Royal Palace, Chandragarh
"Who is Abhirath here?" A liveried attendant came and enquired in the tent where Mriga and her friends had just settled in.
Abhirath stood up immediately and walked towards the person.
"Your presence alongwith Chiranjeev has been requested by your teacher. Please come with me, immediately," said the person.
With a perplexed look, the boys looked at one another and then left the tent, following the stone faced guy.
"Which teacher?" Mriga murmured to Nirbhay but he shook his head and told her to concentrate on the upcoming contest.
The boys followed the man for about half a kilometre before reaching one end of the royal garden. They were standing at the entrance of the queen's personal stable which boasted of some of the best pure-bred horses known in the world.
Both boys had a similar temperament and no words were needed between them to understand each other's thoughts. Moreover, they had been working in close proximity for close to a year now. Even though this was the royal palace and everything was closely guarded, the two young men were already on high alert and were actively taking note of their surroundings.
"Wait here," with that, the guy turned around and left from there.
Before either of them could say something, Prithvi's voice beckoned them from inside the darkened hall. Apart from the occasional neighing of the horses, the place was quiet. No staff seemed to be in sight, either.
"Guruji…" they bowed to him and waited for him to speak up, not displaying any nervousness or curiosity, despite the strangeness of the situation.
Prithvi was satisfied seeing their countenance and felt assured that he had selected the right people for this task.
"There are two sets of uniforms kept here. After changing your clothes, you will be go to the main entrance gate. You have to be on a lookout for an old woman who should be reaching the gate in the next half hour or so. She will be carrying no identification papers with her and would engage in an argument with the guard at the palace entrance. You have to take her away from there on the pretext of questioning her and bring her back to this place. This pass will allow you to move across the palace unhindered," he paused as he fished out two shiny, black metal plates from his pocket.
The boys took one each and waited for him to continue.
"Starting from that moment, you are under her command. Her word is my word and you must follow it without hesitation or delay. This matter… this matter is really grave and I am putting a heavy weight on your shoulders. If you have any doubt or you think that you are not ready, speak now," Prithvi's voice was cold and unyielding.
Abhirath swallowed back the issue of being a part of Mriga's team and his presence for the same. His instinct was telling him that this task was more important at the moment. Before they could finish greeting him a farewell, Prithvi had vanished into the back end of the dark hall, his navy blue kurta merging with the surroundings.
After an hour
Mriga stepped out from the tent with a nervous step. The three contestants had been summoned to appear in front of the crowd and will be given their task now. There was no news of Abhirath and Chiranjeev, making her feel uneasy but Yash had done a good job of keeping her mind focussed through varied skill games, testing her quick thinking and more in the past sixty minutes.
As soon as she left, Nirbhay looked at Vandit and gestured him to step out on the side and talk.
But before he could say anything, Vandit spoke up, "We will continue to stick to the plan. No going to look for the two boys, no losing focus… this is too important for Mriga and we need to keep our attention here and now."
Nirbhay grinned at his unflinching tone. He had thought that he would have to convince the guy for exactly this, since he was really close to Abhirath and the tension had been visible on his face from the time those two went away.
But he didn't say any of that and simply patted Vandit's shoulder, "Ok, I will listen to whatever you say."
Vindhya, Mriga and Vaishali offered their greetings to the queen and the other people seated on the podium. The three girls looked composed and confident, making the crowd form a positive impression of all of them.
Rani Samyukta was sitting on the highest platform, owing to her status. She was flanked on the left side by her entire group of ministers, ranging from education to strategy to finance. On her right side, was the important most foreign dignitary, Prince Mithilesh who had been enjoying the hospitality of Chandragarh for more than a fortnight now.
Mriga spotted Prithvi amongst a group of people who were standing really close to the steps leading up to the podium. As if feeling her gaze, Prithvi's eyes landed on Mriga's face but the expressions on his face didn't change. She looked away, suppressing a sigh!
Guruji was cold as always. Was she expecting a thumbs-up from him and that too, publicly???
"Attention contestants. I will be announcing the task now. This is a simulation exercise where each of you is supposed to be a ruler of a queendom. On your left side, there are three big vessels kept, which contain the placards naming various resources. Out of these, you are allowed to choose any three. The audience sitting behind you has been divided into three parts and they will be acting as your country men and women for this task. You have two hours to establish the policies and structure of your queendom. The distinguished panel will be assessing you on three parameters – internal structure, defence strategies and foreign policies. You are welcome to enlist the support from your team for this task," the person finished with his instructions and asked the three contestants if they had any questions.