CHAPTER 12 - Karana Deva

1538, Capital city, Dharanikota Kingdom.

Palace guard Bhairava stopped at the office door of Prime Minister Karana Deva, head of the royal court, and brother to the king. The guard ran a hand over his uniform to smooth out any wrinkles. Satisfied, he raised his hand and gave the door three firm knocks.

"Come in" came a voice from inside the door, prompting the guard to open the door and go in.

The first thing that caught the guard's attention was the minister's table. It was filled with some papers, a couple of books, and souvenirs on top of it. The minister himself was near the window, overlooking the garden in front of the palace.

"An urgent message from General Sangama Reddy, my lord," said the palace guard, holding out a small package.

Karana took the package, broke the seal, and read the letter it contained. As his eyes scanned the sheet, he also took out a ring from inside the package.

"Such a pity." the prime minister sighed and turned to the guard. "Bhairava, may I ask you a question?"

"Yes, my lord." the guard quickly responded.

"What do you think of our young prince?" the minister asked with a look of amusement in his eyes.

"It is not my place to have such opinions on the crown prince, my lord", answered Bhairava. As he did not know how to respond to the question, so he answered with the only answer that seemed appropriate.

"Well, it doesn't matter now anyway. The crown prince is dead. Send someone to inform the priests. We have a funeral to prepare for." The minister dismissed the palace guard in the same carefree way as he told him of the shocking news that the prince was dead.

As the palace guard was questioning what had happened inside the room, Karana was having a different reaction. He contained his excitement till the guard left the room, and he read the letter again, more carefully this time. 

The package contained two items, a letter from General Sangama and a ring from Rudra Deva, confirming his death. After reading the letter again, Karana burst out laughing while holding the ring which belonged to his dead nephew.

His plan had finally succeeded. Most of the obstacles he faced were now removed. Only the crown prince was next in line to the Dharanikota throne. Now that the obstacle that was his nephew was gone, he only had to kill his older brother who was the king, and would announce to the world that the man had died from the 'pain' of losing his son.

In reality, his brother did not care. The king did not care when the Sultanate invaded the kingdom. The king did not care about the mounting pressure from the Vijayanagara Empire, to merge the Dharanikota Kingdom back into their territory. The king did not care when most of the trade from Hampi was being stolen at Macherla.

The only thing the king ever cared about, since his wife died was his wine. He did not even properly care about his wife when she was alive, but after she died, all of a sudden he was a grieving lover.

For the last few years, Karana has been slowly replacing the members of the royal court with members sympathetic to him. Although some of the members were proving to be more trouble, it was worth it to have their support when ready.

The plan to assassinate the prince was something he had been planning for years. He couldn't try it in the city because the prince had support from the loyalist groups and he was always guarded by that damn guards of Narappa. More importantly, everyone would suspect it was him. The perception of being innocent was more important than actually being innocent.

There could be another heir if Rudra was dead. The king would still be alive after all. The royalists would put a bastard of the king rather than Karana on the throne. If Karana sat on the throne, their precious little system of Primogeniture, would be hurt. 

For Karana to become the king, All other claimants needed to die. That means Rudra needed to die. No other claimant should be born after this. That means the king needed to die. 

So he lured out the prince for a hunting party. Tiger hunts are rare, and usually a matter of great prestige. So, he convinced his 'dear' nephew to hunt the man-eating tiger down and protect the people of his kingdom.

Of course, to make the matter more convincing, he had made his men kill a few civilians in the areas surrounding the forest to make a story that a tiger was present there. After all what good are people if you can't use them to your benefit?

He even selected the people who would kill the prince. Ezhilan and his squad of soldiers were some of the soldiers loyal to him. The squads consisted of orphans and people no one cared about.

Despite having a massive political pull, in the court politics of Dharanikota, Karana Deva did not have much influence in the military. The permanent military of the kingdom was only few thousand soldiers strong, so it did not matter much anyway. Most of the wartime military is recruited from the common people, and they outnumber the permanent troops.

His biggest achievement in that sector was gaining the loyalty of General Sangama Reddy, one of the men in charge of the kingdom's western army, facing the Sultanate's territories. The general may not rebel for Prime Minister Karana Deva, but he will support him when he becomes King Karana Deva.

It was the way people worked. They will never want to give anything until you have something yourself. This is especially true for politics and relations. General Reddy will flip to support the prince, the moment Karana's hold over the court weakens, and his nephew gains superiority.

But politics was what Karana Deva was good at. It was how he had grown to control the court. It was how he made allies from both Vijayanagara and Golconda sultanate. He used to have some allies in the Gajapathi empire's court, but that side was dominated by his sister-in-law, the former queen.

The Gajapathi was of no use to Karana anyway. It was a rapidly declining empire, that had more issues than they could ever solve. It was a good thing that the relations were declining ever since the former queen died and the land passage was occupied by the Sultanate.

Looking at the ring that belonged to the prince, he laughed once more. Just a few more days and he will finally be a king. But before all that, there were a few things he needed to do first.

Karana Deva took out a paper, imported from Bengal, and began to write a letter to his Main ally in the Vijayanagara Empire, Aliya Rama Raya, who was the son-in-law to the previous Emperor of Vijayanagara and a person with enormous political power in the Empire and beyond.

After finishing up with the writing, he poured some wax on the closed letter and sealed it. He gave it to one of his men so that they could deliver it to its intended target.

After that, prime Minister Karana walked across the palace to the room his brother was staying in. As expected for a king, there were guards stationed at the entrance, who were then ordered to stay out of the hallway the room was in. He didn't bother to knock on the door and directly entered the room.

As the door opened, Karana Deva was hit with a cloud of smoke to his face. It was that damn hokkah again. As he entered the room he witnessed the state in which the 'King of Dharanikota' was.

The king was in a half-passed-out state, smoking hookah from a pipe with one hand and drinking fermented palm wine from the other. He was shirtless, rolls of fat visible on his body. A young girl, likely in her teens was massaging him, another young girl Karana had to 'take' care of at a later time. He had to be ruthless like that, or more heirs would compete with him for the Dharanikota's throne.

He looked at his brother, and sighed, How the once inspiring man had fallen. Karana used to be proud to be called the brother of this man. Now, he was actively plotting to kill the king and had already 'taken care' of the prince.

"Brother!" he called out loud to the king only to hear no response back. The prime minister turned and looked at the young girl and ordered her to go away. She will be taken care of later. Now, I had a more important job to do.

"Brother look at me," Karana asked the king, who just gave a blank look, searching for the departed girl. Karana took hold of his brother's chin to make him look at him." Rudra is dead. Your son is dead." he said to the king, after making sure that he had regained some focus.

That seemed to alert the king somewhat, and he responded with a slow and confused "What?".

"Rudra is dead. I killed him." Karana Deva replied, ensuring he was looking directly into the eyes of the king. As clarity slowly returned in the king's eyes, Karana Deva just waited.

"What took you so long?" asked the king completely surprising the prime minister. He did not expect the king to ask a question like that. Still, he decided to answer truthfully anyway, his brother deserved that, considering what Karana was about to do.

"It would put too much of a doubt on me if I do it in the city. Considering, that most of the military is still 'loyal' to you, they may just decide I was a threat." Karana answered.

"Now you want to my seat." the king concluded. There was no expression in his eyes. Just the thousand-yard stare they usually have, when he even bothers to meet someone.

"Yes." The prime minister of Dharanikota and the brother of the king replied. His intentions were obvious and the king had guessed them.

"Then, what are you waiting for? Do it." answered back the king, resigned to his fate. He knew this day would come if he had not curtailed the actions of his brother.

Hearing that answer Karana Deva sighed to himself. His brother was too proud to bow his head. Even now he just accepted what Karana was going to do. There would be no resistance. If the king had some backbone from the start, maybe the Kingdom would be in a better place.

Half an hour later, Karana Deva, now the only known heir to the crown of Dharanikota, came out of the room belonging to his brother. He crossed the hallway to address the guards who was standing there following his orders. 

"Inform the priests to prepare for another funeral. The king had died from heartache after hearing the news of the crown prince's passing," he informed as he walked past the guards. The guards then immediately rushed into the room to check on the King.

But for Karana Deva, it did not matter. He just stared at his own hands. He just killed someone with them. He doesn't even know how to wield a sword properly, but Poison is an incredible tool. 

He will probably be arrested by the palace guards any moment now. He has to mobilize his allies and make sure that he will be released. Many Royalists still support the prince. He has to convince them that the prince will not be returning.

He still has many things to do now. Organize a funeral, Gather the support of allies, and many other small things. The whole thing won't end until the Coronation is held and he is crowned the king.