One’s single greatest strength may be uncovering the hidden talents of others.

Dushyant waited for the two young women to get on an unmarked carriage before turning to look at his lieutenant. "Go and find out if there has been any rebellious movement in this area recently. People who are spouting things against any of the neighbouring kingdoms or Mandhaar. Keep your actions light, we don't want to startle anyone unnecessarily. After you finish the task, meet me at the next checkpoint."

Vibhorarth was surprised at the new set of instructions. Didn't the general tell him earlier that he had enough information regarding this matter and didn't want to pursue this avenue any further?

Since it was a direct order, he saluted and left immediately.

Dushyant's eyes followed his subordinate's receding back and after a few minutes, he pulled a pouch out of his sleeve. Pressing the pouch hard with his thumb and forefinger, he waited.

He was standing in a corner of the busy marketplace, leaning against a tall pole, which held a brightly lit torch, illuminating the path.

Few minutes later, a couple of shadows materialised next to him. The pouch he had pressed contained a whistle which produced a sound that couldn't be heard by people normally. But it acted as a great stimulant to a special breed of dogs if they were within a hundred metres of the sound being produced.

A section of Dushyant's secret forces was always present within that 100 metres radius, irrespective of where he was. These people were accompanied by at least one such dog who had been reared for the purpose of intercepting their master's call.

Without looking at the two men, Dushyant straightened up and started walking languidly towards the men's urinal which was located a few metres away.

After entering the urinal, he looked around and quickly slipped through one of the doors which was actually an entrance to a long corridor.

"Greetings, Master!" The pair saluted sharply.

Dushyant nodded and sat down on the dusty chair which was one of the few furniture pieces in the room. This was one of the many secret hideouts which belonged to this secret force.

"What is the latest update from the royal palace?" He asked in a lazy voice.

The two young men brought out various scrolls from their waist pouches and handed them over. "Master, these are the updates in the past week from all the pavilions in the royal palace."

Dushyant took the scrolls and started reading them, one after another.

The royal family of Mandhaar had a fairly uncomplicated and linear family tree.

Due to the 'restraint' shown by Raja Indraneel, there weren't too many women and their offsprings scattered across the royal palace.

It was probably due to the fact that Raja Indraneel wasn't the biological son of Rajmata Gayatri and hadn't been the original choice as the emperor. Moreover, born to a concubine of commoner's status, there had been zero scope of him ever inheriting the throne, until the winds changed.

A scholarly fellow, Prince Indraneel had left the royal palace and the capital city of Dima during his childhood and decided to study in a different city. Growing up in the murky, scary harem, he wished for nothing except a peaceful life spent as a non-descript government official of Mandhaar.

But due to a strange twist of fate, he ended up owning the throne or rather the throne ended up owning him.

Following his father's command of a small harem, Raja Indraneel didn't have a long line of women waiting on him. Moreover, he had treated his father's women, and those belonging to his deceased elder brothers quite fairly after those men died.

The women in Raja Indraneel's palace had been chosen for different reasons. Some of them were due to political needs, others to keep the royal court in check.

Maharani Vaijayanti was the second wife of Raja Indraneel whom he had married after taking on the throne. Due to the early, unexpected demise of his first wife, Ambalika, who had been his sweetheart since gurukul days, he never married again for love.

Maharani Vaijayanti was the princess of Bharani and also the paternal niece of Mandhaar's empress dowager, Rajmata Gayatri. She had three children - Prince Anirudh, Princess Anira, and Princess Anara.

Though Prince Anirudh was the eldest son of the emperor, he was still referred to as the Second Prince by the people and the courtiers because the emperor's eldest son had been lost in the skirmish two decades ago, which had also killed his wife.

At that time, Rani Ambalika had taken her three months old son to visit her dying father in another city. On the way, they had been caught by foreign invaders. Rani Ambalika had died while her son was lost. Even though twenty years had passed since then, the emperor refused to acknowledge the almost certain death of his infant son, since no body had been found!

During all these years, he had referred to the child as the Lost Prince, in the hope that the child would find his way back to the family someday.

This was also the reason why the position of crown prince still remained vacant though, at the age of twenty, Prince Anirudh was being unofficially touted as the heir and was being trained for the role.

The other queens in the emperor's harem included Rani Indumati, who was the daughter of Mandhaar's prime minister. The prime minister, Vasumant belonged to the opposite camp of the empress and his only daughter, Indumati was like a pearl on his palm.

Despite many efforts, Rani Indumati had been unable to conceive and eventually adopted the son of a gorgeous nauch girl who had gotten accidentally impregnated by the emperor long ago.

The poor nauch girl didn't survive the brutality of the harem and her five years old son, Prince Suketu was generously taken under the wings of Rani Indumati. The Third Prince turned seventeen this year.

Apart from these two, there was Rani Lopamudra who had been sent by the Western Province as a peace offering to Raja Indraneel.

Rani Lopamudra was the twin sister of the current king of Vasi, Raja Yadushreshta. She had been married at the age of seventeen and even after sixteen years, her allure hadn't diminished.

She had contributed to the Mandhaar emperor's clan by providing Raja Indraneel with twins, a son and a daughter.

There were a few more women in the harem but they weren't as significant or powerful.

As per Dushyant's order, his secret force had been ordered to keep an eye on the tiniest movement within these varied factions of the royal palace.