रक्षण (Rakshan)

रक्षण

"Promise me, you'll protect him," her own voice rang in her ears for the hundredth time. "Promise me, Arjun."

He'd held her hands and said, "I will always protect him, no matter what."

"Protect him, Mahadev." her frail mother's heart yearned as she joined her hands to the Destroyer. "Protect my son."

Abhimanyu loved to be the hero.

Just like his father.

Her son had made many enemies simply because his father had. A price he was paying.

A price she was paying.

How does it feel to be stranded on a boat with nothing but endless water in sight? 

Subhadra felt exactly like that with no news from the battlefield, nothing telling her of victory. Nothing telling her of what was happening with Abhimanyu.

The fateful 13th day of the war.

"I must go," Arjun had said, pacing around the room. "Susharma has captured Maharaj Virat's cattle, he has wrecked havoc on the Western Front. They need me."

They needed him.

"We will handle everything," her brothers-in-law had said. "You should go."

She needn't worry about Arjun. Arjun had Krishna. Together, they were unstoppable. No one could beat them.

It was all a tragic turn of events. Did Guru Drona really think she wouldn't understand why he devised the deadly Chakravyuh on that specific day? Why Susharma drove Arjun away from the main battle that day?

Why Draupadi's amulet fell from his arm that day?

It was her way of protecting him, keeping him safe.

It foreshadowed a deadly end.

"Maa, why do you worry?" he said, his head on her lap as she ran her hands through his raven curls. "I'll be back before you know it."

He'll be back.

"Abhi, you don't know them like I do." she had said, her voice chocked. "They will do anything for victory."

"That's the only similarity between me and them," he told her. "Anything for victory."

Anything?

Yet, she wasn't the only one sick with worry. Her gentle daughter-in-law, Uttara, had walked in a few minutes ago, looking pale as death.

Death.

"Mata, why didn't you stop him?" she said, her eyes welling with tears. "The Chakravyuh....it's .....he possibly can't...."

What explanation could she give?

Abhimanyu had coaxed her into letting him go.

Letting him go.

An hour after they'd left, a soldier had come with the news that the Kauravs had made a Chakravyuh. 

Only Krishna, Arjun, and Pradyumn had the knowledge of breaking and leaving the Chakravyuh.

And, as Subhadra would find out later, Abhimanyu.

Her marvellous, lovely boy had learnt it in her womb. She felt a stab of pride.

The Pandavs had let him break through on the basis that they would follow his tracks once he made headway.

Little did they know.

Arjun had let Jaydrath go, and they would pay the price. 

The price? Her son's life?