingering in their waking memory.
He had been administering coffee to Lady Mother till an hour ago and he was heart-broken seeing the elderly woman and her granddaughter and Lady La, all huddled and worried in Lady Anjali's room. No one wanting to sleep in remorse as they tried to find strength being in each other's silent presence. Every time he walked into the room or out of it, he caught sight of Lord Akash outside the dungeon door, trying as hard as he might to open it, but failing.
It was only an hour ago that everyone had given up and returned to their rooms to forget their woe and guilt in a sleep that may not come.
"Oh, Divine Powers," Rahim Chacha groaned involuntarily, "Watch over the poor child. Let no harm befall her."
He sighed and then slipped out of his bed. He needed a cup of coffee himself. He moved towards the door and had barely stepped into the kitchen when he heard sounds from within the Castle.
Frowning, he crossed the kitchens, guided by the moonlight from the kitchen windows and came to stand before the door leading from the fore-kitchen to the hallway. He opened the door noiselessly and peered out through the space into the darkness.
No one seemed to be there and he was about to shut the door when he saw something move near the stairs. His heart rose in panic. It was Lord Arnav. He was in his night robe and he had slipped into the space behind the stairs. Where the door to the dungeon was.
But something about the way Lord Arnav's face had appeared, in the moonlight falling from the tall living room windows, made the butler feel comforted within.
Lord Arnav was not going to harm the girl, that much was certain.
Patience, darlings. Patience. *sips warm tea* Now, tomorrow night is a big night for all of us. We can ask the InnKeeper to add extra luxury to the food and drinks we have here. Or we can also bring some homemade stuff ourselves. Bring in whatever your heart wants to in honour of our celebration. That is, if we can evade Captain Responsibility's watchful eye and sneak with the goods into our Inn.
Oh and all those who wish to stalk hours before I'm even in Arhasia: I am sure Kushipugly (who has brought a cottage near to the Inn from where she keeps an eye on my comings and goings to make it to the Inn first) will be happy to have you all waiting in her warm living room and not freeze yourselves to death outside while you wait for me to appear before the Inn.
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