Queens on the board

Summary : Yeh sach, yeh dhoke, yeh dard humse saha nahi jaata.

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If there was one memory of his father that Veer hated and wanted to forget, it was of him as a dying man.

Now in the light of recent events in his life he couldn't help but think of it as a premonition of sorts - a look into his own ultimate doom.

Until the first time Rana Mahendra Pratap Singh collapsed, none of them had an inkling of his deteriorating health.

But by the last week of his life, everyone had learned of the approaching doom.

The halls were hushed, heads bowed, smiles if any touched with a hint of pity. He is a young man, of no age to die - they discussed in hushed tones. Then they sorrowfully discussed of the young Rani, mother of two little boys - they talked of Rani Ma the king's mother, who would now be twice as alone as she was with her husband's passing.

Veer for all his five years understood very little of all that - instead all he had wanted, demanded - had been to be taken to his father - at once!

Mahendra had spread out his arms for his boy, allowed him to climb into his bed and tuck his smaller frame against him. It was over the top of his curly head, nestled on his chest that he spoke to Shravan Singh.

"My orders to you were different Shravan."

Veer looked at his father curiously. He sounded like an old man, his voice wheezy and his words far apart. Then he turned to look at Shravan who did not raise his head.

"Humein Daulathabadh nahi jaana," he tells his father. "Why are you sending me away? Ma sahab and Prem aren't going? Why me alone? Hum nahi jaayenge! Nahi jaayenge hum!"

Mahendra chuckled at the obstinate gleam of his eyes and raised a shaking hand to muse his hair.

"Aap jaayenge baba... Aadesh hai humara. As my son and heir you are supposed to obey."

"Nahi!" His eyes start to fill with tears. "Do you not love me anymore? Do you want to send me away? Humein patha tha, you all love Prem now! That's it! Nobody has time for me!"

Mahendra's hand presses on his head.

"Humare pyaar ka andaza bhi nahi hai aap ko."

"Aise pyaar ka hum karenge kya? Humein toh ehesaas hi nahi ho raha." Veer shrugged. "Humein door Matt bhejiye, baba sahab. Humein yaha rehena hai aap ke paas. Aap ke saat." He hugged his father tighter.

Beneath him he could feel the thump of his father's heart. Above him he could feel the heat of his arms wrapped around him. For a five year old boy, there was no place safer in the world. Then Mahendra spoke, slowly so that the boy could feel the weight of each word.

"You know every father wishes to see his child becoming a great man. The curse with kings is that they may never see their sons becoming kings. The sun has to set for the stars to shine. The birds need to leave their nests to find the sky. To return someday - you must first leave." He sighed, brushed his hand over his son's head.

They had similar hair, unruly and shining copper in the sun. Mahendra knew he would not have another chance of watching how sun shone in his boy's hair. So he kissed it instead.

They still had the scent of babies, a scent that reminded him of comfort and home and love; Mahendra filled himself with it - the presence of his son.

"I don't want the coming days to leave a shadow on our time together. I don't want you to remember me as a fallen man. Jaaiye Veer, aap ko humare kasam."

It had taken him more than two decades to understand what exactly those words had meant. And Veer; the grown up, tormented, torn and put together Veer; bleeds with the knowledge of it.

Amrit watches him with the same accusing eyes that he had given his father, the same questions on the love they shared. Same doubts - same fear and same obstinate refusal to leave. The circle of time had put him in the end of ruin, the setting sun.

The tears he could never bear drain down her face, unchecked. His chest tightens at the look she gives him, the devastation on her face.

Amrit takes an unsteady step back when he reaches out for her - but Veer pulls her closer, gathers her into his arms, against his heart.

That scent of Jasmin and sandalwood fills him with longing and he runs a hand through her unbound hair, realizing, just like baba sahab he had only a pleading to offer her.

"Aap ko humare kasam," he says. "Ek pal ke liye bhi humare mohabbat par shaq Matt kijiye. Hum aap ko kitna chahte hai, iss baat par shaq Matt kijiye."

His hands shake, the emotions that he tried to control spill along with his blood from the cuts he had sustained. Amrit takes a moment before returning the embrace, her hands coming up to circle his neck and move to caress his face.

"Veer..." she gives in slowly, the anger that had made her call him Chote hukum slowly melting away. "Aap ko kya hua hai?"

He watches her for a moment, not knowing where to begin, what to say. When he speaks his voice comes out rough.

"Sambhaliye humein biwi sahab," he says. "Yeh aag joh humare andar hai, sab kuch jala denga. Humse aur saha nahi jaata. Saha nahi jaata. Yeh sach, yeh dhoke, yeh dard humse saha nahi jaata." 

"Veer," her voice is soft.

"The woman who gave birth to me wants me dead." He tells her flatly.

The blunt words leave her pale as he pulls away to cup her face in his large hands.

"Amrit, hum poore duniya se lad lein, unse jeet nahi paayenge. I have yearned for her approval- one nod of approval all my life - hum - hum jeet kar bhi haar jaayenge, sab haar jaayenge. Unki haar mein bhi toh humara haar hai na? Ma hai humari. Woh aisa kyun hai? Amrit - woh -"

"Veer - Veer -"

The wild look in his eyes scares her. Veer had always kept his emotions in a tight rein, to watch him crack and crumble unsettles her. Amrit tries to hold him, make him look at her, stop the flood of words that rush out of his mouth.

"Aap yahaan nahi rehe sakthi Jaan woh aap ko mar dengi!" His eyes finds hers and holds, the wilderness in them melting away to longing and fear. "That's why baba sahab send me away. When he was dying. He had been rather insistent about it. I see it now. The thought of the possible danger you'd be in without me - after me - it will drive me crazy before any poison. Jeena na sahi, humara marna aasan kijiye, Jaan, chale jaaiye. You won't be alone there. Rukzaar is going too. She will help you adjust the first few weeks. You will like it there. You can complete your studies, make a career of your writing - make friends - live. There is so much of life to be seen out there."

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" Amrit asks him softly. "Kaise kar lethe ho? Jaan bhi bhulathe ho aur chhod bhi dete ho?"

"Am -"

"Shh," she placed a finger on his lips, against the tortured breath that he expels and pressed her own lips, albeit briefly against it.

"Suniye. Meri baat suniye. Shh. Shh."

Their foreheads pressed together and noses touching she breathes with him, until their exhales sync and he stops shaking.

"I know she has drugged you." His eyes widen. "I guessed she had a hand in your father's demise too. Shravan Singh had told me enough to guess that. But you are not dying. You still have a chance - we shall fight this together."

"If baba sahab couldn't  -"

"Your baba sahab - though he might have been a wonderful man - he was alone, Veer. The woman who was supposed to have his back, stabbed on it instead. You have me. Do you not trust me? Do you think that she and I are similar -?"

"No. Never. Of cause not!"

"Main aap ko haar ne nahi dungi. In this game I'm not your pawn but your queen. The queen causes the biggest damage."

"No. I will never let you -"

"Kuwar sahab, if you think you can stop me, you are highly underestimating me. No force in this world can compell Amrit Veer  Pratap Singh to do something she does not want to do. Not even Veer Pratap Singh himself."

The look she gives him - tilting her head just so, her lashes fanning thick shadows over her cheeks - is an inviting challenge. Veer it taken by her as always, and the kiss he allows her to draw him into is inevitable.

A restrained passion simmers between them, threatening to explode with each brush of lips. Veer tries to hold it at bay against the gentlest of compulsion that Amrit causes. She has learned an art that was all her own, a wonderful mixture of innocence and experience. She draws the tip of her tongue along the seam of his mouth, while the tips of her fingers trail over his jaw. There is a searing promise in her mouth that draws his lower lip in; a promise that Veer allows his senses to tumble into.

Amrit gasps gently when she is pressed against a bark of a tree as he takes the reins of what she has begun. She gives up too willingly, giving too much than he has intended to take.

Her exhale melts in his mouth and Veer draws kisses along her jaw, down her throat. Her skin is cool to touch, an un settling reminder of how cold she had been before.

"You are warm," she tells him, words that melt into sighs.
Veer gathers her against him, humming against her throat.

"You are cold."

Despite herself, the situation and the place Amrit chuckles. Veer draws back and watches as she brushes a hand at the base of her throat in that very familiar gesture. He leans his forehead against hers and looks at her questioningly.

"Baarish ho rahi..." she chuckles again.

And true enough Veer feels the tap of random raindrops on his neck and shoulders.

"Have you realized that almost all our memories are rain drenched?"

"Amrit," he pleads softly. "We need to stop."

"No we don't." Her hands are back, cupping his face, holding him against her. "Aap se door main kush nahi rahoongi. Pal pal thadapthi rahoongi, pal pal marthi rahoongi. Aap mere aakhri mohabbat ho jaan, yeh mujhse phir Phir kabhi nahi hongi."

"But I don't want you to see me dying," he protests, gently now that her fingers through his rain drenched hair distracted him. Veer covered her with his larger frame but the rain continued to get heavier. Soon they will be compelled to find shelter.

"I don't want you to remember me as a fallen man. Please - I don't wish that to eclipse all our memories together."

"How little you know of me? How less you think of me? Agar meri mohabbat sirf do pal ka hai toh woh do pal mujhse cheen longe? Agar aap ke paas ek hi din hai - sirf ek aur din - hum uss din mein sau saal jeelenge, don't take that away from me."

"You don't understand."

"I don't want to." Amrit holds him against her, her body was starting to tremble again and Veer's arms wrap around her. "Let me handle this." She tells him. "Let me hold you. I will take us through this."

*

Rana Chandra Singh Rathod sits uncomfortably on a very comfortable chair. The paintings hanging on the walls make his blood boil. He had never liked the decor in Shrighar - the brooding eyes of ancestors trailing after you were ever you went.

Especially, now that he found himself sitting opposite a huge portrait of Mahendra Pratap Singh - looking as alive as he ever was, a slight condescending smile etched upon his lips - Chandra couldn't help but clench his fist. Sitting in his shadow, on that high throne like chair Nalini had no such issues.

"How much does he know?" Chandra asks carefully.

He couldn't rid himself of the feeling that Mahendra's eyes were watching over them, disturbing - overhearing this conversation.

How much do you know Was what he actually wanted to know from Nalini. Did Nalini know that Prem was lost in an attempt to take out Veer? In his attempt to take out the successor forced upon him? Not as a result of some plan Mahendra had set in motion before his death as Cbandra led her to believe? Does she know that all this while he knew Prem was alive, but did not want to reveal that to her and lose her as an extended arm of his in the Pratap household?  What will she do if so?

Nalini gives him a strange look.

"Kaun?" She asks, still shuffling through an old photo album.

"Of cause this Randheer I mean Prem - I mean - has Raizada revealed how he came to his possession? Who entrusted him to -"

Nalini stiffens.

"Of cause not. They haven't even met yet. I will have to think carefully before allowing that to happen. I have told everyone that Dai Ma found the evidence. Not that Raizada came and told me where to find them. Because that will reveal too many things. And of cause Prem needs time to recover. A lot has happened and put strain both on his body and his heart. It was lord's work when Raizada came to me at Delhi instead of going to that newspaper. Or I wouldn't have known what happened with my boy -" she gives him a look of annoyance as she says this pressing her lips together.

"I can't help but feel used - Chandra. I've been in such agony all this time and you could have put me out of it with a simple word. Why did you not tell me that Prem was alive?"

"You always believed it deep in your heart Nalini. You did not need my words on that account. Instead I had to keep in mind the protection of the man who offered his loyalty to me. A man who had betrayed a direct order from his master - his king - all out of the goodness in his heart - how could I take his life lightly?"

Nalini pauses, pondering on Chandra's words, watching how her expression shifted Chandra continues smartly.

"Mahendra had ordered Prem's death. I did not know if Raizada was the only man or if there were others. If I could voice this without being betrayed. When Raizada came to me - I did what I felt was the best thing for everyone. To make sure nothing leaked I personally did not learn where they went. That was the extent I went to make sure this remained a secret. Maan the hai ke galathi hui humse I should have extracted him from Lahore before partition had I known that's where the Raizadas went. But he wasn't supposed to be there Nalini! He was supposed to be in London. Safe in London. Do you know how much money I've transferred to Raizada all this time? To keep Prem safe and out of the country? How could I know that he has returned and got himself involved in all this -"

He stops abruptly as someone enters the outer chamber of the office.

It is Randheer. Nalini conjures a frozen smile as she indicates him to take blessing from Chandra.

Randheer complies but quickly turns back to the task at hand.

"We have very disturbing news. Awaaz is printing a story that would push our campaign several months back. The print has to be stopped at any cost."

"Ranjhan is back to her tricks then?" Nalini huffs. "Has our contact at the press managed to get their hands on a copy? Hum bhi toh dekhein kya likhi hai iss baar -"

"Rani Ma," Randheer hesitates before procuring the requested copy. "It's not Ranjhan." He places the newspaper that was yet to see the light of the day on Rani Sahiba's desk. "Now you know who Akif is."

The article is the editorial feature of that issue, titled "Blood Money" and as usual written in the very precise and cutting style of Akif that Nalini hated.

Only, the editorial is no longer signed as Akif but in a longer - more real name; Veer Pratap Singh.

**
Oh btw, young Veer Pratap Singh above,😉

I'm sorry for the delay it took. I'm getting ready for an exam, haan - you never outlive those do you? :-)
So how was the chapter? Does it have the beginning of the end feel? Because that's what it is.

Now we are at the last half of the story and moving towards the conclusion one step at a time.
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Thanks for reading!