PEREGRINATE

CHAPTER 24

Inder was an inconsiderate cad.

When I decided to ignore him, it was me who went out of my way to ensure that. Inder, on the other hand, had decided to own his juvenile behavior. It had been a month since what had happened in his room.

For the first few days, I had done my best to comply with his wishes. I was hypervigilant of his presence. I went the other way even if there was a hint of possibility that he was nearby. On the days he joined us for his meals I made sure to have my food in the room. In other words, I made things extremely easy for him.

His royal assness, on the other hand, was an infuriating gnat that I would have loved to squash under my boots. He made unnecessary droning noise that served no purpose to anyone except him. This opinion of mine though might seem like hyperbole, were warranted. He was absolutely insufferable in these past few weeks. On the off chance his eyes did lay on me, he barked out the most obnoxious orders. It was just that these orders were not aimed at me but at those around me.

At the start of the second week, as we parted ways after breakfast, Kabir lingered back to talk to me about something. But I never got to know what it was about because just then Inder happened to pass by us. There was no place I could hide in, so I just did my best to avoid his line of sight by shrinking behind Kabir. That did horseshit because he saw me and sauntered towards us. I stopped breathing, hoping against hope that he would not tell Kabir about my condition. After all, that was what he threatened me with in his parting words.

He surprised me, however, when he did not tattle on me and instead ordered Kabir to polish all of his weapons. He was known to not let anyone else touch them and yet he made Kabir spend his entire day at the armory and essentially neglect all his daily chores. I could have offered to help if only I was not thoroughly tempted to take a weapon and commit capital murder.

Then Isha fell prey to his inane demands. He ordered her to collect his shoes later from his room and get them cleaned. We looked at each other in question because we had just washed his shoes a few days back. How could he have gotten them so dirty already?

We got our answers soon after. He must have jumped into several puddles with different pairs of shoes as we spent our afternoon scrubbing the most muddy shoes ever. I entertained the possibility of suggesting that we throw away these shoes as they were hopeless but I did not want to trouble Isha more than I already had.

One afternoon as Laksh was showing me his skills of spinning the top, Inder happened to come upon us on his ride. Laksh was assigned a particularly dangerous task. He was ordered to fetch him books from the library. And it so happened that these books were on the higher shelves and he would have needed to climb a ladder to reach them. I asked him to stand down and chose to climb the ladders myself. All this hassle was of no use as Inder did not even open a single book when Laksh gave it to him. They were still lying on his desk in the same position.

Gone was the warm and friendly Inder who hung out with us in the early days. His illogical demands and sudden transformation set the tongues wagging. More often than not I heard whispers about his mercurial nature and the plausible reasons behind it. Most came to the conclusion that something must have happened on his last journey. No one knew that he had come back early that day, that we had exchanged words. That is no one except Nani. She was the only one who received a shred of respect and manners from Inder but it was sparing at best. I could not help but wonder if I had broken him.

After a few more unwarranted orders from him, others quickly caught on to the pattern. Inder's unusual temperament soon deterred them and I was left alone most of the daytime. He had effectively isolated me. But I had an inbuilt companion. The best baby in the world kept me company. I talked to him in whispers when it was only two of us.