The Wrath of Gammon

Chapter 23

The Wrath of Gammon

Disclaimer: This story is my humble attempt to write a fanfiction of the epic Mahabharata. My intention is not to hurt anyone's sentiment.

Aum Namah Shivay!!

Major Jayant Roy, SM is a fictitious character. Any similarity with any living person is merely a coincidence.

Chapter 23

Hastinapur, Dwapar Yuga

Jayant/ Duryodhana POV (continues)

I walked out of that small palace...no, it was the prison of Jarasandha and Shishupal. Inside of my mind, there was turmoil of thoughts running around.

Jarasandha had recognized the knife!

Flashback:

"This knife...where did you get this knife?"

I looked at the former emperor of Magadha. He was looking at the knife with popped eyes.

"Can you recognize it?"

"Yes, I can easily recognise it. They are made especially by my order after all. Can I have that for a moment?"

I handed him the knife, "Be careful. The blade may still contain traces of poison. This knife was used in the attack on my wife. One assailant threw it towards her, but her Sakhi, Devi Supriya came in front of it."

Jarasandha looked at my face then he looked at the knife again.

"This black gemstone was a rarest type. My third mother, the Rakshashi Jara, had presented me with five of them. I had made five identical knives; each one had a gemstone attached in them."

"Do you have the five of them with you?"

"No. I have only two now."

My mind started calculating the possibilities.

"I have given one knife to Kansa, after his marriage with my daughters. I have given one to Hiranya, who passed it to his son Eklavya. After that cowherd made my daughters widow, Asti and Prapti put that knife to her husband's funeral pyre. The fire consumed everything. Eklavya still had his knife, well; he still had it with him at the time of the war."

"Who has the third one?" I asked him. My voice probably had a little impatient tone. While telling his story, I understood that Jarasandha was drowning in his memories. After all, he once had enjoyed unlimited power and authority in this land. Now fate had made him a prisoner. A golden cage is still a cage after all.

"I gave the third one to the king of Salwa kingdom. He proposed and agreed to act as my emissary to Kalyavana, so, I gave him one as a small token of gratitude. But to tell you the truth, Kaurava, that I was a little bit sad too, because, before that, all the kings of Aryavart came to me to solve the problems among themselves. Now, a cowherd created a situation that made me, Jarasandha, ask for help from another one. Though Mahadev bless his soul, Kalyavana never behaved that he was doing me a favour. He always gave me the proper respect that I deserve. Even you gave me that respect, Kaurava. Krishna killed Kalyavana, who had a boon that he would be invincible in a battle, by sheer trickery."

I heaved a sigh, and remembered an event from a book. When Shri Krishna got the news that Kalyavana was coming to attack him, he send him a venomous snake in a pot, to threaten him. But Kalyavana was not someone who would become scared with it. He put a huge number of flesh eating ants in the pot with the snake, and then sent the pot again to Sri Krishna.

"Look at the handle of the knife. There were some rubbing marks on it. It seemed that someone had rubbed off some design or marks from it. Can you shed some lights on it?"