"You bastard!" The little prince blew up and rushed towards his little brother. "Take out your sword. Fight me if you dare!"
This wasn't the first time the second prince challenged the third prince to a duel. But every time it happened, Vajradandaka would make some trite remark and escape. If that didn't work, he would make his ministers intervene with long winded teachings about harmony between brothers. This time was different.
Taking a sword from one of his men, Vajradandaka took a step back. "Second brother Haya, our father just passed. It wouldn't look good on the kingdom if its princes kill each other right after. We should serve as an example of brotherhood and stand together right now."
"I don't care, you maggot! I've never seen you as a brother!" Rising his sword high above his head, the second prince of Rtadhara slashed vertically across with great momentum.
Vajra blocked the sword with his own and then took another step back. His face was impassive. "You've never seen me as your brother, huh?" he said, throwing a glance at the frozen queen. "Perhaps second mother will convince you otherwise before she goes," he said looking at her.
His words enraged the boy of twelve in front of him even further. "She's not going anywhere! You are the one who's going to die, you vermin. I'm going to kill you and then I'm going to skin all your pretty sisters and then I'm going to kill them too!"
In seconds, the two boys exchanged dozens of blows. In her indecisiveness, the second queen hoped her son would quickly kill the king. She even foolishly fantasized that the guards around her would be too slow to stop him and then they would fall on their knees and pay obeisance to her. However, moments passed and Vajradandaka was still holding his own against Hayagriva. As a kshatriya warrior herself, the second queen could tell that his form wasn't too bad either. The boy was surprisingly nimble and he was highly focused, seriously analyzing his opponent rather than meet him with hot-headedness. Hayagriva wouldn't easily win this match. But the more time he dueled, the more chances that assassin would have to act.
Heart clenching, she looked at her son who was still hurling abuses at his brother. If Vajradandaka was in his position, he would've never done that. Her son didn't even understand the situation he was in. They were surrounded by hostile forces and he still thought he was some untouchable prince. There was no way a boy like this would go on surviving even if the king decides to forgive the two of them for now. A boy like this would simply bring doom upon himself and all others related to him.
The second queen began to rue the day she decided to separate the brothers. When they were toddlers, Vajradandaka, Varunapriya and Hayagriva were inseparable. Varuna and Haya were of the same age while Vajra was only younger by a year. They played together all the time when the first queen was still alive. But after they were separated, Varunapriya and Vajra turned out to be talents that were unrivalled in generations while Hayagriva turned out to be average in everything. Worse, he did not have the slightest common sense, not even realising that he was trapped in this palace and his title as a prince was not even good enough to use as toilet paper right now. The second queen felt like by separating the two, she took away Hayagriva's chance to mature intellectually. Now the two of them were in the same sinking boat and only if she drowns can Hayagriva barely float on by.
"Hehe, you talk about elder sisters that way, aren't you afraid they will skin you first?"
The young king successfully struck fear in Hayagriva's heart as he parried his strike and attacked low, trying to cut off his legs. Little Haya was truthfully also scared of his four elder sisters. Although they hated him, they weren't indifferent to him like the second queen was indifferent to the children of the first queen. They beat him up a lot since he was a child in order to 'mold' him. So all that talk about skinning Vajra's pretty sisters was merely bluster to get under his nerves. Unfortunately, the counter-insult was the one that worked when Vajra exposed his fears and nearly cut off his legs in the process.
Enraged at his strategy failing, Hayagriva threw away his sword and threw himself at Vajra, knocking him to the ground. It was unknown which martial art school taught him to throw away his weapon. Although Vajra still had his sword in his hand, Hayagriva didn't give him a chance to use it as he pummeled him with his fists while rolling around the ground. He didn't even have the presence of mind to see the cold and deeply indifferent eyes of his brother. As he pummeled, he didn't even notice the way Vajra took his strikes passively, turning his eyes upward towards the table where the second queen was sitting. He lifted his arm casually, showing her he was still able to use his sword perfectly.
Alarmed, the second queen stood up. "Haya, that's enough!" she cried. "What makes you think you can take on an opponent with bare hands without disarming him?"
The prince finally remembered himself. He gasped and straightened himself, sitting stupidly on his brother's waist, who lay prone on the ground with one arm holding a sword. Sneakily, he threw a look as to whether he can disarm him before he guards against it. But then he saw Vajra's grip tighten against the sharp sword, so he made no further move, panting stupidly and waiting for his mother to decide the outcome.
The second queen couldn't believe his stupidity. Her son had no idea he had just been in a life and death duel. He was still waiting to be disciplined like a child!
Trembling, the second queen said in clogged voice. "Haya, I must join your father in the pyre. You have to learn to be harmonious with your brother now…" Tears fell copiously from her eyes. "You should respect him as your king and do what he says. Please Haya…for your sister Kavya's sake, for my sake."
"But I have no brother!" the boy shouted in disbelief. "That's what you always said! Mother, what are you saying! Mother, what is that you are drinking! Mother!"
Jumping off the prone boy, the young prince rushed towards his mother who just drank something from a suspicious looking jade bottle.
With eyes burning with red blood, he picked it and threw it at Vajra. "Did you give this to her? What is this? Poison!?"
Holding her son's shoulder, the second queen stood dignifiedly. She said quietly, "It is just something to ease the journey. You must not blame your brother from now on."
"Mother! Stop this nonsense. If this is not poison, then you should just calm down. Let's leave this place. Lets go back to Dhija, to uncle's palace! I don't want anything to do with these people anymore!"
The second queen scoffed. "To Dhija's royal palace? Where the grand prince's son rules as the palace's son-in-law now? That place is even more chaotic now after the grand prince died and their forces scattered. Son, you must learn to be satisfied by your lot. Do not be like me, your mother, who couldn't be loyal to Rtadhara, nor could she do anything for Dhija. Do not be like me…" The second queen's voice became gentle and relaxed, her body swayed as though she had drunk a liter of alcohol.
"Mother…" the little boy's eyes welled up as he tried to steady her. "It's all his fault!" he pointed at the other little boy, blaming, "Why don't you say it's all his fault? The little devil, he'll never let us in peace. Isn't that what you always said?"
"It's going to be fine now…" the second queen patted her son's head. "Take care of your sister. Be loyal to your brother…I am going to the place I belong."
As the boy watched, his mother left with her palace maids, swaying slowly with every step. She walked steadily and without pause until she reached the funeral grounds. She spoke not a word as she went forward and climbed up the giant pyre built for the king step by step. As though knowing a person would come, the pyre was already modelled with stairs that were easy to climb even when one's faculties were not in order.
Standing like a pillar in the middle, she fell into a trance as she heard the various brahmins raise their voices in chanting mantras. She heard thunderclouds rumbling in the sky and several gongs being hit continuously like a barrage. She felt naked and cold, but she never suffered. Eventually, she saw a boy in wet white clothes taking a golden tumbler from a brahmin. She remembered, it was the tumbler of Rta, where Varuna has his abode. As the eldest of Adityas, he will lead each brother home when they die in the mortal world. The tumbler was too big for the boy, so he put it on his shoulder. Then he circled around the pyre, letting out Varuna, who was in the form of water, flow out in a small stream. After circling three times, the boy stopped. At the same time his shoulder's quivered from the burden and dropped the tumbler. The circumambulation was already completed, so it didn't matter. The child's thin arms reached out and received a burning torch from a priest.
The second queen roused herself and hollered. "Little Cactus, do not believe that second mother never loved you!"
The boy looked up. His eyes were rimmed red, his hair was messy and wet. His soft, childish features were in disarray. "I know."