Patrani (The Chief Queen)

The change in the map

Aaryawati's (Veerti's) POV

"Remember kid, during the war, trust your gut feeling but never let your emotions blind your armour."

My Guru used to tell me when I was just a kid. It was the most important lesson I had learnt during my training as a spy and a warrior. Though it was more oriented towards making me warrior, I secretly loved the spying part more.

There is a magic in being a spy. You need to be physically fit and mentally agile. You need to find out the clues and read between the lines. You have to understand PEOPLE... being a spy ensures that you know about the happening of events way before anyone else. Your soul discovers and uncovers the things that are foreign to the layman. My parents somehow knew about my strange fascination towards building and unbuilding the clues and decided that it was the high time I could take real life spy and war related challenges. So with the knowledge of the council, few top generals of our army and my parents, I was sent to many spy operations. I was also involved in many war related strategy making core team. My parents noticed that I was more skilled with swords than with archery. So they ensured that I trained and fought against the best swordsmen of the kingdom.

Everything was turning fine and I bid a goodbye to my Guruji with his final words. However I felt ashamed now. The feelings of lust had momentarily overpowered my brain. I cursed myself as to how could I miss such an important detail.

"Call all the seniors!" I ordered the soldier who was peacefully guarding our campsite.

"Everyone must be sleep.." he tried to explain me.

"Now!"  I almost shouted but he understood the gravity of the situation by the tone of my voice.

Everyone gathered around the tent. They all alert as they anticipated the gravity of the situation. I stood quietly until almost everyone was present.

"What is this beta?" Harisenji was the first person to question my presence. Aaryaveer looked at my face.

"It's all a hoax. Sanketsingh will not attack our army here. He is supposed to mushroom! He will directly attack our kingdom!" I cried.

They all looked at each other, finally getting the point.

"What do we do now?" Asked Utsav!

"What's there to think? Let's head back to our kingdom!" Commanded Aaryaveer.

"No! its not time to merely defend. Its also time to attack. Remember, attack is the best defense." I reminded Aaryaveer. The same line he had tried to preach me as he struggled to teach me the game of chess (as he had to finally given up, as I insisted that I didn't have brains to follow such an analytical game. Little did he know that I had defeated the best chess players in my kingdom.)

While everyone seemed to get my point, Aaryaveer glowered and then grinned at me.

"Half of our shall attack Sanket Kingdom. Remember, we had bombed their city walls. They would still not have repaired them fully. And the remaining army shall defend our fort." I spoke up.

"Okay, then lets spilt into two groups." Said Guruji.

"Wake up every soldier. Tell them they have to pack up their own respective camp and report as soon as possible!" shouted Utsav as the guard struggled to rush to every tent to wake up the soldiers.

"I shall lead the fort front. His Majesty can lead the attack on the Sanket Kingdom!" I spoke up.

"Fair enough." said Aaryaveer. For a split of a second, I could sense a strange melancholy in his voice and eyes. But I didn't have time to pay any vocal attention to that.

"I want my personal army. You all can do with the rest." I stated much to the disbelief of the others.

"You have a very limited men into your disposition. I do not think that would be enough. You can take some more men from our army." Said Aaryaveer.

"I am fighting from my own home front. Besides, I have the game plan. My army is capable. Besides, I know from where else I can fetch more help." I smiled, thinking about my mother and Sejalbai.

"I shall pack you a fresh set of my newly invented weapons." Said Bhramadutta, who was quiet since sometime.

"Thanks." I gushed. The war is even more beautiful when you find kinder allies.

"Okay, its sorted then. We shall evacuate this camp within the early dawn and we shall attack Sanket Kingdom as soon as we reach to their boundaries, which is around 2 days. You, Veerti shall too try to reach our kingdom by tomorrow evening." Said Guruji and we all agreed.

The whole camp was suddenly brimming with nervous excitement as everyone toiled to pack up in the least possible time. Since me and my men had fewer belongings and we were lessor in numbers, our process of wrapping up was quicker.

As I ventured inside my tent, for the final pack up, I saw Aaryaveer standing there, his head down and his arms folded. I opened my veil, to reveal him my face. Maybe it would be the last time he would see my face. Whatever words I had for him got stuck into my throat.

"Goodbyes are hard. Aren't they?" he spoke up, his eyes trying in futile to mask his tears.

"Since when were they so easy?" I spoke up as I took a step towards him, reducing our distance by merely one step.

"Now I realize how tough it must have been for you to bid me farewell, every time I set out to fight a battle." He spoke up, his voice choked. He too, took a step towards me.

"We are warriors, before we are husband and wife, aren't we. Its our dharma (duty) to protect our subjects." I reminded him the dialogue he would speak before leaving the battlefield while I would worry senseless, like a dutiful queen for her warrior husband. Even though those words were true, they were kind of... cliched and I was tired of hearing them every time he went to the battle.

He chuckled as he took a stride and he pulled me into his arms. "You like to settle scores, don't you, my Queen?"

"I have not settled my scores yet." I laughed as he tickled me.

"Okay, this time I shall change our farewell dialogue. I would like to say that after the war, I hope we shall be alive because I mean to make love to you, cherish you and live this beautiful life with my highly hot headed, fiery and incredible wife. I wish to discover her body and her soul, inch by inch as she would meet me after the end of the war." He said as he hugged me and put his head on my shoulder.

"Also, I shall how you, how lovemaking works." he whispered naughtily as he bit my ear playfully. I broke the hug and punched him on his stomach and the laughter erupted from his chest.

I finished the final packing as my husband folded my last garment safely into the trunk. He helped me to finish the packing with the pretext that time was precious and I needed to be quick.

"See you soon husband." I said without looking back or listening to his answer. I didn't had heart to leave him. Now I realized that it must have been harder for him too, to leave his wife alone while going into the battlefield.

I found my men, ready outside the tent. We all gathered our horses. I touched Guruji's feet before mounting my horse. He blessed me "Vijay Bhava" (May victory be yours). I left the bustling camp with my men.

Little did I know that a shadow was following my tracks.