Book 1 of Royal Series
Rajkumari Nandini, by day she was the over protected princess of a small kingdom named Sitamgarh and by night she was Rakshika: the Protector of her kingdom. No enemy had ever survived her so of course nobody really knew tha...
It was a joyous day for the kingdom of Sitamgarh...their favourite princess was getting married and to the King of Mewar none the less. The streets were filled with bands and processions.
There were three horse drawn carriages and white horse coming down the road towards the Sitamgargh palace.
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In the first carriage sat the previous king of Mewar, Maharaj Prithvi Singh Rathore and his chief consort, Maharani Sumitra Singh Rathore. The next carriage had Rajkumar Armaan & Rajkumari Ishani and the 3rd carriage had Rajkumari Sanjana & Senapati Shaan. On the white stallion rode the one & only Maharaj Manik Singh Rathore.....the current king of Mewar.
As they reached the gates of Sitamgarh palace, the guards opened them and they entered.
"Aiye Phufa ji...Maharaj." A man greeted Prithvi and Manik. This was Raja Jaidev Singh, the king of Sitamgarh and eldest nephew of Prithvi's first wife, the Late Maharani Ambika. "Pranam."
"Kalyan ho putra." Prithvi blessed him. Behind Jaidev stood his two wives, Rani Pallavi & Rani Vaishali with their sons. They also took blessings from Prithvi and then Pallavi brought a thaali to do Manik's tilak and welcome him.
Manik then entered with his family and he was taken to the mandap which was set up in a giant room that was lit up with one chandelier. As all the candles were lit...the entire room was illuminated. Manik sat down at the mandap and the pandit started saying mantras.
Meanwhile somewhere else in Sitamgarh....
6 soldiers from an enemy kingdom was camped just outside of the Sitamgarh border. They were joking among themselves and having fun...unaware that they were being watched. From the forest a girl had her eyes on them. This girl was wearing armour, she had three knives on one side of the sheath and around her shoulder was a quiver of arrows and a bow. Her hair was in a braid while a black cloth covered half her face.
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Taking out one arrow slowly, she aimed it at one of the soldiers and shot it.
"AAGH!" The man yelled out as the arrow pierced his chest and he fell to the ground. Now more aware...the remaining men took their swords out and looked around. The girl took aim at another soldier and shot him too.
"AARGH!" Another man fell to the ground dead. Like this she managed to kill five of the men but then realized the 6th man was no longer withing her eyesight. Suddenly an arm grabbed her braid from the back and dragged her to the camp.
"Kaun ho tum? Mere saare saathiyon ka maar diya...chodunga nahi main tumhe!"
Just as the man swung his sword at her head, she managed to get a hold of another sword that was lying on the ground and blocked the attack. The man was startled and taking that moment of surprise the girl swirled her sword and disarmed him then she jumped up and placed the blade at his neck.
"Huh...lagta hai aap Sitamgarh mein naye aaye hai...varna aapko paata hota ki Rakshika ko itni asani se haarana namumkin hai." The girl chuckled before swiping and killing the last man.
Back at the palace....
"Rani Vaishali....jao aur Rajkumari Nandini ko niche le aao." Jaidev told his second wife.
"Ji...abhi laate hai." Vaishali went upstairs towards Rajkumari Nandini's chambers. There she was, dressed in a beautiful red lehenga and a long ghungat covering her face. "Arre vah...tum toh tayyar bhi ho gayi...chalo. Niche bula rahe hai tumhe."
Vaishali went over to help Nandini with her heavy lehenga and the two ladies soon came down. As Nandini sat down beside Manik on the mandap, he didnt even look over. The pandit continued with mantras while the bride was looking around nervously from under her ghungat.
Suddenly something hit the chandelier making it swing and the candles blew off. Everyone started running here and there in a panic.
"Kisne kiya hai yeh?" Jaidev yelled out. "Sainiko!"
Even Manik stood up in his spot and was looking around wondering what happened. Since it was so dark now, nobody could se anyone without the lights.
In all the commotion, a pair of hands grabbed the bride by her arm and pulled her into a private corridor.
"Nandini! Kaha reh gayi thi tum?" The bride....oops, I mean the bride's twin brother Nakul who was dressed as the bride took his ghungat off and glared at Nandini. "Do minute deri ho jaati toh Maharaj ke saath humara vivah ho jaata."
