|| - Meghdyuth - ||

Always take the most unexpected route...
- Widow's Web

He was drowning again. A suppressed silence pressing against his ears and a chill creeping around his neck; it was the same nightmare and at the same time it was no longer the horrors from his past. His lungs burned, curling his brain with an odd sensation of emptiness and David McLane woke up with a startled gasp to find a dark figure looming over him.

It looked like an envoy of night - his mom used to speak about those - its dark grab seamlessly merging it with the night. Narrowed eyes glared at him from beneath a hood as white hands choked his breath. Surprise had never let him down more as it had done at that moment. His limbs felt heavy and drowsy from sleep and beneath the raging fury in the eyes of his tormenter flickered a sense of familiarity.

There was a crack of a door being opened, a swish of something cutting through the air and the stranger rolled off, with a jerking movement.

"Dear sweet lord!" It was Lily Kent, still dressed in her long white sleeping garments and a rich maroon wrapper carelessly thrown over her shoulder.

David's eyes lingered on her face for only a moment, before they darted back to the source of the commotion. The attacker had gathered itself from the carpeted ground and was testing the heights from the open window. Outside rain poured in invisible dark curtains, filling the room with an unnatural hum. Without waiting for another moment Lily threw another dagger at the trespasser, who dodged it with the ease of a dancer and dropped into the darkness beyond the window. David rushed after - only to find that he could see nothing beyond the rain drops pelting his face.

"I told you not to trust that rebel - princess or not!" Lily said from the door, where she stood with folded arms. "This is what you get, when you drop your guard heedlessly..."

Andrew stumbled in, looking messy, sleepy and confused. His eyes were wide on his pale face.

"What happened?" He asked, rubbing his eyes. "I'm sorry I fall asleep in the drawing room waiting for you to return."

"Mr. McLane just successfully created himself an assassin," Lily informed him. "And he is yet to thank me for saving his life."

"Saving life? David?"

"It was not Kashi Bai," David said in the end, finally turning around to face the Kent siblings. Lily rolled her eyes and pursed her lips as if deciding to forsake the argument. The scowl on her face however, only deepened. "I know her eyes - that wasn't her!"

"How many Meghddyuths do you suppose there are?" She asked sarcastically.

**

She often wondered what kind of demons was trapped behind those iron doors. They were often locked and beyond them always remained pitch black. Peeping behind the emerald skirts of her mother, she watched as the doors unlocked. The queen's face was grim and the princess thought nothing of it. All the elders around her wore similar expression since the war had started. She did not know what it meant, but she believed it when her mother said that Akif Fisal Khan was a bad man - and that he brought nothing but misfortune to them. She had learned that word misfortune recently - it meant nothing good. As always her mother was right, now even her playmate, her brother, Shivjit was gone. Nobody told her where and she hoped he did not go to war. After all, that didn't sound a good place for children to be at.

The queen's hand gripped her wrist like a vice, pulling her to the front from where she hid behind her. Flames...that were the first thing she saw, and almost took an involuntary step backwards stumbling back into the queen.

"Be brave Kashi!" Her voice echoed ominously. "That's how you survive."

"That's how you survive!" Kashi muttered to herself, as the memory faded back to the simmering thoughts of her mind. It helped a little; at least she was not trembling as before. Kashi stood there for another minute, inhaling the dusty air of the dungeons and trying to calm her erratic heartbeat. The iron doors were closed at least seventy steps overhead. There was barely any light or a sense of direction. But she knew the secret tunnels had brought her to the right place.

Silence and stone walls made it hard to walk for each tiny sound was amplified by thousands before they resonated in the empty cells. The air had the rotten stench of prisons that made each breath strangle her windpipe before sinking down into her lungs. The further she went, the colder it got. As she kept to the shadows and empty corridors, Kashi felt goosebumps rising on her arms. This was a place of her nightmares and if it was not for Satya, Kashi would never set her foot in the prisons of Chandranagara.

She had timed it well, making sure that Aziz Khan was nowhere near his prisoner when she made her trip down to the dungeons. However, someone she had not expected, was already visiting the prisoner. Holding her breath Kashi retraced her steps and retreated into the shadows, trying not to slide out of earshot. It was a hard task for two guards stood outside the cell, with burning torches in their hands that dispelled all the shadows nearby. Their eyes remained trained on the aristocrat inside and therefore they did not notice the dark figure that slipped past them.

Inside the cell, Nawab Khan clicked his tongue, briefly pushing away a fringe of hair to reveal a blackened eye. Satyavan hissed at the contact and glared as the older man straightened up.

"I've feared the feud between the two of you would bring such an end," he said shaking his head to himself. Kashi thought how great the man was at projecting emotions he did not truly feel. It was no secret that he always favoured his blood and Aziz enjoyed princely treatment in Chandranagara, whereas whatever Satyavan had was earned at his own effort and merit.

"Here I thought I've never given you a reason to doubt my loyalties," Satyavan retorted, his voice rough and distorted.

"Aziz is a fool," Khan said slowly. "A fool who did not ask the right question," his sharp gaze remained on Satyavan's face, as marred as it was, Khan tried to look for the faintest inkling of unsettlement there. "I know you're trying to protect someone - Satya."

Kashi clapped a hand over her nose and mouth, trying to hush the sudden intake of breath. She had been concerned about it - about why Khan had not interfered with Satya's arrest. Perhaps, as it seemed now, Khan had his own theory about the matter.

Satyavan said nothing and for the most part his face too remained blank.

"You know that reduces the number of suspects drastically - such that, it won't take a long time for me to find out exactly who is it that you're protecting."

"Strange -" Satyavan said finally, his swollen and cut lips stretching into a painful smile. "How much faith you have on me - on the fact that I cannot possibly be the culprit."

"I trained you," Khan said slowly. "I know your style. I would have known it at once had you been Meghdyuth."

"Yet you let your son play his little game with me -"

"Because, you do know who it is Satya!" Khan countered with narrowed eyes. "Perhaps you were even helping them. You did go against me - against the man who built you - this much pain is warranted don't you think?"

"Still you believe - you would ask and I would tell you who it is?"

"We can do this in two ways - one, you tell me now. Two, I will find myself, but of cause it will hurt many of your people." Satyavan muttered something - possibly a curse and Khan almost smiled. "Two it is." He said clasping his hands. "Here I thought my company of so many years might have influenced your thinking process a little. Kudha hafiz, Satya we'll see each other again very soon."

Kashi moved, so that she could remove herself from the path Khan would take on his way back, and stilled in her tracks as she heard footsteps echoing down the stairs. She turned on her heel, caught between the two parties of guards closing in from both sides, fire light from their torches dancing on the ground almost licking at her feet.

"Meghdyuth!' Someone from Khan's party pointed and yelled, prompting her to run into one of the crisscrossing paths of the dungeons. Something wheezed past her - possibly a dagger thrown by one of the guardsmen and she ran uncaring of any damage it might have caused.

"Chase!" She heard Khan's command and the thundering footsteps going in various directions. Firelight danced on the stone walls as Kashi reached a dead end. She had almost forgotten how to navigate her way through the labyrinth that was the dungeons of Chandranagara. Her original idea had been to let them catch a glimpse of her - so that Satya would be cleared from accusaions of being Meghdyuth. But her visit had revealed that Khan had already guessed that much.

Knowing she had nowhere to go, Kashi's hand automatically went to her bow. Before she had pulled an arrow from where they rested against her shoulder, someone gripped her from the darkness and pulled her into a different path - one that she did not know existed.

A startled yelp almost escaped her mouth before a hand covered it. Pressed against the stone wall and lost in darkness, Kashi tried to catch her breath. The two parties had met, illuminating the junction with their torchlights. Kashi blinked into the grey eyes of David McLane, who gestured her to remain silent. To be certain that she obeyed his hand remained closed over her mouth.

"Father!" She heard Aziz Khan's haughty voice acknowledging his father. David pressed himself closer, trying to fit both of them into the only shadows left in the corner. His breath fanned over her neck, tickling uncomfortably against the back of her ear, as he tucked his head on her shoulder. Kashi struggled unconsciously, uncomfortable at the thought of embracing a stranger - in whatever circumstances - and David removed the hand from her mouth only to grab her shoulder with it to keep her still.

They did not hear Khan's reply; a more footsteps told them that the men chasing Kashi had returned to join their group.

"He's gone, my lord," one of the men informed.

"Who? Surely, not the prisoner?" Aziz sounded bewildered now.

"No, not the man behind the bars but the man who should have been behind the bars," distaste in Khan's voice was clear as he answered his son. "He cannot have left the dungeons, search and capture him!" He snapped at the guards. "Otherwise it will be your head on the spike!"

"Shouldn't we release commander Satyavan then?" Bakshi who had accompanied Aziz suggested timidly.

"No!" Aziz protested almost like a whining brat. "It's not possible that -!"

"He will not be released," Khan snapped, but before Aziz could celebrate his victory he added. "Not until the real Meghdyuth is caught. Aziz - if you truly want to prove yourself better than your foster brother - bring me the secret that he is guarding with his life. Bakshi - court room!"

With that last command spit out with utmost loathing, Khan left and the remaining two guards from his group trailed after him. Aziz and his party stood there for another moment before Bakshi too took his leave.

"What are you waiting for?" Aziz barked at his men. "Catch Meghdyuth!"

The firelight disappeared and the silence fell over the dungeon again. Kashi inhaled sharply a soon as David moved away from her. She made a move to walk past him, when he caught her wrist.

"A word please, Kashi Bai." He said flatly, leaving no doubt that he expected her to follow.

**

I'm sure most of you did not expect us to end up in a place like this. Don't worry, this incident will be continued in the next chapter.

Who do you think is after Dave's life? Is it Kashi or someone else?
Tell me in the comments and don't forget to vote! ;-)

Thanks for reading!

Ps: Did you check out the latest character aesthetics on characters? Now we have Noor, Lily and Gayatri added to the mix! Do pay them a visit when you can! :-)