Capítulo 17: CHAPTER 17- The Other Side.
1538, Capital city, Dharanikota Kingdom.
As the sun rose that day in the capital of Dharanikota, there was something different about the air. For some, it was a joyous day, as a new king was being crowned for their kingdom. For some, it was a sad day, as not even a week had properly passed since the death of the former king. They were the ones who remembered the glory days, in the early days of the kingdom.
But there was also something new. The tension in the air was thick. It was supposed to be a day of celebration, wasn't it? Many of them didn't know what was happening until the criers started announcing what was happening.
"The crown prince is Alive!" a particularly enthusiastic crier boy screamed, "The crown prince is alive!"
Some in the crowd thought it was a good news. For them, the prince represented something new. A hope from a new generation. When the news first came out a week ago that the young prince was dead, they were the first ones to mourn him.
For some people, the news caused a feeling of indifference. The dead king never cared for his people properly in years. Why would a boy who was raised by that king be any different? At least the King's brother was different, trying to surpass the tradition and make a difference.
For some other people, the news brought fear. They had gone against the prince, in supporting his uncle, when the news came out that the prince was dead. How would the young man react to their changing alliances?
The more knowledgeable people saw the problem and recognized the reason for the tension. The prince's uncle had tried to put himself on the throne, trying to convince everyone that the prince was dead. Now that the Prince is back, will it cause a civil war in their small kingdom? The only real losers of war were the Common people, and they certainly knew it.
Sure enough, there was activity in the city soon, which signified that something big was happening. Soldiers began to move around the city, telling people to get inside their homes and not to come outside.
"The prince brought an army with him! We are all dead!" cried the same crier boy from before, a dread present in his voice that was not there previously." We are all dead!"
Sadly what the boy was hollering was true. The army which was on the outskirts of that small city did not care for the well-being of the civilians, or anything else for that matter, until the prince was put on the throne.
Inside Royal Palace, Dharanikota.
'CRASH!'
The sound of wood hitting the floor mixed with the sound of glass shattering, as the small table holding a glass container of wine was thrown to the ground.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE PRINCE HAS MARCHED ON THE CITY?" Screamed a well-dressed man, to the messenger who had just delivered him the message. There was both outrage, shock, and a good dose of fear mixed into the man's voice.
This man was of course Karana Deva, the brother to the now-dead king, uncle to Rudra Deva, and the ex-chief minister of Dharanikota. He was to be coronated that day to become the king. But his good mood has crashed, after hearing the news delivered by the messenger.
It was supposed to be his day. He had killed people for it. He had killed his family members for it. It was the day, he was to be crowned that day. It was the day would become a king.
Now, this messenger was telling him that the day would be ruined, not by something he could anticipate, but by a man who was supposed to be dead. Does everyone think he was stupid?
From the early morning today, something was off. He had received reports that loyalists were leaving the city. He should have guessed that something was wrong then. Now that this had come, he could guess what had happened.
It seems that the supporters of the Prince were not satisfied that he was coming to power. To get control of the throne, they seemed to have raised a puppet, who was pretending to be his dead nephew.
Most of the people who had seen the prince will not be tricked by such petty tricks, but this does give them control over people. After all, without the submission from the public, there would be no king or kingdom.
"Invite this pretender to the palace, I shall prove his duplicity, right here in front of everyone. He was claiming to be my nephew right? Then who else can disprove him but me?" Karana Deva announced both to the messenger and the small gathering of people, mostly his allies gathered in the throne room. He completely ignored his earlier outburst and took a glass of palm wine from a chalice.
"General Sangama Reddy, how many troops have you brought to the capital? It looks like we have to put down a pesky rebellion," he said to the middle-aged man who was beside him.
"I have brought 3500 soldiers with me, Your Majesty. They had replaced 3 thousand soldiers who were stationed in the city. In total, we have 5500 troops in the city. Of course, these numbers include the 1000 royal guards." answered the stocky general Reddy.
"Ah, those pesky Royal guards. They nearly killed me when they learned that the king was dead. I'll have to make sure to ground their numbers to nothing after I become the king." said Karana, still irate of them.
He was arrested after the king was dead by the Royal guards. He was only released when they found no evidence that he had committed that crime. Good thing they didn't know of those foreign poisons.
"Your majesty, can we even trust them? After all, they could still switch sides to support this pretender." a member of his court said, hinting at the possible implications.
"No. They are strict, but loyal to a fault. You and I both know that this new prince is a pretender. The guards will know for sure. They might even be more proactive than us in putting down this rebellion. They hate any threat to the Royal authority and the only one who can enforce it is me." answered Karana Deva. Honestly answering questions such as this, will increase his status in the eyes of his subordinates.
As the court member said, he could implicate, and then eliminate the Royal guards, satisfying his petty grudge, but that would reduce the opinion of him with the other regular soldiers. Royal guards were selected from the best of the best from them. If they could be removed that easily, then it's the same for them.
Karana Deva had already had trouble convincing soldiers to his cause before. Now that he was going to be their king, he wouldn't be making such a mistake to antagonize them. And besides, If the Royal guards did betray the crown, Karana's problem would not be the fact that they betrayed him, but who did they betray him for?
Just as he was about to express that thought to his allies, another messenger came running in. This man was even carrying a small cloth bag with him.
"Now what?" he asked the messenger, annoyed by the fact that, he was constantly being interrupted by them.
"The Royal guards… they are leaving the palace and their barracks en-mass. One of them said that they need to guard the true heir." the young messenger replied, in between pants, exhausted from running into the palace.
"What?" asked a bewildered Karana Deva. He was just telling his men about how the Royal guards would never betray him, and the next moment this happened."Is this some sort of a joke?"
"I'm sorry Your Majesty. I'm just relaying what I saw when I was bringing you the package." the young messenger replied, now fearing for his life. The rule of 'Never kill the Messenger' did not apply to him as he was not a diplomat.
"What package?" asked Karana.
"Oh, yes. Here it is. A soldier delivered it to the fort. He mentioned the Prince sent it to you." the messenger replied hurriedly, eager to get out of there.
Karana Deva just took the bag from the hands of the messenger, who left immediately. This day was just bad news after bad news. This was supposed to be his day. His day to finally become king.
There was a message written on a palm leaf manuscript, tied to the bag, supposedly written by his 'nephew'. Whatever this was, it certainly wasn't a reply to the messenger he sent previously. That one couldn't have gone far. He opened the manuscript, to read its contents.
"This man wanted mine to be sent to you as a souvenir. I can't part with it just yet, so I just sent you his own. LOL. P.S. You should kill yourself, or not. It doesn't matter anyway. You are dead from the moment you tried to kill me." he read aloud the contents of the message.
"Who writes like that? What does this El.Oo.El and Pe.Es mean?" He said aloud, to the people gathered in the Throne room. The small attempt at humor had not reduced the tension that was in the room. They had just received the news that Royal Guard companies had betrayed them, and the supposedly dead prince had sent their future king a message.
Karana then looked at the bag. He could guess from the message on the bag that this was not something he wanted to see. A foul smell emanated from the bag even when it was closed.
As he tried to open the bag, he was hit with a horrifying smell. He gagged from the smell of rotting meat that emanated from the bag, the moment he opened it.
He was not stupid. Even though he could not understand the peculiarities in the message, he understood most of it. There were only a few things that could match the size and squishy texture of the thing inside the bag. But he had to know, he had to confirm it himself.
With morbid curiosity, he reached into the cloth bag and pulled out the thing that was in the bag. He could hear some of his court members vomit their morning breakfast out of their stomachs. But Karana was focused on the thing that was held in his hands.
He of course recognized the the features it had—the same crooked nose, a large cut on his forehead, and missing some incisors. There was no doubt as to whose head he was holding. It was Jeeva, the man Karana sent to verify the death of Rudra Deva.
"Bleargh!"
Karana emptied the contents of his stomach, just as some of his subordinates did, a few moments ago.
The Prince was alive. His nephew was alive. Rudra Deva was alive. He was alive and he brought an army to take Karana down.
Someone had lied to him. Either the soldiers never killed Rudra and lied to Jeeva or Jeeva himself was compromised and sent a fake letter to lure out all of the people who were against the Prince.
Everything was slipping away from his hands. He cannot let go now. He had come so close. He had even killed his brother for the throne. Karana cannot let this go now.
He turned to his allies and could see that they had also figured out what had happened. A few were even sneaking away from the Throne room, hoping to get away. He looked at the man who had control over the army which was in the city.
"General Sangama! You are in it just as deep as I am. Everyone knows that you supported me to the throne! You will share the same fate as me if we don't fight!" He said to the middle-aged man while shaking his shoulders.
"I didn't see anything in the package, and if I did, I did not recognize it. I am fighting a pretender, propped up by the loyalists and supporters of the dead prince, tarnishing his name. That is the answer I will give if I get caught, " the general said, leaving the room with his head held high.
But, Karana Deva couldn't help but notice a slight resignation as he looked at the back of the General.
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2k words. The next chapter is going to be the showdown.
Then a time skip, skipping the coronation and the first few months of the rule.
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