Patrani (The Chief Queen)

The accomplice

Aaryaveer's POV

As soon as I got out into the fading sunlight, I saw Veertiji closing the lid of two medium sized trunk and handing one to her soldier. One of her soldier had brought it from his tent. There was a wordless communication between them where he looked at her and she nodded back, approving to whatever that had passed between them.

"That is all, Keshavji." she said

"I shall take them with me." He said and she wished him good luck.

I then saw an army of around fifteen soldiers on their horses, lead by Keshavji as he mounted on his horse, with that same old trunk.

Veertiji was lost into her own thoughts, simultaneously putting a strong, yet a rusty looking lock on her truck and attaching its key on a  plain thread that she had been wearing and then tugging it inside her collar.

"What are you doing?" I asked her and suddenly saw her gasp with shock. She looked up at me and exclaimed "Oh, its you, Your Majesty. You almost scared me." she said as she put her hand on her heart. Perhaps it was the first sign of weakness that she had managed to show since the previous three days she had been here. I wondered what kind of tough woman she was, living midst of men and risking her life to fight for her motherland, all while preserving her anonymity. It again proved that she had no intention of getting proclaimed as a war hero, else she would have shown her face and let he ridentity known. I had no idea about her family or where she resided apart from the fact that she belonged to my kingdom. I decided to extract details of her personal life as I travel with her.

Sometimes I would feel like she was my Aaryawati but the other times, I feel like she was a completely different persona, considering that my wife is simple and pure hearted person, whereas Veertiji had a dynamic, confident and fearsome personality, not to mention her cunning war tactics. The day when I had a swordfight against Veertiji, she smelled just like my Aaryawati. But when I saw her standing up against Guruji, the other way, my doubts faded into abysses of its own questions.

"Your Majesty, I shall take your leave. I have to start the journey with my men early so that I can reach to the enemy camp within two days." She didn't ask for my leave. She stated that she had to go. That required guts.

"Wait, can you please give me a few moments? I need to dress up and then we both can commence our journey." I stated.

"But, Your Majesty, what I am doing is highly dangerous. I am venturing inside the enemy camp. If they see you there and capture you, the war would be automatically over. Besides, Guruji would need your presence here." She spoke up, her tone disregarding my presence.

"No need to worry. I have Utsav to take the lead. If I wouldn't return within next two days, they will anyways send army to release me.  Besides, I want to come and see how you operate. " I looked into her eyes and firmly stated my opinion. I was a King. It was my duty to listen to my subjects but I am ultimate decision maker.

"But, Your Highness..." She begun to protest.

"I said that I AM COMING. THATS IT. Now give me some moments so I could dress up, clear up some details with Utsav and accompany you." I gave the final verdict and she nodded her head.

I got dressed for the long journey ahead and packed my weapons and extra pair of clothes into the trunk. Since Veertiji and her team had packed food and water, I wasn't bothered.

"It looks like the game of hide and seek. Veerti seems to like to not collide into you so she keeps a safer distance. And you, like a spy are not ready to give up on your suspicions. I wonder how sister-in-law Aaryawati manages to tolerate you." Chuckled Utsav as he gave me his final goodbye.

"That is the problem. I feel like I do not know my wife anymore." I shrugged.

"She is not your wife." he pointed out the brutal looking fact.

"And yet, my soul cannot simply register the fact." I said as I checked everything inside my trunk for the last time.

We both went out to fetch my horse that stood with the other horses behind the camp.

"Why don't you simply order Veerti to remove her face scarf? The long chase shall finally be over." he mentioned that nonchalantly.

My blood boiled. I was raised to respect women and their privacy. If a woman isn't comfortable showing her face, its a no. Veertiji had said on the day when I met her that she didn't desire any man to look at her. Being a man of honor, it was my duty to respect her boundaries. Consent is everything. And respecting women, is the ultimate dharma.

"If she doesn't want me or anyone to see her, it will be that way. I shall not do anything about it." I made it clear to Utsav. He knew his comment had irked me so he preferred to agree with me. I bid him the final goodbye and rode my horse towards Veertiji.

She was leading a small army of ten soldiers. I took the directions from her and decided to lead the horsemen. So I rode in front of them. However, after sometime, I found Veertiji riding alongside me, her eyes expressionless. As if it was all normal for her. Rather, it was truth. She was the person who was in command of the operation.

The soldiers rode behind us in a proper formation. I was sure they couldn't hear our conversation. They seemed to be trained very well. They kept quiet, seldom spoke and often spoke in lower voice. If anyone had anything to do with Veertiji, that person would increase the speed of his horse, ride alongside Veertiji, clear his queries or pass his message and go back to the rigid formation. It went on so smoothly that I was impressed.

"Where are we going and what is the plan?" I decided to keep the protocols aside and ask her. Meanwhile I tightened the straps of my woolen shawl as the cold winds had begin their gentle torment on us.

"We are going to enemy's camp. They have their elephants tied into artificially created sheds. We are going to scare away the elephants so all they would have at the end of the day would be dearth of cavalry and a few horses." she said.

"And what about Keshavji and rest of the men?" I asked her about the man who had carried one of her trunks and had advanced with the men into the direction opposite to ours.

"Yeah" I could hear a smile in her voice as she seemed impressed that I had managed to remember the name of her soldier. "They are going to blow up the bridge. The same bridge that they use to travel from their kingdom to their camp." I could hear a calculated humor in her voice and even though her plan was a complete work of genius, I trembled, wondering how cunning a person could be. That couldn't my Aaryawati.

Suddenly cold winds had decided to turn its musings a bit aggressive. I suddenly saw the face scarf of Veertiji, suddenly slipping away. Before I could see her face, she had managed to stop her horse and tighten the strap of her scarf again. However, I managed to find a small mole on the right side of her chin. That was similar to that of Aaryawati. We again resumed our journey.

Now my head had started spinning and I decided to focus only on the war. I could always solve the puzzle of Veertiji's identity later.

"Once this operation is over, we can go back to the camp and see the weapon that Brahamadutta had promised to complete within a couple of days." I tried to be enthusiastic but Veertiji looked at me and smiled.

"That weapon shall be useless." She said.

"Why? Brahamadutta is excellent in creating weapons and..." before I could speak she cut me (no one cuts whenever a king speaks. The woman was hell bent in testing my patience.)

"There would be no traditional warfare." she spoke as she looked directly into my eye and then on the way. 

"And may I know why?" I asked.

"Because we would break them completely. So much that they won't dare to step into the battlefield. Though I wasn't lying when I had requested Guruji to go ahead with his plans. The battle shall be the worst case scenario. The last resort. However I aim to diminish all the possibilities of that too. My plan is usually foolproof and it never backfires " she said in her lower voice, without looking at me and I didn't speak anything. Modesty didn't suit her. And thus our wordless journey had begun.