Chavi who had sent Adarsh off, visited the king's chambers upon his orders. She knocked before going in.
"Maharaja?" She spoke. Vaijayanti and Bhargavadeva both turned around, parting themselves from the window they looked out of, "you called for me?"
"Yes, Maya, I-I mean, Ch-Chavi." Bhargavadeva nervously spoke.
"Is everything alright? You seem perplexed."
"Do you happen to know..." Vaijayanti began, "where the letter addressed to us was sent from?"
"I believe Acharyaa might have mistaken me to be your daughter. Hence, the letter must be from your real daughter." Chavi scoffed, mildly disappointed.
"We need to find her, Maya." Bhargavadeva spoke, "It's a grave matter."
"Is it because of me or what Acharyaa said?"
"It's about Adarsh."
Chavi stopped talking and just registered the worry on their faces. She was confused to say the least. She only stood blankly.
"No one apart from a close circle of people are aware that Adarsh is adopted. He is our firstborn to the world," Vaijayanti added.
"If word gets out that Rukmini is our first born, it puts Adarsh into danger." Bhargavadeva consoled Vaijayanti as he spoke.
It only then dawned upon Chavi that the firstborn of the kingdom was indeed very closely related to Adarsh. Swarnonnata, now devoid of Ashokdhar's support was a pursuable target. Three kingdoms precisely would be targetting them.
Under any circumstance, the enemies would have the need to keep Adarsh alive as he would take over the throne of Swarnonnata according to the fallacy. Even though Swarnonnata was under them, they would need Adarsh to carry on operations. Because people of Bharath value the blood of the former on the throne.
On the contrary, if he was found out to be adopted, they wouldn't hesitate to kill him for he would be nothing much that a source of information. After the information had been drawn out, he was as good as dead. Because people of Bharath value the blood of the former on the throne.
"I will look into it at the earliest. Please do not worry." Chavi bowed and hastened out of the room, her heart throbbing in her chest thinking of Adarsh.
•••
Moving at a speed surreal, Adarsh rode through the woods of the Deccan and reached the Vindhya range, stopping for a brief moment to rest his horse. Seven hours' distance he had covered in four through all the shortcuts her knew but still it seemed to him as if there was no time.
He had his schedule set, find Darsh and give him the letter and bring some reinforcements to Swarnonnata. If time permits, visit Ishani but that was the least of his priorities at the moment. He could not just watch as his kingdom was unsafe.
"Sorry," he said to the horse, rubbing the sides of its long jaw, "I'm exhausting you, I know. But please bear it just for a couple of days?"
The horse seemingly understanding his words, huffed leaned into his touch. Adarsh smiled and grabbed his cloak again, wrapping it around himself in one swift motion and got up on the horse, speeding again towards Ashokdhar.
•••
The next day in Swarnonnata, Chavi walked hastily with a group of ministers, on a mission to recover the losses of the alliance. The ministers followed Chavi's guidelines more openly than they did before. A faint feeling of acceptance in them.
Just then, the palace gongs went off. Chavi ran up the stairs to the balcony and looked out towards the warfield and saw the army in brown assembling themselves into a proper march. But they didn't cross the border that would indefinitely declare war.
YOU ARE READING
LEGACY ||Indian Historical Fiction||
Historical Fiction||PART- 2- REGAL DUOLOGY|| (Can be read as a standalone) Darsh, the most illustrious son of Ashokdhar, is kind, loving, caring and simply just too good to be the Yuvraj. So, he's all set to become the king. He had his priorities set straight, the ki...
