Warrior Princess; Her Quest to the throne

Chandragarh's main income was generated from the exports which they sent across to various if not all neighbouring countries. This was due to the initial network which had been established by Abhaidev and Devyani's combined efforts to keep a small country like theirs, safe and economically thriving, all those years ago.     

And as Devyani had wished for, the brothels in the current regime were run exactly as per the norms laid by her almost hundred years ago. The rules were stringently followed, both in terms of hygiene and safety.     

As a norm, the head of the brothel community worked in close tandem with the head of the spy network of that zilla. In Central zilla, Prithvi communicated with the brothel chief mainly through Shaurya, who could go in and out of those establishments easily, dressed as a ruffian.     

In the past few weeks, there were constant reports coming in of various sorts of destruction and pilferage of the goods which had been ready to be shipped from the Western zilla port. This damage was not only causing monetary loss but also loss of face for the merchants and the province. Since these 'accidents' were happening too frequently for them to be coincidences, Prithvi had received the request from the 'Suraksha Chakra'* head of the Western zilla. They hadn't been able to identify the problem at their end.     

Shaurya's assignment had been to find out if there was a conspiracy underfoot, nationally or internationally or was it a local matter pertaining to that zilla. During the past three weeks, he had spent his nights looking for leads and nuggets of information at his usual haunts. Unknowingly, Mriga had accompanied him on this mission, acting as his lackey and providing him a suitable cover - two young men out for a fun evening!     

"Who is it," Prithvi asked him.     

"Apparently, the head of the merchants' association in the Western zilla had formed a nexus with a few merchants of Saptsindhu, where they were skimming off the profits and selling inflated goods to the people of Saptsindhu. One of Chandragarh's merchants who travelled frequently through the same business route, found out about it and brought this up in front of the local council in Western zilla. The matter was investigated and the merchant association head was removed from his post and his assets were confiscated," Shaurya narrated.     

"So, he decided to get back at the merchants through this method," Prithvi surmised.     

"Where is he, now?" he asked Shaurya.     

With a wicked smile, his favourite disciple replied, "I guess the wine which he drank tonight was too intoxicating for him. He is asleep in the chamber of one of the courtesans in my favourite brothel."     

Prithvi started pacing as was his custom, when he was thinking. His wooden cane was right next to the table where he had been playing chess with Mriga, sometime back.     

"Why did he decide to come to Central zilla after doing all this? Does he have an accomplice here?" he mused.     

"I couldn't find that out. Maybe the police authorities can question him about it when they catch hold of him. By the way, how would you want me to pass on the information to the police chief?" he asked, with a twinkle in his eye.     

Prithvi looked at him sternly and said, "don't you dare send a pigeon with a message like the last time. I had a tough time pacifying the pigeon handlers as to why they shouldn't give up information about us when the police had come calling at their door, cluelessly. Can you not be subtle about these things? Don't go looking for trouble. You are no longer the mischievous rookie. You are the leader who is soon going to have few dedicated charges under your command. it's time to stop thinking about pulling pranks and grow up."     

Shaurya shrugged his shoulders and said, "then I will have an informant make some money by sending him an anonymous tip. I owe him from another time. As for being a leader, I think I am happy playing a temporary one till the time they are under training. Otherwise, as you know, I prefer working alone."     

"One can't always work alone. Maybe you should try picking one from the next batch of candidates and train someone as per your method of operating. Working with such a person won't be that tough, then," Prithvi suggested.     

Though Prithvi was Shaurya's supervisor and way more experienced, he didn't like to shove things down other people's throats. He believed that having faith in his subordinates' abilities and judgements, made them better performers.     

Shaurya nodded his head noncommittally and got up to pour himself a glass of Tulsi* water from the urn kept on a wooden stool next to the wall.     

"Why was Mrignayani here at this hour, though? Doesn't the training happen in the morning?" he asked curiously.     

Prithvi raised an eyebrow and asked archly, "are you the only one allowed to employ non-conventional methods while training a high potential trainee?"     

Shaurya nearly choked on the water.     

Noticing his reaction, Prithvi continued, "what are you so surprised for? Did you seriously think that I wouldn't get to know that you strayed from the module and took that underage novice to the places ABSOLUTELY unsuitable for her age and experience. I mean I should be feeling thankful that you didn't take her to the brothel! I don't think there were any other vices left which she wasn't exposed to, in her three weeks of tutelage under you."     

Shaurya recovered after the initial surprise and kept his face impassive under his teacher's stinging verbal whiplash. It was better to just receive the chastising in a single dose rather than getting it piecemeal.     

Tulsi – Holy Basil, has a lot of medicinal properties.