Early Morning, Himprayag
Bela had offered her farewell greetings to the military personnel and the princess the previous night. She wanted to leave as soon as she could to be able to hand over the scroll to Prithvi. She knew that the stamped scroll would come back with the official attendants of the Chandragarh court tone presented officially to the royal court of Himprayag. But she wanted to accompany them. She was somehow uneasy about both Ahilya and Rudradev.
Bela stood inside Shaurya's room at the lodge where he was carefully folding the clothes on which they had painstakingly drawn, into a tight roll. This cloth roll will be pushed through small and hollow bamboo sticks which he had prepared in advance. Though it would add to the weight that Bela was carrying, they wanted to make sure that in case of rain or any other condition, the records don't get spoiled on the way back with Bela.
"You cannot forget even for a second that you are the official representative of Chandragarh henceforth. You can't afford to take a single misstep in my absence. The repercussions of the previous one, are still being felt by us. Otherwise, before I come back, you may find yourself inducted into Princess Ahilya's personal harem. And that will be the best-case scenario," she told him grimly.
A horrified look spread across Shaurya's face, making him go pale.
"I promise to be on guard at all times, Guruji. I am sorry to have caused trouble earlier on," he said solemnly.
Bela nodded her head, looking at his sincerity. She knew that the triggering of the events hadn't been solely his fault. No one could have predicted the princess's reaction to him. But, as spies, they needed to be as low-key as possible in their field of work. Brashly calling someone's attention to self could only cause harm, like how it had in this case. But it was too late to cry over the spilled milk.
After bidding him farewell, Bela left from there. She hadn't dared to send any messages to Raghu during this time. One, she had wanted the communication between her and Chandragarh to be bare minimum and more importantly, under the worst circumstances, she didn't want her background to be exposed as she was sure that their communication must be getting monitored by Himprayag spy unit.
She sighed thinking of the silly man who must be quietly distraught at being all alone at home. Then she wondered about how her daughter must be doing in the QIT. Her face broke into a smile at the thought of being able to see Mriga before the night fell. Himprayag to Chandragarh was about 8-10 hours journey, depending upon the speed of the horses and the stops which the carriages made. With the official scroll weighing heavily on her body, Bela didn't want to go on a horseback and preferred going in a carriage. She found someone who was willing to travel with her as the sole passenger and travel non-stop except for the necessary break for the horses, in exchange for a larger sum of money.
Rudradev was strolling through the corridor where the portraits of his family were hung, when his man brought the report of Bela leaving the place. He smiled to himself and looked up at the drawing of his ancestor, Abhaidev on the wall. With a serene expression on his face, no one could make out what was going through his head.
Rudradev motioned his informant to leave and stared at his forefather, "Almost there!"
Eastern zilla
Ramanujam had frozen at the rustling sound, thinking of someone already standing so close to him. But within seconds, he realized that it wasn't possible. He would have sensed the person's presence in this much time. That meant that there was something else here. As soon as that thought crystalized in his head, a cold scaly body slithered over his feet. Had his mind not processed the possibility of an animal's presence around him seconds ago, he would have reacted with a jerk, causing the snake to probably coil around and sting him.
Thankfully, he managed to stand unmoved and exhaled only after he could hear no more sounds. Cautiously moving in a direction opposite to where the snake had travelled towards, Ramanujam used his hands as a guide to search for the small diyas and burning sticks, which were kept in all corners of the room. Since it was pitch black here, he didn't want to be caught off-guard again with a dangerous reptile present.
Once the room was partially lit, Ramanujam's first task was to prepare a cryptic message for Prithvi. He wasn't sure about when would he be able to send it but he kept it ready. Next, he went and checked each and every listening device in the room to see if he could hear anything. Alas, everything was quiet at this hour.
Suddenly, he saw the uninvited guest poking its head out of the place where it had probably settled in. Ramanujam thought for a moment and then went to look for a bag or a thick piece of cloth. Twenty five minutes later, he was covered in sweat but held a squirming body in his hand. Looking at the snake's slit like eyes, he realized that he had had a narrow escape sometime back. This was a venomous black snake which was obvious from the shape of his eyes.
Holding it, Ramanujam quietly opened the trapdoor which led into an opening from the basement to the building above it. He threw the snake on the ground and didn't linger there for even a second before shutting the flap securely back in place. The top of the trapdoor was shaped in the form of a tile on the ground and it was impossible to distinguish it from the rest of them unless one knew its location from before.