The Cloud Of The Princess Part I - Chapter 3

"None of the kings in history has had such a wonderful architectural masterpiece in his court" the painter had explained with a voice overflowing with enthusiasm. It was a masterpiece and it was indeed a bold attempt by the chief painter. It had taken him three and a half months to complete the painting, a month more than the estimate he had given the king initially. And since the huge piece of work had to be done exactly in the middle of the magnificently large court of the king, the king had to move his court temporarily to another palace of his. And after three and a half months of astonishing calculations and perfection in work, the painting had been completed. It was something that no painter had ever imagined before in pavazhanaadu and every moment somebody saw it, it reflected the painter's skill and execution and the amount of hard work and precision that had gone into it.

It was a royal painting.
The painting itself consisted of two parts which was the major reason that had made it different from any other painting. One part of it was painted on the floor exactly in front of the king’s throne. Another part was painted on the ceiling, exactly above the part painted on the floor. It was like two semicircles of a huge circle such that the lower semicircle was painted on the ground and the upper semicircle was painted on the ceiling. Ideally both the semicircles would seem to be a part of the same circle only when viewed from a considerable height above the ceiling which was not possible with the closed ceiling. Hence to achieve this effect, the painter had carefully pasted huge semicircular pieces of glass on the upper semicircle in the floor and the lower one on the ceiling. This way the corresponding portions got reflected and the entire painting could be seen both on the floor and the ceiling of the emperor's court.
The technique used to paint was special. But what was painted was even more special. The upper semicircle on the ceiling was painted with the shining crown that the king wore. And the lower semicircle on the floor was painted with the King's face. Thus when someone looked at it for the first time, he would not be able to figure out the fact that the painting was of two parts but could see the whole face of the king along with the crown.
It was a huge achievement by the painter and the accuracy of positioning the glass and the effort taken to provide an illusion were highly appreciated all across the kingdom. Common men who had never entered the king's palace before and who had only heard about this marvelous painting that the chief painter had created would listen in awe to stories of how much hard work was put in to create this excellent piece of art. It was also rumored that the king initially wanted to paint his queen rather than himself but later decided against it. Rumors about the land and gold that the king had offered the chief painter in appreciation of the work had also spread like wildfire. The painting was popularly known as 'kannadi oviyam' and there was not even a single day that passed without it's mention somehow or the other. A painting of the size of a huge tank was unimaginable for the common man and that too in two parts , one on the ceiling and one on the floor was just not comprehendible by the mind.
'How did the painter draw the painting on the ceiling father?' a boy would ask now and then his farmer father and every time the farmer father would reply something like this.
'It is god's gift to pavazhanaadu! People born here are born with extreme talent... and you must one day grow up like that’. And the boy would forget the logical reasoning behind his question but start dreaming about becoming a painter one day.

But then it was two long years ago.

The king was now sitting in his throne in silence surrounded by no one, not even the queen. Even the soldiers had been ordered to leave the palace. The king was staring at the stupendous piece of art that his chief painter had created two years back but it did not seem to give him as much pleasure it had given him then. He was deeply lost in thought and though his eyes were watching his own painting, brain seemed not to register anything at all. There was a stream of thoughts that had formed in his mind for sometime now and he was too involved in that, that he did not even sense that somebody had come in front of him.

Suddenly the silence was broken by somebody clearing the throat and the king looked up as if he had broken a spell. Maithreyan was standing in front bowing down.
"My sincere greetings to the Lord almighty. Hope I find him in best of spirits" He said in a voice which was hundred times softer than how he spoke to sembaruthi in the morning.
"Thanks a lot for your greetings dhalapadhi maitreyanaar...Hope you are in the best of spirits too “. The voice was dynamic, bold, clear and succinct. It had the right modulation and right stress on the right syllable.
"Oh...Yes My lord.... am as good as any other day....and as good as any other citizen under the almighty's rule... I heard that something important had come up and so almighty wanted to see me..."
"Dhalapadhi... I wonder if you got my message or not....You only heard that something important has come up?... didn't you get my message of what it was?" There was a bit of concern in the king's voice.
"I rarely see almighty , the king of pavazhanaadu, kunjidhapaadhanaar make mistakes... and the message that i had to receive was one among them" The dhalapadhi maithreyan looked straight into the king's eyes as he said this. The king was taken aback.
"Mistake... what was the mistake you found in my message dhalapadhi.... i know you never talk nonsense.... was there anything that was wrong in the message you received?"

"Well a number of things ayyaa.... first of all, I would not have expected such a message from you at all...especially when i was not in the capital"
This gave a shock to the king. He seemed to get angered a bit. His raised his voice and spoke "Dhalapadhi.... don't test my patience... this is not the time to play around.... we are in a very critical situation and i did not dare to go further without your advice....and when i tried to find you, i understood that you were out of the capital for reasons i don't know and don't wish to know....and so i had to send you the message"

the dhalapadhi's reply came in soft manner.
"ayya...I understand the situation that you were in.... but people tend to make mistakes only when they are nervous.... and you have just proved that the king is no exception to the rule..... When you wanted to send me an important message and wanted to send it immediately, you could have just send me a message asking me to meet you immediately ...and that would have been urgent enough for me to rush to ponvialyur... rather you insisted on sending the message of importance itself ...and that ayya is the mistake you made.... just imagine what would have happened if the messenger had run away with the message...."

"Aah...where could he escape at all.... he has to be somewhere in pavazhanaadu and most probably in ponvilayur.... i have full faith that your soldiers would have caught him in a matter of hours.... and once he gets caught, his future is as pathetic as the life of a mouse under the elephant's legs"

"Even i don't doubt the skills of my soldiers to the extent of the smallest of grains my lord....but... there is one assumption that you have made...that the messenger would be roaming somewhere in pavazhannadu....but the message you sent me suggests otherwise"

Maitryan gave a pause at this moment and it seemed to be deliberate. He watched the king's face change like a fear struck cat in the dark.The eyes of the king glowed like diamonds but the glow depicted more fear than flair.The king cleared his throat and spoke as if the words were coming from deep below his heart

"Maitreya.... i don't trust anybody on this account..... i don't even completely trust the message that i have received yesterday.... i only trust you.... " He paused for a second and continued with a slightly higher but more cautious tone
"Do you really think pavazhanaadu is safe from the outer world at all?"

There was silence in the room for a minute. The air in-between the two seemed to have taken a dense form and it was as if nobody had the guts to speak.Both the men present there had lost eye contact. It was either that none of them wanted to answer the question or that theydid not know the answer for it. Both of them were now starring down at the majestic painting of king kunjidhapaadhanaar and both their minds suggested that the king was not as majestic as he looked two years before.
Finally after two minutes, maithreyan broke the silence. The words came out slowly but with a sense of authority.
"Iam not sure my lord... but i have made arrangements to find out"