The Inseparable Princes

89. The Two Princes

"May you be victorious." said Rama, smiling, as Lakshmana grasped his feet tighter and tighter by the second for some reason, as though that was all he needed, and Rama needed to actually pull him up. And then, though, in a moment, he was out of sight, along with the best of the Vanara army. Rama simply looked off in the direction, not knowing what would happen. He didn't know what it would be, but he surely knew one thing. It would either be the best he could ask for, or the worst. What it would be, he did not know.

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At a distance from the rather secretive place, where Indrajit was performing his yagya, Lakshmana and his companions, along with their army, simply watched for a moment. They could see soldiers lined up like a thousand ants, but of course they were larger, and knew how to shield their prince for sure, if not anything else. As per Vibhishana, Indrajit would be more in the interior of the region, and would be performing his sacrifice, while the soldiers would guard him there such that nobody would be able to penetrate their armed forces to cause any obstruction in the yagya.

"Rajkumar Lakshman," began Vibhishana softly, as Lakshmana nodded to indicate that he was listening, his eyes still not leaving what he thought of as the place the ritual was taking place. "Attack these soldiers. If you kill them, then you can go inside and attack Meghanad to obstruct him during his yagya." he said.

Lakshmana narrowed his eyes in what looked like unwavering focus, and grabbed about ten arrows from his quiver. He pulled the bowstring to his ear, before he released it, and the arrows that cut through the air with their speed multiplied into hundreds from tens, and to thousands from hundreds, killing as many soldiers even before they could understand what was happening.

Indrajit heard it. He heard the commotion far too clearly to ignore it heartlessly, like he otherwise would have. His concentration shifted from his sacrifice and to the screeches of dying demons he had just heard. It wasn't the death of demons that distracted him, it wasn't that he suddenly felt bad for all those hundred thousand dying soldiers. All that mattered to him was that someone was attacking, and that if they penetrated the outer armed force, they would certainly obstruct his sacrifice. Who would possibly have both the courage or intelligence, or even either, to come and obstruct him while he was performing a yagya nobody but family knew of?

And then, suddenly, Indrajit's eyes were extra large. Family! His uncle, no, the traitor, it had to be him! A traitor was all he had been to Lanka, to his motherland, to his brother, Ravana, and to everyone associated to Lanka. And now, he had come to the level of devising strategies to get his own brother's son killed? Indrajit turned away for a moment before turning back to the flames of fire that licked the tense air. As he continued to pour clarified butter into the fire, making it splutter violently, Lakshmana unleashed more and more of his arrows on the soldiers who, even if they tried, didn't succeed in defending themselves.

The monkey soldiers too had started attacking the demons, who counter attacked, quite obviously, and the bloodshed increased steadily, as did the corpses, those from both the armies. Now, Indrajit was done. He got up from his Yagya and grabbed at his massive bow violently, almost clumsily, a seemingly permanent snarl on his face. What did you think, that he would ensure he would complete his Yagya? No, obviously not! Yes, he would've liked to complete the yagya so that he could avail all of the unfair advantages one could possibly imagine, but he would never accept that he would die too, and would die at the hands of the one outside. He thought nobody could kill him. Who cared about what the Lord of the Creation, Lord Brahma said? Who really cared about some random monkey or ape or bear or hermit or whatever that could have accidentally killed just about a lakh soldiers by now? Not like one of them would kill HIM.

Indrajit mounted his chariot, one that for the first time, wasn't shielded with a Brahmastra. He rode out of the interior and came outside, and Lakshmana did not even take a second to spot him. But Indrajit saw the other side of it. He saw what was truly big. Bigger than most big things.