Journey to the Old Era (Drisana's Mahabharat #1)

Chapter 61

Karna was glaring at Subhadra who ate fruits sitting beside him that she forced Karna to get for her by trickery. It was afternoon already and she gave no sign of moving from there. Karna thought she would return after a while herself being bored. He was thinking if anyone had noticed her absence at the Palace. If he got caught with her, hell would break loose.

Karna had tried to make her understand calmly. Threatened her he would go away. In fact he did leave for sometime thinking she would be afraid and bored and return to the Palace. He watched her from his hiding place for a full prahar (three hours) before emerging when she started screaming looking at a spider. Karna thought she would leave after that. But instead she had tied her saree with his dhoti refusing to let him leave too.

"Vrisha, tumhe paakana aata hain? (do you know how to cook?)" Subhadra asked.

"Why?" Karna frowned.

"When I used to cook food at Palace, there were dasis to help me. But here you'll help me. We'll cook together and then eat together. How much fun it'll be!" Subhadra said with excitement. Karna's frown only deepened.

"Listen Rajkumari, it's going to get dark soon. Everyone at the Palace will be worried and before your brothers come to find you, you should return to the Palace." Karna said calmly once again.

"Then let them come and find us. You're not afraid of my brothers." Subhadra said shrugging. Karna closed his eyes in irritation. He was not afraid that didn't mean he was looking forward to fight with Mahabali Balaram and the other one, Vasudev, was a total crackpot. Who knew what he would do?

"What will you take to move from here?" Karna asked gritting his teeth hard.

"I've already told you." Subhadra said arching her eyebrow.

"Fine. I admit." Karna said finally.

"What?" Subhadra asked hiding her smirk.

"That you're not just a pampered princess unworthy of being my wife." Karna said with difficulty.

"That's like a good husband. Now let's go. I'm tired after sitting here all day." Subhadra said instantly getting up from her place. As she started to go forgetting she had tied her saree with Karna's dhoti, she fell stumbling right into his lap.

Mahraj Drishadvat chuckled hearing his wife. Chedi Naresh Shishupal was surprised by Maharani Mangalya's question. He didn't expected to be questioned. A lot of other things were also unexpected. Shakuni shifted uncomfortably at his seat. He was the one who found Rameswara on his way to Dravida. He was dragging his wife Renuka forcefully out of his house when Shakuni stumbled upon the scene. He heard what was going on and left the place uninterested in the drama. But to confront the women court and humiliate the royal family of Dravida, it fitted perfectly. So he called Rameswara and his wife who had already been disposed and was living in the streets. He bribed both of them to come to the court. As Renuka had nothing to lose after she had already been left by her husband and had nowhere to go, she agreed when Shakuni promised to give her a place in Hastinapur along with a lot of gold coins which would be enough for her livelihood.

"I- I brought them here with assurance of justice. So, I wanted to see to it. I was not interrupting your proceeding. I was just presenting my opinion on the matter." Shishupal said.

"That means you do not trust this court and doubt our opinions. That's why you interrupted our proceeding by presenting your opinions." Rajkumari Shubhaprada said making it clear his opinions weren't welcome.

"Now anyone isn't even allowed to present opinions in your court Maharani Mangalya?" Shishupal asked in a defensive tone.

"It is allowed. But only when I permit. And I never heard you asking for permission Chedi Naresh. This matter doesn't concern you. It's the matter between Rameswara and Renuka. You shouldn't have brought them here promising justice if you didn't trust us to do justice. And if you do trust, then you should have waited first to see what conclusion we reach to and then if you felt it was not appropriate, you could have interrupted. But you didn't let us have a proper discussion even. What should I perceive from this action of yours?" Maharani Mangalya said. Shishupal was looking for a proper way to answer her and get out of this.