The Urban Chronicle ✔

19: First Female 007?!!

The king had made arrangements for our departure the following morning. We had hoped to stay a little longer in order to find the tablet, but it seems the Fates weren’t on our sides. We had no excuse to prolong our stay at the king’s palace. That left us with no option but to start scouting immediately. It was already late afternoon and we didn’t have the time to search in every nook and cranny of the enormous palace, so we decided to split up.
I was entrusted with the second floor, Mahindra with the first and Neel with the temples, armoury, treasury and other small buildings in the palace premises. I had a feeling that it would be kept in the treasury. It seemed like the most likely place to stow away such a precious artifact
But that did nothing to rain down on my vigour in searching the searching the second floor. It was also the floor of our guest rooms so I could pretend to be exploring. I first asked one of the hand maids appointed for us, about the tablet. I told her that I was a collector of ancient clay tablets and had heard of an exquisite piece that was housed in the palace of Kalinga. The housekeeping staff is usually as efficient as a spy network and is always aware of all the happenings in a household. I tried to subtly extract useful information from her but sadly she was completely oblivious to what I was talking about. She did not know of any such tablets. I suppose that’s quite unfortunate.
I shrugged, as I walked slowly around the floor scanning each and every corner as I moved forward. To any bystander I would most probably have come across as a tourist looking around with awe, but I was actually forming a vague, mental layout of the numerous rooms on the floor. Most of the rooms were the private chambers of members the royal family and were guarded by at least two soldiers each.
I tired placing myself in the King of Kalinga’s shoes and contemplated where I would keep a seemingly useless clay tablet. All I knew about it was that it was infused with a very ancient kind of magic whose power had been long forgotten. I ruled out the bedrooms from my list of top contenders. I knew for sure that it wasn’t in any of them, because if it was the housekeeping staff would have known about it. There was a huge door on the far end of the floor and was bolted from outside. It had only one guard so it certainly wasn’t a residential suite. I made a mental note to look there.
It was close to impossible to make a move with all those burly guards watching me keenly with statue-like, expressionless faces. I retreated back to my room and waited for their change in shift. I paced around the room to calm my nerves, but it didn’t really help much. I tried extracting the shift timings from the same maid I’d asked before but she wasn’t of much help. She said that the shift ended in the evening. I felt like pulling my hair out at her reply. To be honest she was just plain stupid, even I figured that there would be a shift change in the evening but I needed the exact timing to strike. I let out a sigh of frustration.
I dismissed her and told her to keep the door ajar on the way out for ventilation. That was unnecessary since there were windows but she was so featherbrained that she did not suspect anything. At least something good came out of her dumbness. I stood behind the door as I watched and waited for the appropriate moment to sneak into the room at the far end of the floor. I had a gut feeling that there would be something useful in there.
The moment the guard to that room walked way, I hastily closed the door behind me and hurried towards the mysterious chamber. Thank god it was only bolted and did not have a big fat padlock on it. It would have complicated matters if that had been the case, or should I say I wouldn’t be able to do anything if that had been the case. The entrance to the room was considerably hidden from the line of sight of the other guards which worked to my advantage. I placed my hand on the hulk sized latch and lifted it slowly. It was heavy and I crossed my fingers hoping it wouldn’t make a loud squeaky sound. If that happened I was dead meat and all my efforts would go down the drain.
I pulled the door towards my gently eased the latch open. It made slight sounds but nothing that would give me away. I slipped into the room silently, and swung the door shut behind me. I don’t know what I really expected- maybe I wanted artifacts to be arranged for me to find the tablet easily. But alas that’s wishful thinking. On the contrary this place looked a lot like a store room. Argh! So much for relying on my instinct! There were massive wooden racks stacked neatly with bundles of parchment. A small table sat in one corner with a roll of parchment spread open on it, a map from the looks of it. It had a lot of markings and lines drawn on it.
With a huff I quickly glanced around the room. Shaking my head, I turned to leave but a word on the map placed on the small table, caught my eye. I stopped and looked at it again to confirm whether I had read it correctly. I gasped when I realized that it was a detailed map of Magadha, with markings of the placement of check posts of the Kalinga’s army. Oh my god! It was going to be surprise attack. I had accidentally stumbled on their war plan. That meant that the entire peace treaty was nothing but a sham. I quickly took a picture on my phone camera. I looked at one last time trying to fathom what the point of this war was. What satisfaction would the king get from this war anyway? Was seeing his own subjects being brutally killed on the battlefield in any way going to make him feel content? Wars like these, that were fuelled by the thirst for power and revenge unfailingly caused more harm than good.
Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed my shoulder roughly and another clamped my mouth shut before I could scream for help.
“Listen here now, little girl. I will remove my hand from your mouth. Make one bad move and you just wait and watch….” My captor said icily.
He slowly lifted his hand from my mouth and I instantly yelled, “Hel…!” I was cut off again, as he shut my mouth roughly again. He caught hold of my hand and twisted it into tight lock behind my back. I bit back a whimper that involuntarily reached my mouth. My arm hurt a lot and at this rate it was going to get dislocated. I tried to remember all the tactics I had learnt in the self defense and had been practicing for the last few days. Unfortunately, I was unable to recall anything of use so I did what I did best. I acted on instinct.
I licked my assailant’s palm savagely and brought my dagger out in a swift movement. I thrust it back with all the strength I could manage to gather. I made a mental note to rinse my mouth thoroughly later. Who knew what germs had been partying on that filthy hand before I licked it.
The person’s grip on me loosened a little and I grabbed the opportunity to break free and turn around. I was astonished to come face to face with the prime minister of Kalinga.
“You disgusting little girl!” he snarled, “You’ll pay for that.”
Without wasting another second, I sprinted towards the door. I figured that there was a guard outside- I had spent quite some time in the map room so the new shift had most probably arrived long ago. I whacked him with the door and shot off in the opposite direction. A rather fruitless task I might add, because the prime minister had already regained his composure and had ordered, “Guards, seize her and bring her to me. I hopelessly outnumbered but I still continued running dodging the guards as best as I could.
Wait a second, why the hell was that lunatic after my dear life? Was it because I broke into the map room? I cold shiver ran down my spine as I wondered if the prime minister had any ulterior motive. I faltered a little and immediately I was caught by two guards.
They held me in position as I struggled. The prime minister walked towards me with deliberately slow steps. He smirked at me psychotically. I had a strong urge to lower my eyes but instead I met his eyes with a steely gaze to show that I wasn’t intimidated in the least. My body on the other hand was in complete panic mode, adrenaline pumped into my blood in huge quantities. I tried concentrating on my labored breath. Frankly, I was too young to die.
The prime minister just laughed at my sudden outburst as if he found something about it rather amusing. Then suddenly a wicked expression took over, “Stop!” he said raising his hand authoritatively, “Be a little cooperative and I’ll go easy on you.”
By this point, I was absolutely petrified. What did he mean when he said ‘I’ll go easy on you’? Was he going to torture me for Mauryan secrets- not that I knew any, or use me for ransom or maybe just kill me to put forward the point that a peace treaty between Kalinga and Magadha was impossible? I gulped the bile that had collected in my throat and stopped thrashing around immediately. Where were the boys when I needed them? Oh right, they were searching for that blasted tablet just like I was supposed to.
“Good, that’s better.” He said, “Since when did Magadha start recruiting spies at such a tender age? A move that was uncalled for, I must admit, but certainly not unpredictable.”
My heart skipped a beat. Wait, did he just say what I think I he said? A spy, like seriously? From which odd angle do I come across as a spy? In another situation I would have considered it a compliment but right now I just wanted them to let me go. I bit back the urge to snort at his words.
“I’m no spy, you delusional fool!” I said, grinding my teeth.
“Isn’t it what they all say when they are caught? But seriously, scouting through our strategy making room in broad daylight when the guard shift changed was such an amateur move. And now that you have acquired some confidential information, I have no choice but to eliminate you.” The prime minister said, boring his gaze into my eyes. He made a subtle motion to the guards and before I knew it, I had been blindfolded and gagged. I gasped as I felt my feet lift off the ground and they carried me away to god knows where.
I tried escaping but the hands restraining me were too strong and they held me in an iron grip. I gave up soon enough. There was no point in wasting my energy in something pointless. Instead, I listened intently and tried making out where we were going.
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Guys, what can I say? I was hibernating, maybe?! Here's the remaining part. I'm posting all at once. Hope you enjoy it...
~anokonda002 ♡♡