The Emperor's Journey

41. Dagger & Dagger

As the prince was about to respond, the royal intruder chuckled, "In  this palace of Ujjain, that has borne my weight from the time my feet weren't independent, I have never gotten an opportunity to introduce myself." Rajkumar looked at her shocked. The last thing he wanted now was a fight between his devilish sister and his injured wife. "But, I guess, everything has a starting point, I am Rajkumari Ujjaini, the first child of Maharaja Veerbal, the wife of Veer Kshatriya Senapati Inderraj, elder and most favorite sister of your husband and thus your eldest sister in law, Varsha." Till that moment, Varsha was uncaring and just bothered about who was the gorgeous woman bragging into their bed chambers thus. But the long introduction, she received from Rajkumari Ujjaini, left her flustered.

As the brother-sister duo witnessed her hasty actions of trying to fix herself after a deep slumber, getting up, and wincing, the curious nature of the proud princess turned to one that of concern, "Rajkumari.... " she said coming closer, "Be seated, it's fine, you are sick, we will have your introduction later, anyway, I am not the only one curious about you." Her words left the injured girl confused but the prince understood her point. "Varsha, I think you should fix yourself and light the lamp in the pooja room, I and jiji have some work, we will leave now." he said and before he could reply the walked out.

"Here, your dagger. When did you come?" he asked casually, but losing the precious dagger, he earned with much earnest, he felt really bad. Rajkumari Ujjaini had a sly smile on her face as she pulled the shinning dagger out of its cover stared at it. It was not any dagger, it belonged to the ancestors of the royal family. And it's cover could show light even in the darkness, so the dagger in itself was a treasure. Each one sapphire studded in it could fetch lakhs of gold coins, but the wealth didn't entice the royal kids, neither did the absolute versatility of usage the dagger provided, not did it's beauty, but the fact that, the owner of the dagger was considered to be the most patient person did. It was a popular belief that, the one who owns the dagger, was very patient and calm minded just like each precious gem placed in its cover, bit was equally lustrous and capable as the dagger itself.

It was a popular ritual, in the royal household. Each generation of kids, every twenty five years would go through a very strict regime of lifestyle. But that was not the difficult part, the difficult part was they had to do so, without any food. However water was allowed, but for each drop of water consumed by the royal kid, has to be fetched by themselves only and they had to make sure that they had donated the equal amount to someone else prior to their consumption. Though initially, for the first day, the competition was fierce, but within 5 days Rajkumar Vikramaditya and Rajkumari Ujjaini found out that they were the only two competing. The teenaged princess had an advantage of age, while the prince's pro was his almost unbearable determination. The princess gave up on the fifteenth day night as her thirst because unquenchable and she found none of the people she could offer water too, and thus a senior cousin of the King, the previous owner of the dagger, who had taken up the life of mendicant handed over the shining dagger to the Prince with great words of praises. Also, the princess was gifted with an equally beautiful sapphire light providing ring for her Valour, alas, she was least pleased.

Time passed gradually as it usually does and one day, the princess fell in love with a brave hearted Kshatriya man, after a combat with him. But he was just a small kingdom's army commander. The princess faced a lot of objections, but went ahead and married him for her love was greater than anything else. Amongst everything else, the prince was the one that ridiculed Her careless attitude about power and status the most. And thus, a bet was placed that day. Rajkumari challenged her brother, that one day, even he would fall in love and sacrifice a lot for it, and that day she would take away his dagger. He had lost the bet, and she won her dagger.

"We came when you were passing the judgement, I must we all were impressed and we missed you greatly during the trip." he gave her a small smile as they walked into Manik Mahal, the way it lightened up and the way the dagger looked in the palace was mesmerizing. But they didn't notice it much, they straight away, headed to their discussion room. And there, all the members of his gang were resent except Rajkumar Rajendra, the expert in foreign affairs and relations. When he questioned, he got a reply from loner of the palace, "He's been love sick in the arms of the Rajkumari of Kunthal Desh." and that resulted in a roar of laughter from everyone, who knew intact that the man whose heart never settled on a woman, would be so crazed. "I always knew he had a thing deeply for princess Maya. But, I was concerned why, Rajkumari Veena is here? It's not like it's a custom to accompany the younger sister to her in laws house. Plus, I am sure you all heard what happened to my wife, I want your guidance" he said and sat with a loud thud, in his usual place and close his eyes, the fact that his wife was hurt was not fathomable for him, plus the fact that the thing about his and princess Veena's affair being disclosed to his wife, made hi souls shiver. He didn't know why, but he was dreading the moment. But as he sat down, everyone else stood up. The extent to which the Rajkumar had misunderstood things made everyone astounded even in their semi-drunken state. All the influence of alcohol, in their bodies drained. The intelligent, eldest and always the one to take lead, Rajkumar Bhoj spoke in a low voice, "Aditya, Rajendra had not married Princess Maya but Princess Veena." This proved to be a pierced dagger to the prince's current state of worry.

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@jhatka hope you got your answer;), the prince never had an affair with princess maya

Thank you:)