THE DARK FATED KANYA

CHAPTER 11

Yudhisthir's POV (Continued...):

Two days had passed. There was still no improvement in Chanda's state. It took a great deal of self – control, to leave her side and go around, carrying out my duties as a king. After all, a king's duties had to be my first priority always. My father had named me Yudhisthir – the one who is steady/calm even in a war. But the state of my beloved child had destroyed all that calmness inside me. I never took vows as such, like my younger brothers, but this time I truly felt like breaking out of all my bonds and just killing that vile person, who had dared to harm my daughter. I would have dared to cross any limits for this one thing.

But alas! I was again left in despair. I need to be calm and composed, I kept repeating this to myself. The entire family needed me. Nakul and Sahadev had already blown off their minds in finding a remedy to break this state of hers. Behen Subhadra would just keep sitting beside her, tears flowing through her eyes profusely. All the works of the palace had thus fallen on Panchali alone, but still she didn't complain. She was the only one who had been able to maintain her sanity in this situation. Maybe... maybe because she was not that attached to my Chanda... I don't know... I just can't understand their relation with each other...

Arjun rarely spoke. He looked like a living corpse. Bheem too had lost his liveliness and cheery attitude. He just put on a fake demeanour for the sake of the kids. Even Uttara – our only daughter – in – law – had gone silent and kept to herself. I must say, that it had been Chanda's constant efforts that had brought Uttara out of her shell. The shell that she had enveloped herself into, after Abhimanyu's death. On Chanda's insistence and pestering, she had once again started taking singing and dancing tutorials from Arjun, along with Chandrika. Initially there had been a lot of gossips about it in the palace as well as the city, but Chandrika had firmly told Uttara to ignore them all and continue to live her life in the way she wanted. I had felt so proud of her.

It was a relief that Mata had accompanied Badi Maa and Tatshree to Sindhu to participate in my nephew's – Behen Dusshala's son's wedding. She would have gone hysterical, looking at Chanda. She was very much over – protective about Chanda and Vrishketu... Because of her guilt, maybe...

It was night time. I had forcefully made Nakul and Sahadev to go and get some sleep. Panchali had already force – fed us all. She had been doing this since the past two days. After that, she literally pulled Subhadra with her so that she would rest as well. Bheem was with Vrishketu, Uttara and Parikshit, making the children sleep. That left me and Arjun in Chanda's kaksh. I wanted to send Arjun as well, but I knew that was impossible. So I just let him be and sat beside Chanda's head and placed my head on the headrest. Arjun was gently caressing Chanda's hair, while starring into nothingness.

I didn't even realize when I fell asleep. I guess the two days turmoil and exhaustion finally got over me. It was when my head slipped from the headrest, that I woke up from my slumber. I rubbed my eyes, trying to get rid of the sleep. But as soon as, I turned to look at Chanda, I nearly had a cardiac arrest. SHE WAS NOT ON THE BED!!

I looked at Arjun to find that even he had fallen asleep. I shook him a bit and he woke up with a start. Even he was anxious to find Chanda missing. We got up and began looking around. The candles had blown off long ago. The only light was the moonlight dripping from the balcony. I turned to look near the diwan and the sight literally made my body go numb and cold. Chandrika was standing near the table there and had the knife from the fruit basket in her hand. She was staring at it intently. It didn't require knowledge of Veds to contemplate what she was thinking. My heart was hammering inside the rib cage.

"Arjun," I whispered, my voice as low as possible, but loud enough for him to hear. He looked at me and I gestured him towards Chanda. He looked at her and gulped, his eyes wide with fear. Both of us took slow and cautious steps towards her. As we reached near her, Arjun swiftly snatched the knife from her hand and threw it away. Chandrika was startled and began starring at us with wide, blank eyes. As soon as recognition settled in her mind, she hugged Arjun as tightly as possible. She was trembling badly... so much that she was not even able to cry out. It felt like eternity as we stood in the same position – Arjun trying to calm her in his hug and me looking at them.