Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

0Mriga lowered her eyes and nodded her head in acquiesce, reflecting upon his words.     0

Midnight, Saptsindhu     

Shaurya had been hiccupping* for the past half hour or so and it was irritating him.     

"What have I eaten to cause such indigestion?" he thought to himself.     

But the next minute, he forgot all about it. He could see Ratansingh coming towards him. There seemed to be one person accompanying him. He must be Ratansingh's handler. No one else was in sight but Shaurya knew that there would be many of them lurking around.     

He had chosen the place deliberately, keeping in mind the outcome of tonight's meet. There was only one way to reach this place. With mountain on one side and a deep valley on the other, he had chosen to stand at the deadend of the path. Tightening the cloth around his waist, he waited calmly for them to reach him.     

"Hello Shauryaveer, I have been looking forward to meeting you face-to-face since a long time. Your reputation precedes you," the slimy guy addressed Shaurya with a grin.     

He bowed politely in return and stayed quiet. The guy had thought that Shaurya would try and bootlick him but it seemed his arrogance hadnt left him yet!     

"So, I hear that you want to defect to our side, or should I say, shift your loyalties. Well, I blame you. A real potential like you would have been treated way differently by Saptsindhu. Chandragarh doesn't know how to recognise and reward its people. Nonetheless, their loss is our gain. Now, Ratansingh tells me that you have a room full of information for us as a gift for joining the team," he said in a gloating voice.     

Shaurya looked at him and replied, "I do. But I was hoping to give this information to the recruiter and not the handler. What is the guarantee that after you receive the information, you won't kill me instead of taking me in?"     

Both men bristled at the implication, more so because it was true.     

Ratansingh started aggressively, "Look here, Shaurya. You can't afford to show your attitude here. This is not Chandragarh and you are not the pet of the recruiting head any longer. I would advise that you trim those wings of yours instead of us cutting them off for you. I told you that I would get my senior and I did. Now don't start putting out new conditions. Anyways, your recruitment will depend upon the recommendation of my senior only."     

Shaurya looked at him with blazing eyes and said, "I like how smoothly the 'us' flowed out of your mouth. You really have taken to your adoptive nation with a lot of zest. But isn't there a saying – 'once a traitor, always a traitor'. Do you think that your Saptsindhu comrades trust you completely? Do you think they will let you outlive your usefulness?"     

"Oye! Are you here to pledge your allegiance or create a divide amongst us?" the handler asked in a furious voice.     

"You know what, enough playing these games. I don't need your information. I have enough ways to get it. What I want instead is your head. Get him," at his shout, a few men jumped out of the trees on the mountain.     

They had crept up in the darkness when the three of them had been talking. Ratansingh looked at the Saptsindhu handler in askance. Why did he lose his cool so quickly everytime? Shaurya had been trying to goad them and he fell for it.     

Shaurya looked at all of them and flashed a grin. Pulling a machete out from his back, he unsheathed it and backed off, creating space between him and the attackers.     

"Shaurya, don't be stupid. There is nowhere to run. Few steps backwards and we won't even need to raise a finger to kill you. Maybe when you chose to meet here, you didn't know that this place is called the Valley of Vultures. I don't need to tell you the reason why. We can still come to an understanding," Ratansingh cajoled him.     

He was hoping the get the information out of Shaurya before disposing him. It was in his nature to try and extract the maximum out of a situation and that was the reason that he had made such headways in his otherwise mediocre existence.     

Shaurya, who had backed off considerably and was close to edge of the valley, lunged forward at a lightning speed and beheaded the guy closest to him.     

With a shriek, Ratansingh jumped back and let the attackers charge at his fellow countryman.     

Shaurya was surrounded on three sides by the Saptsindhu agents and he nimbly managed to thrust and maim one on each side before he was overtaken by the remaining five. They pulled the bloody machete out of his hand and stabbed him in his ribs on the left side. Dragging him, they started to pull him towards the path, away from the edge. He let his body go limp, dropping his weight on them.     

"Tie him to the tree there. Let him taste Saptsindhu's hospitality before he leaves for the afterlife," the handler said maliciously.     

One of the bigger statured guys tried to pick him up and heave him on his shoulder. Right then, Shaurya dropped his body weight to the ground. His coiled body spun and rammed into the midriff of that person. Before any of them could realize what was happening, the two of them hurled towards the inky black pit of the valley. Ratansingh ran full speed towards them as soon as he realized Shaurya's intention.     

"Argh! My information," his words were drowned by the cries which echoed loudly in the valley.     

The handler was the first one to recover.     

"What a collosal waste of my time!" he shrugged his shoulders and walked away from the scene.     

*There is an old wives' tale in India about someone hiccupping if he/she is being remembered by their near and dear ones.