Aradhya ||Indian historical fiction||

06| YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR STRENGTH.

Aradhya's feet gave out. She saw Aagneya being brought in with huge shackles strung around his defeated body. A dozen of other military chiefs came in again but nothing caught Aradhya's eyes except the white veil draped over a corpse on the bier. She dropped to the ground imaging the worse or to say imagining what actually was.

Her heart all but dropped as a gentle puff of wind pushed the veil off and revealed the pale face of Vikram from whose lips, a single stream of blood had dried up. Her floodgates opened as her breath caught up in her throat. The air grew heavier around her as her whole body shivered. She could not comprehend what was happening though she knew exactly what was happening.

She took shaken steps towards where everyone was standing. Aagneya with his head down, the ministers and the royal family mourning the death of their favourite prince. Chaya was nowhere to be found and Aradhya wondered if her womb felt any sorrow towards her son or not.

Aadrika tried holding Aradhya back but could not stop her strong-willed steps. Aadrika held Abhik in her arms tightly, very insecure by the scene before her.

Aradhya plopped down beside the dead carcass of Vikram' body and not a single word was she able to speak. She took Vikram's hand in hers and pressed it against her forehead as her tears moistened the pale yellow Haldi sari of hers.

In a moment, her desperate and sorrow filled cry brought tears to every soul in that room. The enemy soldiers too were on the verge of crying.

"Vikram..." A shallow voice left her mouth besides her screeching cries. Something changed in her at that moment. Something she never thought of having. Vengeance and hatred stirred within her. Aradhya lost her humble, quiet side with the tears she spent on the person that meant the most to her. The person whose dreams meant more than anything the whole kingdom had.

Though with revenge in her heart, Aradhya's eyes still wouldn't stop tearing. Her wails wouldn't calm down. Her head couldn't accept the fact that her brother, Vikram, was truly no more. Aagneya sat down beside Aradhya and laid a hand on her back which to her was the most fatherly he could become. To that, the sorrow in her turned again to a level that actually made people in the court cry.

"Aradhya..." Aagneya uttered with a choked voice, "don't let them see your weakness."

That was the first lesson she ever learnt from her father. That was what her mother always used to say as Bhairavi portrayed it. Aradhya's sobs calmed down and she hesitantly let go of Vikram's hand wishing him the place in heaven he deserved.

She stood up and wiped her tears. She drew in a sharp breath and closed her eyes for a minute.

The moment she opened her eyes, she let go of who she was before. She now had to be cunning and wise. She had to be strong. She remembered what Vikram had taught her years ago.

"You don't know how strong you are until being strong is the only thing you can do."

With that, Aradhya changed. Unlike any other.
.   .   .   .

The wails and sobs erupting out of the courtroom reached Vihaan's ears as he walked down the hall. The sound of it made him shudder. He never had thought that an enemies cries would make him weak when their swords couldn't.

That grief-filled voice brought back wild memories of his father's death. Aradhya's cry was what seemed so very close to how Rajmata Bhadra had wailed over Vihaan's father's corpse.

As Vihaan thought about the scene at the back of his head, the wails stopped. They became completely silent. He entered the courtroom and the aura hit him in the face, of sorrow, grief and hatred altogether. Every eye in the court was glaring at him.