Chapter Fifty:At a secret hideout near the fortress of Sitapur,
Amatya Rakshas was trying to convince a reluctant Bhadrasal.
Rakshas: Bhadrasal you have rendered yeomen service to Maharaj Padmanand by this act of yours. The mistakes you have committed fade in comparison.
Bhadrasal: I would have left long ago. But I was unable to go without telling you one last time.
Rakshas: I am glad you came to me after that fiasco. Whatever happened to Rajkumar Dhananand was only partially your mistake. Chanakya and Chandragupt wove a very deceptive web in which it would be impossible not to fall. When I left Dhananand, I knew that something like this would happen. But I had to make my choice.
Bhadrasal: I could not discover that it was a trap until the very last moment. I barely managed escaping alive from the pursuing soldiers of Maharaj Chandragupt.
Rakshas: But you have superbly redeemed things for us. You have rallied the dispersed soldiers around you. Similarly you did that on my orders which neither Chanakya nor Chandragupt would have anticipated. They took care of everything. They lured Maharaj Padmanand within the borders of Magadh and kept him stranded and cut off from all possible help at Sitapur. They eliminated Rajkumar Dhananand. They bribed Malayketu and his uncle Veerabahu over to their side. But there was one thing they remained negligent and blind-sided about- MAHARANI DURDHARA.
Bhadrasal: As I was escaping from Bhavanagiri and in hiding, I got to know this crucial piece of information as a godsend. I informed you about this. The rest was executed according to your orders.
Rakshas: Rest assured! Maharaj Padmanand will pardon you for your earlier mistakes and reinstate you in your former designation...Why...no...You deserve a promotion for what you have done. I will advice Maharaj to promote you.
In Patliputra in a confidential chamber,
Acharya Chanakya and Patrani Helena were discussing something.
Helena: It angers me terribly to think that we are feeding and dancing attendance over that Malayketu. I pity that girl Vishakha who had to become his bride.
Chanakya: You need not pity her. Rather your sympathies ought to be with Malayketu. He does not know that he got that girl as his bride who becomes a widow on her very first night. Vishakha is a Vish Kanya. Malayketu will not see the light of the next day.
Helena: Vishakha...a Vish Kanya?
Chanakya: I did not inform the full truth on that day as the Rajmata was also there. I didn't want her to think badly about her daughter-in-law for what was her past. You have earned your respect and love in Magadh. That could have been tainted by mentioning the past. Patrani Helena, true to the promise made to you by Maharaj Chandragupt, you will have your revenge. Malayketu will receive his due this night for whatever he has done to you.
Helena: I am really overwhelmed that you thought so much about me and the promise to me. That was really the last thought on my mind.
Chanakya: True...you have conducted and dispensed your duties remarkably...But it was our commitment to fulfill whatever we had agreed upon...
Helena: Acharya...a moment...I sense somebody's presence...
She stepped outside the chamber to see who it was but found the corridor empty except for their own soldiers.
Helena: Strange Acharya! I felt somebody had been listening to our conversation...(After a small pause, she shrugged her head) I must have been mistaken.
The windows on that chamber rattled a bit and a slight rustling of leaves was heard outside. Acharya Chanakya quickly sprang into action, "Patrani...you were not wrong...somebody was listening...not there...but here..."
Lightning quick, he took a dart which lay beside him and blew in the direction from which the sound came. In the darkness of the night, they could make the vague outlines of a human figure flop to the ground.
Helena with astonishment and surprise writ all over her face, "How Acharya?...It was pitch-dark...It was impossible to see anything..."
Chanakya, without moving from where he stood, "SHABDH BEDHI! (Hitting the target based on the sound!)
Chapter Fifty-One: Page 99Edited by shailusri1983 - 8 years ago