The Village Girl

Chapter Seven - [Seetha]

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When Aaryan told me how horribly his discussion with Aaru went, I felt an understandable level of anxiety. Most of my anxiety stemmed from how unusual all of this was. It was so unusual for Aaru to be so... angry. He had always been so tame and calm.

Which was exactly why I was so upset.

Aaryan returned to the party with a straight face, making everyone think that it was all okay. Of course, I knew him better than most and I could see from his face that it had not gone well. Nevertheless, I didn't want to ruin Anbu's special day, so I pretended too.

According to everyone, including Anbu, Aaru had returned to his room to relax and clear his head, but then when Aaryan had a moment alone with me, he told me what really happened. We had sent General Sivakasi out to find him and make sure he was okay, but that was all we could do for now.

And from that moment on, time could not go any slower even if it tried.

When the celebrations were finally over, Aaryan, the children and I returned to our home in silence. I had a lot to say, but I did not want to get worked up in front of the children. However, it seemed that both Maya and Aathavan were worried themselves, with Aathavan deep in thought and Maya staring off at nothing.

When we got home, the first thing I did was go to the guards and ask them if Aaru had come home.

To my dismay, they said no.

I turned to Aaryan and looked at him as he let out a breath. "We have to go look for him."

Aaryan didn't argue with that. Instead, he turned and looked at the guards. "I'm assuming you haven't heard from General Sivakasi?"

After the men said no, I was surprised by Aathavan rushing down the stairs, dressed in his riding clothes. "I'll go look for him now," he said.

I was about to nod, but saw Maya rush down the stairs after him, her hair knotted up into a ponytail and already changed into trousers and a blouse. She was still wearing nearly all of her jewelry, but how she managed to get out of her sari so quickly, I would never know. "I'm going too."

"No," I said to her.

The girl scoffed at me. "Why?" she asked. "He is just as much my brother as he is his," she said, gesturing at Aathavan. "I'm going."

To be honest, I didn't have the energy to argue with her, and though I knew that me letting her leave in trousers was going to the talk of the century in the palace tomorrow, I decided not to care. "Fine. Go."

Within moments, the two got on horses and rode off to search for their youngest brother.

Aaryan had ordered the guards to go look for him as well, and turned to me. He stroked his short beard, an expression of worry on his face, before sighing. "I have a very bad feeling," he said to me, honestly.

I did too, but to be honest, I was hoping that Aaryan would feel otherwise and therefore make me feel better.

"Aarun has somehow managed to get into the head of our son from such a far distance."

"Do you think that Karthik has been manipulating him for longer than we think?"

"Of course he has," Aaryan responded. "I can't imagine he'd be so enraged from just one discussion. He isn't like that."