Free AJAYA - RISE OF KALI (Book 2) by Anand Neelakantan Page B

it so wrong to pay her back in her own coin? It was her husband, not I, who pledged her in the game of dice.” Suyodhana punched his fist into a pillar. Bhanumati flinched; that must have hurt. She stood in silence.
    “Tell me something, woman. Why do you gape at me like an idiot? I will teach them a lesson – those five villains and their arrogant wife. Bastards!” Suyodhana spoke rapidly.
    Bhanumati had heard enough. There was really no point talking to him anymore.
    “Bhanu, where are you going?” Suyodhana grabbed her arm and jerked her back, peering into her eyes. She stared back, willing her tears to remain unshed. “Am I so evil, Bhanu?”
    She heard his voice crack. When his arms embraced her she forgot every retort she had planned, the words she had rehearsed. She lifted his chin and looked into his eyes. Moonlight glistened in their tormented depths. ‘Perhaps the rest of the world sees him as evil but for me there is no one nobler,’ she thought.
    He pressed his lips to hers and she tasted the saltiness of his tears on her lips. It did not last. The threatening face of Draupadi grew to fill the sky! The voice of the shamed woman filled the palace. Bhanumati pulled away from Suyodhana’s embrace and ran to her bed, hands over her ears to block out the sound.
    Suyodhana came to her and cradled her head on his shoulder. His arms enfolded her as he spoke soothingly. Soon she was soaked in the fuzzy happiness of having her head on his shoulder. She wanted to remain thus until pralaya claimed the world. In the east, the sky blossomed like a hibiscus flower.
    Her husband shattered the moment by reopening the wound. She looked at him in fear as he told her how he had stood up to Bhishma for Karna’s sake. ‘Why did he do that?’ she wondered as her heart beat like the drums of war.
    “Now my friends have all gone, Bhanu. I feel alone. Perhaps I should have gone with Karna to meet the fanatics of the Confederate or with Aswathama to Gandhara. Why do I feel like a coward? Why am I so miserable, Bhanu?”
    “It is their duty to protect the country, Suyodhana.” She hated herself for the envy bubbling inside her against her husband’s friends. The first rays of the sun had started sneaking in through the silk curtains and she could hear the sounds of servants cleaning the corridors and gardeners raking leaves in the garden. The world went on, not caring a damn about who died and who lived, who was shamed and who was honoured. The silence in her room was stifling. He had not answered her.
    “Bhanu, have I failed Karna? Have I sacrificed Aswathama?”
    ‘Karna! He is the one who has changed my husband!’ Bhanumati clenched her fists. Why was he so important to him? More than Pitamaha, more than her. Something jarred in her mind whenever she thought of the Suta, noble and righteous though he was. ‘Perhaps it is Karna’s almost inhuman righteousness and generosity that frightens me,’ she thought.
    As if reading her mind, Suyodhana stood up. He drew aside the silk curtains and stood with his hands gripping the window frame. The sun was rising over the Ganga, turning her waters into a sheet of gold. The fresh morning breeze carried the smell of blossoms, the chirping of birds and the faint shouts of the boatmen. “Bhanu, see the sun in his divine glory. I can see the face of Karna there.” He turned back to Bhanumati, his hair fluttering in the breeze. “It is a new day, the dawn of a golden future.”
    She did not reply but her hands felt stiff. If Karna died in the war with the Confederate, she would get her husband back, for herself. She shuddered at the thought that singed her soul. ‘Oh God, it is a sin to even think like that. Karna, of all people! Forgive me, oh Shiva!’
    “I am sure they will return, Bhanu. Both of them will be back. I have thirteen years to prove myself. Do not let this foolish incident with Draupadi and her husbands stand in the way of our happiness. I have no regrets. That