Samsāra

Chapter Twenty-six

It was this same thing she asked him to do with Ajiona, charm his way into her bed and gather information then report back to Snigdha. It was almost routine work but Lavan didn't account for Ajiona's strength of character or that for the first time in his life, he would find someone that would interest him.

She wasn’t like the other court women, so skilled in the art of lies and deception, they strived as hard as men to ascend political ladders fighting by hook or crook to win. Ajiona was different, he could feel it. She was honest and pure, looking at him head-on without any carefully crafted look of shyness hiding calculation behind it. Lavan felt she was looking right through him to the person inside, it was going to be hard to extract information from her and he was looking forward to it.

‘I beg your leave, Yuvaraju. It’s time for me to take my leave!’ she said softly, looking past him to the arena’s entrance where a palki was waiting for her, flanked by four burly slave warriors.

‘Surely you could stay for more if you chose to?’

Ajiona shook her head, a few gleaming locks fell across her face and she reached up to brush it back. It wasn’t restrained in a coif and Lavan was astonished he liked it.

‘I’m afraid not, Yuvaraju. I have my duties to attend to. Perhaps another time.’ She stood in a fluid motion, rearranging her skirts briefly exposing slender ankles. She inclined her head and walked down and across the field leaving Lavan staring musingly after her.

***

‘She is to die,’ Sujit said in a tone that brooked no discussion.

Snigdha moved sinuously on the divan, naked save for a diaphanous antariya draped across her body in a single line. Her movement shifted the silky material, exposing more flesh. Sujit’s eyes slipped down, lingering and the maharani’s smile grew coyer. Her dark brown hair was tousled, her eyes sparkling with something more than mischief. Sujit had interrupted her and her lover in their amorous embrace, she had invited him to join them but he had only snarled for the courtesan to leave.

The girl had drifted off in wisps of translucent silk, thrusting her hips provocatively as she left, a wicked grin on her mouth, stained red with alaktaka. Sujit closed his eyes, if he didn’t need them there would be no reason for him to visit this degenerate place.

‘You look tense, Sujit dear,’ Snigdha noted restlessly, moving her body in a single restless motion that showed more flesh than he cared to see. The maharani’s lip lifted in a smile that revealed her small white teeth. ‘Wouldn’t you sit, my love?’ she languidly waved a hand at the lacquered sandalwood stool next to the divan.

Sujit speared her with a furious glower that informed her him being unimpressed by her antics. Nonetheless, he took his seat, still pinning her with his gaze but the debauched Maharani was merely amused.

‘Something sweet to drink, or eat?’ she offered and his gaze moved to the row of intoxicants on the carpet before closing his eyes.

‘I have no time for your games, Snigdha,’ he said in a voice that made it clear she was trying his patience.

Snigdha pursed her lovely mouth before propping her head up with her hand, her eyes had gone even darker. ‘Oh my dear Sujit,’ she began in a throaty purr. ‘If and when I decide to play my games, not even you the most stoic of men would be able to resist,’ she promised.

As Sujit looked down at her, her ample flesh exposed and gleaming in the orange-gold light cast by the flickering oil lamps, he supposed he should feel a stir in his loins but instead all he felt was disgust for the lecherous creature he was forced to use. The maharani’s needs were simple yet also greedy. She wanted to rule Jyuveld, she also wanted to rule Anga and their terms of partnership was that Sujit would help silence the dissenters after her husband was dead and aid a smooth transition in power and in return she would lend her soldiers when he finally decided to march on Mahishmati after he’d weakened it from the interior. But the girl was stopping it from happening. While she drew breath his plan was doomed to fail and she was proving difficult to kill and his opportunities were getting smaller, which was why this time was perfect and he needed this creature do it.

‘So the girl must die,’ she prompted and he gave a curt nod in response. ‘Why? Maharani Sivagami won’t fall to pieces at her demise if that is what you are thinking.’

Sujit spared her a single scathing glance. ‘She is a hindrance to our plans. If you want the crowns, if you want to rule from the throne not behind it, then she dies. You will have to do it or do you not want to be the ruler of three kingdoms.’ As if he would let her. If she didn’t bite him in the heel at the most convenient moment for her, she would be dangerous to let live after he liberated Mahishmati. She would want the kingdom as well and with her clutching the powers of three kingdoms she would be a match for the great kingdom of Mahishmati. No, she wouldn’t bet allowed to live but not until after she has fulfilled her purpose.

Sujit saw a light of greed pass across her eyes before she schooled herself and said in a voice that passed as bored: ‘What a shame. I was hoping to recruit the girl, she has talent. I even already have Lavan on her tail. It wouldn’t be long till she’s corrupted.’

For some odd reason the idea of the peacock she called a stepson corrupting the girl violently disturbed him and his turmoil must have shown on his face because Snigdha peered at him with slight fear on her sensual face.

‘There wouldn’t be any need for that. She must die.’ And she will die with her honour and free from the taint of corruption. The image of her in the carriage that time came to mind and he saw her in his mind eye, regal and every inch a Rajkumari. She would have made an excellent queen for his new Mahishmati but she had to die.

Sujit decided he’d spent enough time in the harlot’s company and abruptly stood up. ‘My spy will issue what you are to do to you, how and the tools. I bid you goodnight.’ He inclined his head and started striding for the entrance when her voice halted him in his strides.

‘I saw Yuvaraju Bhalladeva with the other Yuvarajus, getting drunk and with devadasis. From my spies, he spends a lot of time with the girl. She might already have been corrupted. I would never think it, the little boy of then with earnest big eyes, now a man. I could give him a taste of what it is like to be with a woman, after he is done with the girl.’ Her eyes were glittering like onyx in the lamplight.

Sujit finally unclenched his jaw. ‘I have no doubt you will Snigdha,’ he managed to say in an even tone. ‘But your personal life and thoughts have nothing to do with me. Good evening.’

As he strode out, he valiantly controlled his anger revelling in the thought of killing Snigdha himself and gently extracting her guts while she watched. He would see if she would still have that silly little smirk on her face while he was doing so .