Treacherous Souls

XXI. "When did you see the throne room?"

Third Person

The Rajput family huddled around the bed in the former Raja Amar Kumar's room, where they had gently placed the slightly-turned yellow parchment, whispering all sorts of things to each other until Dhruv yelled at them to stop.

"Bro, I am so tired of these papers. How can these papers survive centuries? They should have been burnt or swept away. I swear you have a poor group of servants." Aashika grumbled but immediately stopped when she faced Mishka's glare.

"I just remembered, Kushalgarh was in Rajasthan. Shouldn't your Empire be in Rajasthan as well?" Aastha asked, being ever so smart in history.

"Yes, but after the betrayal, Raja Amar Kumar couldn't handle living in the same space, so he planned to shift his Empire to Karol Bagh, which was renamed Delhi after Independence." Dhruv answered.

"Is it possible to shift a whole Empire? Was it really that easy? And, what about these papers and the throne room-" Before Aashika could continue, Manasvi hurriedly clamped down her mouth, restraining her from blurting out their secrets.

Manasvi smiled sheepishly when Dhruv and Manav's eyes narrowed at her slip up, while Mishka and Aastha looked at each other with wide eyes. Kabir and Arjun, on the other hand, remained silent spectators, just staring at the view before them with bored eyes and slumped figures.

"When did you see the throne room?" Dhruv asked, folding his arms across his chest, starting a direct correspondence with his wife who refused to look at him.

"We found that letter in the throne room." She mumbled quietly.

"Where?" It didn't take a genius to figure out Dhruv was furious.

"Uh- there was a hidden compartment behind Rani Padmaja's painting. We got a picture and a letter from there." Manasvi answered, finally removing her hand from Aashika's mouth.

"And, it wasn't locked?" Manav's eyes narrowed at his wife, who looked more uncomfortable now than ever before.

"It was, of course. We broke the lock." Aastha nervously giggled, and fidgeted with her fingers, showcasing her nervousness.

"Stop lying." Dhruv ordered.

"We- why don't we just take a look at this paper before discussing all this?" Mishka carefully steered the topic away, and thankfully everyone seemed to fall for her trick, except Dhruv.

He narrowed his eyes and glared at her, before picking up the yellow piece of paper.

Aashika's breath hitched, and her heart dropped to her stomach as she watched Dhruv open the paper and read its contents. Her eyes remained stuck on his face, trying to decipher his emotions, but came out empty handed.

"This is another love letter. I swear, I didn't know my ancestors were this romantic." Dhruv sighed in exasperation and amusement.

"Show me." Mishka held out her hand, and Dhruv passed out the paper to her.

She skimmed through the letter with her eyes, and noticed that some letters were in a bold font. It wasn't that noticeable, but Mishka had quite a sharp-eye.

"Manasvi, type out the letters I tell you." She ordered, and began reciting the letters, confusing everyone with her peculiar behaviour.

"Mrityu." Manasvi uttered, stopping every movement inside the room.

The room was suddenly enveloped in complete, utter silence. Nobody knew what this meant. Nobody could figure out why the former King would talk about death to his wife in their chamber, and that too in such a secretive way. Was the King insinuating that his life was at stake? Or was he telling his wife that he was going to die soon? According to Dhruv, the former situation was more suitable.