Kingmakers

Chapter 1

Princess Devayani was getting ready for her big night. The maids were busy arranging the fleets of her saree while her mother, Queen Revati, the second wife of Emperor Kalidas, was swirling woven jasmine flowers along her braid. She would be wearing a special diamond set that her half-brother Prince Prabha had gifted her after his recent trip to the Kingdom of Nilani.

"You look beautiful, my darling", a voice croaked from the entrance. Queen Padma stood there smiling, but the smile didn't quite reach her eyes.

"All the women are going to be jealous of your beauty today", she said.

Queen Revati rolled her eyes. 'If there is anyone who jealous of my daughter's beauty it's got to be you.'

"So, who do you plan on choosing tonight?" Padma asked Devayani.

"I don't know, Queen mother." Of course she knew. This was what she has been waiting for ages. Tonight, she was finally going to be united with her true love. This was all she had dreamt of for the past two years, this moment when she would be free from the chains of childhood and would be able to live her life as a woman. All that she's ever wanted was going to happen tonight. And when things proceed according to the plan, she has a surprise waiting for him, a secret surprise no one else is supposed to know right now.

Padma examined the diamond set keenly. "Are you going to miss us dear?"

"Very much, Queen mother."

Queen Padma is the first wife of Emperor Kalidas and his chief empress. Her son, Prince Yash, is Devayani's older brother, while her other brother, Prince Prabha, is the illegitimate son of the emperor and a mistress he had courted a long time ago.

All three royal women reached the court were the ceremony was to take place.

Devayani was ready now. According to her both physically and mentally, to face what lay ahead. Her mother escorted her to her seat, from which she could see every one of her suitors. Her eyes searched for him, but he was nowhere to be found. The playfulness in her eyes turned into panic.

"How is my little sister doing?'' her brother Prabha interrupted her swirling thoughts.

"Fine"

"Aren't you a little too young to get married?" he asked.

"Isn't it too late to ask that right now?"

Prabha looked skeptical. "If you don't like anybody, just leave."

"Why are you treating me like a child?"

"You are fourteen, that's why."

"That is not too young."

"Girls usually get married around eighteen, so yes, you are young."

"Queen Padma got married when she was thirteen."

"She was a special case."

"I am also special."

There he was, at a corner hidden from everyone's sight. Relief entered Devayani like a fountain of water erupting from Earth. He finally came. For her.

"When will you get married, brother Prabha? You are already twenty-one."

"Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I suppose."

A bell rang. All of the people present in the venue took their respective seats. Emperor Kalidas sat on his throne, with Queen Padma beside him. All the princes present looked at Devayani. Some with respect, some with love, and some with lust. 'Who is she going to choose?'

Every princess in the continent of Kumari Kandam has the right to choose her own husband in a ceremony called the Swayam Var. All those who are invited must show up and the princess is supposed to choose the man she wants to marry. Then they would get married in the groom's kingdom.

Tonight was Devayani's Swayam Var. And she had already chosen her husband.

Emperor Kalidas rose from his seat. "Welcome, esteemed guests, to the Swayam Var of my only daughter, Princess Devayani. I hope your journeys have been pleasant. I want you all to understand that no matter who my daughter chooses, everyone of you present here is a mighty warrior who any woman would be lucky to have. With that being said, let's begin the ceremony."

A maid handed Devayani a garland. She took it with both her hands.

"Have you made your decision, princess?" her father, the emperor asked.

"Yes", she said and walked down the aisle. There were fifty young princes in total, twenty-five on her either side. They all looked hopeful. Devayani slowly passed each one of them. She turned back and glanced at her father, mother and brother Prabha. Prabha had a perplexed look on his face.

She kept walking. Some of the rejected princes started leaving in anger. She kept walking until she reached the very end and turned to the right. The man standing before her, some Prince Romi or something from some distant land smirked and bowed his head. Devayani walked straight past him and garlanded a man right behind him. A man who wasn't even invited. A sixty-year-old man who had walked towards her with a limp. The banished Prince of the Kingdom of Amala.