In the Kardalivan,
Bhagiradhi had fallen asleep on the horse in front of Shodasi Devi. Her cheeks were lined with the moistness of freshly shed tears. Everything that had been her world collapsed right in front of her in a matter of few hours. She had neither father, mother, nor brother. A few days ago, she was the princess of a mighty kingdom. Today she was nobody.

She was all alone in this wide universe with just strangers beside her. Though they seemed very kind and thoughtful towards her and her needs, yet they were strangers. She knew them not, and they knew her not. Being small and young, she did not know how to express all these tumultuous emotions and feelings raging within her in the form of words. Even if she could, to whom would she tell. Her parents and brother were no more. She felt a helpless rage and frustration welling up within her.

Shodasi Devi observed the young child with compassion, "Poor child!" She turned towards one of her men who was riding beside her and said, "Rudra, we have come very far. We have been riding non-stop for hours. You and your battalion also need some food and rest to recuperate. We should be safe enough for this night. Set up the camp right here and place sentries all around. In the meanwhile, send a band into the forest to scout for some food. All the rest will stay here."

She laid Bhagiradhi to rest on a soft bed made out of leaves and grass. She was about to go when the child clenched her hand in sleep and murmured, "Don't go, mother! Don't leave me and go!"

She was about to unclasp her hand from the child's grasp when on second thoughts she let it remain in the child's tightly clenched fists. Her entire past and present seemed to run before her.
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Shodasi Devi's Flashback,
Years ago, she came away from her son. He had been crying, "Don't go, mother! Don't leave me and go!"

Her Bhadra had clung to her waist refusing to let her go. He was rudely snatched away from her and she was thrown out of Mahishmati. She did not protest this injustice to her motherhood then because the entire fate of Vijayapuri hung in balance.

Her father Ganapathi Deva had died. Her only brother and heir to the throne of Vijayapuri, Prathapa had a very mysterious end during a hunting expedition to which he went with her own husband. She suspected foul play in his death. She voiced her doubts and dissensions but was ruthlessly silenced.

Her husband wanted to annex Vijayapuri too into the kingdom of Mahishmati. She vehemently opposed it. Bijjaladeva intervened in this quarrel between her and her husband, Bhallaladeva. Politics, power, profit and gain were all that her husband ever cared. He had no use for any of the finer emotions or moral codes and ethics.

Two options were placed before her. She could either choose her son and husband or Vijayapuri. She chose Vijayapuri and its independence over her motherhood that day. Why is a mother and her motherhood judged on the basis of her offspring? Her Bhadra could have also turned out to be good like Mahendra if he had grown up with her. But she never got the opportunity to bring up the child she bore.

Maybe her husband and father-in-law thought that she, a helpless woman could never lead a kingdom on her own merit and that she would ultimately come running to them for help. But she never came. She faltered, fell down and got up. She learnt from her own mistakes. She learnt how to rule over her people, peacefully, generously, and efficiently.

She did not have to look very far for motivation. She had the inspiring example of her own late mother-in-law, Rajmata Sivagami before her. How she had led Mahishmati from the deep precipice of destruction that loomed after Maharaj Mahadeva's death! She, Shodasi Devi would become to Vijayapuri what a Rajmata Sivagami had been to Mahishmati in her times.

She moved ahead in her life. Her people and Vijayapuri were the axis around which her entire life revolved. She never looked back to see what she had left behind her. But personally, as a mother, she was still stuck in that time warp where she unwillingly left behind her crying child who was pleading her not to go. Her son, Bhadra instead of growing up like her, grew up into the mirror-image of her husband. She couldn't exactly blame him for what he had turned out to be. Would she ever get a chance to redeem her motherhood?

Back to the present,
Maybe yes, maybe not. Maybe the answer lay right in front of her. Shodasi Devi caressed Bhagiradhi, wiped her tear-stained face with the hem of her saree and brushed aside her disheveled hair. To comfort the child who was muttering in her sleep, she softly said, "Hush, darling. Sleep. Your mother is here. She is going no where."

She started patting her back to soothe her while singing a beautiful lullaby. Bhagiradhi opened her eyes for a fraction of a second. But she immediately went back to sleep again instinctively pulling Shodasi Devi's hands even closer to her for warmth and comfort.

End of Flashback
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At another far off place in Kardalivan,
Bijjaladeva and Vijayamarthanda were scanning and scouring the forest for Shodasi Devi, Bhagiradhi and their men.

Bijjaladeva: It has been hours and we still haven't come across them.

Vijayamarthanda: They had a head start over us. We were held back for a very long time from pursuing and exterminating them by Mahendra and Avantika, and later by the raging and inundated Mandakini. But isn't it a good thing that Mahendra and Avantika are no more? What can two helpless ladies, that too one a little girl, do against us? We are simply wasting our time. Let us go back. We will tell Subahu that all of them are dead.

Bijjala glared at him and proceeded to ride ahead without saying anything.

Vijayamarthanda followed trying to convince him, "Sir.....Bijjaladeva....I am telling....It is futile....They will not survive....Mahishmati and Vijayapuri are ours."

Just then, they beheld a group of carcasses stuck to poles with a mystical symbol drawn with blood at a distance from where they stood. Vijayamarthanda gasped, "The Raktabijas....I am not going any further...."

Bijjaladeva also hesitated for a moment before he too agreed, "Yes......let's get out of here......Who wants to end up in another man's tummy as his dinner feast?"

They hastily decamped from there with their entire army without making the slightest hustle or bustle. Bijjala was reiterating, "This is your secret and mine....We will tell Subahu that they are all dead"

Vijayamarthanda: Of course you can trust me.....If they aren't dead by now, they will be dead before tomorrow morning......Nobody has yet survived an onslaught of the Raktabijas....
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At Shodasi Devi's Camp,
The men who had gone into the forest to scout for food returned immediately. They came empty-handed. They did not bring any food with them. Shodasi questioned, "Rudra, is anything the matter?"

Only a single word came out of Commander Rudra's mouth in response, "Raktabijas...."

Shodasi: Disband the camp. Gather everyone. All of us have to stay together. Watch out for your immediate neighbor. If anybody goes missing, the rest will not wait. We will keep going. We have to put as much distance as we can between us and them before morning.

Bhagiradhi who had been rudely woken up from her sleep asked, "Where are we going now? And why?"

Commander Rudra explained, "The Raktabijas are presently camping in this forest. What they will do to us if we happen to get caught by them is beyond comprehension. We have to run from here. It's not safe here anymore."

Bhagiradhi did not say anything. She got onto the horse in front of Shodasi Devi. While riding, she asked, "Who are these Raktabijas and why are we running away from them? I did nothing to them, then why will they harm me? We did not run away from wild animals of the forest when we set up camp for the night. Then why are we running from other human beings like us?"

Shodasi began explaining, "There is no creature in this universe wilder and cruel than a human being when the intoxication of power, ambition, ruthlessness, and lawlessness goes to their head. There are no depths to which a human will not fall. Animals at least follow the law of the jungle. Such humans follow none.

The Raktabijas are a very fierce, nomadic, barbaric and cannibalistic race who keep moving from place to place. They do not remain in the same place for three consecutive nights. They go on a rampage and completely destroy the place where they rest. They eat all the people whom they have captured alive.

They inscribe a drop of blood that grows into another of their race wherever it falls as their insignia in front of their camps, on their weapons, their clothes and also tattoo it on their arms by branding with hot iron when they are still children.

They use a special kind of arrows, darts, and spears smeared with a herb called Indraneeli which temporarily paralyzes an attacked person's physical movements and intellectual faculties. Though their victims see and hear everything, they cannot do anything out of their own volition.

Even during Rajmata Sivagami's period, there were these barbarian attacks on villages. Such attacks weren't heard during Maharaj Bhallaladeva's and Maharaj Mahendra's reign. Looks like they have suddenly resurfaced now. Entire villages were wiped off the map by these Raktabijas. The reason why Rajmata Sivagami initially wanted to form an alliance with the Kalakeyas when the diplomatic alliance with the kingdom of Rudragni fell apart was to counter these barbarians.

It is another story that the overture for friendship ended sourly with the Kalakeyas and Mahishmati ended up making a life-long enemy in the Kalakeyas. You are still small so you might not know much of this history. But circumstances are such that you have to grow up fast and learn all these things."

Bhagiradhi did not say anything to this in reply. She just hustled a bit closer to Shodasi Devi as she remarked, "I am feeling a bit cold..." Seeking permission out of the corner of her eyes, "Can I?.....If you don't mind?"
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