Chapter 1

I can feel I'm lying on someone's lap. The vivid voices are becoming clearer as I was slowly gaining consciousness. But I'm scared to open my eyes and face the truth. What should I do now? I should've fought with him till my last breath. I should've ….*slap* I opened my eyes because of the slap. Two figures whose voice was only making me aware of the present now appeared in front of me.

"Thank God you're alive." said the girl. Her name is Karuna. She is the healer of our kingdom. If she is here means the king is now aware of the incident.

"Let's go to the palace." said the other. I don't know his name but from his appearance, he must be a knight.

"But she is gone," I said with hopelessness while trying to sit. She's gone. This mustn't have happened. Not just for me or her but to maintain world peace I should've hidden her more securely coz she has the infamous red eyes.

"The king knows. Search parties have already been sent. So please come to the palace now. You have been hurt badly. I've only stopped the bleeding but you need proper treatment and rest. Everyone is waiting for you prince Eshanth. Please come with us." Yes, I'm the prince of the country Mayanagari a land of magic, to be more accurate I'm a runaway prince who was once announced as a traitor. Now when the reason for my running away from the palace is gone I decided to go palace to get her back. When going back to the palace which I left to order to save her all the memories started coming back to me.

12 years have passed to that day when all of this started. I still remember it clearly like yesterday. That was the last day of my life when I could live with trivial worries like who would win in the sword fight or which story to read from the library. The 11-year-old me who was spending all day playing with his younger brother and reading story books never thought that I could do all this. That day also started as usual for me spending my time playing with Brishbhanu, my little brother. After 6 more months, I would've gone to Ashram for schooling to make myself a better king for that kingdom. My mother, the queen was pregnant and soon the palace was about to celebrate the birth of a new royal bloodline. I was also excited to welcome my new family member. My playtime with my brother was paused by the chaos that happened inside the palace because the queen was going through labor. After an exhausting amount of time, the baby's cry is heard. I was waiting at the doorstep but I wasn't alone, the King was also waiting anxiously. Dhai( a lady who delivers babies) came and gave him the baby girl. King was about to announce the celebration but all smiles disappeared as soon as the baby opened her eyes. The iris was red. The Dhai who did the \delivery screamed with fear. I couldn't understand what is happening. I was shocked by the unusual reaction to the birth of a healthy baby. Before I could know what was happening the king ordered to kill the baby. I couldn't know what to do or how to react in this situation. That time I went to the only person who could reply to me, my mother. I reached the doorstep of my mother's chamber but wasn't allowed to go inside. The guards blocked me from entering as the queen was taking a rest after the delivery.

With all this commotion the queen, who was sleeping because of the exhaustion from childbirth woke up. "What is happening?" she asked her servants who were present there but she got no answer out of them. The queen became more anxious with the gloomy atmosphere inside her chamber and the chaos outside. When she looked at the empty cradle her anxiety touched its peak level. She got up from the bed and asked her nearest person "Where is my baby?" again it was silent. This time she couldn't take it anymore.

"Tell me where is my baby if you want to stay here, if you'll remain silent I'll fire you all."

Hearing this one servant spoke "The baby has red eyes. So the king ordered to kill her. The baby was taken to meet its destiny."

As soon as she heard that her baby whom she hasn't yet held in her arm properly is gonna be killed because of some story that she heard when she was a kid, she ran to rescue her baby but what she witnessed is the most horrible scene for a mother. The baby was lying on the butcher block and the butcher raised its sword to kill the baby. "STOP." The deafening scream of the mother made everyone stop in their place. Finally, the king spoke "Queen Shaswati what you are doing here? You must be tired. Go inside & take rest. I'll come back to you after some time."

"Maharaj, how can you be this calm? Can't you see they are going to kill our daughter? What I heard I didn't want to believe that. I can't believe that you, the peace-loving person can order to kill his daughter for some story that we heard in our childhood."

"Story? Do you think I'm fool enough to believe in a story without evidence? This is not a story. It's true. Open your eyes and see, she has red eyes. If I won't kill her now, then she'll kill everyone, and at that time we won't be able to do anything. So stop being selfish. Don't forget that before being a mother you are the queen of Mayanagari. " The king said angrily

"This girl is born today only. She hasn't even had her first feed how can such a tiny body be the destroyer? Please spare her. I'll make her into a fine princess. She can help you for making the country stronger. Please believe me. Don't kill your daughter." Queen begged

"Own daughter? Who? She is a monster, my queen. If we won't kill her now then she will kill all of us. You still don't believe me right? So be it. I'm the king and it's my order that she'll be killed now and no one will defy the king's order."