I'm paving the ground for the next book right now. The Hero Aditya and the Heroine Sharayu meet Rajkumar Dhruv at the lady's hermitage, the Rajkumar's ladylove in tow. What do you think of them abnd their banter? Easy? Irritating? Too noisy? Too quiet? Complicated? Or just plain romantic?
And what do you think about the conversation the Yuvraj and the Rajkumar have?
Dhruv.
Rajkumar of Palasida.
His friend Dhruv. Here.
Impulsively, he grasped his arms and shook him hard. Dhruv thumped him on the back.
“Adi!” he said again, his voice as surprised as Aditya felt.
“Dhruv… You’re all right!”
Dhruv caught his arm back and grinned. “’Course I am!” he said.
“How’d you come to be here?” Aditya asked. Dhruv shook his head and pulled his arm out of Aditya’s grasp. Aditya hesitated to let go, but had to.
“I came with Ramcharan,” Dhruv said, and reaching behind himself, he gestured. A lady clad in black stepped out from behind the ruins of the hut. At Dhruv’s wave, she came down to join them.
“My dear lady Ramcharan,” Dhruv said, “May I introduce you to Yuvraj Aditya?”
The lady scowled at his friend, but when she looked past him and at Aditya, she was smiling. Joining her hands in the normal way, she bowed slightly.
“Pleased to make your acquaintance, my lord,” she said. Aditya raised his brows, but bowed back.
“The pleasure is all mine, my lady,” he said softly. The lady looked up at him and dimpled.
She was an exquisite creature. Dark hair flowed loose down past her waist. Black eyes lined with kohl looked coolly at him in an assessing sort of way. Glowing dusky skin complimented the eyes. A lush figure was hidden beneath shapeless black manly garments.
“Ramcharan?” he queried. Coral lips quirked.
“As much as the lord’s name is Sunderi,” she retorted. Aditya was surprised for a moment. Then he realized she meant Dhruv.
“Sunderi!” he shouted, looking at his friend. Dhruv stepped back and dropped into a lavish bow. Aditya burst into laughter. Reaching out, he caught Dhruv’s arm again. It was good to have his friend back.
The older lady had returned to the courtyard and she walked over to them.
“My lords,” she said, and both Dhruv and Aditya turned to her.
“Jwala – Sharayu,” Aditya said, “How is she?” The lady looked at him and nodded her head.
“She is well,” she said, laying her hand gently on his arm, “I thank you for bringing her home.”
“I – She…”
“She’s sleeping,” she said, “I thought it best for now.”
“Yes,” Aditya agreed.
“I am Sharada, wife of Hrishi Bharadwaj,” the lady continued, “Please, if there is anything you need, do not hesitate to ask me.” Aditya folded his palms and made his Pranaam to her.
“Of course, my lady,” he said, palms still folded. “I am Yuvraj Aditya Hansraj. If there is any way I could serve you, please allow me to do so.” Lady Sharada placed her hand on his head in blessing and smiled. As she walked away, Aditya turned back to Dhruv, still perplexed.
If Dhruv was here, had everybody else also escaped the Ashram? But no. His Jwala had said at least one of them would have to be there always.
“How did you two come here?” he asked. Dhruv looked away from Aditya to Ramcharan, frowning. She seemed to look back a challenge at him, her chin tilted.
“I – She found me at the Ashram,” he said noncommittally, “Do you know there is a story about us – some legend?”
“Seven years,” Aditya said heavily. Dhruv nodded. The lady Ramcharan discretely moved away, and Dhruv led Aditya past the ruined gardens and to the outer path.
“I don’t even remember anything of what happened before,” Dhruv said seriously, “Just that Ramcharan fell over me and I awoke… It’s all so strange.”
“What about the others?” Aditya asked him, “Where were they?” Dhruv shrugged.
“I was alone,” he said, “The Ashram was bleak, nobody else around…”
“And the others?” Aditya persisted, “Lakshman, Sarvesh, Atreya?”
“They weren’t there. Why?” Dhruv asked, puzzled. Aditya didn’t reply. If Dhruv didn’t know the whole legend, he wasn’t going to tell him. It wasn’t above Dhruv to volunteer to be the one to be at the Ashram for all eternity.
Dhuv jumped over a small bundle of sticks on the path and blocked his path. “Well?” he asked, and from the frown on his face, Aditya knew he was better off without the extra knowledge.
“Nothing,” he said, “Worried about them.”
“Mother Hen,” Dhruv ribbed, and Aditya laughed. They began to walk again.
A slow breeze was blowing and cool air wafted from the River Yamuna.
“What’s this about Sunderi and Ramcharan?” Dhruv moved his shoulders evasively and bent to kick a stone from his path.
“Don’t ask me yet,” he said.
“Another fling?” Aditya asked.
Dhruv blushed.
Wild, handsome, jovial Dhruv, the most notorious rake amongst his seven friends, blushed. If that was what the light colour in his cheeks could be called.
“No,” he said and he stopped to watch the stone bound down the grassy slope to the river. “Not this time.” Aditya looked away from pensively.
“We have to do something about this hermitage,” he said. Dhruv gladly grasped the new topic.
“Yes!” he said, turning back to Aditya with a fierce light in his eyes. “Do you know what happened! Those rascals!” Aditya side-stepped him and jumped into the water.
“Yes. The Jwala – Sharayu. She came to look for me at the Ashram.”
“Jwala, huh?” Dhruv said diving in too. When he came up again and caught the look on Aditya’s face, he quickly sobered. “So bad, is it?”
Aditya ignored that. “She came to the Ashram to look for me to save the hermitage.”
“Alone?” Dhruv asked, surprised. “I’ve been here a couple nights now. The people here thought she’d been killed… Sharayu, daughter of Hrishi Alankara, isn’t she?”
“Yes,” Aditya said.
“I think her father is dead.” Aditya looked at Dhruv appalled. There was no more amusement in Dhruv’s face.
Aditya closed his eyes tiredly. This news would strike his little Jwala too deep. Once again, he wished he could go to her and assure her that he would set everything right. But she was sleeping.
“I promised her I would help her save her hermitage,” he said. When Dhruv didn’t reply, he opened his eyes to see him frowning slightly. “She doesn’t know how to ride a horse, you know. Yet she came. All alone. Just to search for me in the Ashram.”
There was admiration in Dhruv’s face now. “Really,” he said interestedly.
“Some of her people were abducted.”
“Yes,” Dhruv said, “I wanted to go and save them, but Ramcharan kept insisting she would come too.”
“Don’t you feel there’s something odd about that name?” Aditya asked. Dhruv grinned cheekily.
“Not when she calls me Sunderi,” he replied.
“We can’t take her with us,” Aditya said, “It’s too dangerous.”
“She’s a bandit.” Aditya was surprised at the blunt admission, but not at the news. Her black men’s clothing had said so much.
“Don’t give me that look,” Dhruv said, sounding annoyed.
“Does it make a difference? Her being a bandit?” Aditya asked. Dhruv sighed.
First blushed, now sighed.
“Should it?” he asked. Aditya smiled kindly at his friend. Of all the seven, Dhruv was the youngest, a full two years younger than Aditya himself. Often times, he’d felt a protective sentiment for Dhruv he hadn’t felt as much for the others.
“No.”
“She’ll kill me if I don’t take her with us,” Dhruv said. “I don’t mind you know, but it was too dangerous when it was just her and I. Now with you, I suppose we can take her with us, can’t we?”
Aditya slanted a look at him and dived underwater. Swimming a fast pace, he emerged at the roots of a tree many feet away. Dhruv was paddling toward him much more languidly.
“Yes,” Aditya murmured to the far-away Dhruv softly, “I suppose you need her to come…”
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