A String Of Pearls

The Beginning of the End

Bhanumati was expecting her husband to be in a bad mood when he returned from the Rajsuya Yagna at Indraprastha. She had however underestimated just how bad it would be.

"Yuvrani!" A whole host of maids burst into her chambers in a manner very unfitting for the well trained servants of the castle.

She looked at them in shock. They all looked scared.

"Yuvrani, Yuvraj Duryodhan is destroying everything in his path! He is talking about immolating himself!"

Bhanumati ran .

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Panic clawed at her heart as she felt the heat and saw the smoke gather outside a door. Part of the wall over the doorway had fallen and was blocking the entrance as a fiery barricade.

The soldiers lay unconscious outside the chamber, thankfully out of range of the fire, but they had clearly been knocked out by Duryodhan in his rage.

It seemed that the news of Duryodhan's disastrous return had been brought to her before anyone else because no one from the rest of the Royal family was present.

She tried to get closer to the burning entrance, trying to see if there was a way to get in, but she was restrained by the maids.

Heart hammering and threatening to burst out of her chest, she screamed bloody murder at them, growled at them to let her go, gods be damned, her husband was trying to kill himself, but they would not let go of her arms.

Just then there was a thundering of footsteps as the rest of the family hurried there with Dussashan and Bhrata Karna in the lead.

Karna jumped through the fire without hesitation, his divya kavach appearing to shield him from the flames.

Mata Gandhari let out a pained whimper and some of the brothers rushed forward to hold up their parents as they watched in horror.

Finally, after what seemed to Bhanumati like ages of having her heart clutched in an ice cold fist, Bhrata Karna stepped out, his arms wrapped around Duryodhan.

They were swarmed at once.

Bhanumati gasped at her husband's red and blistering skin, but he could not seem to care less and was heard telling Karna that the latter should have just let him die because God only knew what he might do now.

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Apparently Duryodhan had been insulted in the Rajsuya Yagna. He had slipped and fallen into a pool looking like a carpet in the Pandavas' Mayasabha.

The Pandavas had burst out laughing at their cousin's state and the guests had followed suit.

Bhanumati felt disdain for the Pandavas. What kind of people laughed if a guest of theirs, a family member no less, had an accident in their palace due to no fault of his own but due to the magical structure of their palace?! Instead of helping him, they mocked him?!

She could understand Duryodhan's rage. Such a terrible insult in front of everyone important in all of Aryavarta! Her husband had always hated his cousins but he had never really let it show much in front of her. Now however, he seemed to be frothing with rage.

But here was the thing. If it was only rage, it would have been fine. He might have eventually calmed down. But now.... now he seemed to be edging towards madness.