✓ Fearless - Book 1 of The Rajkumari Trilogy

Chapter 7

Chapter 7
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She goes back to the palace quicker than me! And arrives late at the starting of the session, while I have to get up early and finish all the tasks.

Revati mulled over her 'plight' as she made her way down the stairs.

But wait a minute... she thought, her eyes landing on all the lit torches. They were lit when I came here in the morning, they are lit now. Who lights them?

"Suruchi," she whispered. Suruchi wakes up earlier than me, lights the torches, goes back to the palace, and returns late for my training in the morning, she realized.

I judged her lazy, too fast. She mused, slightly ashamed.

But I've got to ask her one thing: how does she get back so quickly?

She was about to push open the garden gate and step out when she heard voices. Hushed voices. Her round eyes frantically darted around to hide and crouched behind a nearby bush. They couldn't see past the overgrown vines covering the gate, but only she could. Revati peered from her hiding spot to see who the owners of those voices were.

To her surprise, not a pleasant one, it was Roopvalli's and a maid's. Revati could see her sister-in-law handing over a scroll to the maid and instructing her about something. The maid bowed and walked away. Revati frowned. 

A scroll? 

What for? And to whom?

Roopvalli stayed there, pacing around. Two newcomers arrived at the spot. They were the King and Queen. Roopvalli displayed another one of her practiced smiles and greeted them. A couple of servants laid out a royal carpet and placed breakfast and drinks.

"Where is Revati?" Roopvalli asked.

"I don't know," the Raja confessed, looking around for any sight of his daughter approaching them.

"I didn't see her from morning. I hope she hasn't forgotten about this..." Dipankar said.

"Forgetting such a simple, yet an important thing, is disgraceful for a princess!" his wife exclaimed. Her eyebrows raised and her mouth parted in a false expression of shock, practiced time and time again. Referring to it as if it were a great scandal.

Revati's eyes enlarged as she face-palmed quietly.

How could I have forgotten about it? But I can't go right now, they're right in front of me. They'll see me coming out of here and all sorts of questions will come pouring in. How do I go in now?

She worried her bottom lip, thinking of a way to get out of her mess and attend the picnic.

"It must've slipped her mind," the King said with a tight smile in her direction, eyes betraying his displeasure. Roopvalli simply nodded.

"He's covering up for her already. Even if she has made a mistake unbecoming of a princess. Who knows what'll happen if this 'problem' still persists," she mumbled to Dipankar as the King enquired a servant about the princess.

Revati bit back a scream when she felt the weight of a hand behind her. She whirled around. To her relief, it was her friend. This friend of mine does have a knack for scaring the daylights out of me. Suruchi was motioning her to get in the cave.

She led her under the stairs. Her forefinger rose up in the air, moving it as though she were counting something, and pushed in a specific brick. The stone wall made a set of peculiar noises - Are there gears that are turning, from within the walls? - and slowly gave way to a passage.