✓ Fearless - Book 1 of The Rajkumari Trilogy

Chapter 5 + Bonus Scene!

Chapter 5 and a bonus scene, just for you readers!
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It was the middle of the night.

And Dipankar lay awake in bed.

He tugged away the blanket to reduce the warmth, feeling restless. He noticed the place beside him empty. And the door was left ajar, too, letting a faint beam of light peek into his bedroom. He got off his bed and walked towards the source of light. The silhouette of the familiar figure stood beside a lantern, leaning against the rails of the balcony.

"Roopvalli?"

She jumped in surprise, turning towards him, her alarmed expression softening. "Oh, it's you, husband. You surprised me back there." And she turned back to the view, facing away from him.

"You couldn't sleep too?" he questioned her, his hand automatically coming to rest onto her shoulder. She shook her head, then slowly turned towards him. "What's bothering you?"

"I... I can't stop thinking about what you said about Revati."

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "You have to drag her into every one of our conversations, don't you?"

He ignored her quip. "She knows that marrying Ballaraja would be advantageous. Uniting both kingdoms would yield so much wealth and power. If you are saying that she faked the incident that day, why would she?"

"Hm... I don't know," she admitted, cracking her knuckles.

"I don't fathom how-"

"Oh, but I can. If she was doing that, she must've had a motive in mind that would benefit her." She gasped as the idea hit her. 

"What is it, wife?"

"I get it, now. If she marries him, she'll have to learn to share both the riches and power with his other wives as the third queen. Being second is bad enough. But if she gets out of the marriage and gets closer to her father, she can slide her way to the throne of Vaibhavgarh and be the sole ruler of it! She is much more cunning and cruel than I thought her to be."

"Don't you think it's a bit of a stretch? You make her seem so much more... monstrous. But, all that you said fits so perfectly..." he trailed off. Roopvalli smiled up at him, a two-sided smile. To him a placating one, but to her, one of success.

"Let us sleep on it, husband. We might be able to make sense of it later."

* * *

It was a little past three in the morning when she had taken a bath.

She wanted to prove herself to Suruchi that she was capable of handling the tasks, well and before she arrived. Then, her teacher would be impressed. And she would finally start training! She hoped this 'brilliant' plan of hers would work. Revati, once ready, had packed her sewing materials in her bag and was headed to the castle main doors where flowers would be delivered for the castle pooja every day.

I better carry the flowers from here instead of going all the way down to the valley. Suruchi won't even suspect it. Revati assumed gleefully, as she gathered bunches of flowers. 

When she reached the training grounds on the hill, she saw that all of the pots were filled with the rainwater that rained at dawn. She smiled to herself.

But the big pot wasn't completely filled. So she poured the water that she had brought when coming up to fill it. All she had to do was offer the flowers to Goddess Kali, keep the water-filled vessels back, and run around the ground.