"I will not pressurise or coerce her. But if she brings up the topic herself, I promise to guide her to the best of my abilities," Bela said with finality in her tone.
Prithvi looked as if he wanted to say more but he refrained. He knew that Charulata could be extremely obstinate when she chose to be.
"Ah, has Mrignayani mentioned that she has been assigned to go to Eastern zilla in a couple of weeks for her internship?" he asked her on an afterthought.
Bela looked at him in surprise but then informed him that they had hardly got any free time to catch up with each other's lives since yesterday.
"I was wondering that while we wait for Mriga to make up her mind about the contest, we can at least have her train with Shaurya for the next few days. If nothing else, it will help her perform better in her internship at least. After all, she has to live up to her mother's reputation. I will tell someone to send her detailed report to you so that you could identify and work upon her areas of improvement," he said it all in a rush, not giving her a chance to rebut.
Bela stared at him with the eyebrow raised but he simply ignored it, munching away on the savoury snack.
"Living in the gurukul has made you extremely thick skinned," she finally told him.
He grinned at her caustic words. If she hadn't refused him out rightly, it meant that she was going to accord his wishes.
Capital
"How dare he?"
It was a rare sight when Rani Samyukta lost her cool but when she did, it usually didn't bode well for the opponent. Indrani stood fuming silently as well. They had just received a missive from the Saptsindhu king, Raja Amrendra through his royal courier.
He had sent a proposal for marriage for the next queen of Chandragarh on behalf of his son, Mahendra. Though it hadn't been mentioned in the missive, but Rani Samyukta knew that he had done so with the intention of taking over the reins of the Queendom. For a century now, the surrounding kingdoms had been greedily eyeing the matriarchal set up.
Belonging to the strong patriarchal way of living, they had tried various means to try and suppress Chandragarh and its divergent philosophy of ruling. But due to the strong defense set-up and smart economic policies, the country had survived various pitfalls.
Amongst all the nations vying for control, Saptsindhu led from the front and this was one more attempt in the same vein. The message had been delivered in the royal court and the queen had held back her reaction in front of her ministers.
But now, with just her trusted friend in the room, she vented her anger without holding back. Wearing a cotton kurta and salwar, her hair was tied up in a bun and hands had been wrapped many times over with thick bandages. She started hitting the punching bag which was hung in one corner of the spacious room. She kept hitting at the solid mass till the time she couldn't lift her arms anymore. Exhausted, she slumped down on the ground and stared unfocussed in the thin air.
Indrani silently gestured to the maids standing by, to start unwrapping the Queen's hands. After taking the bowl with cold water, she asked everyone to leave the room. Indrani picked both hands of Rani Samyukta and immersed them in the freezing water. Even though it must have given her a painful jolt, there was no expression of discomfort on the Queen's face.
After a few minutes, she said softly, "We cannot afford to go wrong in our selection of the next queen. Vultures have started to grow in numbers and strength and we must guard our motherland with our full might. One wrong step and we may find ourselves pushed back to the dark ages."
Indrani tut-tutted and replied in a gentle tone, "Have some faith in your intelligence and foresight which has helped the country develop leaps and bounds in the past two decades. Even if we have to take the contestants apart right down to their basic fibre, we will do so. I just hope that the girls are ready for the AgniPariksha.*"
Rani Samyulta nodded her head and got up from the floor. She took the towel offered and wiped the sweat off her face. She felt better after pouring her frustration out. One of the golden rules which her predecessor had taught her, was to never make an important decision in anger. In fact, the earlier queen used to immerse herself in a lake everytime she was furious and only stepped out when her body was frozen and nearly incapable of thinking. Time taken to warm the numb limbs was enough for her to assess the situation rationally. As per her claim, some of her smartest decisions came after these lake dunking.
"Send a missive to the ministers to take a day and propose their thoughts on how to respond to Raja Amrendra's message. Set the meeting with them in my private chambers for tomorrow at midnight," she instructed Indrani.
Her aide groaned silently on behalf of the poor ministers who would lose another night due to their workaholic queen. But she didn't dare make an appeal to Rani Samyukta at this moment.
"Have we received any word from Prithvi yet?" she asked.
"It is too early to hear back from him. As per my information, he should be conducting the meeting with the ex-spy tonight. We should hear from him by tomorrow evening, hopefully," Indrani replied briskly.
*Agnipariksha – Trial by fire