Cittaja || Indian Historical Romance

4.

The music being sung was hitting the drunk senses of the men celebrating the victorious return of Rajkumar Abhijit, the second prince of King Shatrujit. The younger brother of Shakrajit.
The celebration was presented by Shakra himself.

While most of the men were off with the prostitutes, Shakra sat listening to music.
"Anna, all this crazy setting you put together for me but you seem far from interested in entertaining yourself." Abhijit questioned.

"The rumours are true, Anna." The third son of the King, Ameyajit answered.

The King of Kalika Empire had 7 sons and two daughters. The eldest one was Shakrajit, the son of Patrani Amritakumari. The second son was Abhijit, the son of Rani Anvesha. The third one was Ameyajit, son of Rani Saatvika. Abhinavjit, and Rudrajit from two other queens, Rani Sukanya and Rani Soundarya respectively. Vikramjit and Kamaljit were born to two concubines. The youngest, Rudrajit was born only 5 years ago.

The two daughters were Aparajita, the daughter of Rani Anvesha, and Medhajita, the daughter of another queen.

While, almost all of them were half siblings to each other, they were tight knit group. All the brothers had given their complete loyalty to Shakrajit. None of them desired to take the throne. It was common knowledge that no one could be more capable than Rajkumar Shakrajit.

Rajkumari Aparajita was engaged to the son of one of the chieftains who ruled under the Kalika Empire as a vassal.
"Is that the rumour about Anna actually having a lover?" Abhijit asked.

Shakra laughed and then sighed. "I wouldn't be hovering around you little brats if she was my lover."

"Anna, a serious question though. How come you can charm several women from our Empire but still not charm away the younger one from Krishneri Kingdom?" Ameyajit asked.

"You can just go ahead and marry her then. Who would turn you down? We're after all an extremely powerful empire." Abhijit encouraged.

"We could form an alliance with Krishneri but the only thing King Gokul is more interested in is marrying off Princess Yuvika to Anna than the other one."

"You can technically take them both. Who is to object?"

"I'm not interested in the older one so it's just a futile attempt to deal with her. Not to mention she irritates me." Shakra answered.

"Good choice considering the fact that I had heard in whispers that the two Princesses don't really gel together." Aparajita commented softly. "You don't want a woman not gelling well with your lover. As far as I know, Queen Raashi doesn't treat the girl all too fair."

"At this point, I doubt Anna even thinks of any other girl." Medhajita pointed.

"What are you doing here? This is for adults." Shakra asked his 15-year-old sister.

"Yes and it is considered adult enough. Also, I wanted to have a short escape from the stuffy Anand Bhavan, so I sneaked into this celebration behind Akka." She shrugged her shoulders.

"I've heard that Maharaja is also looking for matches for you. His most considered option is Rajkumar Mahendra." Aparajita told her.

"Ugh not him. He's too haughty for my liking." Medhajita complained.

"I'm not really sure but little birds in your room have to chirp back to me that my youngest sister does have a certain disposition towards a certain close associate of mine." Shakra commented.

"Who the hell is he?" Ameya asked, suddenly the protective brother.

"Stop being a huffing bear and sit down. It's fine. If she does like someone then what's wrong? Anna isn't highly against it so surely he has considered if the person was even worthy of Medha." Aparajita shushed her elder brother. He glared at her for a moment but then gave up.