D – Day
D – Day
Later that night
The king was in an especially good mood since the prospect of acquiring a flourishing province without any bloodshed loomed right in front of him. Before departing, Rani Damyanti had looked as if she was bracing for a funeral.
To top it, that stupid c*** Devyani had sent her most skilled girls as a means of delayed apology to him, tonight. As long as she remembered that she was a courtesan, he would let her business flourish as usual. It was good that she had realized it herself. It would have been a shame to destroy her and her business.
Life was good!!
After three hours
It was all hazy. Despite trying enough times, Chandranarayan's eyes couldn't see anything clearly. Something seemed to have clotted and settled on his eye lashes. He tried to move his hand to rub it off but realized that he couldn't, not just his hand, he couldn't move at all. His body seemed to have frozen. Blinking hard to make sense of what was happening, he shut one eye and focused on opening the other one wider.
"What is this? Where am I? Is this a dream?" he mumbled to himself.
"Ah! Finally, you woke up. I was getting bored sitting here all by myself," Devyani's tinkling laughter reached his ears.
"What is this place? How did I get here? What are you doing here?" he asked her incoherently.
He didn't know whether he was sitting or lying down. His neck seemed to be fixed in one place and he couldn't move it in any direction.
"What? Don't tell me that you don't recognize your own torture chamber. This is where the traitors are brought and questioned. Have you never been here before? Never mind, it's not too late now," she said in a musical voice.
The chamber was poorly lit and stank of something rotten, enough for Chandranarayan to feel the urge to puke. Not only could he not move his body, he could not even feel it. He was numb all over. Even his tongue felt swollen and sluggish.
He was beginning to lose his patience or so he told himself. He tried really hard to ignore the slithering unease which was crawling on his back at the moment.
In an imperious voice, he said, "get the royal physician here without wasting a second."
Devyani had been standing just out of his peripheral vision. Now she moved to stand directly in front of him.
"I am afraid the physician can't help you. In fact, no one can help you now," she tut-tutted softly.
"Wh-what do you mean? You bi***, how dare you ignore the royal command! I will have you hanged for this," by now, he had realised that something was not right.
What the f*** was going on?
She looked at his confused face and couldn't help but take a jibe, "don't use your puny sized brain so much. It may burst due to the unprecedented pressure. As your loyal subject, it is my duty to help you understand the current situation."
She started pacing in front of him in an unhurried manner.
"Umm, I am thinking as to what should I tell you first? Ok, so the good news is that your father in-law is hale and hearty and the fortune teller has predicted that he is destined to live way beyond the normal age of sixty. As a result, the queen is on her way back to the kingdom. Now, for the bad news… unfortunately, her entourage was ambushed few hours ago and none of the royal guards survived. Also, there is some mystical illness prevailing all over the palace tonight. It seems that the soldiers in and around the palace are fatally sick. Maybe they were poisoned… who knows. I am but a mere courtesan. I don't know any better," her voice held sarcasm.
At his panicked expressions, she walked upto him and patted his head in a soothing manner.
"Don't get so stressed. These are minor issues. What you need to worry about is your own self. I have been meaning to ask you this in the past few minutes but it seemed impolite on my part. Argh... I can't hold it in any longer. Forgive my curiosity, but how are you feeling?" she asked him in feigned concern.
Chandranarayan was sure that he was hallucinating. Was she suggesting that he had been taken as a prisoner in his own palace? There was no way that this sl** could have managed to subdue his army and reduce him to such a state. No, he didn't believe her.
Suddenly, his open eye became hazy again. There was something dripping on it. He tried to angle his neck upwards and could manage to move it by a few degrees only.
"Oh God! Is that ... is that blood dripping from above? Whose blood is it?" he started thrashing wildly in fear now.
"I am sorry. These girls have become so willful now a days. Despite my strong protest, they didn't listen to me and insisted on hanging that above your head. Give me a moment and I will bring it down," she said, and wiped the blood off his eyes.
Arching up, she pulled the needle out which had been used as a pincushion to hold the thing in place. She let the needle remain in it and held it in her hand, while walking towards a brightly burning lantern.
"Here, would you like to see it? Though I am not sure if you would recognise it in its current state. I told the girls to remove it carefully from your body. After all, it is a man's most prized possession, 'at least in his own eyes'. But they simply didn't pay heed to me. In their excitement, they just chopped it off. Then one of them took a needle to pierce through it and hung it above your head," saying so, she came towards him, with the brightly lit lantern.
Telling himself not to look at it, he couldn't help himself and looked at the object in her hand. A piercing scream filled the room. Devyani held a shrivelled, bloodied manhood in her palm.
Suddenly, he was glad that he couldn't move his neck or feel anything in his body.
"Is that… what is it?" his voice came out like that of a scared child.
Devyani laughed, throwing her head back.
"You don't recognise your own d***?" she asked in malicious surprise.