Elements of Fire

33. Instructions

Karna took tenacious steps inside his own bedchamber. The room was dimly lit. He looked at a beautiful pattern near him, on the floor, designed with candles and diyas and floral miscellany. There were flower petals strewn all over the room, mostly rose petals-blood red. For a moment he presumed that he had arrived at a wrong chamber.

The day had been draining, the two letters seemed to have sucked away his customary peace of mind. And the writer of the first letter was apparently arriving in person to his kingdom in no time. He needed to reinvigorate himself before the next day dawned on him with its new set of tensions and problems.

"What's all this?" he muttered, his voice treading vaguely on a higher pitch than he had intended.

Karna toyed with little candle set in a pretty glass holder, his eyes refusing to turn in the direction of his bed.

"The perfumed darkness of our marital chamber" came a quite reply, melodic and faltering unnoticeably.

Now, he spun around towards his grand bed, outlined in the soft golden light of the candles, curtained with long strings of fragrant jasmines. At its center sitting daintily like a lotus, was his beautiful wife, red and golden, half hidden away from view by the floral decorations.

Draupadi was glad of the semi-transparent veil covering her face completely. Hidden behind the thin red fabric speckled with gold flakes, cascading down her face like a waterfall, she watched her husband walking towards her, half-dazed with his mouth parted slightly, like a bee drawn towards a nectar laden flower.

"Panchali" he called softly, standing at the edge of the bed "Panchali..."

Sweat beaded at her temples, her delicate fingers loaded with heavy gold rings and chains, fiddled with the saree gathered at her knees. She gulped before proceeding to answer.

"Aarya, tonight we become..."

She was unable to articulate further, her voice appeared to have betrayed her.

"Tonight we?" Karna whispered, looking at her fixedly, the pace of his breathing accelerating.

"I fulfil my duties as your wife, Aarya" she managed to answer, hoping that he would not sense the nervousness in her voice.

But he did. He inhaled deeply, the exotic fragrance of the chamber, filled his nostrils.

"But why?" he asked gently yet cautiously.

Draupadi gaped behind her veil. What did he expect her to answer? What could she answer? But her already perplexed and tensed mind found it difficult to deliberate on a good enough reason.

"Because how long will we continue to act before the world and how long will our act deceive them" she blurted out, clutching at her knees tighter.

Karna's eyebrows furrowed in concern. He knew some gossip or the other had triggered her to act in this manner. A part of him was worried about the nature of what might she have heard, since something which could impact her thus, must have been of much magnitude and intensity.

Another part of him couldn't help but be amused. He could always trust his wife, the fire- born princess to react in the most unpredictable fashion in most situations.

"Hmm" he replied, nodding at her, he knew he would have to tread on this very carefully.

"Aarya" Draupadi said, shifting from her position towards a bed-side table.

"No need, Panchali" he said, raising a hand to stop her "I never drink milk at night. I don't like it. But you are free to drink it if you want."

The large brass glass of milk infused with sounf and cardamom and other rich spices remained untouched on the ivory table.

"So Panchali, I am sure you had some plans behind all this preparation?" he asked looking around admiringly at the room decor.

Draupadi was astonished. She raised her eyebrow at him questioningly and then realized he could not see the minute details of her facial expressions.

"I told you before, I am here to fulfill my duties as your wife which I should have long fulfilled but I did not" she answered, trying to keep the surprise out of her voice.

"Well, you had something in mind while doing all this. Something you expected of me. You can give me the instructions and I will follow them." He said, trying to keep on a straight face.

He first needed to put his wife at ease before he could actually talk to her about the possible reasons that had perturbed her thus.

Draupadi was not understanding her husband's behaviour at all. He was peering at her curiously trying to see past her veil. Now, she regretted wearing it, it was uncomfortable in every way.

"Fine" she said, exasperation permeating through her tone "Remove my veil first."

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