The Cloud Of The Princess Part I -Chapter 1

Sembaruthi was becoming tenser every second as she was watching her husband walking swiftly across the huge mandabam with his hands tied behind, thinking hard on something. His head was bent and was starring at the marble flooring and when he occasionally lifted it up, his eyes looked blood red and the edge of his mush vibrated and it sent a chill down sembaruthi's spine. She had never seen her husband like this and she knew that he was not a person who got lost in thought very easily. 'Something really important must have come up' she told herself. She dared not to ask what it was as she had strictly made up her mind not to involve in matters concerning the kingdom. She neither had the wit to understand complex political moves nor did she want to be seen as a joker in the pack. Moreover 'girls and politics are not pieces of the same puzzle' was her theory. She was contempt with the fact that her husband was regarded as the greatest mastermind pavazhanaadu had ever seen and even the king did not make critical decisions concerning the kingdom without consulting him.
'Wrong time to have come to meet him' she thought. But she knew if she let this chance slip away, she could never again ask him what she wanted to. So she waited patiently for him to look at her and ask her why she had come to meet him. The reason was this. She wanted to go and meet one of her old friend’s kumudini, the daughter of vaithiyar elanchezhiyanaar who lived in araimedu. Kumudini had just got married to sendhaamarai, a sailor and she was very soon moving with him to eezham. It was initially hard for sembaruthi to imagine missing kumudhini and she had cried alone curling in her bed for two days but then she slowly overcame it. Both of them had been very close right from childhood and the fact that she might never see her again in her lifetime was pricking her innocent heart like a thorn tearing apart a rosé. It was still hard to miss her and she had just got the news that kumudhini was leaving to eezham in another week. It would take her two days to reach araimaedu from ponvilayur,the capital of pavazhanaadu where she was staying and if she started today she would reach araimedu before sevvai and could at least spend a few days with kumudhini. But all that depended on the erstwhile, the most respected and the most powerful man in the whole of pavazhandu- maithreyan, her husband. He had to give her permission and from the way he was walking across the mandabam, she was sure he wouldn't even care to talk to her now. She tried to indirectly signal her presence to him by clearing her throat, by moving certain objects here and there but nothing seemed to grab his attention.
'Men folk are all the same. when they are in love, they talk to you as if they have no other reason to live but to be in your presence...but when they are in this complex political mood, they don't even seem to care for you' she bit her lips in frustration and without her knowledge let out a scream in pain. The scream was louder than she expected and it stopped maithreyan's walk. He raised his head slowly and looked up towards her and his blood red eyes were starring at her. It looked as if a cheetah was getting ready to pounce on a innocent deer. She started to shiver in fear as she began to search for words
" Oh my lord... hope you are in the best of your spirits today"
He seemed to be irritated at this.
"Sembaruthi.... can't you see I am busy with something?"
The words came out sharp like arrows from a bow aimed at her throat. She swallowed something and continued to speak.
" Lord... i can understand that there is something very important that has come up and so I do not wish to take up much of your time", she managed.
"So you DO plan to take some of my time....don't you?" he roared and she felt as if the ceiling started to crack. She did not want to give up at any cost. If she remained silent now, she could never get a chance to see kumudini again. She had to speak now.
"I wish i would not have to but it is something I could not do without your permission.... I would want to tell you what it is, if you can lend your ears for a moment"
He had now started walking across the room as he had been doing before and she was not very sure if he was listening to her at all.
"Tell me the matter" he said and she was excited. She decided to explain the matter in one go.
"Vaithiyar elanchezhiyanaar's daughter and my best friend kumudini is moving to eezham with her husband and so I would love to go and meet them once before they leave. They are supposed to leave next thingal and so if i can start today, i shall be back by next budhan"
There was a long pause. None of them spoke for a minute. Sembaruthi slowly started to lose hope. She was eagerly looking at the mighty shoulders of maithreyan when he turned and looked straight into her eyes and asked.
"Are you going to araimedu?"
She was startled. She remembered rarely mentioning to him about kumudhini once or twice but it was really surprising how he had still remembered the place where she was staying. 'No wonder why the world calls my husband the mastermind' she told herself.
"Yes" she responded. She did not have the courage to ask him how he had remembered the place. But his next question was even more surprising.
"Will you get a chance to meet vaithiyar elanchezhiyanaar?"
Now something seemed fishy to her. There was no reason on earth that she could think of why he would be interested in vaithiyar elanchezhiyanaar. But she did not give it more thought and bluntly said
"Yes"
She could see he was relaxed now. His pace had slowed down considerably and his face had shed that terrified expression. It seemed as if some master plan was slowly forming inside his brain.
He stopped walking, went up to his chair and sat. He ordered the girls waving to leave the room. He clapped his hands hard twice and two soldiers came rushing in and bowed before him.
" No one shall stay in the palace for the next hour or so. Ask everybody to leave to the sirpa mandapa or wherever they wish to but not to stay back. And after everybody leaves, you two shall also quit the place. Make sure you close the door when you leave" he roared like a lion.
The soldiers replied "idho" and left running.
He turned his head towards sembaruthi and smiled. He asked in a pretty low voice
" How is your friend kumudhini doing? And what is her husband doing at eezham? Is he a sailor or what?"
Sembaruthi knew the exact reason why these questions were asked to her. She started to think.'He has asked everybody to leave the palace which means he is going to discuss something very important with me. And since it is going to take the soldiers a few minutes to execute his orders, he wants to kill the time and at the same time does not want to keep me in confusion. So he is trying to calm me down. But what could be the reason he mentioned about vaithiyar elanchezhiyanaar? Does he know him already? Is there something wrong with the vaithiyar?'

She suddenly realized that he was waiting for an answer and managed to tell him something
"Oh kumudhini is fine...but i haven’t seen her after marriage.... and her husband as you guessed is a sailor. His family lives in eezham. ' she continued 'and my lord, how do you know vaithiyar elanchezhiyanaar at all?"
"So you may not be able to see kumudhini at all after she goes to eezham...is that so?"
'Now this means that matter really concerns the vaithiyar' she decided. 'So it won't do any good to speak about the vaithiyar till he starts himself; let me drag this conversation as he takes it along'
"Oh yes... that is what worries me a lot... I even start to cry when i think that i may not be able to see kumudhini again... those were wonderful days that we spent together in the lakeside gathering flowers of different colors and intoxicating fragrance and making them into a beautiful garland for our imaginary husbands. we would then laugh at ourselves seeing what we had done and remove all the flowers back from the garland and throw them into the skies.kumudhini-she is a beautiful friend,the best that a girl can have. Oh...what a sweet voice she has.Her husband is lucky to have her as his wife...he can spend all days and nights listening to her mesmerizing voice....i have been very lucky to have..."
He cleared his throat and that meant she had to stop.
She stopped immediately and looked at him. The look showed both anticipation and fear in equal proportions.
He bent his face closer towards her and said in a voice as low as his vocal chords would permit.
"Sembaruthi....i want you to do something really important.....and something really really dangerous...."