Vajra An Elven Tale

Chapter 23 Part I

Chapter 23 part A

Uncharted waters

A crisp sunlight greeted the Anjani capital that morning. It was mid spring, and the carefully landscaped personal garden surrounding Suvanna's summer pallor was in full bloom. However, the princess regarded the beauty around her with her icy cold blue gaze as she sipped delicately from the teacup she was offered by a shivering maid. There was no appreciation in her gaze, her features arranged into a calculative silence as she waited surrounded by her ladies in waiting who often kept a fearful watch over her from their peripheral view.

Suvanna ignored the way they kept a safe distance from her, as if, in more human terms, she was a ticking off time bomb. On some occasions she amused herself by scowling at the timid well-bred girls, they would dart off faster than arrows with startled yelps, leaving whatever they brought scattered on the ground. But that morning, her attentions were diverted towards a more pressing matter that she did not care the slightest about how the hand of the well practiced tea serving lady trembled as she poured the second or third cup of the orange blossom tea that Suvanna preferred. She took the offered cup with pressed lips and held it to her mouth; eyes narrowed a little as she waited for her guest.

Suvanna was not fond of kept waiting, although she had spent her first year as a witchcraft novice devoted to clearing her inner eye via meditation, she hated the hours spent in anticipation. At the present however she was in no place to complain. Her mind went to a distant past in human realms where her caretaker, an old man with smiling gray eyes had taught her to play chess on a snowy evening. If she let her memory, it would remind her of the pleasant warmth in front of the fireplace filled with cackling pinewood, the dancing shadows on the wooden chessboard. What she was thinking about was the queening of a pawn, an instance where a measly piece on the board got engorged in power and position. Suvanna couldn't help but feel her father was trying to do the same thing, albeit in a more covert manner. The new pawn he had acquired for his collection was fitting in every sense, a perfect disguise, diversion for the ministers whom she toiled to turn favorable towards her. There was no denying of her claim to the throne either. If they set aside the prejudice that came hand in hand with the Anjani pride, it was true that Princess Arya's claim to the throne was higher than her father's. It would automatically place Kalyaani before Suvanna in the line to throne.

A better player is the one who knew how to use the opponent's pawn's against him and Suvanna had no doubt that she was a better player than most at the court. However, lady Kalyaani was still uncharted waters in regard of plotting. Suvanna believed in knowing her enemies better than her friends. It was just the thing she was doing at that moment, tossing a bait towards her enemy in hopes of luring it into her net of observations. Lady Kalyaani was an interesting woman, a half human, brought up by the Nagas and most intriguingly involved in a web of conflicts with the Vajra brothers and their queen mother. Suvanna was yet undecided where Kalyaani's affections lay in terms of those two princes. Who was really her reason of returning to the kingdom her mother had forsaken a long before she was born? Was it Lakshya, her friend on the human realms, or was it Sanskar, the man who chased her for the better part of his life?

There was no way of finding out, if not from the horse's mouth.

"Lady Kalyaani!" Her lips twisted into an icy faint smile as Suvanna rose from her seat, extending an arm to her estranged cousin, as she approached the bottom of the stairs leading up to the summer pallor.

Swara didn't fail to notice the predatory look that flashed across Suvanna's gaze as she hugged her. For a brief moment she wondered how well she had mastered the art of concealing her emotions. Sure, there was hatred, venomous and bubbling but it was hardly reflected in her warm embrace or the dazzling smile. Inhaling secretly and willing herself to return that empty smile, Swara felt the tingling rush of adrenaline as she took the seat Suvanna offered. Suvanna's pensive gaze never left her as she settled herself, a lady in waiting rushing to serve a pleasant smelling brew. Megha's warnings from the evening were still ringing in her mind as she accepted the cup, the teachings on various venoms and their fragrances tickling her brain. Megha was strictly against the idea of accepting the invitation that arrived in the hand of a terrified looking girl.