Jyesht's strife for kinship (A Karna-Arjun what-if story)

Hell breaking loose

Arjun's pov

Duryodhan was shouting. At the threshold of his quarters, he was shouting so loud, all the corridors could hear him.

"I don't need you in their inner circle anymore, it is not like you are doing anything much useful there anyway--"

"Duryodhan." The other voice was an entreating whisper.

Arjun caught sight of who he was shouting at. 

The King of Anga.

How unusual.

"You did not do anything to persuade Yudhishthir to give up the throne. You did not do anything to prevent his crowning. What was the use to going to all the lengths of getting them to trust you, then?"

Then Arjun, who had intended to pass by quietly, paused on his tracks.

"SO NOW, WITH THE RIGHT I HAVE ON YOU AS A FRIEND, I ORDER YOU TO DROP THE ACT."

It took a while for Arjun to process the meaning of Duryodhan's words. Sahadev's voice and Aswatthama's helped him along.

'Aswatthama, are you sure Brother Duryodhan is actually bothered about the change in the King of Anga's attitude?'

'He accuses Karna ten times a day for being on your side and a vein pops on his forehead, that's all I know. Why do you ask?'

'Because they might be in this together; the King of Anga could be putting on an act to trap us into--some plot of theirs.'

When he had grasped the meaning, he found Duryodhan grinning at him. Karna was resolutely looking down at his feet.

"Fell for my spy's act, didn't you, cousin?" asked Duryodhan, his grin widening.

Arjun looked from Duryodhan's spirited stance to Karna's silent one.

"But never mind," continued the former. "He did not manage to do any real harm to you from within. You are lucky my friend is a nice person, Arjun."

That sparked Arjun into indignation, because he, too, knew perfectly well that the King of Anga was a nice person, who deserved the benefit of the doubt.

"Yes, he is," he said in the iciest tone he could manage. "Nice people do not act friends with someone to spy for someone else. Are you sure you are not mistaken, Bhrata Duryodhan?"

Duryodhan's eyes were glittering with amusement.

"Then you are suggesting...my friend lied to me?"

The King of Anga still did not look up, and all of Arjun's efforts to meet his eyes were in vain.

"My friend Karna is the most loyal person in all of our kingdom," declared Duryodhan in a loud, ringing voice. "How deluded must you be, Arjun, to think he would lie to me for your sake?"

Even if Arjun's instinct was still to give Karna the benefit of doubt, the thing was...Duryodhan's words made perfect sense. A bit too much sense. Because that Duryodhan and Karna were each other's dearest friends and would die for each other was so obvious, so well-known, it was already stuff of folklore.

If only Karna had looked up to give him the slightest indication to convey to him Duryodhan was the one who was deluded, Arjun would have still believed him.

But now, there was nothing he could hold on to and nothing he could believe.

Arjun turned to walk away. He had never realized before exactly how contemptuous and triumphant his cousin's laugh could be.

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

He returned straight to the Pandava quarters of the palace.

"You were right, Sahadev." He went to rummage in the cupboard where they stored royal missives.

"About what?" asked four voices in unison.

"It was all a plot of Bhrata Duryodhan and the King of Anga." He had found the ones Hastinapur had exchanged with Anga.

"Can you please be a little more explicit?" said Bheem testily.  

Arjun narrated the story to his brothers calmly, feeding each missive they had ever exchanged with the King of Anga to the fire one by one. 

He had never felt calmer.

"To--to persuade jyesht to give up the throne?" asked Nakul in astonishment. "But he never mentioned anything like--" He turned to Yudhishthir, who was white in the face. "--did he ever try to convince you against the crowning, jyesht?"

"I don't think so," said Yudhishthir. "Maybe--maybe he did, I do not remember."

"Duryodhan said we are lucky he did not do us any real harm, as he indeed did not." Arjun straightened up, having burnt the last letter, dated three days ago. "Having grown up with Uncle Shakuni and Dussashan, I suppose he overestimated ordinary people's capacity at devilry."

His laugh sounded strange even to himself.

"Calm down, Bhrata Arjun," said Sahadev in concern.

"Calm down?" demanded Arjun, who truly believed he had never been calmer. "How can you think I not calm?"

Sahadev exchanged a glance with Yudhishthir.

"But why did you not confront him?" asked Bheem, who had been silent so far.

"What is the good of confrontation to someone who was pretending to be friends with us? What would confronting Duryodhan or his cronies ever accomplish?"

"I don't mean Duryodhan." Bheem's nose wrinkled in disgust. "I mean the King of Anga--should we not at least ask him once?"

"What is there to ask? He was silent the entire time, was he not? If he had had anything to contradict, he could have simply looked at me." 

Arjun wished there was something else to burn. His eyes landed on an ornamental flower on the table, but one look from Yudhishthir told him he was not allowed to throw it into the fire, since it did not belong to the King of Anga.

"Confrontation," Arjun continued fiercely, "only has a point when both sides care about each other. That is why it is our friends we confront, not our enemies, Bhrata Bheem."

"But there are things that do not add up," persisted Nakul. "If it indeed was Bhrata Duryodhan's plot, why was he so upset with the fireworks show and why was he so mad when we saved a seat for the King of Anga?"

"Does it not occur to you that it might simply have been pretense on his part?" asked Arjun coldly.

"But Aswatthama also said--"

"Either Duryodhan had been pretending in front of him, or Aswa himself is on their side."

"Come on, Arjun," said Bheem. "Aswa has never done anything to hurt us. If you go around blaming everyone, you will start suspecting us next."

Arjun thought he might say something he regretted if he was part of this conversation any longer. As he turned to leave, he came face to face with the last person he would have liked to, looking at whom made his blood boil with hatred and fury.

"Jyesht Yudhishthir," Duryodhan cried. "I admit I tried my best to keep you from the throne. But since now, you crowning is inevitable, that is what the stars must have ordained, and who are we to deny them?"

"Shut up and get lost," snarled Bheem.

Duryodhan looked at each of them with a strange expression of mock-sympathy and triumph.

"Oh, please don't take the matter of the King of Anga personally. Royal politics have long implemented the usage of spies."

"DURYODHAN--GET--LOST."

"I came to give my best wishes to your brother, Bheem," said Duryodhan coolly, and turned to Yudhishthir, who looked nonplussed. "I was thinking that a holy pilgrimage would be the most auspicious way to start off your term as Crown Prince, jyesht. May I please have the honour of organizing it?"