Free The Ramayana by R. K. Narayan Page B

understand things!” At which Kooni beat her brow with her palms with such force that Kaikeyi said, “You have hurt yourself—a contusion big as my thumb!”
    “I’d be happy if I killed myself or had not been born at all, rather than see all the treachery that goes on in this world,” wailed Kooni. “My sorrow, now, is for you, the doom that overhangs you. It rends my heart to see the carefree innocence of your heart—it reminds me of the little dove flitting at the jaws of a wildcat.”
    All this amount of talk prepared Kaikeyi’s mind to be receptive to what Kooni said next: “Your husband, the Emperor, is very cunning; he is capable of great trickery, unsuspected by you; great depths of trickery indeed, unbeknown to you, such depths as you cannot suspect even in your wildest dream. You and he are unequals. He was old enough to be your father when he asked for your hand; and your father refused the proposal, of course. But the old bridegroom was intoxicated with the spectacle of your beauty and youth, and was prepared to promise anything. He vowed to your father that he’d make the son borne by you the heir to the throne. I was the only one who overheard it. No one else knows about it. Now when the time came, the old man advised Bharatha sweetly: ‘Why don’t you go and spend a few days with your grandfather? He has been asking you so long.’ And forthwith got him and his inseparable brother Sathrugna out of the way. He would have sent you away too—but for the fact that he can’t survive even a single day without your caresses! Your charms are still potent. You will have to save yourself with their aid before it’s too late. . . . Rama should not be enthroned tomorrow.”
    “Why not? The King may have his own reasons; and I see no difference between Rama and Bharatha.”
    “Do you know how people can change overnight? Tomorrow this time, he will be a different Rama. His only aim will be to stay long and strong in his seat, and to achieve it he will remove all hurdles. The chief hurdle will be Bharatha, who may assert his claim any time and win it by public support. Rama will banish him or break him down or behead him. You will no longer be a queen, but an ex-queen, of an ex-king, and will probably be reduced to the status of being the handmaid of the queen mother Kausalya.”
    “Never! how would she dare!” cried Kaikeyi involuntarily. “Let her try!”
    “By this time tomorrow, it could happen; it’s bound to happen sooner or later.” Thus Kooni had brought Kaikeyi to the brink of panic, before spelling out the remedy: “Do you remember that Dasaratha was saved by you at one time, and there are two ancient promises of his to be fulfilled? Leave alone his promise to your father: you are not concerned with it. But hold on to the two promises given to you. Demand first the banishment of Rama to the forests for fourteen years, and secondly the crowning of Bharatha in his place immediately.”
    “Impossible conditions; you must be drunk.”
    “No, quite practical, only go about it this way. . . .”
     
Thus it happened that when Dasaratha sought Kaikeyi’s company, as was his wont, he did not find her in her chamber or the garden. A maid told him, “She is in the kopa gruha. ”
    “Why, why there?” He had had a tiring day. He had had meetings again and again with his chief spiritual mentor, Vasishtha, and his chief minister, Sumanthra, going into details of arrangements for the next day’s ceremonials and festivities. “I will be the host for the whole city tomorrow,” he had said; “let no one feel any want.” Again and again he had mentioned how every home and street and building should be decorated and brightened; and how musicians, dancers, and entertainers should be ready at the assembly hall before the dawn, and how the state elephant and horses and chariots should move in the procession of the newly crowned king; and named the streets through which the procession should pass.