Devika - A journey unbound by time

40: Akash's Courage

The second wife of General Surya was smirking happily. She had wanted to get rid of Akash for years and now a chance had presented itself. She will definitely grasp it well and use the incident of theft to get rid of Akash.

Akash was General Surya's son from the first wife. Although General Surya hated his first wife, he had no intention to denounce Akash from the heir position. Hence, even after being the disfavored son, Akash still stood to inherit all the property of General Surya.

However, now there was a theft in the General's mansion and Akash was the only person missing from the scene when everyone else came running. The second wife started dreaming about General Surya throwing Akash out of the mansion and their lives. She was so giddy and happy in her mind that she was barely able to keep the pretense of worry. One of the servants dragged Akash in front of General Surya and pushed him to the middle of the group.

"Father, what's the matter?" Akash asked calmly.

"Where were you just now? Why didn't you come when there was such a commotion near the study?" Surya asked Akash in a cold detached voice. General Surya had seen fair amount of battles and was intimidating when he wanted to be. Add on to it the fact that Akash was not his favourite child and Akash's mother was his hated person, his intimidation increased by several folds.

Akash was feeling very scared of the intimidating persona of his Father and his legs wanted to shake very badly but he remembered that his mother's safety depended on whether or not his act was convincing today. He straightened himself and replied as calmly as he could, "Father, I was getting ready for my lesson with General Abhay in the morning. You know that his lessons start very early in the morning and if I am late I would be punished by him. Also my head is feeling very heavy as if I have drunk huge amount of alcohol. Everything feels so weird. I am not even sure if I am entirely awake..." he trailed off staring in distance.

"So you are saying you don't know anything about the theft?" Surya asked him.

"Was there a theft in our house? What did the thieves steal? Where did they steal from? Did we catch them?" Akash fored of questions one after other. Trying his best to look confused, disoriented and worried at the same time.

General Surya saw Akash wasn't in right frame of mind and removed him from the list of suspects.

"Don't lie to your Father? Akash... You are the first born son of General's household. How could you steal from your Father? Does it seem appropriate behaviour for someone of your status?" the second wife of General Surya said in a scolding tone. She had seen General Surya relax his demeanor towards Alash which meant that he thought Akash wasn't on the suspect list of General. If General Surya ruled out Akash then it would mean to that he would start looking at other family members in suspicion.

"Second Mother, what are you talking about? Why would I steal anything from Father? I am the first born, legitimate son of Father. Everything that belongs to Father will one day be mine. So please tell me why would I steal anything?" Akash protested calmly.

"General!" a shout was heard suddenly. Another of the servant cane running to General Surya and said, "General! The slut... I mean... your first wife is missing from her prison cell. Please come quickly."

"What? What did you say? Where did Kavita go? How can she escape?" General Surya roared loudly.

Forgetting everything, even the state of hos undress and disregarding everyone around him, General Surya ran to the dungeon prison. Almost everyone ran after General Surya as they were afraid of his anger and wanted to make sure that he wasn't stimulated any more than necessary. Akash too accompanied everyone downstairs. He knew that he had to keep up appearances.

Seeing no one in the cell but an unconscious steward General Surya lost his temper. Roughly, he kicked the steward awake and glared at him ferociously.

"What are you doing sleeping here? Where is the slut? Where is she?" General Surya roared angrily.

"Master, forgive me. I do not know. Last night I came to check on that woman but someone hit me on the head and she must have escaped with that man." The steward pleaded for mercy while kneeling on the floor and begging.

General Surya knew that everyone in the household took turns in raping his first wife, Kavita. He thought that they would be smart enough to take precautions to not let her escape at least. When he realised that Kavita had escaped, it was like someone slapped him on the face by showing that he couldn't even keep his wife in the house. "That slut... How dare she run away with an unknown man? She is my property. How dare she?" General Surya hot the wall of the dungeon in anger.

"Lord Husband..." the second wife called shakily, "Husband, I am sure that Akash was responsible for the theft last night. He must have helped that slut escape as well, after all she is his mother and he must have felt pity for her. The absence of that slut definitely is a proof that Akash was involved in the theft last night." she said pushing all the blame on Akash. Her words were so convincing that even she herself half believed them.

General Surya's eyes were red in anger. He turned towards Akash and dealt a slap on Akash's face. Akash fell to the floor and he held his cheek due to pain.

"Father... Please believe me.. I... I didn't." Akash whimpered.

"You bastard... You thief... How dare you? Where have you hidden it? Where is my money? Where is that slut?" General Surya yelled out loud. He then kicked Akash's stomach.

"Father! You can check me and my room. You have placed gueards in front of my room. You can ask them of they had seen me go out last night at all. Please believe me. This event must be a coincidence. Perhaps the thieves took away Mother for their pleasure." Akash said wheezing from the vicious kick.

"Why would they kidnap that slut? If they wanted they could have taken one of my many concubines. Any single one of them is better looking than the slut. Akash... You are just providing excuses but your tricks won't work with me" Surya said coldly.

"But Father, think about it. Mother was the best candidate the thieves can stral. After all, if mother was kidnapped by them no one would look for her. But if one of your other concubines gets kidnapped, you might go after them. How would the thieves come to know which one of them os your favourite? So they stole away the prisoner without knowing she is your legal first wife." Akash tried to explain.

"But what about our headaches?" the second wife asked, "We all are suffering from headache, which means that we were drugged. That means we must have ingested a drug from one of the food or drinks and that can only be done by a person who is inside the house." she said wanting to turn everyone's attention to Akash and his so called crime.

"What about drugging through the medium of air? There are a few drugs which can be burned and their smoke can make anyone in a certain distance feel sleepy or even be poisoned." Akash said, "It can even be done from outside the house."

"Go search the premises. See if you can find any evidence of such drug being used." General Surya ordered a few man servants.

Soon a person came back to report that there were scorch marks outside the windows of the mansion.

General Surya turned towards the men who were supposed to be guarding Akash's room last night and aske them, "Did Akash came out of his room last night?"

The two guards looked at each other. They were goofing off last night and were not on their post. The two guards were placed to ensure that Akash didn't cause problems to the rest of the household when he is at home. Basically their presence turned Akash's room into a priosn cell. They didn't knew if Akash had indeed left the room at all. However they knew that they cannot tell General Surya the truth or he might kill them off to punish them and if they lie and say that Akash came out, then they would be suspected of being his accomplies and even more severely punished. They knew that they would have to lie and say that Akash didn't leave the room at all. So they just shook their head negatively and bowed their heads.

"How can this be? It must be him. Are you sure?"the second wife asked harshly, forgetting her soft persona that she maintained in front of Surya.

"Yes Madam. We are sure." the servants replied.

"Father, please believe me. Why don't you check the rooms of everyone present? Maybe you will get a clue." Akash said softly suggesting.