With the assurance that her intelligence had not been ignored, Chandrika calmed down. She even felt ashamed of some of her childish antics from earlier. Now that she was no longer angry at being dismissed by Bhumimitra, nor worried sick about the disaster ignoring the intelligence could have brought on her country and its people, she was perfectly capable of understanding why he did what he did. King Bhumimitra was in a tricky situation with her. She was, after all, a prisoner. Imprisoned for treason, nothing less. Openly siding with her against his own men would not send out the right message. But at the same time, he hadn’t let that compromise the security of her country. He had taken the best possible decision under the circumstances. He was a wise ruler, and brave, just what she had always heard about him!

She came out of her reverie when he was announced. After the exchange of greetings, he informed her that her intelligence was right.

“Reconnaissance team confirms it,” he concluded.

“And the enemy doesn’t realize that you know now?”

“I do have some trained people in the army, Devi Chandrika. So does your father. Of course, the enemy doesn’t realize that we know.”

“I didn’t mean that–” she started explaining hastily, then noticed his smirk and realized that he was joking. She also smiled then and invited him to sit down, not expecting him to take up the offer. He must have a lot to plan for now. But, to her surprise, he sat down.

“We have to change the plans now. We will have to engage on both fronts simultaneously,” he said as he sat down, “But I think we have enough men to do that.”

“I really appreciate it, Maharaj, that you didn’t ignore the information I gave you. Nobody could have blamed you for ignoring.”

“Being a ruler is not just about being a royal and nursing a huge ego, Devi Chandrika.”

She nodded, “You also have to be a strategist and a warrior. Which you are. I am not hesitant or ashamed to admit that you have all those qualities.”

“I learned it from my father. It’s in the blood and in heredity. Any upstart merchant propped up by crowd is not fit to rule.”

“Every first-born son of a great ruler has not been proven fit to rule.”

“Then he is defeated in war by one who is fit to rule.”

“Why must we always be subjected to violence to find a fit ruler?”

“Nothing else works. History proves it.”

“Not true. Look at the tribals living all around us. They don’t have a monarch. They elect their leaders.”

He laughed derisively, “Do you want us to be like the tribals? At the mercy of the jungle and the vagaries of nature? Is that what your plans for your Republic were? Will you be happy living like them?”

“Happy? Are you happy, Maharaj?”

“Happier than I would be as a tribal in a jungle.”

She looked at him for a long moment and then just shrugged, apparently unwilling to argue.

“It looks like,” he said after a pause, “That you have something to say there, but you don’t want to. Right now, I will not insist because I must get going. There is a war to prepare for. But I will say this before I leave. I am also not hesitant or ashamed to admit that you are a brilliant woman. Beautiful and graceful, but more importantly intelligent. I can’t fathom how you fell for that charlatan philosopher preaching republicanism.”

She looked at him defiantly, a defiance which reflected in her words, although her tone was polite, “If the great philosopher himself couldn’t convince you, Maharaj, I stand no chance.”

He shook his head and got up to leave. At the exit of the tent he turned back and asked, “If I pay you a visit in the evening, will it be a bother?”

“Not at all, Maharaj. It is always an honor.”

“I would like to hear you sing,” he said and left without waiting for her response.

—

“You never wore black again,” he said abruptly, after the song was over.

She looked surprised, “You do know what black meant, don’t you?”

He nodded.

“I have no intention of troubling you here, Maharaj. You are fighting to protect my country. And I will never come in the way of that.”

“And afterwards?”

“I don’t know.”

He sighed and got up, “Please eat and rest well. We have a long and hard march tomorrow. By the end of the day tomorrow we will be at the frontier. From the day after, it’s only the war.”

“And the North East?”

“Minister Sindhupati will lead the efforts there.”

She nodded and bowed her head to him in parting greeting.

—

For next one week, it was on the North Eastern frontier that the war turned bloody. On the Eastern frontier which was being led by Bhumimitra, the two armies seemed to be playing hide and seek with each other. Bhumimitra turned up at her tent every evening without fail. Often, he requested her to sing and she obliged.

They discovered their mutual love for chess and started playing that in the evenings. He told her about the happenings of the day. Most of the time she listened silently. Once in a while she asked for clarifications. It was rare, but she also offered her opinion sometimes. But the few times that she spoke were enough to convey to Bhumimitra that she was really absorbing everything he was telling her, and not pretending to listen just for the sake of politeness.

“Did you know,” he spoke suddenly one evening as they were bent over a game of chess, “That your father had proposed our betrothal.”

“Really?” she cleverly kept her eyes glued to the chess board in front of them. So, he couldn’t read her expressions, “Our intelligence indeed utterly failed when it came to you.”

“It could still happen, you know.”

She froze for a moment, then slowly raised her eyes to him.

“It can’t happen, Maharaj. I am a republican traitor.”

“Leave this madness behind. You would make a great queen. You care for people. You understand politics. And war. You are wasting your potential.”

“Once you have seen something, Maharaj, you can’t un-see it. I cannot make you see it, but I have seen the falsehood of our way of life. I can’t pretend that the false is true. I will never be a true princess again, nor a queen, even if I decided to go back to end this ignominy of being a prisoner. So, I would rather suffer as a true republican.”

“Do you not desire happiness?”

“Happiness?” she smiled, “Maharaj, you think you are happier than a tribal. Why? Because you have more things? More comforts?”

“Definitely. The fruits of our civilization.”

“Your favorite charger, Maharaj, the horse you ride all the time. And also, the mare from your stable that you have generously left at my disposal, they are from a recently developed breed in the Arab country, right?”

“Yes.”

“If you were to lose them and not be able to acquire another of this breed, will you be unhappy?”

“I will, indeed, be very unhappy.”

“Nobody in either of our countries had even heard of this breed five years ago, right?”

“You are right.”

“Were you unhappy without a horse of this breed five years ago?”

“Of course, not. I didn’t even know–”

“The absence of what we haven’t known we could possess doesn’t make us unhappy, Maharaj. Acquisition of what we do know about makes us happy. The fewer things you have known, the easier it is to be happy. It isn’t far-fetched that the tribals who live deep in the jungles, never getting exposed to our civilization, are a happier lot. Because the jungle provides them plenty of everything they know they can have. Those in contact with our villages and cities are very unhappy though. They have seen things that they could possess, but don’t have the means to acquire those.”

He looked at her for a long time, his gaze so intent that she couldn’t meet his eyes and soon looked away.

At last he said, “Well then. Becoming a tribal is not possible for me. And now I know what I could have. So, I will be unhappy until I have it. Tomorrow is our big push, Chandrika. I don’t fight recklessly, but there is always a chance that I don’t come back alive. However, if I do, then I will marry you. I don’t know how it will happen, but it will.”

Her voice trembled as she said, “You can’t force me, Maharaj.”

“Oh, I can. But I won’t. I will wait until you own up that you are as much in love with me as I am with you. That even amidst the pressure of war and the ridiculousness of your situation as a traitor, you look forward to these evenings as much as I do. And then, I will marry you.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“We will see.”

—

To be continued