Warrior Hearts

Resigned Fate

Although I'm well aware that no one - not Rohit, or any the guards for that matter - will have the courage to pursue me into the palace walls, I refuse to slow down as my feet carry me over the threshold of the entrance. Nandini. At the moment she's the only thought in my head; the only emotion that my heart is pumping through me. Not even the barest sliver of fear has anything on her. Perhaps that's why even as my gaze lands on the ebony smoke screen that has polluted the stairway - thus obstructing my path - I don't allow my steps to falter.

Tugging the edges of my coat tighter around my frame, in an attempt to create a barrier between the smoke and my body, I launch myself on a hasty ascent across the marble staircase. By now every visible surface on the marble below my feet has been singed with soot, making it impossible to determine the colour it once bore.

Nandini is somewhere on the upstairs landing, that I know for sure, judging from the source of her scream. Once again, my heart constricts at the mere thought of her being stranded in the middle of this dangerous circumstance. If only I'd have come inside before, and checked for myself, instead of wholly relying on the servant boy's affirmation. My suspicions about Nandini's whereabouts are confirmed as I near the second floor's landing only to hear a volley of incoherent, muddled shouts.

"Nandini!" I yell, my eyes being forced into narrow slits by the smoke that has now coiled itself around me, tightening its hold around my body like a python that's suffocating me, and forcing the very life out of my lungs. "N - " Bending over, I break out into a convulsive coughing fit. However, I refuse to so much as allow myself a moment's worth of rest. Tucking my face into the crook of my elbow, I force my feet to keep moving in the direction of the voices.

"We will need more men!"

"It'll be too late by the time someone brings them!" I send out a silent prayer to the gods above for these voices that have now become my guides; without them I'd be a blind man groping around in vain through this wall of smoke.

"There's no other way to get her out!" With coughs still racking my entire body, I near the voices enough to make out the faint silhouettes of a few men in front of me.

"What's..." Wheezing, I inhale a desperate lungful of air; my lungs craving for some respite from their polluted torment. "What's happening?" I manage to force out, the insides of my throat beginning to burn with a force that's powerful enough to bring tears to my eyes.

"Y-Your Highness is in there, in her room." One of the men informs me, his voice muffled, almost as if he's wearing some kind of a cloth around his mouth. "But the entrance is blocked, and we don't have enough - " A coughing fit seizes him, leaving his thought in mid-sentence.

"What about the emergency tunnel?" I ask, relieved to have gotten the words out in one go. The panic in my own voice is enough to alarm me.

"W-What tunnel, Your Highness?" The second man asks me.

"For fuck's sake," I hiss, shouldering past one of the men a little more harshly than I should. The entire palace staff will be packing their bags, and departing from here by tomorrow.

"Don't go any further, Your Highness!" A man shouts out a warning to me. Ignoring him, I reach out towards my left, my fingers searching for the concrete feel of the wall beside me. A momentary spurt of relief shoots through me as the tips of my fingers make contact with the wallpaper on the wall. However, this emotion is quick to be snubbed out by the pain that shoots through the lower half of my body as my hip slams into something on my left; an object that I can only assume is a sideboard. A sharp cry of pain escapes my lips, but I refuse to waver for even a moment. I cannot afford even the merest lapse of a second in this situation. God knows the extent of the damage in Nandini's chambers. The thought sends a chill running down my spine.