The Mughal Princess (Completed)

10.

Aditya let go the lady who he had held in his arms. He looked at her and recognised the Princess immediately, he had seen her on the training pits with Abeer and she had been the haughty woman who he had an altercation with before.

".. I .. uh .. aap .. shuk..shukriya?" Maheen stuttered. She looked at him once, a quick glance and then trained her eyes back to the floor.
She could feel his eyes still trained on her.

"Eavesdropping isn't what one would expect from a Princess."

Maheen's eyes snapped to an older man standing behind her rescuer. She narrowed her eyes at him giving him a pointed look.

"Ahem." Aditya cleared his throat. "If you have blocked my path to know what was discussed inside Princess you have to -."

"No." Maheen said interrupting Aditya. "I..I wasn't blocking your path ." She said stepping on the side, away from Aditya. "..nor was I trying to listen, I had come to meet Abeer and the door they-."

"I believe you." Aditya said giving her a nod. "Take Care."

"Allah hafiz." Maheen whispered as Aditya breezed past her followed by the man clad in white dhoti.

"Mahi." Mrunal hissed who was standing in the background during the whole altercation.
"Thank god that nobody saw and that man, he didn't make a huge deal out of it." Mrunal said playing with her fingers.

"Oh please." Maheen scoffed. "Like I'm scared of all these people." She said tossing her hair behind her back.

"Okay fine you aren't scared but I am, let's go before someone sees us here again." Mrunal said dragging Maheen in the opposite direction.

Aditya stopped in his path and turned to watch Prithvi's bride pull on the other girl.

"She is quite arrogant." Balram Shastri his prime minister said.

"She is fierce." Aditya watched as Maheen disappeared around the corner. "A push in the right direction and she will be a force nobody would like to trifle either."

"She is fire Aditya, uncontrolled and I untamed, you can't shape fire, you only burn hands doing so." Balram said giving Aditya a stern look.

"Purohit Ji let Rajmata know about our delay." Aditya said.

"I shall do it immediately." He replied and turned towards the left leaving Aditya to walk down the straight path which lead to the training grounds.

He had promised to meet the king of Kathmandu who ruled under Aditya's flag for a duel. He had himself been craving for a good fight since long.

Aditya made his way towards the pits where Mangal stood with his change of clothes and his sword.

"What would I do without you." He said giving Mangal a clap on his back.

"Honestly Bhaisa, nothing." Mangal said and let out a chuckle.

Mangal handed Aditya a white dhoti and and then his sword - Agni.

Raja Vidyut Raj Suryavanshi, the former king of Awadh and father to Aditya and Dev had gifted this sword to Aditya as he had entered Gurukul when he was 14, 15 years since then and never had a day pasted by when Aditya did not appreciate the beauty of his blade.

"His king Srijan here ?" He asked Mangal.

"Yes Bhaisa, he has been waiting for you in the pits.

"Great." Aditya said tucking his dhoti and removed the kurta had worn earlier.

He held his sword in his right and hand walked towards the pits, walking down the steps he noticed that the viewing gallery was unusually crowded.