Throne of Vengi - The lost prince

Chapter 1

The placid waters of River Godavari reflected her face. Venki smiled at her own image, examining her plaited tresses over her shoulder. Standing waist deep into the waters, she glanced towards the banks, at the toddler asleep in the cradle hung to a branch of a tree and sighed. It was almost sunset. She still had the task of stringing the heap of jasmines that lay by the door of their hut.

"Enough woman! Godaramma is going green with jealousy at your beauty!"

The laughter that followed made her frown.

"Godaramma too knows that I am beautiful." She retorted. "Maama, other than you, everyone knows that. Curse my fate, I am stuck with you for the whole of this life."

"What bothers you now!" Gangu leapt out of the boat, dragging it up the bank. Sweat had drenched his frame.

"What? You sold all of the fish?" Venki's jaw dropped.

Gangu let air fill his lungs. "Anyways you don't want to live with me anymore!" He laughed displaying the empty sack to Venki's view. "None other than Maharani Kundavamma bought all my prawns."

"What?" Venki frowned. "Eyi maama, did you start drinking now in broad daylight? Ayyio Srisaila Mallanna! What kind of a man drinks and dreams like this? Tell me the truth, where did you throw hose prawns away."

"This should shut you up." Gangu tossed a smaller bundle at her. The coins fell at her feet. Venki knelt, picking the first coin and touched it to her forehead. "You, really sold your prawns to the Elder Queen herself?"

Gangu nodded tossing his head as high as his neck permitted. "She personally asked me to bring more, the next full moon. You know something?" His voice lowered. "Her father, the Chola Chakravarthi himself is visiting our Vengi. I have to sell her the best of our prawns. It is a matter of Godaramma's pride."

"Eyi, don't take that stinking sack near my flowers! The women complain of stench while buying my flowers!" Venki pulled him away from the flowers.

"You and your goddamned flowers! My prawns are chosen by the Queen herself!" Gangu shoved her away.

"Maama, I heard that the Queen is from the Tamil Lands. How did she speak to you then?"

"Ayyio, you should listen to her attempting Telugu. She sounds like the parrot of that goddess Kamakshamma... Or is it Meenakshamma?"

"Maama, stop calling her parrot, peacock, cuckoo... The King Vimaladitya is going to have you beheaded."

"Chi! Jealous woman. Do you know she called me a younger brother?"

"Is it so? Did she offer her son's hand to your daughter too?" Venki winked, making a face and burst into peals of laughter.

"Save your sarcasm woman. My little Krishnamma is truly a princess." Gangu retorted, picking up the child from the cradle.

"My dimwit maama, they from the Tamil land call everyone younger to them as a younger brother. Fine, you play with the child now. I can't breathe easy till I have strung all these jasmines."

"I did not understand something." Gangu commented, apparently not heeding her words.

"Why did the King marry that princess of Nellur even when he has a Goddess like Queen in Kundavamma?"

"I will tell you when I get to ask him that. I'll also tell him that my maama is so stricken with worry over his new found elder sister." Venki giggled.

"Your brain must be made of mud. You don't understand royal affairs."

"And you are wiser than the King's minister perhaps. Arey maama, the royal affairs are such. They marry, they forget. One can trust a hungry tiger, but not someone of royal blood. Wait, I have my share of information too. This younger queen Melavamma is expecting now."

"That's why!" Gangu slapped his thigh. "Kundavamma's father, the Chola emperor is paying a personal visit to ensure that her son remains the heir to the throne of Vengi."

His wife continued to string flowers, clearly uninterested in what he thought was a very intelligent deduction. Gangu sighed turning to their daughter, Krishnamma. "Kundavamma is a large hearted woman. So must be her son. Wish he becomes the King and not whoever is born to this Nellur Princess."