Avantika And Her Quest

A Faulty Reasoning

"Well, well. If it isn't the great General Suryakant. But, I guess you have lost your greatness. You got caught by my guards."

"Why are you doing this, Sangharsh?" Uncle Suryakant asked.

"Why am I doing this?" He asked with disbelief. Then he laughed with incredulity and said, "Did you forget all that your lovely brother did? He stole my kingdom, my crown, my throne." He bit out the end in a snarl. "You should know better than to question me now. I will ruin that little princess of yours."

"You are forgetting that crown was never yours.." Uncle Suryakant was interrupted by the madman.

"Mine, it was mine. My father promised me that. He never loved me or cared for me but when I told him that we could take over Avanti, that was the first time he saw me, he told me that I would be his heir and not my stupid brother. I wanted him to be proud of me. Harsha took that away from me. He killed him, my father."

"Don't be unreasonable Sangharsh."Uncle Suryakant started.

"Now you want to talk about reason, huh... very well, I shall show you my reason. I had refrained from attacking Magadha because they lied low. It seems your little princess wants Arjun's kingdom to perish. I shall order the attack on them. My guards have been lying there for weeks, just waiting for a signal. Now, they shall get it," he said.

Uncle Suryakant tried reasoning with him but he just had the guards arrest him for treason. I couldn't help but scoff, treason, he was the biggest traitor of us all. Then, I looked at Urvashi, I felt bad for her. She had loved this man and now she saw him for the true monster that he was. She had an expressionless look on her face. She caught my eye and gave me a slight smile.

She whispered, "Let's find a way out."

I then looked at Arjun, I could see that he was scared for his kingdom, but he could not choose between me and his kingdom. I looked at him and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. This seemed to snap him out of his thoughts and he gave me a reluctant smile. I was still a bit reluctant to follow Urvashi but if she was caught she would die too and she seemed genuine. She did risk her life to find Arjun. So, we followed her. We reached the end of the tunnel. We had ended up directly behind the tapestry in my room. The one I used to live in when things were normal. When I was happy. I checked for any people and walked out. Everything was exactly where I left it.

This part of my life seemed so long ago to me now. Sensing my heightened emotions Arjun wordlessly squeezed my hand, reminding me of his presence. I knew that he was there and I appreciated it. I had to shake my head to clear it of my feelings, there were much more important things at stake. I gestured them to follow me and took a shortcut to the dungeons. We hid behind different things. I hid behind a curtain while Arjun hid behind an armor. Urvashi slipped into the dimly lit corridor to avoid detection. Then the guards holding Uncle Suryakant walked by.

I was nervous if this didn't work. All of us would be caught and be at the mercy of that madman. I grabbed the last guard and closed his mouth with one hand to stop him from making any sounds. I used my palm to jerk back his head. It wouldn't cause death but ensure that he didn't wake up too soon. Inwardly I thanked Uncle Suryakant for teaching me about the pressure points on the human body. Arjun and Urvashi seemed to get what we were doing.

We eventually got rid of all the guards. I took the time to carefully observe Urvashi, her reflexes and hits were precise and confident. She knew what she was doing, she had been trained. This realization only made me more curious. Who was she? She was certainly not a dancer. We freed Uncle Suryakant's wrists from the rope that was binding them. He held me and pleaded, "Avantika, can you ever forgive me?"

I was perplexed and asked him, "what have you done to ask for my forgiveness?"

He said, "I had known all along who Sangharsh was I knew what had happened and suspected that he was the man behind this all."

I was angry, "How could you do this? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I knew you would confront him. I just didn't want you to get hurt. But you still got hurt. This is all my fault," he remorsefully acknowledged.

I felt bad for him. He was old, weary and hanging on just because he had promised my father, he would take care of me. He was just trying to protect me and I snapped at him. I just hugged him and whispered, "It's okay" to him. He seemed to understand.

Then I looked at Arjun, "Uncle Suryakant, can you do me a favor?"

"Anything, my child," he replied.

"Could you go to Magadha and warn King Mahendra. We have that special passage that halves the distance. You could use that. Sangharsh's men don't know about it. Warn him and help him win,"I said.

Arjun looked up at me with surprise and awe. He knew that this would save both his kingdom and mine. Uncle Suryakant seemed conflicted, he knew he could not help here but could help there. He did not want to leave me but he had also given me his word. His word and Dharma seemed to win. He nodded and sped off to the stables.

Urvashi looked at me,"Now what?", she asked.

That is an excellent question, I thought and one that I needed to answer.