CHAPTER 2
The little girl was excited.
Her pigtails swung wildly as she ran wildly as fast as she could.
Huffing and puffing she finally reached her destination and gave a quick look around to check if anybody followed her.
Seeing no one to spy on her whereabouts and report them to her father she gave a satisfied grin.
Without haste, she opened the double doors with little noise as much as possible and sneaked out.
Turning around she took in a deep breath as the rays of the sun fell on her. Swiftly she jumped down the steps and quickly hid behind the bushes. Sidestepping the stone path she turned towards the muddy track and started running.
Soon she turned a corner and stepped short. Her heart thrummed faster as joy filled her staring at her most favourite person in her whole world. Her angel.
"Pari Di," she squealed.
The young girl whirled around startled and in the next second found herself with an armful of an eight year old.
"Hello to you too Phool" Pari said, twirling the little girl in her arms. "So I take it you missed me?"
Phool answered her with thousands of wet kisses on her angel's cheeks and gave a blinding smile staring at warm brown eyes.
Pari gave a soft smile, carefully putting the child down.
Phool remained entranced staring at her angel's smile. Since she was four years old her angel had been always with her, taking care of her, listening to her problems and standing up for her.
Phool took the older girl's hand and swung around skipping. She loved her Pari Di the most in the whole world.
Suddenly a familiar fear gripped her heart. She stopped
"Pari Di."
"Yes Phool."
"You will never leave me, na" she queried her brows furrowed.
Pari gave a beatific smile and crouched down to her height.
"Never Phool. I will never leave you until you want me to go. And even if someday I have to go I will always be near you."
Phool was confused. "Where?"
Pari smiled and held her little hand placing it on her small chest directly above her heart. "Here. Always."
Her amber eyes flew open, her breathe labored.
She touched her face with trembling fingers and was not at all surprised finding it wet with sweat.
Slowly she got up from her King sized bed and wore her slippers.
With a grace quite uncommon among someone just rising from deep sleep, she steeped towards the open window. The cool wind brushed her long hairs mussing them up further.
Her petite hand reached across the window sill as a subdued sob broke her.
9 years was a long time.
Smiling brown eyes she hadn't seen since she was ten filled her vision.
"I am sorry, sorry, so sorry. Please come back Pari Di. Please"
*********************
The dead body of Hukum Singh lay on the muddy ground.
The cloaked Hunter dusted his hands. Dealing with traitors was getting little boring especially spineless ones.
Grimacing he turned around and stopped short at the sight of another identically cloaked figure staring at him.
The former pulled his hood up and the latter copied him.
Grey eyes stared to startling violet ones.
"Good job Maan. Very efficient."
Grey eyes narrowed. "Why Jealous Veeni?" he teased.
Veeni scoffed. "Jealous. Yeah right. I'm getting the next one you know."
Maan groaned.
"Another one. You would think that after a total of sixty eight spies going missing and turning up dead would give them a hint. But no, uff"
Maan kicked a pebble in annoyance and stilled.
"Wait, how do you know?"
Violet eyes glinted in irritation at his colleague's obtuseness.
"Remind me whom do we work for again."
"Oh," Maan murmured sheepishly. "Sorry for a moment I forgot our boss is a genius who finds out conspiracies faster than you can say spy. Honestly how he does that I will never understand."
"This is why you're not him Maan. To understand him you have to be as insane as him."
"Veeni!" Maan exclaimed in mock shock, " you're calling our friend upstairs mental."
Veeni gave a quirky smile. "When I first met him he was hacking into Khan Group of Industries private banking accounts. And in the next week they went bankrupt. Insanity is a different meaning altogether with him."
Maan whistled. "What did you do then? Jumped ship with him for World Domination?"
Veeni smirked. "Of course I did. Well first I called him a insane genius and offered him lifelong loyalty." Saying so he turned back disappearing into the woods.
Maan gave a look of utter bemusement. He would never understand the equation between Veeni and their boss-friend.
Shrugging he made to follow his mate when a thought drifted up his mind. Veeni swore loyalty to a stranger barely into his teens at 12 years of age. Even better, his mind whimpered making sense of the conversation, his boss-friend hacked and bankrupted a huge empire at the age of 14.
"You are the scariest man in the whole world mate, even if you don't look it. Really is there anything you can't do Baujiraj? Anything?"
Muttering about bonker friends and insane bosses Maan Singh blended into the dark woods.
Edited by mistofshadows - 9 years agoThis chapter is dedicated to my little sister Prostuti who continuously prods me to update.
CHAPTER 3
Regret was something he was quite familiar with, Shakti Singh Suryavanshi mused as he took in another sip of the bitter liquid.
Staring at the glass of wine, he smiled mockingly. Anyone who knew him when he was a teen would never even fathom to believe that he, the second son of Rana Udai Singh Suryavanshi, the rebel of the schools, rude and arrogant could be ever driven into drink.
But alas time and fate were mysterious entities, something that he hadn't factored in his plans.
With another little sip he turned to look at the vast splendour of the chambers of rooms he occupied.
Beautifully decorated arches and walls. All shining brightly and giving the ruse of a lavish and happy lifestyle.
A sneer twisted onto his face.
All lies.
God what had he done so bad to deserve this. So tightly bound in a trap he had never expected to even fall into. And the irony was that the puppeteer pulling the strings was his own blood. His own brother whom he had trusted with his life. With whom he had shared every sorrow, every regret, anger at the unfairness of their father's judgement. His partiality to his eldest child.
Immediately a searing pain gripped his chest as his thoughts went down the route he tried so hard to avoid.
His hands trembling, the glass of scotch fell onto the tiled floor shattering into a million pieces.
Just the way he had once shattered his brother's heart. By betraying him.
Those dark black eyes flashed in front of his eyes shining with mischief and concern, care and love.
The soft but firm tones of a teenager resounded in his head.
Don't worry about Dajiraj brother. I am here na. Don't worry I will take care of it. And remember one thing pipsqueak you should never worry about anything as long as your brother is here, got it?
An unwilling sob broke out of him. He shivered at the sudden chill that had entered the chambers.
Unshed tears brimmed into his startling blue eyes and sweat littered his brow.
He felt nauseous as he glanced around at his glittering prison. The huge room felt suffocating, the glamorous decorations and grandeur fake and dirty.
With a heave he dashed out of his chambers trying to leave behind his gilded prison.
Mindlessly his legs carried him to a path both familiar and unfamiliar to him. Climbing the stairs in record time he stumbled into the corridor of the west wing of the mansion. His feet stopped.
The corridor in front of him was utterly different than the others. It was dimly lit by a few flickering lamps giving an eerie desolate air to it. Unlike the other corridors there were no fancy carpets, no wall decorations, and no fluttering golden curtains. Only a dark corridor with a thick layer of dust covering the floor.
His feet hesitatingly took him forward. Slowly his made way into the dark cavern and finally turning a corner he came into his destinations.
A pair of large ornate ivory double doors came into view.
Slowly he stumbled near and soon was right in front of those doors. His eyes took in the familiar arts on the door.
A small smile broke through his face as he remembered how much his brother had loved the art of sword fighting that he had literally manipulated and bribed the workers to cut those designs onto the doors.
His trembling hands touched the cool handle and
immediately snatched it back as he felt the grimy dust settle onto his fingers. Six years. Six long years since it last had an occupant. Six years since he left the Suryavanshi Mansion.
A thought breached his mind.
A diamond can be hidden and thrown into the coals but even dirty it would not lessen its shine and brightness.
It was something his grandfather used to say.
Ah, how it held true to the current conditions of their lives.
Out of jealousy and spite he and his "favourite" brother had plotted to darken a diamond.
But fate had played a drastic hand.
He himself had been betrayed by his confidant and his partner in crime though having the coveted title of the Heir to Suryavanshi Empire could do nothing to increase the influence of said business.
Neither could he garner the support from the masses and nor from the Council. It irritated and angered him to no end when the servants would always call him Kunwar Jagmaal never addressing him as Baujiraj.
To add to his problems any deal he tried to make was always sidelined in favour of The Songara Empire.
A laugh bubbled up his throat.
Despite all the ploys and techniques, the traps and the pitfalls, it was their prey who had the last laugh leaving them in dust.
I hate you Jagmaal, he thought bitterly. I will wait till the right time. And when it comes, you, your vapid brother and your snake of a mother will regret everything you have ever plotted. You made me throw away the only person who ever stood up to me and genuinely care for me. You'll regret it.
Because Shakti Singh Suryavanshi had learned one thing from his older brother.
One strike at the right time could change the very direction of the wind.
Edited by mistofshadows - 9 years ago
