Two days before the banquet...
The palace was in chaos. The little princess Araa, the medic Aarav and his mother Lady Mia have all fallen ill and their illness was something that even the best of the best Royal Physicians were not aware of...
Shiv suddenly remembered about Aarav mentioning Varma's having advanced medical knowledge. Thus he decided to get Ira's opinion.
Ira examined them and came with a conclusion that they were poisoned and not ill. Hearing her thunderous words made them all dumbstruck.
Even the best of the best physicians were not able to identify that they were poisoned, yet that little human girl was capable enough to come to a solid conclusion.
Shiv and the others asked her for further explanation towards the situation when Ira bit her lip as she started looking serious.
"This poison is called as venom of despair and can be found only in the North-west region of the country. Once when my clan had to travel to the north-west, we happened to stumble upon this poison, we were never able to get the antidote for it from their market as it was highly costly. So we tried to make an antidote for it, but failed."
"Then is there anything we can do? If it is available in their market I will have my men to fetch it, no matter how costly it is, their lives are more important!" Shiv exploded as he ordered his men to get the antidote for it immediately.
But Ira stopped him. "Shiv, Please stop! It will take a month for them to go and come back to the palace. In the mean time, I am afraid, they will not last. How long have they had the headache?"
"It's been two days now..."
Hearing his answer, Ira fell silent. Shiv and the others started becoming more anxious. After thinking long and hard, Ira concluded her observation of their situation.
"Normally if a person is poisoned with this, they last for only seven days... The first two days they will have a severe headache, the next two days will be followed by a very high fever and the fifth and sixth day they will have cold shivers constantly and finally the last day they will look like they have recovered completely and will provide hope.... But by the the end of the day they will end up dead..."
Hearing her brief explanation, everyone present were dumbfounded. They couldn't believe their ears. But Ira didn't stop there....
"The things that I told are for adults... Araa is only a child... I'm not sure how long she could hold..."
A dead silence prevailed in the entire room....
Two days before...
Aditya who was resting in his home received an anonymous letter.
'If you want them to live, you must do as I say! Meet me at the garden of the late queen's chamber at mid night.'
****
One day before the banquet...
"My Lord, I have spotted some human trespassing our borders. Thus I have brought them here."
Shiv was already restless with the situation of Araa, Aarav and Lady Mia, he pinched the space between his brows as he nodded his head at the proud general before him and asked him to leave.
But to his surprise, the humans that he brought with him barged into his court. Shiv was startled for a moment but seeing their unusual appearance which was similar to that of Ira's, he asked the general to leave them alone.
"Who are you?"
"Where is my sister?" The man demanded. His features resembled that of Ira. His hair was as white as pure snow matched with a pair of deep blue eyes. He had a sharp nose and thin lips. He looked like he came out of a beautiful painting.
"Sister? Do you mean, Ira?"
"It seems like you know her. I got a letter from someone important to me saying my sister is very ill. So I brought some well versed medics from our clan to treat her."
"Letter?" Ira who came to find Shiv was stunned to see her brother before her. She immediately ran towards him as she jumped into his arms.
"Brother!! Why are you here? What's with the letter?"
"My dear Ira! I see you are well... But I received this letter from our aunt saying that you were very ill. So I didn't think much as I took some of our medics and came here..." Virat explained the situation to her.
"But, brother... I am not sick... In fact, it is our aunt who is poisoned and is bedridden... How could she be able to send you the letter??"
Dead silence followed Ira's question... After few minutes, Ira, Shiv and Virat all nodded their head in understanding as they shouted in unison.
"TRAP!"
"Brother, someone might have tricked you into coming here... Were you followed? No-no, they know how to contact you... It means our village's location is out in the open... If.. if their plan is to get you out of the village... then their target could be our village... Brother!"
Virat immediately ordered one of his men to go back to the village and alert everyone. At the same time he asked one more of his men to follow him secretly in case the previous gets caught.
Shiv was puzzled as to how they got to the Varma's that easily. After all, it was only them in that cave when Lady Mia told everything to Ira. He was squeezing his brains to find how the information might have gotten out...
Virat was a bit anxious about Shiv. He pulled Ira closer to him as he questioned her.
"Is that man trustable?"
"Yes, he is and I trust him the most!" Her assurance was more than enough for him to trust Shiv because from the childhood, Ira had a keen sense of judging a person, she didn't trust anyone that blindly. And if she did, then that person could only be worthy of her trust....