Part 2: Scars
“Are you scared of me, Vaidehi?”
Emperor Agastya sauntered closer, making her back another step. Taking in a shaky breath, she forced herself to be still, as he loomed over her. His gaze travelled down her features, a wry smile on his lips as he took in her village woman disguise.
“No.” At his questioning look, she continued. “No, I am not scared of you.”
“Admirable.” He circled her slowly, catching the ends of her shawl on his fingers. She didn’t resist as he unravelled her, a defiant spark in her dark eyes. “You tremble like a leaf, and yet have the courage to speak a lie. Perhaps, you aren’t a lost cause, after all, infant Queen.”
The look she gave him could have pulverized rock. “You can insult me again, Raja saheb. It matters little to me.” Her tone was mocking. “I am here only for my husband, and for that I will bear your childish games.”
He laughed then, a hollow sound in the empty room. It sent a shiver down her spine, reminiscent of its echo from the past. “Ah, but these games aren’t childish at all.” That glint, the madness she had glimpsed behind the veil of his eyes, was back. “Devaraya has fulfilled his destiny. But you have yet to accept yours.”
Her fists opened and closed as Vaidehi strived for patience. “There you are with your riddles again. I care not for mythical destinies. Your videha captured my husband, the King of Vijaynagar. I want him released, no matter the cost.”
“And pray tell, Rani Vaidehi,” Agastya pretended to ponder. “What was your husband, the glorious King of Vijaynagar, doing in our territories when we captured him?”
“He was helping a friend!” she growled, beside herself with rage. “They weren’t your territories. You and your armies have laid waste to all our lands! You have surrounded us and our allies, cloistering us like pigs for slaughter. My husband was…is valiant! He set out to protect his kingdom, and your videha took him from his tent – like common thugs – the night before battle. Where is your honour? Do you consider this as a just act?”
“You expect fairness? In warfare? Are you foolish or just woefully naïve?”
“I beg you, Agastya.” She folded her hands, desperate tears shining in her eyes. “He is all I have in this world. My home is burning. Vijaynagar will never raise its arms against you and the videha again. That’s my vow to you as Queen. Release my husband. I beg of you.”
He covered her hands with his, an inscrutable expression on his face. Vaidehi watched as he opened her palms, his amber eyes resting on the mark he had inflicted. Though the fiery red had faded into a paler tinge over the years, the ‘V’ shaped scar was still prominent.
“They say you are a God,” she whispered, a lone tear slipping down her cheek. “Gods must be merciful or the whole world would fall into chaos.”
Agastya smiled, making her blood run cold. “What a world it must be that Gods have to gut evil from men. ” His hands shifted to her wrists, resting over her bangles. “Save your tears for someone worthy. The Devaraya reign is over.”
She cried out as he pressed on the bangles, the glass cutting into her skin. The shards barely made a sound as they hit the floor, but the finality of their fall stunned her momentarily. She didn’t even resist when he pulled her towards a mirror. An ashen faced woman looked back at her, traces of kohl running down one cheek.
“Look at you, Vaidehi.” He rested his silver head against hers, wiping at a tear with his thumb. “Who are you? Before you became a Devaraya, you had your father’s name. Without them, who are you? Are you a daughter, meekly watching your father exchange his daughter for a powerful alliance? Or are you a wife, existing for your husband’s pleasure? Surely you are more than these small roles you have played?”
Vaidehi looked away, unable to bear the defeated woman in the mirror.
Agastya’s eyes softened, turning the colour of warm honey. “373 nights,” he murmured against her ear. “373 nights you have lain with a man you hated. Barring thrice, your mind has been elsewhere all the time. Ssshh, don’t try to lie. It was the only way to escape your abhorrence for the act.”
Vaidehi closed her eyes, a forlorn tilt to her rose bud mouth. She allowed him to caress her long hair, his breath warm against her ear. “Imagine those nights extending to a thousand, ten thousand,” he crooned. “Imagine being tossed from one cruel man to another. Imagine watching the most intimate part of you fondled, plundered, ravaged by countless masters. And one day, the horror at seeing it chopped mercilessly, just so that you may serve affluent ladies without temptation in the palatial homes.”
Something rankled in her mind, a wisp of a memory unfolding and fading. “Did this…did all this happen to you?” Sorrow pierced her heart.. No one should have to suffer like that.
He continued his caress, soothing fingers untangling her strands. “Would you pity me if it did?” There was a calculative gleam in his eyes that confused her.
“Shouldn’t I?” She couldn’t keep the tremor out of her voice. “Is this not your tale?”
“This is the tale of eunuchs that have served kingdoms like yours,” he hissed. “Some were left to die, others bound to slavery. Men loving men, women wanting women; all punished by the laws of your land. Communities that lived in harmony were wiped out for defying the crown. None could retaliate for centuries…until your father and the Devarayas, attacked a camp of peaceful sorcerers, many of them videha.”
His hand trailed down her shoulder, passing over the clotted cuts on her arm. She flinched, her eyes wide at the revelation. “You think this is pain, Vaidehi. You beg me to save your home, release the rutting beast you call your husband. Pain is what your family has inflicted on my people. Pain is what they will feel, in body and spirit. They will exist, caught between heaven and earth. But you will never see them again.”
There was a sinister rage in his eyes, an eerie glow lying behind his irises. Suddenly, Vaidehi could smell blood, potent like in his erstwhile dungeon quarters.
“What about when your husband ceases to exist, his soul torn between earth and hell?” The past taunted her. “What about when he is buried alive, eaten ever so slowly, by maggots burrowing under his skin?”
She shrieked in fear, trying to push past him, but his arms snaked around her waist. “Let me go. Please let me go,” she sobbed. “I have done nothing to hurt you. My kingdom needs me! I am their Queen!”
Agastya chuckled, forcefully opening her tightly fisted fingers. The mark on her palm began to pulse, frightening her further. “You haven’t hurt us, Queen,” he murmured agreeably. “But I am afraid I must hurt you again.”
As his dark nail slashed across her skin, rivulets of blood dripped onto the floor. Vaidehi screamed till her throat was raw, the pain ebbing and flowing like an endless tide. The Emperor held her up, watching her with fascination. Then, when she had quietened into hiccups, he placed a kiss against her temple. She shuddered in revulsion. “How are you any better than those you hate?” she seethed. “Every encounter with you is agony for me. What have I ever done to provoke you? Does it give you a sick male satisfaction to hurt a defenseless woman?”
He smiled infuriatingly, turning her bleeding palm to the mirror. She hissed in pain. “I have owed you for fifteen years, Vaidehi. My debt has only increased with time. Tonight, I will repay it in full.” He dabbed at the wound with his robe, and then gently inclined her palm at an angle. Vaidehi blinked at the reflection, staring at the “V” that she had tried to decipher for years. It slowly became an “A” of an olden script, the letter now slashed downwards in a blood crusted line.
The insignia of the videha.
“With my magic leaching into your blood, I give you Vijaynagar and any two of its allied kingdoms. You shall be its Queen, upholding my laws. Should you betray me, or raise your banner in rebellion, you and your child will die.” His words were solemn, as he backed away from her.
“My-my child?” She stepped forward, grabbing his sleeve.
His lips lifted in a half smile. “You are free now. Vaidehi Devaraya could not have children, but Queen Vaidehi will bear a son within the year.”
She touched her womb in awe, hope blossoming in her chest. “You said you owed me,” Her eyes searched his fathomless depths. “What did you mean?”
Agastya bent towards her slowly, giving her time to move away. Vaidehi stood still, her eyelashes fluttering shut. He nuzzled her jaw, his nose ring brushing against her heated skin. “I will tell you…in another time, when your mind is prepared for the truth. Rule well, my Queen. Or I will do it for you.”
When Vaidehi opened her eyes, the Emperor was gone, leaving a scent of sandalwood in his wake.
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