Prologue (Part 3) - General & I

The jeers and muffled laughs of the court that day, haunted Devyani ever since and she had nearly gone crazy with her thirst for revenge. On the face of it, she had withdrawn all her codes of conduct and let the patrons feel that they had won. But on the inside, she had started channelizing all her sources, whether they were the maids placed in the top officials' houses or the courtesans serving the rich and powerful.

Her entire clan stood behind her, not because she fed them and clothed them. But because she had done what no one had done ever before – treated them as humans, not commodities! She had broken the norm and looked after their health, education and future, even taken care of their extended families. For which, she had earned the undying loyalty of these seemingly insignificant people.

And with all the riches that she earned, Devyani had started a small educational & vocational institute exclusively for girls from the poor families who found their daughters burdensome with no skills or means to earn money for the family and ended up selling them for measly amounts.

Inside the Royal Palace

"You were saying..." the king prodded Vallabh to complete his sentence.

Even though he sensed that there was something amiss, Vallabh did not back down from what he had to say.

Drawing a deep breath, he said, "I was told that the additional tax was levied by the zilla head under your direct orders but unofficially. In fact, you have given a free rein to all four zilla heads to come up with innovative ways to tax people and the highest paying province is rewarded every year."

There was a stunned silence after his words. Neither the zilla head nor the village chiefs would have thought that Vallabh would actually say this out loud in front of the king.

What followed, was the king's bellowing laughter.

Vallabh was a simple man who had risen to the rank of general by his sheer hard work, honesty and intelligence. Hailing from a poor family, he had joined the army twenty-five years ago, at the age of fourteen. But today was the first time when he felt the weight of his age.

He turned to look at the shut door of the king's chambers behind him, one last time. The sound of jeers and continued laughter was trickling through the door from where he had exited few minutes ago and he felt a renewed sense of disappointment and slow burning of his pride.

The village chiefs who had come to him with a complaint about the zilla head, had actually done it not for the improvement of their villagers' plight, but because they had ended up fighting with the zilla head. In order to teach him a lesson, they had used Vallabh as a pawn. They had hoped for a show of strength by him by using his army to scare the zilla head into submission. But hadn't expected him to be 'dumb' enough to take the problem to the King!

The minute they had gotten to hear about it, the zilla head and village chiefs had united and fabricated a story to be presented to king Chandranarayan. They had implied that it was Vallabh who had become power hungry and had tried to infringe upon the political matters of the zilla. Else, why would a military commander whose sole responsibility was to handle the border security, would involve himself into the internal affairs of a province? They had been foresighted enough to reach the capital earlier than him and lay in ambush.

Tonight, it had been a culmination of that planning. They had not only proved him a liar but also raised questions on his allegiance towards the throne.

Vallabh was mortified, angry, disillusioned…

He stepped out the heavily embellished door of the palace and stood there in disorientation. Where should he head right now? Back to his post or should he try and meet few friends in the Central zilla who could guide him about what to do? He was hopelessly inept at politics. The mechanics of it simply eluded him.

"Greetings, General. You look tired. On behalf of Devyani bai, I am here to invite you to an evening full of wonderful possibilities," smiled a young beguiling girl, who had emerged from the shadows.

Despite being posted at the edge of the country, even he was aware of the famous 'queen of the brothels'. But he only had distaste and disinterest towards the whole concept.

He looked at the girl who looked young enough to be his daughter and replied neutrally, "please convey my apologies for declining the generous offer. I am hard pressed for time at the moment."

The girl smiled at him in an unfazed manned and wordlessly handed him a rolled parchment.

Walking towards the lit lamps on the corner of the palace, Vallabh opened the scroll with barely suppressed impatience. He had no idea as to how did the courtesan know that he was here and secondly why would she bother with someone like him.

"One should never close himself to the possibility of something amazing rising from the ashes. It's said that every unwilling departure earns its return. Looking forward to the pleasure of your company this evening…"