Chasing the Sun

XX

|| - Scattered Ashes - ||

Without dark we'd never see the stars

- Twilight

Husain the new Bakshi flexed his knuckles emitting a popping sound in the unoccupied silence. The man with scorpions tattooed behind his ear and jagged scars down his throat and all over his arms had never looked more out of place in a peacock blue turban than he did while he bowed in front of the Nawab in the private court chamber. Khan was frowning, sitting on his divan, his eyebrows knotted together and teeth gritting he fixed Husain with an icy glare enough to give him frost bite.

"Unrecognizable?" He repeated the word smoothly in a low tone. "I see. And you are certain the corpse belongs to Rajkumari Kashi Bai?"

Husain swallowed. He was a spy in his younger days who was later horned into an assassin. Detective inquiries had never been his field work. Khan raised a hand to scratch the scar running down his cheek, preoccupied and mincing at the same time.

"I require a verbal answer Husain!" The man did not raise his voice, but Husain trembled all the same. The chill in Khan's voice was overwhelming.

As of late Khan paraded the corridors as a wounded animal. The ignorant outsiders attributed his mood to the injuries his daughter had suffered in the accident and the mounting pressure of finding the master mind behind the attack. But Husain knew better to struck off both the possible explanations for the above matter. He had been a close aide to Aziz Khan for long enough to know that Nawabzadi Noor Banu held no special place in the Nawab's heart. And as the newly appointed Bakshi he had received no pressing instructions to investigate the mastermind behind the explosion in Shab. The Nawab was more interested in investigating the death of Rajkumari Kashi Bai.

"Your daughter attested to it my lord," he said with the utmost faithfulness a spy could manage. Khan's grip tightened around the cushion his hand was resting on, almost squeezing the softness until his knuckles turned white. "And logically there could be no other explanation as to how a burnt female body ended up in Shab Mehel and Kashi Bai got disappeared."

"Interestingly I can think of just another." Khan said darkly, his eyes narrowing further into mere slits. "What are the reports from the spies you placed on Satyavan?"

"The commander is still grieving his failure."

"And that McLane boy?"

"Mr. McLane is preparing to leave for Madavghadh in a couple of days." Husain fell silent as Khan lifted one of his eyebrows and he gestured him to continue. "He is looking forward to spend time with his sister."

"– The same sister who came to Chandranagara for one night and left at dawn on the same day of Shab explosion?"

Husain blinked.

"My lord?"

"The girl whose carriage was sent back without checking on Nawabzada's insistence?"

"Miss Kent had requested the Nawabzada to –"Husain fell silent once more as Khan raised his hand.

"Very well," Khan said as he rose to his feet. Husain stepped back instinctively. "I wish to have a discussion with Shehezada* Usman. I believe he is in the vicinity."

"Yes my lord Nawab," bowed Husain. "Shehensha has tasked Shehezada with inquiring into the explosion incident."

"Of cause," Khan grimaced. "I'm sure Shehensha* is very interested to know where the attackers got explosives from."