The Inseparable Princes

116.

A/N: Chapter ghatiya hone ki possibility high hai. Read at your own risk. Logic might be entirely missing. I'm being very serious here.

★★★

"Why haven't Ram and Bharat returned? It's been an entire day."

As if that was his cue, Bharata walked in right away.

Everybody was, understandably, absolutely delighted to see him back. But he himself looked pretty disappointed. And, curious.

He had one question to ask.
"Where is Urmila?"

Everybody went quiet. She...wasn't there.

"Did she not tell you all?" asked Sita, however, breaking the silence. "She said she was going to go and check the list of any other suspicious people-"

"She didn't." Bharata interrupted.

Sita continued, "And she said she'd tell you and Ram first-"

"Where's Ram Bhaiya?" asked Lakshmana, his voice louder than that of any other.

"Urmila isn't here." said Bharata, starting to sound inadvertently impassive. "And none of us knows where she really is. That is not great news."

★★★

He opened his eyes slowly, expecting beams of crazily bright light entering his eyes. As eyes, it was definitely a pain to be under a blindfold for so long.

But all that was there around him was black. He was in a blanket of darkness, surrounded by no light whatsoever.

He could feel the presence of a few people. But he wanted to pretend like he didn't realise. Maybe that's what the people who had kept him there, wanted.

Suddenly, he heard someone open some creaking doors and a crazy amount of bright sunlight rushed in. He could not believe his eyes when he saw the person there.

Nobody else saw her. She was hiding, and was doing it pretty well, considering all the others were facing him. But he could see and recognise her clearly. He wanted her to get out of there, but she simply wouldn't. She seemed very determined to do what she was there for. To find out who the real culprit was.

With all that light, he also looked around him and saw all the people crowding there. About six people, two of whom he recognised very well from descriptions he had received.

★★★

"Bharat!" yelled Lakshmana, furious. "Tell me where Bhaiya is!"

"I won't." he replied. "He has told me not to tell you."

"But why?" asked Lakshmana, looking almost desparate. "Why shouldn't I know?!"

"Not just you." said Bharata. "I can't tell anyone. I'm told he will tell you all himself when he returns."

Lakshmana shook his head, before asking another question. "What about Mila? You know where she's?"

Bharata hung his head. "Absolutely no clue."

"So what are we going to do?! Sit and watch?" asked Shatrughna. "Can we go look for both of them?"

"Yes, for Urmi. No, for Bhaiya." said Bharata.

★★★