282 Smokescreen?

Himprayag

Shaurya was frustrated by the time he left the princess's chamber. By the end, he had told her resolutely that he wasn't sent here to pimp out himself to procure the deal. Whether she wanted to go ahead and break the alliance or not, it was none of his business.

He had done so with the thought that the princess was only half serious about the situation, rather, she was being obstinate about getting the cake and the 'cherry on top'.

"The strategic minister invites you for lunch at his chamber," an attendant came and informed Shaurya, as he was about to leave the royal palace.

"Ah the horrendous day gets even better by the minute," he swore under his breath as he followed the attendant.

Rudradev took in Shaurya's new look and burst out laughing, making Shaurya's scowl deepen.

"Thinking back to your vehement reaction last night, I hadn't imagined that the situation would change so drastically so soon. But I must say… silk seems to suit you. It's, ahem, adding to your masculine air," he sniggered.

Shaurya balled his fists and held onto them tightly lest they acted on their own and smashed into the hateful man's face, causing a diplomatic accident.

"I believe you were looking for me?" Shaurya reminded him through gritted teeth.

Even though the minister was pulling his leg at the moment, Shaurya's understanding of the man told him that the guy hadn't summoned him here just for fun.

Rudradev nodded his head and said, "Yes. I was. Very soon a situation is going to arise where you will need the help of Princess Ahilya. I suggest that you don't alienate her to the extent that it is irreversible. Rest, I leave it to you to figure out."

This was the second time within twenty four hours that he had spoken on this topic. It was enough to raise Shaurya's hackles. Even if he hadn't decoded the man in front of him completely, he knew that the minister was extremely cunning and hid many faces behind this easy-going façade. For him to harp on a seemingly irrelevant topic like this, was out of character.

"Thank you for the advice. But I wonder what have I done to earn the minister's benevolence? Also, why is the busiest royal minister of Himprayag suddenly playing cupid? I wonder if my association with the princess would bring some sort of benefit to you," Shaurya's demeanor suddenly became much more relaxed.

He had deliberately spoken these words to see if Rudradev reacted to them. Unfortunately, the latter was a consummate card player and not even his eyelid twitched while listening to Shaurya.

"If I were you, I would not worry about what is the gamplan of others but try and come up with one of my own. After all, we live in the world of imperfect knowledge and information. I hope you have a pleasant day. I am afraid that it is time for me to go to the royal court. Thank you for stopping by," with that the young minister dismissed Shaurya.

It had been some time since Shaurya went back to the lodge. Ever since Bela left, he had been put in one of the military barracks near the palace. He made his way to the lodge today because he wanted to check if there was any news from Chandragarh. It had been decided that they would continue to communicate through this place rather than the palace.

The old man was happy to see him return and made him sit down while he went to fetch the messages for him.

"I was wondering if I would have to trudge upto the royal courtyard to deliver these to you. For so many days, there was no message and suddenly, within a day, I received a couple of them," he said and gave the sealed letters to Shaurya before moving away from the room.

Shaurya broke open the seal and saw that the first message was from Bela guruji who had informed him that she would be reaching by tonight. He heaved a sigh of relief at that. The next one was from Prithvi guruji. Shaurya hadn't been expecting one from him and took his time decoding it.

"Delay at this end. Maintain low profile. Full authority till the bear arrives," it read.

Shaurya frowned at the timing of the message. Did it mean that Bela guruji will not be arriving tonight? Since Bear was the code name for her, that is what the message implied. And since he had mentioned 'low profile', it was supposed to actually mean that Shaurya was to go on high alert now.

Was this connected to what Rudradev had been implying? He debated whether to write back to guruji or not. Even though the words spoken by the minister had seemed random, coupling them with this new development, he felt the urgency to send this to Prithvi.

After sending out his eagle, Shaurya went into deep contemplation. This was the technique which Prithvi had taught to only a select few of his mentees, Ramanujam and him being a couple of them. The idea was to focus on the starting line of a mission and run each and every occurrence in a sequential manner in the head. One had to keep repeating this till the time they either saw a hidden pattern emerges or stumbled upon an event which stood out now and may have seemed insignificant at the time of its occurrence.

After an hour or so, he came up with two observations. One, Rudradev seemed to have inserted himself into their lives, without any clear agenda. This was the point which had always rankled him. Second, things had gone smoothly for him and Bela in Himprayag, rather too smoothly.

For them to gain favour with the princess was one thing, but to receive no opposition or fight from the other side, was a bit too convenient. Apart from the incident with the queen last night, it had been absolute effortless sailing for this mission!

Was Rudradev the one behind this or someone else?