Dark Knight [A Wattpad Featured Story]

Chapter 6: Love's Lies and Hate's Revelations (Part 2)

Author's Note: Dear all, I am so pleased to see you all read, vote and comment:) Just a very humble request to those who have read the story on a different forum - I am thrilled you are reading again and it just won't be the same without you, but please be extra careful when commenting. I totally understand it is easy to get carried away and that is your love for the story but please remember that there is so much in this tale and I really want new readers to experience it as it comes and to me spoilers always live up to their name- spoiling the story and reader experience. I have refrained so far but if inadvertent revelations are made, I will have no choice but to delete comments- sorry! Hope you understand and will enjoy the part below!

PART 2:

Siya laughed at Aaryan's antics, marveling that this same cavorting man-child before her was once the famous hero of the land. She felt suddenly sad that this thought. Prince Aaryan of that time must have been a sight to behold, she thought. Even now, she sometimes felt she could glimpse snatches of shocking intelligence in him, but they were always transient; gone before she could grasp the moment fully, making her believe it was only her imagination. Noticing the seriousness creep over her, Aaryan's eyes sharpened and he wondered yet again what Keerti was up to as she had recently been visiting him less and less, focusing more on Raunak, relying on him to keep Siya with him. Soon, Siya left to meet with her sister. Aaryan's lips tightened as she left, wondering yet again where her naiveté would lead her, and not liking the realistic answer to that his sharp brain gave him. He had asked Keerti what more she planned against Siya, but Keerti's vagueness did not fool him for a moment. She was up to something and Aaryan resolved to find out what it was.

Siya meanwhile agreed to share a meal with Keerti at her insistence, just them, like they used to do in the days of their childhood. A fine repast was organised in Siya's chamber, both sisters laughing and chatting and Keerti herself serving them both like the "old" Keerti Siya had missed of late. The meal didn't seem particularly heavy but it must have been, Siya thought, feeling full and oddly sleepy towards its end. Keerti remembered an errand set by Suchitra, but pouted that she had a surprise planned for Siya, suggesting that in exactly ten minutes Siya should head towards the Western courtyard side of the Palace, where Keerti would meet her with her gift. Siya, despite feeling even more heavy-eyed, had no heart to refuse her. Her sister thrummed with an odd excitement and as ten minutes was hardly any time, she agreed wanting to prolong this camaraderie.

Thus at the designated time, Siya walked over to the side of the Palace agreed. This involved passing a long walkway, with a scenic central area, overlooked by a galleried landing, from which multiple rooms opened, the furthest ones some distance away but affording a remote view of parts of the lower section of the Palace. Siya felt as if she might be ill; her lids were getting leaden and her stomach churned unpleasantly. She tried to steady herself when she felt herself totter and looked around along the seemingly interminable passage, dimly lit with long tapers dripping wax down their sides, their burning wicks flickering slightly in the wind from their resting wall slots. No one seemed to be around and Siya wondered if she should turn back to her room, but her brain seemed to take too long to send the signal to her limbs. Suddenly a tall figure, draped all over with a dark cloak stepped out, and thinking him a servant, Siya weakly called out; thankful that help approached. However, the relief turned to fright in seconds when she saw that not only was he draped in dark garb, he had a crude makeshift mask over his face! Siya's already unsteady legs turned to jelly, and she stumbled, clutching the wall for support. Her head swam but before she could scream louder than a frightened yelp, he was upon her. He grabbed her by her arms and Siya knew real terror. His face was a grotesque mask, her body shook and she felt so befuddled and disoriented, she thought she would pass out. Perhaps she would have, but for his grasp of her. He brought his face closer to her and she struggled, panic keeping her conscious. He placed his hand over her mouth and Siya's eyes were petrified. She felt suffocated; something truly lecherous and crude emanated from him, surrounding her like a choking mist that made her want to gag.

Suddenly, her assailant was wrenched from her and she could breathe, his smothering hand over her mouth removed. Reeling dizzily, she sank to her knees, gasping for breath as tears ran down her face, horror holding her. She saw that another dark cloaked figure was the cause of her respite but her heart sank when she saw that this newcomer too, was almost entirely covered with both a hooded cape-like fabric and a cloth almost entirely hiding his face, leaving only slits for his eyes. She saw the two men struggle briefly before the original attacker fled, but not before the caped man managed to yank his cloak off him and slightly dislodge his mask, taken aback at whatever he saw. The walls were closing in on Siya, and everything spun around her as if she was on an accelerated carousel. She must have made a sound, as suddenly the attention of the second masked man was on her. Fear once more wrapped around Siya, making her wonder if she had been saved ignominy from one assailant to suffer it from his successor. However, the man approached and gently tried to help her to rise. Despite the vertigo that assailed her and his obscured face, something about his touch penetrated the fog in her brain and cut through her growing hysteria to make her realise that somehow, unbelievably, he meant her no harm. Her wide eyes implored him and she dazedly seemed to think that she knew these eyes; and knew them well, although they were literally slots with no other part of his features visible.

He made as if to lift her in his arms, but abruptly froze hearing some distant sound. He glanced up and what he saw at the other end of the upper balustrade of the Palace, made him change his mind. He gazed back at the helpless Siya in frustration and as if making up his mind, shrugged off his own cloak. He still left his face covered, and in a trice donned the robe he had snatched from his earlier opponent. He carefully leaned over Siya, who was slipping fast into actual unconsciousness, and slightly moved her to lean against the wall, placing his commodious cloak under her and with its edges over her shivering form. His eyes from their incised openings radiated kindness and real anxiety. Siya surrendered herself to the silent reassurance his whole demeanor screamed out, as her eyes shut.

With a last furtive glance, which revealed Raunak and Keerti running in their direction, clearly having seen him, he reluctantly abandoned his charge. He sprinted away from the passageway, to the darkened side of the Palace, which would lead him outside to the grounds in moments. He could hear Raunak shouting and raising alarm but he was too swift, and gone well before Raunak and Keerti raced down the stairs towards the collapsed Siya. A few confused guards, roused by the shouts, soon followed them.

AARYAN'S CHAMBERS, SHIKHAR MAHAL

Aaryan sprang lithely back into his room from the window, which his careless guards had long believed sealed shut. He shrugged off the cloak he had on, looking at it with distaste and barely suppressed rage. He yanked the material off his face, flinging it to the floor in fury. He clenched his fists at the recent happenings. "If I had not reached there in time," he thought as a fresh wave of wrath washed over him. "So this is what the evil witch has been planning! How dare she? And she was coming there with Raunak?" His brain whirred furiously, putting the pieces together in seconds, his customary skill at deduction unfolding the whole plot to him as if he himself had engineered it. "I will have to stop you Keerti, you are going too far," he mulled. "But I have some other business to attend to first."

His smile was one that used to strike deep-seated dread in the hearts of his enemies during battle.

Author's Note: I hope you all liked this part? A very crucial chapter to me in many ways and of course there is still one more part of it, which I will post this Sunday so we start next week with the first part of Chapter 7! Please do keep interacting- I thrive on it.