Yakshagni - An odyssey of unbroken devotion

Summer Rainstorm

The Elapsed Era:

In awe of the prince, the girls murmured excitedly at the sight of him. Hanneli was the only one who wasn't pleased because she was nervous about what he had told her father. While she was cooking at the community kitchen, she heard about the prince's visit to the forest. Since then, she had been on tenterhooks, apprehensive whether he would meet her in front of all. And with growing anxiety, she had arrived home. But she need not have feared. From her father's expression, she could discern that he was unaware of her clandestine meeting with the prince. Seeing the girls giggling and whispering, an amused Amogha left the prince at their mercy and returned to his duties.

Heaving a sigh of relief at the departing figure, Hanneli looked at Ekveer but he had already left her house and was striding towards his horse. He did not spare a glance at her and his disregard did not go down well with Hanneli. An indignant Hanneli watched the prince tugging the horse towards the path that exited the forest.

Swallowing the confused mixture of anger and hurt pride, Hanneli turned back to find her friends gazing at him as he moved away from their view. Seething with annoyance, she snapped,

"Forget him! It is getting late for meals..."

After serving meals to all, the girls returned to their houses. Hanneli found her father in deep thought.

"What is it, father? You seem worried..."

Amogha sighed in weariness, "Nothing, I have to go to the palace this evening."

"Why? Did the prince's visit upset you?" Hanneli was about to take the name of the prince but she caught herself in time before blurting out his name.

"Prince's visit? No of course not. There is trouble brewing across the border so I have been asked for advice."

"Oh..."

"I might even have to travel for a day or two," he looked at Hanneli, "You can stay with your friend."

Hanneli nodded but her thoughts were on Ekveer. She did not dare ask her father if the prince would be travelling with him. She was curious to learn more details about the troubles that her father talked about. Deciding to wait till her father got back from the palace, Hanneli began to work on the painting she had left undone. Somehow the realization that Ekveer had been to her humble abode touched her in a way that surprised her.

**************

Revolted at once by the sight of the remains of the brutally killed animals initially, Amogha inspected the corpses for clues.

"This is a heinous crime. Who could have done it?" The minister who had accompanied Amogha to the border exclaimed in bristling rage.

Alaka's strong network of intelligence had guided Amogha and the minister's team to the area where the animals had been slaughtered. Alaka's spies in Khandvas thought that the chaos was created by some citizens of Alaka which echoed Ekveer's theory. They had travelled by boat to the kingdom's border to take a look at the dead animals. The animal shelters that they visited did not fall inside Alaka but belonged to Khandvas so they had disguised themselves with the help of the intelligence.

Amogha scanned the carcasses. Some of them had been slit in the throat and some had been brutally struck by blunt weapons. Amogha noted that their bodies had not been opened to remove the entrails and offal.

"It is a work of more than two persons," Amogha observed.

"How can you say that?"

"Look at the method of killing. See this... A blunt instrument had been used here," he pointed out to a buffalo whose horns had been twisted, "One person cannot do it. And the time of the death of all these animals is the same."