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A year had passed since Yatee's encounter with the Dacoits. Soon after that, they both were coronated by the Royal Priest as the official King and Queen of their Kingdom. As they had decided, they renamed their Kingdom as Ajinkyapur - the invincible land. Their life was very different after that day. Every day, new problems arose. Sometimes they spent days and nights on the problems of the citizens. It was accepted by them as a responsibility of the throne.
But all of this changed six months ago when their neighbouring kingdom's King, Sultan Katalkhan decided to siege their Kingdom. Even though their Kingdom was small than that of Katalkhan's , they were leading the war. For first few weeks, Chandrashekhar administered the war but then the situation worsened. Then he decided to take the reins of the situation in his hands. And since then, he lived there, along with other soldiers, Ramchandra and Sripad.
Here, at the Fort, Yatee undertook the task of having peace in rest of the kingdom. She handled the dual role of being the ruler and being a family head at the same time.
There were many sleepless nights and restless days in their lives. At the warzone, they fought till the last ray of the day and started back with first ray of light. At the Fort, the day started before the dawn. Yatee administered the court and the kingdom to ensure harmony and peace, Srikanta undertook the charge of the Fort management after Ramchandra. Mohini was in-charge of food management for the refugees and the Fort. Lakshmi and Kumudini helped both of them in their work. Their day never ended. Sometimes, both Srikanta and Mohini had to work for entire night in sending food to the refugee camp and the battlefield so as to avoid the enemy's invasion. Then Yatee took care of their kids, Shreyansh and Kirti. Shreyansh was a year old now but Mohini's and Sripad's daughter Kirti was seven months old. She needed constant attention. But Yatee was used to her and they spent many nights together. Both the kids were used to sleep with her.

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Today was such a night. There was suddenly shortage for food at the battlefield. They needed instant supply of food for the soldiers. Srikanta and Mohini worked since evening to send the food reserves. The kids rested in Yatee's room. Yatee was ensuring safe transport of food. Narayan was going to accompany the food loaded carts upto the battlefield.

Soon the carts were dispatched from the Fortress. But they needed to send food reserves to the refugee camp, too. But Mohini could sense the tiredness in the eyes of Yatee.

Even though she remained strong and tough for the kingdom, the inner Yatee was a soft and fragile lady. Every night she prayed to the Almighty to recieve a better news the next day. To any third person, she would be a ruthless Queen of their land but her family knew, she was equally loving and caring lady. Her heart broke at the sight of pain but she never showed it. As her family knew her inner self, so did Chandrashekhar. Every fortnight he sent a short letter to her. It would be about anything, the battle, the soldiers, their fun or about himself, but he reported to her. She would wait eagerly for his letter and would send him the same.

Tonight a letter arrived from him. Narayan came back from the battlefield with four letters. One as the report of the battle for the court, other for Mohini as the report of food reserves, one for Matoshri from Ramchandra and one for the Queen.

Yatee quickly opened the letter. It was a short one. He had wrote only few words for her...

'Dear Yatee,
We all are good here. The war is under control. Hope we will meet soon.
Yours,
Chandrashekhar.'

She held the letter close to her heart. Mohini noticed that she needs some rest and her own space now.

"Yatee, my dear, have some rest. We will take care of everything now." Mohini said as she sensed her tiredness.

Yatee : Rise of an EmpressWhere stories live. Discover now