‘I have come,’ she whispered.
‘To conquer?’
‘To surrender,’ she said, flowing into my arms, a midnight dream come alive. Wrapped in her spangled embrace, I gave into the tumult of her, rising and falling with waves of desire that swept away everything between us – disappointment, suspicion and fear. All that was left was a sweet rapture and the spent afterglow of glorious love. Afterwards we lay in each other’s arms, not wanting to break the spell. I could feel her heart beat next to mine and ran my fingers down her sweat-slicked back. She arched back, allowing me to kiss her still swollen nipples and sighed.
‘You are the kadal kol,’ I whispered. ‘Come to devour and destroy.’
She smiled, catching a piece of the moon on her face. ‘But I offer only deliverance,’ she said.
‘Deliverance from what?’ I asked.
‘From the burden of your legacy,’ she replied. ‘You are not the person you become when you wear your crown,’ she said. ‘When you do, I hardly know you.’
‘You like me better without my name?’ I asked.
‘This is the real you,’ she said. ‘The throne makes you forget that sometimes.’
‘Maybe you don’t know me that well, princess.’
She kissed my eyelids shut. ‘Maybe you don’t know yourself.’
I gave in to the sensation of the light brush of her lips all over my face – forehead, temples, bridge of the nose, cleft of the chin, corners of the mouth and finally the lips. ‘And you,’ I asked, breathless. ‘Do you know yourself?’
‘You want me to tell you what this is we have between us?’ she asked.
‘I can’t make sense of it,’ I said.
‘Neither can I,’ she replied quietly.
I smiled. ‘Tell me, why does your brother not forbid this intimacy between us? How did you get away today? A lone woman, in the middle of the night, walking out of a city under siege?’
‘My brother wants to make me his secret weapon,’ she said, sadly.
‘An assassination. Now I understand.’
‘No, you don’t,’ she said. ‘I am loyal to my brother and my city but I will not endorse adharma.’
‘You’re a fool then,’ I chuckled. ‘You can use any means, fair or foul, in war.’
She nuzzled up to me, tracing an invisible pattern on my chest. And then she said, ‘Majesty, why are you here?’
I held her close, burying my face in her hair. The neat braid was now a dishevelled tangled mess, its garland of mogra a scattered heap of crushed petals on the bed.
‘I promised you I’d come to Kanchi,’ I said. ‘I never forget my promises.’
‘To learn Silambam?’ she asked. ‘Really? Then why starve my people and hound my city?’
‘Are you here to make love to me or talk war?’
She laughed. ‘Both. If you don’t answer, I can always kill you.’
‘Ask away then,’ I said. ‘I want to die a thousand times in your arms.’
‘Even if my brother and cousin do agree to surrender, you cannot hold this land,’ she said. ‘It’s too far from Magadh.’
‘What makes you think I want to annex any of the kingdoms I have conquered on this digvijay?’
‘Then why fight? Why blight the land with your sword?’
‘All I am asking for is an atma nivedan, a sincere surrender and a small tax. I can’t think of too many conquerors who demand so little.’
‘But you are the greatest warrior in all of Jamvudeep. Why do you need this constant validation of your greatness?’
‘It’s a matter of strategy,’ I said.
‘Sounds like ego to me,’ she replied, quietly.
‘That’s rich coming from you! Your half-brother’s ego has brought starvation and plague to his people. Your city is dying because he can’t make up his mind.’
She moved away and lifted herself on her elbows. ‘I am sorry, Majesty,’ she said softly. ‘I am in no position to lecture you on anything. Sometimes my tongue tends to walk away with reason.’
I softened. ‘We all have our reasons to do what we do, princess,’ I said. ‘Your ego is as hungry for moral victory as mine is for battle scars.’
‘More battle scars,’ she said, running her fingers down the axe and spear marks on my chest. And then, as if an idea just struck her, she looked into my eyes. ‘You say you have nothing against our people. Then why cause them so much suffering? Why not settle this with a single face-to-face fight? My half-brother is infirm and Skanda is but a child. I can fight on their behalf. What do you say, Majesty? Are you up to the challenge?’
The idea intrigued me and for a moment I was tempted to test myself against her acrobatic war dance once more. But then I remembered Harisena’s arched brow and all that was at stake. ‘This is war, not an exhibition,’ I said. ‘Tell your brother to surrender or watch his people die.’
I was expecting an assassination attempt. Instead, Kanchi sent me a wedding proposal. Regent Vishnugopa came bearing rich silks and silver salvers piled high with rubies, emeralds and pearls. Their priest came with holy ash and an exquisite sandalwood idol of Chakrapani Vishnu. The rest of the court filed in deferentially behind them, bearing flowers (mostly pink lotus’s I noticed), sweetmeats, coconuts and a pitcher full of rice custard payasam. Their town crier walked in last, reading out the proposal to us. ‘His Highness Skanda Varman, sovereign ruler of Kanchi and beloved of the gods, wishes to welcome His Majesty to his kingdom and embrace him with respect and reverence. We look up to His Majesty and wish to use this opportunity of having him at our doorstep to turn our love for him into kinship. We would like to offer Princess Angai’s hand in marriage to His Majesty and bind our two lands in eternal bonds of friendship and love. We will await His Majesty’s decision on this offer and hope that he will allow us to make amends for whatever misunderstandings which may have cropped up between us.’
The unexpected announcement and the extravagant gifts left Harisena and me flabbergasted. Angai had, as usual, visited me the night before but she didn’t say a word about this. Either Vishnugopa had kept his plans a secret from his sister or, what seemed more likely, Angai was playing his game for him. The timing of the proposal of course was not lost on either Harisena or me. We were more than six weeks into the siege and Kanchi had finally run out of options. The pox continued to claim lives even though not as many as earlier, and the city had run out of grain. Outside, the paddy crop stood golden and ready for harvest. My men, many of whom were of farmer stock, happily helped themselves to the rice while a hungry Kanchi watched. The people of the city were getting increasingly angry and the temples and guilds were growing impatient. Kanchi couldn’t afford to hold out any more.
The final straw that broke the camel’s back was news from Palakka that King Ugrasena was ready for talks. Like Kanchi, grain had run out in Palakka and its people were getting restive. Not as rich as Kanchi, Palakka’s reserves were much smaller and King Ugrasena realized that unless he opened diplomatic channels, the siege could last forever. With his cousin breaking away, Vishnugopa finally stopped wringing his hands and decided to make a kinsman out of the enemy at his door.
That evening, Harisena walked into my enclosure, looking like thunder. ‘The Kanchi officials are waiting for your response, sire,’ he said softly. ‘What shall I tell them?’
‘You know perfectly well what to tell them,’ I replied.
That old familiar arched brow matched the disapproval in the eyes. ‘Do I, Majesty?’ said Harisena.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Your intimacy with Angai hasn’t gone unnoticed. It can’t, in a battle camp, no matter how secret the rendezvous. I can understand your desire for female company but she is the enemy. Why are you encouraging her if you don’t want this to go any further?’
I turned around and faced my best friend. ‘Don’t beat around the bush. If you disapprove, tell me why. Kanchi isn’t our enemy. Today we are starving them, tomorrow, when they bend to our will, we will
ally with them. So what’s your point?’
Harisena looked away. And then he said, ‘You can’t marry her, Majesty. She’s not of the blood. This isn’t a marriage proposal. It is an insult.’
‘What do you mean? She is Vishnugopa’s half-sister, is she not?’
‘Yes, but her mother was an atavic concubine unlike Vishnugopa’s mother who was the queen,’ said Harisena. ‘She’s not a pure-blood princess.’
‘You know I have never been obsessed with bloodlines,’ I said, irritated by Harisena’s peculiar logic. ‘Datta herself is not royal born. The life you’re born into isn’t important. The life you make for yourself is. I believe in my sword arm and my destiny. And nothing else matters.’
I saw those long, tapering fingers press the throbbing veins at his temples. Harisena remained quiet for a while. And then he said, softly, almost under his breath. ‘Think of Datta.’
‘I am.’
‘Are you, sire?’ he asked, turning his gaze towards me, as if looking for clues to the conundrum that was my relationship with Angai. I didn’t answer because I didn’t know what to say. The truth was, the wedding proposal completely threw me off balance. I knew in my heart that I still loved Datta. She was a part of me, the one constant in my ever-changing world. With her, I never needed to explain myself. She understood without being told, the storms that raged inside me. She was my calm, my refuge from those storms.
Angai was the storm.
Our connection was like a fire, one stoke and it blazed into a conflagration. Every time we touched, we were seared by its heat, scorched by its all-consuming force. I couldn’t deny it but I had no idea how to acknowledge it either. Angai was an elemental force that was devouring me with its savage strength. I burned for her every moment that we were together. I burned more every moment we were not.
And yet, when I closed my eyes, I saw a tear-stained smile and a jumble of curls that refused to be tamed into a braid. I had abandoned Datta and our child once. I couldn’t do it again. I could fool everyone that this marriage was a diplomatic match. But Datta would know. And it would break her heart.
‘Tell the Kanchi delegation that I must, regretfully, decline the offer of marriage to Princess Angai,’ I told Harisena. ‘And give them an ultimatum. If they don’t surrender in the next two days, we go to war.’
14
Love and War
‘I AM AFRAID IT’S goodbye, Majesty. Since you turned down our marriage proposal, my brother has forbidden me to meet you in private. He says he cannot allow his sister to whore herself to the enemy.’ Angai sat on the edge of the bed, her eyes downcast. Gone was the fiery, feisty woman who had raced me to the ocean’s edge and blinded me with her passion. She looked defeated, her shoulders slumped, her face twisted away from me.
I turned her face towards me and kissed her full, wide mouth. ‘I know what that proposal was. So do you. Why do you want us to play games with each other?’ I asked.
‘What I feel for you is no game,’ she said simply.
‘Do you really want to marry me?’
‘I am tempted to say yes,’ she said.
‘If you were less than who you are, you would, princess,’ I said.
She nodded, sadly. ‘If you were less than who you are, I wouldn’t bother.’
I closed my eyes. ‘Datta,’ I said. ‘With anyone else, she’d understand… take it as a diplomatic decision. But with you…’
Angai nodded. Then she said, ‘For you, it is Datta. For me, it is my people. You cannot let her down because for you she will always come first. I cannot let my city down because for me Kanchi will always come first. You may be a glorious enemy but you are still the enemy.’
I looked away. ‘My mistake,’ I said. ‘I forgot who you are. You never did.’
She remained quiet for a long time, as if weighing the words in her head. And then she said, ‘I am not proud of it, you know. The way things turned out. When we met in Mathura, I never thought it would come to this. I enjoyed baiting you. Showing you there’s still a lot you needed to learn. Challenging that cocksure veneer, that smug confidence in your own destiny. But then you came here. And my brother wanted me to use our old connection in the hopes of softening you up. He didn’t expect our intimacy, but he didn’t forbid it either. As long as it was a tactical weapon in his head, he didn’t mind his sister sleeping with the enemy. Now that you’ve turned him down, he wants me to be a virtuous woman once more.’
I shrugged. ‘I don’t like him,’ I said. ‘I don’t like to use someone else to fight my battles for me.’
Angai smiled. ‘Greed for glory. It makes one believe the end always justifies the means. He has it too, just as you do.’
I frowned.
‘Men make the biggest mistakes thinking it will buy them a footnote in the future,’ she said. ‘It rarely does.’
‘The future is important,’ I said. ‘And there’s nothing you cannot achieve if you believe in destiny and daring.’
Angai looked up. ‘The bards may be singing about your digvijay right now but will the future you are fighting for remember you? Look around you, Majesty, scattered all over this land are writings carved into the rockface hundreds of years ago. They survived the implacable march of time. But the man who wanted to be remembered forever is slowly receding into the mists of memory.’
‘Ashok Priyadarshi,’ I said.
‘Nothing lasts forever and there’s no mistress more fickle than glory,’ she replied.
‘Says the one who knows a thing or two about being fickle,’ I replied, rather bitterly.
Angai put her head in my lap and closed her eyes. ‘My feelings have never been fickle. If they were, I would be on my way back to Pataliputra with you,’ she said. ‘But I am and always will be Angai of Kanchi. I cannot wish away the death and suffering you’ve caused my city. I cannot forget and I will not forgive.’
I bent down and kissed her forehead, taking in that smell of mogra and sandalwood that would forever remind me of her. ‘You’ll get your chance to avenge your people,’ I said. ‘The next time we meet, it will be on the battlefield.’
‘If we come face to face, I promise not to kill you.’ She smiled. ‘I don’t want people to say I killed the man who refused my hand.’
I knelt down and buried my face in her yakshi breasts, warm and throbbing with a life force as elemental as it was exhilarating. They rose and fell like the waves, drowning me in their promise.
‘Come,’ I whispered. ‘Set me alight. For one last time, let’s smoulder and glow, let’s flicker and flare. Reduce to ashes everything that lies between us. Angai, my fierce flame, come and engulf me. Let us burn.’
It was our last night together. She slipped away the next morning, leaving behind only the faint fragrance of stale flowers and sandalwood on the bed. I rubbed my face in that scent, remembering the taste of our love on my body. The fire had gone out. I felt cold.
Harisena woke me up with the news we were waiting for.
‘Ugrasena has surrendered, sire,’ he said, looking exultant for the first time in weeks. ‘Bhasma has sent word that the siege is over. They are working out the terms of the treaty as we speak. This will break Vishnugopa if nothing else does.’
He saw the look on my face and stopped short. ‘I am sorry,’ he said. ‘It is good news, is it not? I rushed in to tell you because I thought you would want to know.’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It is good news. Let’s prepare for battle, Harisena. Tomorrow morning, we storm Kanchi. Tell the men – we give no quarters. We take no prisoners. We will raze this citadel of arrogance to the ground. We will dance on its ruins. We will show Vishnugopa what it means to cross swords with the greatest force in the world. We have shown him enough patience. Now, let’s show him what our impatience looks like.’
A slow smile spread across Harisena’s face. ‘Jai Garuda,’ he said.
Harisena had a simple plan for Kanchi. Our long siege had given us the opportunity to study the terrain much better tha
n any of our earlier campaigns, so we left very little to chance this time around. Besides, with our southern allies helping us with men, animals and most importantly, firepower, we had no reason to ration our arrows or sling bolts.
‘They will expect us to attack the gates but we will confound them and attack from every side,’ said Harisena. ‘We have enough ammunition. We will position our catapults all around the wall except the side facing the river. Then we will blitz the city into submission.’
I smiled. ‘We will have our boats manning the river gate so if they try to escape from there, our snipers can pick them out, nice and clean.’
‘Exactly,’ said Harisena. ‘They will be fighting on empty stomachs. And they will steer clear of the eastern ramparts where the plague-ridden are buried and, more frequently now I am told, simply left to die.’
‘Then that wall will be the easiest to breach,’ I said.
‘But the pox?’ asked Harisena.
‘We will use our elephant corps and cavalry to storm the wall. Keep the foot soldiers away from that front. And ask the men to cover their noses and not touch any infected bodies,’ I said. ‘Just pummel everything – dead or alive – underfoot.’
Harisena nodded. ‘So the plan is we bombard them from all sides, plug their river escape and breach the eastern wall,’ he said.
‘Yes, that should work,’ I replied.
Harisena nodded but then hesitated. I caught the demur and asked, ‘What is it? You’ve never hesitated to ask questions before.’
Harisena looked embarrassed. ‘You’ll meet Princess Angai on the battlefield tomorrow, Majesty,’ he said. ‘Our scouts brought us news that she intends to lead the charge along with their senapatis.’
‘I know,’ I said.
Harisena looked at me quizzically. ‘And…’ he trailed off.
‘On the battlefield, she’s the enemy,’ I said simply.
‘It’s going to be a bloody encounter,’ said Harisena. ‘The Kanchi troopers have taken a blood oath, I am told. They will fight till death tomorrow.’
‘At least someone is showing some courage even if their precious regent is not,’ I said.
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