Patrani (The Chief Queen)

The ruscus

Aaryawati's POV

Although Veer sounded alarmed with the presence of my soldier outside his den, I knew exactly what had happened. It was the part of the plan.

I had exited Veer's cover and went into my own, hurriedly fixing my clothes and everything that had given away any bearing of wild night that was about to get wilder. Somehow I couldn't control my emotions and ended up into his arms. Looking at him, I knew that he would demand explanation and it would be a full blown emotional event. I wouldn't mind for as much as it gets delayed. I didn't have any energy left to handle the emotional stress....

I came out of my tent, towards Veer's tent who tried to listen to Keshavji, who had just landed with half of my army. (PLEASE refer to the chapter "The Accomplice" 1st paragraph in case you don't get it)

"They are clueless, Your Majesty" said Keshavji, who despite his always calm demure, was busy trying to explain animatedly to Veer.

"How did the fireworks go?" I couldn't help but snicker. Before leaving the army camp, we both had divided the number of bombs (I had handed him a trunk full of them). While we bombed the rival's camp and scared their elephants away, Keshavji and the other army went towards the border of the kingdom of Sanketsingh and bombed their borders.

"We scared them alright. They didn't expect them coming." He replied to me, almost matching my expression.

"And the border walls?" I asked him. I was more concerned by the consequences, than the enemy's reaction.

"We broke their territory walls. Now they are open and vulnerable from any kind of foreign attacks." Said Keshavji.

It had always been the plan. To bomb their enemy camps as well as kingdom border simultaneously, all by surprise so they wouldn't get time to react, think or send help to each other.

"How is our army?" I asked, suddenly concerned.

"Two soldiers are heavily injured. We transferred them to your kingdom where the Queen promised that she would get immediate recovery for them." He ended up saying and then regretted it instantly. He had forgotten about my instructions as to not to divulge into details in front of my husband.

"What? Your mother too is involved! Who are you guys?" He was exasperated as he went inside his tent.

I looked at Keshavji as he looked miserable and sheepish. I controlled my frustration with his negligence and asked him to set up the sleepinf arrangements with the remaining soldiers. We had to start our journey early tomorrow morning so we could reach to our base camp within two days.

As soon as Keshavji left, I looked into the direction of Veer's den and then mine. I was not responsible to address his tantrum, no matter how reasonable it was. I went inside my cover, removed my veil, decided to leave sulking Veer alone and took the most relaxing sleep of my life.

Little did I know that Veer had the most emotionally turbulent night....