Royals

27 - Laghari

They say every hatred is born out of love and every obsession out of loyalty.

Present

Aditya settled his gaze on the fighting men in the training grounds as he stood far, silently, contemplating.

9 Days ago

"The Burma clan leaders finally opened their mouths, sire. They are ready to talk." The informant said.

"Really? Why the sudden change?" Aditya sipped his wine.

"We had to use extreme torture techniques until one of them slipped and it was only natural that the others would follow to save their own skin. We had promised to spare their and the people's lives."

"Hn.. Change their names and identities. Enter their data in the People's Register as orphans. Make sure they won't find each other and aren't found by anyone else either.... ever. Give them and their families refuges and jobs far away. As far as the commoners are concerned, don't uproot them. I'll appoint new leaders to look after the administration over there."

Aditya paused and then asked, "What did they say?"

"They said that they were provoked by the Baluchistan Crown Prince. The northwestern uprising was also initiated by Laghari and the Burma clan were promised gold and means to return to their homelands far east."

"Anything else?" Aditya enquired as his mind reeled back to the time when the clan first came to the northern hindustan kingdoms to seek refuge from the scarcity of resources, an ongoing internal cold war with their native king and social exclusion in their own motherland during Aditya's grandfather's rule. He helped them back then and now they retaliated against him in the name of being imprisoned away from their so called homes.

It surprised him how humans seek war, opportunities to criticize and protest, how they seek to conspire. Maybe it was the struggle to survive and flourish that had made us so conniving and hateful but whatever it was, once you enter this labyrinth, it was impossible to escape, atleast Aditya was sure of it.

"Another thing master.... Their was another man with Laghari who helped in organizing these attacks. They said he always hid his face with a gamchha but I managed to get them to describe some of his features and I think it is....," he paused slightly unsure as what he was about to say was going to have a lot of weight and it was not something that could be said just out of conviction with no consequences if he turned out to be wrong. But it seemed only obvious.

"Say it out loud." Aditya shifted his attention to the informant who just handed a rough sketch to His Majesty to figure out the puzzle himself.

"Are you sure?" He cocked an eyebrow as the informant hesitantly answered, " They said it is the one."

"Very well. You know what to do now."

The informant bowed and was ready to take his leave but stopped in his tracks and gave out one last piece of information that had Aditya in jitters.

"Your Majesty, the spies in the neighboring kingdoms have informed about the local disturbances. "

"What kind of disturbances?"

"People are falling ill. Although it's just minor diarrhea and stomach ache but many seem affected. We are speculating that the rivers might've been contaminated."

"What about the people here? I haven't heard anything about stomach aches here." Aditya was in a fix. This didn't seem as simple as he was being told.

"I'm afraid, there are no such cases here. Atleast til now."

He nodded. "Withdraw all of our spies from all the kingdoms. One by one. No one must know," he said dismissing him.

The informant's sentence had struck him. Atleast til now.

Want to frame Chaulakyas, don't you Laghari? You're not that difficult to figure out Laghari. If I'm not wrong, it's not the rivers but lakes, ponds and wells. Otherwise my people would've been affected, too. I must give it to him, he was too clever. Wanted to expose and paralyze the network of spies I worked years to build. Let's poison everyone around Chaulakyian dynasty and get them accused of the deed. Then wait til the imperial spies are found one by one infiltrating the surrounding kingdoms and only watch his doom on the sidelines as others join hands to destroy Chaulakyas. Aditya laughed almost mad and hysterical.

"Only with the help of this bastard!" He crushed the portrait handed by the informant and threw it in the fireplace.

"Rule number one of any strategy Arjuna...
Don't let too much ride on a single person. " He whispered almost determined and unhumanly.

"Let me teach you how to play this game."

Aditya's mind reeled back to when it started. Never had he dreamt that it would come to this and how a man's fancies destroy his wits, his obsessions marking the beginning of his end.

_________________

A/n
Hola my lovely folks... I finally rewrote the outline and viola!!!!
(Ik ots a short one but I'll improve my skills... promise😘😘🥰)

Have fun reading this one!

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Liz Salvadore