Dhruva Nakshathra - The Game of Alliance ✔

ONE

Mahina, the capital city of Durja

Darkness blanketed two men walking along the coastal. Someone had blinded them with a piece of cloth and had seized their hands with a thick rope. As they struggled to get out of the cover tossed over their head, they were knocked out on the head with something hard.

When they regained their consciousness, they found themselves in a dark room filled with nauseating smell. In the silent room, the only sound they heard was their own breath along with the breaths of more men around them. Some sniffled, some coughed, they were not alone and as the light from the torch burnt brighter, those men were no longer just another man but whom they know. Those they thought to have gone missing, ran away or perhaps got drowned in the sea, were all there in a room with them. Now the two new men had joined the list of disappearance.

"Ram anna!" One of the new men called one of the inmates next to him. "We thought we have lost you. Anni had almost lost her mind learning your disappearance," he cried and held Ram's shackled hands in his. 

"I know, she must have been broken." Ram's own eyes burnt as tears streamed down his bruised face.

Far out of the barred cell, they heard someone tch in irritation. "What a moving reunion of brothers?" quipped a lady whose voice dipped in derisive tone.

"You are going to rot in hell!" spat one of the men, their hands and legs tied in heavy chains and shackles clanked in contact with the ground. Silhouette of the lady covered from head to toe, stood on the other side of the cell door.

"You will never find peace when if you kill all of us!" another man yelled from the group.

In the dim lit, eerie dungeon behind the steel bars, locked were the prisoners of Durja, hundreds and hundreds of them. "Our king will come for us! Your end will come soon!" They screamed unanimously.

"Shut up!" The lady growled, silencing the uproar. She has heard enough. "You think your king have the courage to step into this land and rescue you?" Alli sneered. "Your king is as good as a stone. He never cared for his people neither will he spend his little resources to rescue you, idiots." Alli's derisive laugh echoed around the dungeon.

Her sharp gaze scanned for the man who started it all. Most of the prisoners were curled into a ball hiding behind each other while some brave ones stared back at her. Alli saw rebellions in them, these were the ones who would spoil her plans in the future, she foresees.

Thus, she pointed at those gutsy men whose heads held high. A total of thirteen, they were made to stand in a line. Alli sauntered, scanning them with her vicious gaze and stopped before the first man in line.

Eyes boring into the man's, she whispered, "You have the quality of a leader. I see potential in you but that will do no good to me." She was impressed with the man for his bravery but he who raised his voice against her will have to suffer. Her hand reached for a dagger from her waist belt and lifted it up to admire the glint of the fire on the blade. "How beautiful, isn't it?" She whispered as she traced the line of his jaw with the tip of the cold blade.

"You want to kill me? Do it, you bitch! My king will come no matter what," he fumed and jerked his restrained hands.

Alli let out another devious laugh, "Kill you? That will be too easy of a liberation, isn't it? Killing isn't what I intend to do. I'm going to shut you up while I keep you alive." Her stretched lips shrunk behind the cover; her mischievous gaze burned in hatred.

Gesturing her guards, she ordered, "Hold him and pull his tongue out." Waves of gasp and muttering filled the prison that grew into a protest.

Yet their protest failed to gain mercy neither from the guards nor the lady. They held him tight and their plea fell onto deaf ears. Her sinister smile returned visible through her eyes, "I'm sorry I have to do this but I don't want to hear you anymore. You annoy me." With the haunting smile, she sliced the prisoner's tongue. His scream echoed within the dungeon yet Alli did not seem to be affected by the high pitch scream.

She threw the dagger to one of the guards and snapped her fingers drawing attention of the rest of the guards. "I give you liberty, do whatever with these men. Kill them or mute them, make sure they don't open their mouth against me." Alli wafted her hand to get them to work while she faced the many terrified prisoners in the cell.

"You know what? Your friend is right. Your king should come to rescue you and I won't stop him. In fact, I'm going to make him march with his armies to Durja. BUT. None of you will go back alive." She paused as her foul brain work on a better plot. "Yet death is too easy for your king. He should see his entire clan suffer. I want them to beg to me for mercy! . . . Maybe no..." She thought for a moment.

Too many ways to avenge filled her villainous mind, she couldn't pick one. "Ah, forget about it. Now, listen you filthy morons. Your king, his clan and the land his rules, Kavish will come under my control real soon. Sounds amazing, right?" Alli clapped her hands. "Meanwhile, you have plenty of time, prepare yourselves mentally because all of you including your muted friends will be off to Shoolin. Forever!" She roared.

"The day will never come!" One of the men in line yelled.

A fresh sense of irritation gushed into her. The next moment, his scream filled the cell while heavy metallic smell of the blood infused in the musty air.

"Anyone else has any objection?" she asked with a menacing stare at those sat like statues in the cell. Too fearful to even make a move they remained quiet; eyes casted to the ground.

"Good." She left the dungeon and headed back to the palace.

Alli had impatiently waited for sixteen years to set her plans into action under the advice of one man because of whom she had come this far. With his advice and planning, she had spent ten years of it to gather loyal ruffians, abducted those pitiful people of Kavish and sold them to the neighbouring region for their future advantages. Looking at what they have prepared, she knew they were ready to make the next move but, "Ranganathan will repeat the same, have patience'. But I can't any longer." 

Ranganathan, the man who has his own intention to ruin Kavish had helped her come a long way to see the fall of Kavish. He always had his way to control her but she did not want to be bounded to him any longer. Alli wanted to make her own decision and stay true to it, no matter how good or bad it goes.

"Because I have waited enough and it's time."