He and Shon were seated on an unfamiliar bank of the Ganga, the cool waters lapping their feet. Shon was laughing about something, young and carefree. Gradually, the water levels started rising, shifting into a foamy, white fog. Radheya watched, horrified, as pale, thin hands with long fingers and a Rudraksh bracelet on their wrists emerged out of the water, groping Shon's legs. Radheya tried to pull him back but Shon only gave him a calm sad smile.
"Run," he said. It sounded like an echo.
Within seconds, he was underwater. Where he had gone down, small blobs of red blood floated. Radheya tried to speak but he had no voice and no tears. His silent, unheard scream of agony moved not a leaf. He turned and then, astonishingly enough, behind him was an old, dilapidated temple, it's walls crumbling down, and the stairs chipped at places. Moss and vines clung onto it, the remnants of centuries of decay. Drawn by an invisible force, Radheya went in. For a while, it was pitch black as his eyes struggled to adjust. Then he finally saw the outline of a figure almost shining in the darkness, of a young man riding a chariot with seven horses and an intricately carved wheel-like structure at the back, radiating its spokes outward. Radheya stared and stared and stared, drinking in the handsome figure, and was not even shocked when the lips moved, forming silent words. He stepped forward to hear better, but the stone floor beneath him crumbled, emitting a low skittering sound and then he was falling and falling and falling and --
Radheya banged his head against the iron ring of the trapdoor and jerked awake, feverishly patting the space around him in search of his brother, a habit long inculcated and ingrained in his very being. Pointy, scratchy strips of hay pricked his fingers. Radheya mindlessly tossed around in a vain attempt to get up and pulled open the trapdoor from underneath him. Unfortunately, his very position and the imperishable laws of gravity ensured he flew down a good five feet and landed on a heap on the mud floor, immediately curling into a fetal position as he suddenly started feeling the stabbing pain behind his eyes.
There was a pattering of soft footsteps and moments later, Vaishali's tear-streaked face presented itself above him. Radheya groaned, turned around and froze, memories of last day flooding his senses; his father asking Shon to come, him going, Shon at the palace, the priest speaking, Shon dying, the Emperor, Shon's lifeless body, the funeral, Satyasena bhaiyya's words, Shon... Shon... Shon... gone.
There was a cool palm pressing against his forehead, low voices, and the twins' faces swimming before his eyes. Still on the floor, Radheya heaved, nearly losing consciousness, having a panic attack. He felt Vrishali lift his hand to her chest, felt her taking deep, unnecessarily elaborate breaths, and tried his best to synchronize his own with hers. Vaishali got a banana leaf from somewhere ('the kitchen,' his mind supplied) and began vigorously fanning him. With difficulty, Radheya brought his breathing under control. Silently, Vrishali shifted and helped him sit up, and her sister handed him a pitcher of water. Radheya drank voraciously.
"Sorry... I'm sorry," he choked out, hating his hoarse voice, wet with unshed tears.
"What for?" Vaishali asked, surprised.
"For everything, this trouble, what you had to see, everything."
Vrishali stood up, placing the pitcher carefully in the corner of the room and said bluntly, "Don't flatter yourself, he might've been your brother but he was our friend. We would have been there anyway. You are our friend too, we'll be here even if you don't want us. You have nothing to do with it, so don't fish for any credits."
"Vrishali! Sister, what are you saying?" Vaishali looked shocked.
"What? He doesn't need mollycoddling, believe me. Radheya look at me, we're here okay? I'm here, so if you need anything, just spill it. I'll be there for you till the end. "
Radheya wrapped his arms around himself and tried to smile, which came out as a wry grimace.
"It hurts," he told her, pitifully, "It hurts everywhere. "
There was a muffled sniffle from where Vaishali was sitting. Vrishali shuffled to him and soundlessly held out her arms to both of them. In silence, the three of them hugged. There was no escape from what had transpired. But there was calm and peace and delicious coolness loosening his tense muscles.
Despite that, Radheya was the first to wriggle out. "Where's maa?" he asked.
"At our place. They dumped us children here and went off." Vaishali pouted.
Radheya opened his mouth to answer but was interrupted by a knock on the door. They looked at each other, bewildered. Ordinarily, no one knocked in the colony. Doors were forever kept open and unlocked unless at night, and people entered just with a shout or a call. As such, it was a rare occurrence in the suta household. Radheya got up and stumbled to the door, jumping out of his skin when he saw the group gathered there. Before he could even open his mouth, Adhirath baba, who had evidently heard the knock too, looked over the waist high bamboo fence separating Vrishali's house from theirs and did a double take when he saw the Crown Prince Duryodhan with Ashwatthama and Eklavya. Hastily, he came over, nearly tripping over his feet.
"Greetings! My Prince!" He bowed.
Suyo looked him over imperiously, fist clenched, and lower lip quivering treacherously.
"I wish to speak to him," he said, gesturing towards Radheya.
Still traumatised by the previous day's events, Adhirath hesitated, looking uncertainly between his son and the Prince. Ashwatthama, sensing the general mood, hastened to reassure him, "We mean no harm, chacha, we are his friends. Radheya nodded in his general direction, clumsily wiping his face and rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand like a baby.
Eager to avoid any complicated questions, the twins each grabbed one of Radheya's arms and dragged him out. They crossed the pontoon in tense silence, and it was only when they reached the other bank that Ashwatthama turned towards Radheya, who was stumbling as he tried to keep up with the twins – each of whom was walking with a different speed, and hugged him tight. Eklavya paused, then sighed and walked over to join them and Suyo squeezed himself in the gap between them. They stood in the awkward position for sometime, the twins still holding Radheya's arms and preventing him from hugging anyone back. When they broke apart, Radheya mumbled, "Thank you. I appreciate this very much, I really do. Thank you." Eklavya rolled his eyes emphatically but said nothing.
They settled down together, the recent events like a dark cloud over their heads. Suyo hung around awhile but soon had to leave since he was expected at the aashram. Nonetheless, all of them hedged around the topic, trying to be supportive without triggering anything. Radheya incessantly thanked them, both verbally and otherwise, grateful for friends who unquestioningly understood and accepted everything. By the time the Sun reached the zenith, the conversation had lulled, Eklavya had started dozing and Vrishali had fallen asleep with her head on Radheya's shoulder. Radheya's own drooping eyelids felt heavy as lead. Ashwatthama gently shook his free shoulder. "Come, let's get you lot home."
Radheya didn't even have the energy to protest. He lightly patted Vrishali's cheek, even as Vaishali grouched, "Wake up, you sleepyhead. You'll put good old Kumbhakarna to shame."
They wearily dragged their feet across the river. Eklavya and Ashwatthama tagged along. Radha maa was standing at the doorstep of their hovel, sweeping the floor and unsuccessfully trying to hide her tears in the pallu of her sari. When she saw them coming, she let out a watery smile and invited them in for a meal. Both Eklavya and Ashwatthama loudly protested and Radha maa immediately said, "You shared your meal with our children a couple of years ago, thus I presume it is not our position that makes you deny it. What is it then, son?"
Embarrassed and deprived of any answer, Ashwatthama agreed to stay. Eklavya was left with no choice. In the humble abode of a poor charioteer whose son had been killed by a Brahmin, another sat side by side with a Nishada for a meal.
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Although everyone contrived to act like nothing had really changed, it was evident that Shon's absence was affecting them. Radha maa often cried and randomly hugged Radheya, clinging onto him. "My son, my own son..." She would weep. Radheya always snuck out at night to sleep in the stables, unable to close his eyes in a place that reeked with Shon's memories. Perhaps the hardest hit was Vaishali, whose bubbly cheeriness had forever resonated with Shon's carefree attitude.
Also, Shon's words haunted him. That bone-chilling whisper, "Bhaiyya, run!" permeated into his life like water getting soaked in a sponge. Everywhere he went, everything he did, every time he stayed awake or fell asleep, those words followed him like an intangible shadow, making him feel like a hunted prey unaware of who or what the predator was. When, by the end of the week, his father thrice insisted on his return to rein-holding and charioteering, in an odd moment of epiphany in a moonlit barn at midnight, Radheya realized what he had to run from. The suffocating destiny drawn out for him repulsed him. He loved horses. He loved charioteers and chariot-makers. Heck, he lived among them. But this was not what he wanted to do. At that midnight hour, he found his calling – a pull in his gut dragging him away, a soft, warm voice inviting him home, a wooden bow beckoning his itching fingers, a life he could not have imagined. With a decade and a couple more years under his belt, the young suta Radheya, at that moment, decided to step into the wide, cruel world, unaware that he had long ago ventured out alone, away from what, in another life, would have been his maternal grandfather's home.
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He told his friends about it first. He did not elaborate on the epiphany, or tell them about the soft voice that called him everyday after the incident, or the way his hands turned clammy every time he held the reins. He simply spoke of the need to try something different, to go to someplace new, to see some-person else. They listened as they always did, quiet and supportive Eklavya, who chewed on a blade of grass, looking as if he couldn't care less about what was being said, even though Radheya knew he listened attentively, Ashwatthama who looked careful and wary, aware of the madness that his brain came up with sometimes, Vaishali with her own adorably over-eager self, and Vrishali with fond exasperation. When he finished, he looked at them all, trying to gauge their reactions.
Ashwatthama was the first to speak, "I don't think this is a good idea."
"Unstoppable," Eklavya muttered.
"I beg your pardon?" Ashwatthama questioned, confused.
"Pardoned," Eklavya deadpanned. Vaishali giggled and Vrishali snorted. Radheya himself could not help a little laugh. Finding himself the target of their united teasing, Ashwatthama rolled his eyes.
"I'm saying," - here Eklavya got up and tossed the blade of grass away - "that if our headstrong, obstinate bull has gotten it into his head that he would run away, we can't stop him."
"He's right," Radheya quietly confirmed, "It really isn't up for debate."
"Then why in the name of the Holy Tri-Deva did you bother telling us?" Vrishali demanded.
"Well, I figured you mightn't like it if I suddenly disappeared one day."
"And I'm absolutely delighted to know that you will be disappearing one night soon. I've attained salvation by knowing this. By all the Rudras and Shaktis, you are so intelligent Radheya." The words barely managed not to drown in sarcasm. Radheya sighed.
"He should be able to do what he wants to," Vaishali piped up.
"Thank you Vaishali."
"Oh! Don't mind me everyone." Vrishali burst out angrily. "I'm stopping a person from pursuing what they want to do by asking a twelve year old lad not to run away from home. I'm off." And with that she got up and stormed away.
The others stared after her, flabbergasted.
"What just happened?" Radheya asked Vaishali, who shrugged.
"No idea," she said.
"You should go after her." Ashwatthama, ever wise, advised.
Radheya nodded, dusted himself, and went off.
A/N: Thank you for your plentiful support in the last chapter. Do continue spreading love and acceptance.
@spiritual08 and @_RUDRA_ , here is the awakening.
I have some good news and bad news.
Bad news is that my exams are coming up from the 17th and I'm pretty sure I don't even know the names of the chapters, much less its content, so I'll be taking a break for a month.
Good news is that 17th is still a while away so I shall be posting a short filler chapter after this. If you want to see Karna's interaction with someone specific, please let me know.
Thank you for reading this far. If you liked it, please vote and comment. I love reading what you think.
Have a good day :)