Dhruva Nakshathra - The Game of Alliance ✔

FORTY-SEVEN

"It's a tough place to be, isn't it, Your Highness?" He asked after a moment of silence. "To be the sole decision maker," he added.

A sad smile stretched on her round tired face. "It is especially when sacrifices need to be made." She entwined her fingers together in a tight clasp. "Whether to give myself up as someone's wife or as someone to knock around in return of my people." Far from the busy roads, her eyes fell on an employer pushing his weak worker to the ground. The worker took in all the hit without a word nor anyone around intervened. Perhaps it would make no difference to him.

Silence followed.

"There isn't much difference in both if I look into closely. The only difference is, for the former I might go to the other side in full glory with celebration not knowing what really awaits me while the latter I go in agonising silence knowing fully what I'll be receiving. Eventually, the kind of freedom I had sought for in my country will no longer be mine..." She looked away, wiping off a tear. "But my one choice will give freedom to thousands of others. Right now, the question is how am I going to do it?"

Nakshathra found herself sharing her inner plight to someone she had just met and she felt better. She did not get any reaction like trying to stop her from committing into any of it nor attempting to find some other way but simply listening.

"Your Highness, if you ask me, I will say whatever choice you to take, we, the people who have been abducted will feel bad," Ashutosh said. "And honestly, it will only last for a short while because all we wanted was for someone responsible to rescue us out of the hell hole."

Birds flew, carts rolled pass, people went about their work like nothing happened. The worker who has hit by his employer was left on his own to pull himself back on his feet. He was sad, broken and humiliated all at once. What she saw was a live preview of what Ashutosh had said, Nakshathra nodded her head agreeing to his admission.

"It does hurt a little but thank you for your sincerity. That's how humans are, aren't they? I would do the same—feel bad and forget."

From the corner of her eyes, she knew Ashutosh was observing her. Did he see her as a pitiful thing or simply a key to freedom? She knew not and she didn't wish to dwell in her possible future state. Nakshathra had a lot on her plate but mostly she was disorientated. The more she reflected on their empty discovery from Indrud to Mahina, the more her mind inclined to the lady's advice. As she dwelled in the thought, she was interrupted.

"I was in their captivity for seven years before I got a chance to find a way out for myself. Life in there isn't bad but worst." Ashutosh opened up for the first time on his experience as a captive in Alli's prison. "There will be no water, no food, no proper place to sleep nor we were excused to relieve ourselves. We had to do everything in the same place."

Nakshathra held herself from scrunching her face, not because it sounded disgusting but not to make him feel worse than he was back then. Guilty. She felt guilty for not acting sooner, she wasn't doing it now either but simply sitting under the shade, out in the open. Maybe she never really knew what will the life of the captives be after being abducted. Was I naïve or simply ignorant?

"Every time she comes to the prison, someone or the other would challenge her, confidently yells at her that we will be saved. The king, the princes, the princess will come for us and every time one says it, their either lose their tongue or life," he added. Ashutosh had no emotion on his face as he shared her the details. Perhaps he had seen so much to be shaken by a mere share of information.

But to her the news was like a huge blow as she stared at him with big wide eyes, tears blurring her vision, Nakshathra bunched her saree with her trembling hands. She was at loss of words. Innocents die because of her family and for the faith they had on them. What did they do to deserve a punishment as such? Who does Alli think she is?