The Princes of Ayodhya-The Ramayan Through Short Stories

Apna Time Bhi Aayega-Part 1

 'Thy arrogance will be thy destruction.'

There was silence in the throne room of Lanka. Just mere silence, and nothing could, should, or would dare to cut through it other than the King, who did not. And so, Ravan's messengers, advisers, trustees, and most honorable warriors sat with the silence drenching them in confusion, anger, and a simmering wish for vengeance. And among all of this, their King still remained as quiet as ever. Quiet, yet deadly.

Finally, his words came, ripping off the tarp of emptiness. But the words he spoke made most of them wish to crawl back underneath it. "Dead, dead, dead." Ravan growled, sitting up from his slumping position, his oiled muscles rippling. "Every single time we send someone out there, they end up dead, don't they?" Ravan stroked his grisly beard thoughtfully, his jaw still clenched tightly so that the tendons of his jaw popped out of the smooth skin. "I wonder why, sometimes. Why should they end up dead? Those vanars have something up their sleeve, and they aren't telling us for some reason." That reason would be that they were in a war. "We need to get to the bottom of this!"

And Ravan collected his silky robes around his arms and stood up, his eyes blazing like an inferno, his entire body sparking with embers. And then he plopped right back down, grumbling to himself as his men exchanged uneasy glances. Ravan would kill them all. "But I'm not some detective," he growled. "I just know that they won't be able to kill me. I am invincible! I am the KING OF LANKA!" He thumped his staff like Merlin, and the courtiers began to cheer raucously. "So I shall go into battle today. And I shall show them that whatever means they are using won't work on this!"

And in the shadows, where Mandodari always stood, her face hardened, and her dark saris making it so that she would remain unseen, a queen's eyes finally showed the fear she had been masking for so long, though her lips still pressed tightly together as to keep her face neutral. Sulochana believed in Indrajit more than herself, she believed that they could defeat the "hermits" and reclaim their former pride. Mandodari did not. She very well knew how the mercenaries they sent came back with busted heads, hearts, ripped limbs, or worse. And she wondered, how would it be any different for her husband?

-----O-----

Vibhishan woke up with the sun streaming in from the translucent walls of the tent, and sat up, quickly grabbing some wattle from the boiling kettle which some vanar must have set there, and quickly dipping the English herbs into it. After a few minutes, the liquid stopped boiling, and he poured it into a small earthen mug. He stared at it for a moment, before taking a long sip, not grimacing as the hot drink rushed down his throat like a flood.

Vibhishan did not prefer the chai that Jambavan drank each day before healing or grabbing his club and making his way into the battlefield. Those leaves grew in Lanka too, and he remembered, they also grew outside the hermitage he used to live in. The hermitage which had seen the birth and bringing up of the monster that was his brother. And though Vibhishan never liked to admit it, he couldn't have stopped it.

Vibhishan drank English tea because it cleared his throat and burned his tongue, and for some time, cleared his mind from the drowsiness of his sleep. The drowsiness, yes, and also the dark little tendrils of hate that reached into his mind and pulled out his worst memories, mixing them with his best ones with only malice. Vibhishan drank English tea because the bitterness that had caused a curious Neel to spit it out made him blanch and drained the nightly guilt out of him. The guilt that he had just allowed his brother to capture an innocent woman. The guilt that his own were being killed, and he didn't care.

-----O-----

Ram walked in on Lakshman staring at the walls. "Come on! Let's go." he began tightly. Lakshman did not move. "Lakshman, come on. The sun has risen, and Nal's spotted the first legion of rakshasas charging. It'll be a couple easy victories today, but we'll still lower Ravan's pride a little bit." There was a pause in the speaking as Lakshman did not move. "Lakshman?" Ram asked, shifting his weight from foot to foot.