APRICITY

11.Spadework

I wondered where the stairs were reaching. This east wing of the palace was primarily used as a storehouse, treasury at the left and granary at the extreme right. Never had I stepped beyond it.

"Speed up." Mata's words resonated along the deserted staircase, that climbed through the heart of the long cloister.

After a few while, we stumbled upon a colossal door. "What's inside, Mata?" Curiosity peaked my being.

"Wait. You will know." She uttered thrusting the heavy doors.

I coughed as the stray dust hit my nostrils. She held the flambeau high up, enlightening the way ahead.

The colossal chamber smelt of mould and damp. The dilapedated shelves were spun with spider webs, termites formed their own ancestry and breeding hubs.

Mata barged in passing me the blazing flambeau. The chamber possessed a stark contrast to the other nooks of the palace which screamed of grandeur and luxury.

My eyes were busy in navigating the mute budoir. On the reverse, Mata managed to prise open a rusted metal trunk. She rummaged the contents of it.

Upon watching her, I stepped close to peep in and Mata's eyes twinkled as if she had discovered whar she was looking for.

"What is this?" I exclaimed when she dusted off the brown scrolls under the scarce illumination.

"Read this." I did as asked.

"RAJKUMAR PRATIVINDHYA, PANCHAL." I read aloud the first bold letters.

I flipped for the second scroll which held black-inked structures, mostly of unknown weapons. Squinting my eyes, I tried to decipher them.

"I discovered it accidentally a few weeks back. Maybe it was a secret thing for Bhrata Prativindhya."

"How is it abandoned like this? No one knew about it?"

"Maybe, he didn't get his time to disclose it." She sighed.

Maybe, who knows..I pondered.

Having finished what we came for, we walked down, the scrolls secured in my hands.

My otherwise sweet-willed Mata could be so mysterious sometimes, I giggled at my own musings.

Finally, plopping myself on my bed, I stretched in order to untie the knots of my exhausted being.

Sound sleep and sweet dreams summoned the palace excepting the glory of mine. Meanwhile, I cautiously scrutinised those scrolls.

"Eureka!!" I screamed absentmindedly and contemplated the very next moment.

The last and the second last one contained forest routes to Kamboja, Kosala and Vrijji.
I had looked over maps of towns, janapadas but routes inside forests were seldom seen. Not only this, but Tatshree had also written about weapons assembling from mere woods and spikes. Each new letter heightened my fascination until my eyelids gave in and drifted me to sleep.

"So you see here, the formation." Pitamah Arjun knocked the wooden desk with a stick.

"As soon as break through the third tier, you shall see the soldiers changing their faces and turning towards you. Then, understand you are trapped." He added.

Amongst the seven tiers spiralled as a disc, the sixth tier was the most difficult.

"Putra, you must learn when to defend and when to combat. Once you are in the fourth tier, there is no turning back." Sighingly, he threw a quick glance at me and again brought his concentration to the miniature Chakravyuh carved out on the wooden desk.

Toiling for incessant days and nights weren't ever enough to sharpen my archery skills at parr with the cognitive power to penetrate the Vyuh.

The more magnificent it looked, the more blood thirsty it turned out. Also known as the Padmavyuh, it resembled a full-blooned lotus and had the strenghth to crumble over five akshauhinis of soldiers each prahar.

Pitamah Arjun resumed teaching, "The defense are strengthened to the core, starting from the infantries at the front, horseriders strided in between followed by the rathis and Maharathis at the very heart of it. The breached demarkations are ought to be filled almost immeadiately exhausting the penetrator physically as well as morally."

"When you are breaking out, you should abstain from combat. To add to it, the horseriders should be knocked down before the infantries are alerted by your change of position." I absorbed Pitamah's words intently as he emphasized each step with utmost concern.

This rigorous spadework continued until the eleventh day, when the Vyuh was successfully breached in and out by me. The wound on my left arm and the miniscule scratches adorning my legs and torso spoke of the immense toil I had been through those ten days.

"Phew!" I chuckled at my thoughts, how I wobbled each night back to my chamber. In comparison to all these, the pride I gained worthed more than the costliest emeralds ever existed.