A Bougainvillea Odyssey

Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, thus does not revolve around the real world. Any kind of words or incidents mentioned does not signify anything related to the real world. **

The following day when Jairam Singh murmured again and the physician was called, Anirudh got ready to leave for the Royal Palace to deliver a report to the Crown Prince, who had recently returned, but from where, nobody knew.

Delivering the report was just another excuse to meet and greet him after his return. On papers, or say officially, he worked in the revenue ministry, but his actual job was to report to Crown Prince Ahil about happenings in the capital.

As he arrived at the river bank of the river Miltayi (the Royal Palace was at the other end of the sacred river), he noticed a palanquin inlayed with many expensive stones and gold, and a woman sitting in it dressed in a royal attire as if she was the princess, came out of the palanquin, entered the boat which was only meant for either the royals or their staff and left towards the palace. Even if a commoner sees a person entering that boat, he/she would at first glance would understand he/she was a royal, because it wasn't just about their clothes, their attire, but their transportation was too something which was uncommon for the people to be seen daily.

As the royal boat leaves, the boat for the commoners arrives and everybody boards it.

Anirudh was in a dilemma because it was very rare to see the royals out of the Royal Palace, and that princess figure could not be possible too. Everyone in the kingdom had heard the rumors about the one and only Royal Princess Suragini, that she fell in love with someone from another kingdom and she eloped with him.

Just when he was pondering and lost in his thoughts, he realized he had reached the other end. He stood up and showed his identity proof, which was a pendant with the engraved national animal elephant on it, at the palace gates, after verification he walked towards the chambers of Crown Prince Ahil, which was at the end of the east side of the upper palace where nobody preferred to go, and thus the prince could spend his days away from everyone. As he reached and entered the room where the prince was, he saw the prince on the balcony near the balustrade enjoying the cool breeze, on the top floor of the building.

When he took a step forward, Crown Prince Ahil turned and said with a low smile and sorrow in his eyes, "You're here, Anirudh. What's going on in the capital? Got any news to tell me?"

Ahil sat down on the couch near a table in the room.

Anirudh, at first greeted the prince with a bow and his head tilted towards the floor, responded with a no, but noticed the sadness on Ahil's face.

Before Anirudh could ask anything, Ahil asked him to fulfill his two requests. The first one was to look for new and trusted maidservants for Princess Suragini and the other was to look for a person, a girl to be very particular, from Ampranam who possibly could be hiding in any corner of Braheshwat.

"I hope you can fulfill my requests; I have to turn the rumors baseless and untrue; Princess Suragini has returned, we need to look for trusted people from every field. Whatever the case might be, even though she eloped she is still a royal her image cannot be tarnished. And there's one more thing, after the massacre of kingdom Ampranam, one girl might have escaped and would be hiding in Braheshwat, look for her and bring her to me alive and in one piece. You are the only one who I can trust Anirudh, please don't break it."

Then he gave him a description of the lady he was particularly looking for, however Anirudh for some reason found the description very similar to Shivantika. He wanted to ask Ahil, but he knew he was in no position to ask the royal blood.

Later he wished Ahil farewell and returned.

Upon returning, Anirudh knew that he couldn't question either Prince Ahil or Shivantika of what happened earlier. So, he decided to stay silent and not ask them anything. But deep down he knew Shivantika was somehow related to the royal family, or the prince knew her.