Patrani (The Chief Queen)

The Chaos and identity revealed

Aaryaveer's POV

"Excuse me." said Veerti as she turned around, loosened her straps behind the back of her head and drank the water from the container that I had just offered her. I couldn't help but feel annoyed with her inconvenience of turning around every time she wanted to eat or drink anything.

"Thankfully, its cool in the forests otherwise Veertiji would have felt so hot in that awful veil of hers." For the first time I heard soldiers whispering something behind our backs. I sighed. Afterall they were humans. For how many days were they supposed to behave like highly disciplined puppets. Now that I was sometimes able to hear them talk, I would be shocked by the amount of ignorance they had about their leader. I mean, I believed that I knew Veertiji better than them. But again, some of her close aids were familiar to her way of operating. But those soldiers were few. She interacted with them but only regarding the topics of travel, war or food etc. I wondered if she possessed any knowledge about their families or their living etc. Maybe she knew them too closely to acknowledge their issues in my presence. Maybe she feared that interaction in my presence would give away her information. Now that we were spending more time with each other, I was coming to know about their tactics of war and survival. Some closely resembled to that of my army and some were completely different.

It felt like my army was expert in attacking in open whereas her army was more trained to attack under the close spaces or do more of spy work. My point was proven when we had stopped to the banks of the river to have some rest. Veertiji opened the small trunk that she had collected from her soldier at the beginning of her journey.

"What is inside the trunk?" I asked her. She literally signaled me to wait using her open right palm. (Who does that to a King?). She again pulled out the key that was hanging by her necklace and opened it.

All I could see was small balls wrapped in a parchment. They looked very ordinary.

"There is nothing so ordinary about them. They are explosives. Highly lethal. Can kill many people than one." She whispered her secret.

"What are we going to do with them?" I felt chill passing through my spine.

"Get rid of their elephants." her tone sounded evil.

"No. We can't kill elephants. They are more loving and faithful than humans. I would never let that happen under my watch. You know how much time does a mother elephant takes to bring a single elephant into life? Baby elephants are so playful and..." I couldn't help but express my love for those magnificent and loving animals but again, she cut me off.

"Trust me, Your Majesty, I am not as evil as I sound. We won't kill any elephants or harm them. We would use them to create a little bit chaos and stampede and a little bit of injured soldiers... here and there." She somehow finished the sentence, observing my reactions.

"And think it that way, the frightened animals will run away into the forest. Free from all the slavery of your rivals. And then they can live happily ever after, Your Majesty." she chuckled after teasing me.

Now to be honest, I love my elephants. All of them. For any King, putting elephants into battlefield is a matter of pride. However, I love mine so I try not to put them into dangerous situation, as much as I can. Its not about prestige anymore. Its all about loving those playful mammals to the core. However, again very few people know how much I secretly adore elephants. How did she know about that?

"From where the hell did you get all that stuff? Our kingdom doesn't make it." I asked and she fell silent.

"Well, these are used by the Chinese military." she spoke up, after a prolonged silence.

"We do not do any trade with the Chinese countries except that for the silk. How did this thing ended up into my Kingdom without my knowledge?" I was beyond exasperated. And then got anxiety. Where those dangerous things smuggled into my kingdom beyond my knowledge? If yes, then my Kingdom is in grave danger. Who supplied them secretly ? The traders? Hundreds of questions hammered into my mind.

"Of course I wouldn't directly buy it from the Chinese traders. I got it from someone." she looked down at the ground and confessed.

"Does that someone belong to OUR kingdom?" I couldn't control my rage.

"NO. TRUST ME. I got them from someone outside our kingdom. And their use is limited to the war. That's it. I would give them to you, in case any of it is still unused.

"Okay." I heaved the sigh of relief.

Anyways her plan proved to be lethal, for the enemies of course. As soon as we reached to the enemy camp, in the pitch black night, she signaled all of us to climb on the tallest trees after handing all of us a giant sling and a few bombs to each. Little did the sleeping soldiers knew what was stored in for them.

She made sure to climb the same tree as mine. "I have to protect you. If they catch you, the war would be automatically lost, you know." I felt her free laughter amidst the testing situation. And I instantly knew it was my Aaryawati. Because my Aaryawati would cover her nervousness with her laughter. Because my Aaryawati would snort while laughing. And because I could never fail to recognize the voice of that laughter even on my deathbed.

"Trust me dear. I won't die or get caught, before opening your veil and kissing you, my dear AARYA." I spoke up. She looked at me, her eyes turning big with shock as her hand grabbed the same branch that I was already sitting on.

"I am not the Queen Aaryawati. "she promptly spoke up as she sat next to me.

"How did you know I call my wife, Aarya? Only we both know about it." I spoke up and she looked down.

The silence was painful.... for her because I was enjoying seeing her discomfort.

"We shall discuss it once we are done with this." I pointed out. Aaryawati signaled her men who hid under the cover adjacent trees.

Soon the slings were used to hurl the bombs. The elephants woke up and so did sleepy confused soldiers. The next few moments I saw the most chaotic moment of my life. The scared elephants were running everywhere causing a stampede. The tents were crushed and the human bodies were hurled by impatient trunks. Since we all were wearing black, the camouflage worked for us as no one could spot us till most of the damage was done.

It was then suddenly a mad elephant hit his trunk to the trunk of the tree that one of our man fell down. Veertiji jumped to his aid and threw the bomb at the close proximity of the elephant. I was dead scared of her. What if the mad elephant got even madder and kill Veertiji? I got down to help her. However the elephant got scared with the boom that followed with the explosion and made the headway to the opposite direction.

"The Commander has noticed us. RUN!" Veerti screamed and we all ran towards our horses that we had tied after some distance. Under the moonlight, some of their soldiers somehow managed to chase us but we were faster. We climbed our horses and merged ourselves into the deep dark forests. As per the plan, Veertiji shouted and all of us (except her) switched off her lanterns as she led us towards the bridge that connected to our base camp route. As we all had earlier memorized the route, we all rushed towards the bridge without any difficulty. After it was crossed by all of us, Veertiji cut its rope so that it was dangling on the other side. She then switched off her lantern and we all hid beneath the bushes, only to find the confused soldiers of Sanketsingh looking helplessly at the broken bridge.

After sometime, Veertiji clapped her hand and we all rode till we could reach to the clearing.

"Great work everyone! I am so proud of you all. They not only lost their elephants, but ended up losing their men, way to home and ultimately, their morale!" she shouted and everyone laughed.

"You are coming in here. Aaryawati." I stopped Veertiji to go inside her tent and signaled her to meet me before entering into my cover. Our conversation was not over, yet.