1 Prologue (Part 1) - Down the dumps

99 years ago

The night seemed to shiver, maybe because of the winter which had almost arrived or did it have the premonition of what was about to happen?

Chandragarh, a country with a population slightly under 50,000, was divided into five zillas* – Central, North, South, East & West. The royal palace was a grand structure located in the Central zilla where the king resided. It occupied the same square feet area as the rest of the zilla. The exterior of the building was ornate enough to give a first-time visitor a fair idea of what lay behind it. The guards' livery was embossed with the capital's emblem of a roaring lion and a huge statue of the same greeted people as they entered the main door of the castle.

The kingdom's motto was – 'Valor & Pride' following which, Chandragarh had fought many wars in the past and managed to position itself in the enviable strategic location, where it had access to land on three sides and sea on one side. There were enough rivers flowing through different zillas to keep the land fertile. They were surrounded by powerful kingdoms but most of them were currently ruled by weak kings who happened to have peaceful if not friendly relations with Chandragarh. All this had been achieved by the previous rulers, fruits of which were enjoyed by the current monarch.

King Chandranarayan, forty years old and the only descendant to the throne, was enjoying his fifth cup of wine, or was it sixth? Did it really matter? After a long day of boring country affairs, it was his time to enjoy the wine and the women.

"My lord, the Southern zilla general is here to see you. He says its urgent. May I bring him in?" asked one of the personal attendants.

"Isn't everything urgent? Tell him to come tomorrow morning to the royal court," the king said dismissively.

"Uh… I actually told him that already. But he is really insistent," the attendant's voice was quivering.

He was well aware of the king's violent disposition. But much to his surprise, the king thought for a moment and then replied calmly asking him to bring the general in and gave him another instruction to be complied with, simultaneously.

The five scantily clad women who had been dancing to appease the king were ushered outside by another attendant, along with the musicians.

"Don't go anywhere. The king would call for you as soon as he is done with the meeting," the attendant instructed them.

Inside his chambers, general Vallabh had entered and was offering his greetings to the king.

"So, what was so urgent that it couldn't wait another few hours?" asked the king in a cold voice.

"My apologies for interrupting your evening, your highness. But I am carrying the most disturbing news with me which needed to reach your ears before it was distorted or thwarted by the perpetrators," the general stated urgently.

"Ok, you have my attention. What is it?" Chandranarayan asked.

Vallabh drew in a deep breath before starting, "few weeks ago, a few village heads came to our military camp. Since I am responsible for the border security in the South zone, my interaction with the civilians has been non-existent up until now. So, I was surprised when they asked for my help. Apparently, the Southern zilla head has been extracting taxes over and above what has been levied by your court. They are charging even for things which are under exemption, like religious pilgrimages, community water coolers and many more such things."

The king's face remained impassive and Vallabh felt a twinge of discomfort. He had thought that the king would atleast have shown surprise if not anger at the news. Nonetheless he continued with his narrative. He had promised justice to the people who had placed their faith in him.

"I am well aware that this problem was not under my purview but those people had come to me as a last resort in the hope that I would bring these issues to your attention," he said.

"So, what did you do next? Like you said, they had come to you weeks ago. So why have you arrived today?" the king asked, one eyebrow raised.

Vallabh colored at the censure in the king's voice. But it gave him hope that the king was affected by the news.

"As you are well aware, I couldn't have left the border at such a short notice but those people were distraught. So, as I started preparing to leave for the Central zilla to see you, in the meanwhile I went and spoke with the state head. Though I hadn't expected that Sivakumar would acknowledge his mistake but his reaction was beyond my imagination. He had the audacity to utter an outrageous lie which took me aback," as he said the last words, a bad premonition crept up on his neck.

The kind leaned back on his ornate sofa and said mildly, "interesting. So, what was this outrageous lie which Siva uttered?"

*Zilla - Province/state