Shatru Sesham: Sequel of Baahubali ✔️

Chapter Forty-Five

A loud round of protests immediately emanated from the inhabitants of the islands as soon as the proclamation of  war was made by Annapoorna. They were all in a state of shock. It took them quite a while to comprehend and come to terms with it. They were all happy enough wherever they were. Though they had been stocking up provisions, things, arms and weapons for a long drawn out struggle, they never thought that day would come so soon.

They protested, "Why now, Amma? We are in no apparent danger now. Why should we risk our lives and our everything? We have created a new life and civilization for ourselves here. Why should we stake everything we took so long to build by going to war?"

Aparaajitha rose up to quieten the disgruntled populace of the islands. With a serious expression on her face, she raised her hand to control the situation that was threatening to spiral out of control. One look at her charismatic persona and everyone fell silent and willing to listen. At that moment, it seemed as though the indomitable spirit of all her forefathers had entered into her slender physical frame and was talking through her, "Everyone, quiet! I, Aparaajitha,  your beloved and the daughter of Mahishmati, implore all of you to be silent and listen to everything that Amma has to say before deciding this way or that!"

Annapoorna continued, "Our lives here on these islands are no longer as safe as they used to be. We are on the brink of discovery. I have hidden this truth for as long as I could. But not any longer. Maharaj Subahu has sent many naval expeditions to find a route to these islands. Several of those ships have come uncomfortably close enough. It is another thing that our constant vigilance under Generals Rudra and Samarth have paid off. We have sabotaged and sunk all those ships without a trace mid ocean. But that is how close we are to danger. The day we are discovered, you may rest assured that Subahu will wipe all of us off the face of earth without a single trace. We do not have the opportunity to flee elsewhere. Where will we flee? How far and for how long? Our best bet is fight and that too when our strength is on the ascendant."

A deathly silence prevailed upon this revelation. Samarth took over from Annapoorna, "That is not all. If all of you remember, Mrithyunjay spoke of a minor brush we had with the sea pirate, Simhamukha in our previous mercantile mission and how a few of our vessels got damaged. What he didn't tell then was the fact that Simhamukha is not any other pirate on the high seas or privateer. He secretly works for Maharaj Subahu. He shares a portion of his loot with Subahu so that he can infest these waters with impunity and without any danger of retaliation from the official authorities. Simhamukha has been suspecting our ships and our movements on these waters since a long while. It will not be easy to deceive or bribe him the way we did the officials of the kingdoms with whom we were conducting trade and commerce. He is bound to figure out everything. The day he does that, Subahu would surely hear about us."

The stunned people turned to Mrithyunjay and asked, "Is this really true, Mrithyunjay?" Mrithyunjay did not say anything. He merely nodded his head in the affirmative. General Rudra said, "Whatever weapons have been recently unearthed on the Kaumodi island are of very high quality, the likes of which have never been seen in recent history. Our team of military experts have tested and verified the veracity of this claim."

"The stones in the chest are the famed Gauri Kant. I have seen a similar stone to this in the royal prayer house of Mahishmati. The women in the family have constantly worshipped it. It was later that I learnt from Kattappa during a casual conversation where he accidentally let fall in my hearing that this particular stone was more important militarily than as a religious artifact. When the Kings of Mahishmati used to go for any major wars or battles, Kattappa used to come personally to collect this stone and the Emperor's sword, bow, arrows, lances and maces. After a secret formulation of some kind, all the weapons used to be anointed with this stone to make weapons of the sort we have unearthed. The knowledge of the secret formulation is something even the Kings of Mahishmati or their heirs didn't have", Annapoorna revealed.