Nina shot a venomous glance at Kautilya.
Angad nodded. “Good job. Now we wait for Loka and Laka.”
Kautilya felt the awkwardness increase as they waited. Nina was sulking. The apes were resting against the trunk of a tree and dozing off.
Suddenly birds flew out of the east of the village.
Nina’s eyes widened. “Loka and Laka.”
“I’ll go get them,” Angad said when he was woken up.
“I’ll come too,” Nina and Kautilya said simultaneously.
Pomo was still dozing so they decided it was best for him to stay where he was.
Nina leapt off towards the commotion and Kautilya and Angad followed.
After a while, they reached the location that the two apes had picked to scout the village. They were nowhere to be seen.
“Where have they gone?” Nina asked.
Angad gestured to them to follow him. They leapt a few trees west and reached a point very close to the side walls of the town.
Angad gasped and grabbed Kautilya’s arm tightly. She looked and saw Loka and Laka tied to a tree. Two sweat-drenched soldiers were punching them. Two other soldiers sat next to their horses and watched in amusement.
“We should wait and...” Kautilya began but Nina had already screamed and leapt onto one of the soldiers. Angad followed suit.
Kautilya sat on the branches and wondered what to do next as Nina flung one soldier onto the town wall while Angad beat the other unconscious using his staff.
The remaining soldiers drew their swords and came at the pair but they were no match for Angad. He grabbed one by the arm and used him as a weapon to knock the other one off his feet.
Kautilya slid on her mask, slowly got out of the tree and moved to help Nina unchain the apes. She was having a tough time working out the lock.
“Let me,” Kautilya said and easily dealt with the mechanism.
Suddenly an arrow hit the trunk of the tree, narrowly missing Kautilya. She turned to see a cavalcade of horses with archers on their backs charging towards them.
“Behind the trunk!” Angad screamed and everyone scrambled to cover.
“What do we do?” Loka asked.
Kautilya realised Nina was not behind the tree. She was running towards the charging horsemen.
“Nina, stop!” Kautilya cried.
Nina screamed and charged. Arrows flew on all sides of her but somehow she dodged them all. But Kautilya knew that once Nina was in the middle of the horsemen there was no way she would get out.
Before Kautilya could come up with a plan Nina was already in their midst.
She managed to knock two soldiers off their horses. However, someone threw a chain around her neck and soon she was being strangled. Other chains followed, so tight she could not move.
“Were there more?” a soldier said.
“Must have run off by now,” replied another.
“What do we do with this one?” continued the first. “Do we kill her? She’s a dwarf.”
Kautilya peeked over the trunk. A soldier had pulled up Nina’s head by the hair and was inspecting her face.
“This is a yakshi,” he said. “We need to take her back and put her on display.”
“Get these chains off me and I’ll put you on display,” Nina said.
The soldier slapped Nina across the face. “Shut up.”
Kautilya dropped back to hide behind the trunk. She needed to find a way to distract the horsemen and pull Nina out.
She asked Angad, “Can you secretly get behind the humans?”
Angad nodded.
“Good,” Kautilya said, “creep up behind them. Once you’re ready, signal me with an ape call. As soon as you see the humans are distracted, leap in, grab Nina and run off. Understood?”
“What about you?” Angad asked.
“I’ll be all right,” Kautilya said. “Now go.”
Angad signalled to Loka and Laka and they scrambled up the tree. Kautilya counted down the time and breathed slowly. She chanted some mantras to calm her nerves.
A shrill call broke her trance.
She leapt out from behind the tree. “Soldiers!” she said.
The soldiers turned and readied their weapons. “Here’s another one!” a soldier cried.
“Set the yakshi free,” Kautilya ordered.
“Set her free? Who in the three worlds are you?” he asked.
Kautilya walked into the light.
“She’s wearing a rakshasa mask,” Kautilya heard them murmur. “Is she one of them?”
Kautilya took off her mask. “I am Kautilya Shveta, daughter of the late King Chandragupta Shveta.”
The soldiers gasped.
“Is it really her?” one of them said.
“Yes, I saw her at the swayamvar,” one soldier said. “Let’s capture her. There’s a huge bounty on her head.”
Suddenly there was a scream and Angad slid down a vine to grab Nina. He pulled her up with the chains still wrapped on her throwing her captors off their horses.
The soldiers screamed in shock and frustration.
“Forget them,” a soldier said. “Let’s get the so-called princess.”
The soldiers charged towards Kautilya.
She closed her eyes and awaited her fate – then suddenly she felt her body being pulled up.
“On time, eh, princess?” She heard a familiar voice.
“Ādi!” she gasped. “Good job hiding. I thought I had lost you.”
Ādi tapped his nose. He grabbed her by the waist and leapt away from the horsemen through the forests.
Soon Kautilya was back in safety. Angad quickly led them away from the prison town. After a few hours’ stealthy travel they reached the Rishyamukh hill.
“That was amazing, Kautilya,” Angad said. “The way you saved Nina. You put your own life at risk.” He turned to Nina. “What do you say? Do you want to go back to your old squad?”
Nina, who had been silent all the way back to Rishyamukh, came up to Kautilya.
“Listen to me, princess,” she said. “I don’t care what you did for me today. I did not need your help, so do not think I owe you anything.” With that she stormed off.
Angad watched Nina leave. He shook his head and turned to Kautilya. “I’m sorry. She owes you her life.”
Kautilya shrugged. “I did my best.”
Angad came close to Kautilya and took her hands, “Listen to me. You were Renuka’s friend. If you ever need anything, if you ever want a friend among apes, you can always find me.” With that he gestured to the rest of his squad and walked back into the cave.
“Let’s go,” Ādi said.
“Thanks for watching my back,” Kautilya replied.
“I will always watch your back, princess.” Ādi winked.
Kautilya realised she was blushing. Then she remembered Jay and she shook it off.
She had failed to convince Nina to rejoin the squad, so her search for a second-in-command would go on. The best option would be to continue with Ādi. Whatever she decided on, she would need to do it soon.
***
The squad was sitting in the trees waiting for the next oxcart. Soon one came trundling along with supplies.
Kautilya whistled at Ādi, who was on the other side of the road. He nodded in agreement. Saira was distracted by a butterfly that was fluttering about, until Ādi snapped his fingers next to her ear.
The cart trundled to a point right below the squad and Kautilya nodded to Saira. She leapt in front of the oxcart and Ādi leapt down behind it.
“Hands over your head,” Saira ordered. “Get off the cart and walk to wherever you were looking to go. The cart and the bulls stay with us.”
The hapless driver obeyed meekly and got down. Kautilya nodded to Ādi, who boarded the
cart.
Suddenly there was a scream and a lot of scuffling inside the cart. After some time two soldiers flew out of the cart and Ādi leapt out after them. A dozen more soldiers followed.
“Trap!” Ādi yelled and readied himself to fight.
Kautilya looked around at Saira who was ready to fight too. The three of them could take the soldiers.
Suddenly a trumpet sounded. One of the soldiers had blown a horn. Kautilya felt the ground rumbling.
“Horses!” Saira cried. Suddenly half a dozen horsemen charged at them from both sides of the road.
“What do we do now?” Saira demanded. “We can’t take them all.”
“Need a hand?” a very familiar voice said from the trees. Kautilya and the squad were overjoyed as. Nina leapt down and confronted the soldiers.
“If you mess with my squad,” Nina said, “You mess with me!”
CHAPTER 41
The Next Phase
Kautilya and the squad assembled around a big canvas. Angad and his squad looked on in curiosity.
Kautilya pulled out a brush. “So, what does our army look like right now?”
Nina pulled down Laka who was standing next to her and put him in a headlock. “Kind of like this.”
“Let go of me, dwarf!” Laka struggled to escape.
“Let him go, Nina,” Kautilya said and turned to the rest of the squad.
“What do you mean, what do they look like?” Saira asked.
“As in, how is the army organised,” Kautilya clarified.
“It’s pretty straightforward,” Angad said. “We have fighters from a clan who pledge loyalty to their matriarch, the matriarch pledges loyalty to the chief of the tribe and the tribal chiefs pledge loyalty to the Lord Chief.”
“So,” Kautilya began drawing the structure of the army on the canvas, “we have differently-sized teams trying to fight a common enemy together, and that is not a good idea. My teacher would always tell me the structure of an army should be like an arrow. The shape of the arrow is the structure, the material that makes the arrow is the abilities of the soldiers, the man who wields the arrow is the general and his technique is the strategy. Victory is the target.”
Ādi began to yawn but controlled himself as Kautilya caught his eye.
“So,” she said, “in our case, we need to unify everything: the structure, the strategy and our abilities. Today we start thinking of how we can structure the army. That means we need a good strategy first.”
“Well, what is the strategy?” Nina asked.
“It’s quite simple really,” Kautilya said, “Why are the humans able to defeat us in battle?”
“Horses and weapons,” Nina said. “Their weapons are much better.”
“They are just cruel,” Saira said, “and ruthless and cunning.”
“Well,” Kautilya shrugged, “you are all correct. Their horses are a great advantage. They give them height, mobility and strength. Their weapons are of much higher quality than ours. And the reason they appear ruthless and cunning is because every soldier is trained to behave like a pawn in a game of chess. They operate mechanically: any command that is given to them pervades the entire army and every soldier listens. So they are capable of great ruthlessness because they do not think when they kill. They just obey. And they appear cunning because even the most complex tactic can easily be executed by the general at the helm of a human force.”
Kautilya breathed out. “So now we need to counter each and every one of their advantages with our own strategy. To counter their horses, we need a force of spearmen. To counter their weapons we have to build smithies and workshops. We cannot make weapons of the same quality as theirs but we will counter that with the number of weapons we make. To counter their ruthlessness and cunning, we will have to train up an army with the same ability to respond to commands.”
***
“It’s a very interesting strategy,” The Lord Chief said, “but also very expensive. Where will we get these weapons?”
“We can set up workshops,” Kautilya said. “We can’t get the quality of weapons that the humans have but we can compensate by the sheer numbers we make.”
“And this trained army you’re talking about?”
“We train every ape above a certain age to fight,” Kautilya said. “The apes have a natural advantage over humans in that both women and men fight.”
The Lord Chief turned to Yama. “What is your opinion?”
Yama turned to the Lord Chief. “It’s a good plan. The restructuring of the army is something we definitely need...”
“I think the girl has become overconfident and set off on a flight of fancy,” the Lord Chief said. “She has returned to her homeland, where whole cities are dedicated to the crafting of weapons and families send all their sons to join armies.”
Kautilya began to speak but the Lord Chief raised her hand. “Firstly, if all our apes spend their days training and nights making weapons then who will feed the children and take care of the old?”
Kautilya bowed her head.
“Hey, give her some credit, chief,” Ādi interrupted. “She came up with something. Don’t just shoot down her ideas. I agree with everything she said. Why don’t you work out how it can be done, eh?”
Druma snapped, “Ādi you are far out of line.”
“It’s all right Druma,” the Lord Chief said. “Ādi really has taken a fancy to his human friend.”
Ādi puffed out his chest. “She’s the sharpest person I’ve ever met. I support her completely.”
Lord Chief smiled. She looked at Kautilya. “You already have loyalists, Kautilya. Should I fear for my throne?”
“Maybe.” Ādi shrugged. Saira elbowed him.
Saira clarified. “He’s just joking.”
“Specialisation,” Kautilya said.
“Specialisation?” the Lord Chief asked. Her face contorted in confusion. “What do you mean by specialisation?”
“Right now every ape does every task,” Kautilya said. “The same ape will farm and forage and take care of her children. All families are self-sufficient but the whole system is not very efficient.
“Among humans, it’s not like that. There are clans dedicated to specific tasks. The warrior castes rule and fight, the priestly class teach and worship, and there are castes which trade and castes which farm.”
The Lord Chief grimaced. “Are you suggesting introducing that heinous caste system to my people?”
Kautilya shook her head. “No. I’m just saying let us delegate tasks. Based on the ape’s ability let us assign her or him specific jobs. Instead of ten apes going to forage for ten families let us delegate one ape to forage for ten families. Instead of every ape making their own weapon let us assign the most talented to make weapons for the whole army. It will lead to specialisation and will free up time for the apes dedicated to fighting.”
The Lord Chief looked long and hard at Kautilya. She turned to Yama. “What do you think, warlord?”
“I think it makes sense,” Yama said.
“All right,” the Lord Chief said. “You have my approval to go ahead. What resources do you need?”
Kautilya looked at Saira and Ādi. “I already have one squad, but I need a squad of apes to complete my team.”
“Of course.” The Lord Chief nodded and turned to the court. “Who will help Kautilya set up the army?”
Angad raised his hand.
“Good,” the Lord Chief said. “Angad is very capable.”
Kautilya smiled and nodded. “I’m looking forward to working as a team, Angad.”
“Let’s free my sister,” Angad said.
CHAPTER 42
Building The Army
According to Akrama, the apes were the easiest nation to rule. They were docile and obedient.
But now Kautilya realised
how little she knew about the proud race. The idea that someone would be restricted to only one task was disgusting to the apes. They would not listen, particularly since the idea came from a human.
That was where Angad came into the picture. He was a natural leader. The way he dealt with people reminded Kautilya a lot of Dhanush. The people obeyed him not out of fear but out of love. But there were those who did not love him as much.
“Why should we listen to the human?” Vani said to Angad one day, “It’s the same as being ruled by one.”
A lot of apes hooted in agreement.
“No,” Angad said. “She’s helping us build an army. The army will still be commanded by apes, we will just be better equipped to handle the humans.”
Vani laughed. “We had an army before this runt came along. Why should it be any different now?”
“We both know that our army is not perfect, Vani,” Angad said. “We need to get better to fight the humans. For all their faults they have the best-trained army among the terrestrial races.”
“You sycophant,” Vani said. “If the humans are so great then why don’t we just join them.”
The apes around them cheered.
Angad sighed and hung his head. Vani grinned in satisfaction.
Nina had had enough. “Listen, you idiot,” she said, “these are orders from the Lord Chief and you’d better obey them. Or you will regret it.”
“Well,” Vani said looking around. “I don’t see the Lord Chief anywhere.”
Ādi walked up to her. “I can fix it that you see the Lord Chief all the time. “
“What does that even mean?” Vani said.
“I can show you,” Ādi said, “Want me to?”
Vani looked defiant for a long moment. But after seeing Ādi in battle, she knew she could not take him on. She backed off.
“Thanks,” Angad said.
“Stand up for yourself,” Ādi whispered to Angad. “Unless you respect yourself no one else will.”
Kautilya watched Ādi sit back down. He really had some pearls of wisdom. But when Kautilya turned to the apes and began explaining she could see the resentment building among them.
The Epic of Kautilya : Born To Be King Page 19