At The Threshold of Time

6.

For the next week, Shivali did not think of Ajay Pratap again. She focused on sleeping mostly. When her fever receded and she ate three meals a day again, she began tagging along Krishnadasa around the hospital.

She tried asking Kanaka about the fortress and its people, but she either didn't know much besides the hospital or if she did, she didn't care enough to give her replies that were longer than a word. Kanaka seemed interested in learning more about Shivali and this future that she claimed to be from. She'd listen with half ridicule and half awe as Shivali talked about cars and cell phones during the afternoons they played pachisi, which Shivali learnt was sort of like ludo. Kanaka shocked Shivali in her own way when she told her that she had been married for three years. She was fifteen.

 So instead she'd ask Krishnadasa. It was from him she learnt that Bakula was actually Ajay's elder brother, and also the Senapathi, because being an adopted son, the harem didn't give him a choice about the throne. Besides them both, the previous king didn't seem to have any more children, or at least, living children. Shivali concluded this as the cause for their arrogance.

One evening Shivali woke up from her afternoon nap to noises outside. The courtyard was being decorated with garlands and the floor was covered up in intricate rangolis which raised little puffs of colour dust as people stepped over them in their rush. The scent of jasmine and marigold overpowered the stench of herbs which Shivali had grown to despise. 

All the doctors, helpers and patients that could move or could be moved were gathered around the courtyard. As night descended, dancer girls spilled into the courtyard and musicians placed themselves at a corner of it. The rhythm of Mridamgams carried the fluid melody of the Veenas as the danger girls swirled around gracefully amidst a storm of colour, their anklets jingling in compliment.

Shivali pushed herself through the taller people into a corner from where she watched the performance. She realised some of the girls were actually eunuchs. They were all heavily jewelled and wore their long wigs in braids knotted with flowers and headdresses. 

The dancing and singing and cooing went on till late night, when the energy of the crowd finally died down, and the girls and the musicians began packing for home. As Shivali made her way back to her room among excited discussions and the aroma of dinner wafting through the air, she spotted Krishnadasa slipping out through the backdoor to his house with one of the girls. An image of what would happen there passed her mind and she wasn't hungry anymore.

That night Shivali lie on her bed wide awake. She opened the windows for breeze but the night was a quiet one and mosquitoes now roamed freely around the room. After rolling around for hours with her eyes shut, forcing herself to fall asleep in vain, she sat up. Her body itched to move, her legs wanted to walk.

When she stepped out of the room into the quiet corridor with only the night shift helpers scattered here and there, she had intended to merely talk a couple rounds around it. But after that, instead of returning to her room, she found herself walking out of the hospital gates.

She had been outside the hospital of course. Once she had enough energy, she was told to go to the public bathhouse. She forced Kanaka to come with her to dress her up. Shivali was learning how to wrap sarees herself, but she didn't want any accidents in front of people.

She made her way to the bathhouse. The building, looking like a large auditorium without a ceiling from the outside, was closed shut, and the eunuchs standing guard were chatting.

She walked past it and followed a tiny lane lined with the backs of the mansions. Not many people dotted this lane. Shivali relaxed her shoulders as she walked in the shadows of the trees rising around her, feeling safe in her camouflage. 

She had been keeping track of the turns she took, but when she found herself in the middle of the woods, she couldn't remember how she had gotten there. A sudden rustle of leaves made her hair hair stand up. She searched her memory for anything Krishnadasa might have said about there being animals in the fortress.

The silhouette of a person stumbled into shape from within the trees. Shivali stood frozen as the shadow drew closer. When his features were flooded with the moonlight filtering through the trees, the man she saw was the last person she had expected to meet at a place like this.

Ajay Pratap looked just as surprised to see Shivali there.