The Cloud of the Princess - Part I Chapter 7

Sembaruthi did not even have the flimsiest of ideas to eat the medicine that Kumudhini was talking about. She had no plans whatsoever to marry and it was a sort of surprise to herself that she had got the medicine from Kumudhini and started to climb the hill. Of course there was a reason for it. When the girls were discussing about the remarkable medicine that would show you your soul mate, Sembaruthi casually looked at the opposite side to where the discussion was happening. She saw a man walking at brisk pace in their direction but he was quite far off from them and it was not very clear who he was. But it is perfect human tendency that some unknown factor alerts the mind of forthcoming problems. It happened exactly in the same manner for Sembaruthi. The man was a little bit closer now and though only the outline of his body was visible, Sembaruthi was pretty sure this was going to end up in a problem. She was sure that it was Kangeyan, her mother’s younger brother and he was as usual drunk and was searching for her. She thought Kangeyan would never search for her at this place but fate seemed to be working against her. She did not have time to think as he was fast approaching and she had no other option but to run away from the place. ‘And there is no doubt that Kangeyan is drunk. So even if the girls are going to tell him that I am in the temple above the hill, he would never be able to reach there. Even if he starts climbing, he is sure to slip on some rock and get his head broken. Hope something good like that happens’ she thought and looked back at the group. That is when Kumudhini made the tempting offer. And Sembaruthi did not hesitate for a second to take it with both hands.

She was halfway up climbing the hill and a lot of things were going through her mind. Kangeyan was not this bad before three years. It was only after he joined the army under Sethupadhiyaar that he got addicted to drinking. He came home drinking most of the nights and shouted for no reason at all. There were no wars happening in the kingdom now and that made the army men lazier. Kangeyan slowly lost his skills of fighting and fell deep into the habit of drinking.

Sethupadhiyaar was not like any other oorarasar. He was very strict, and when he found out, was not ready to tolerate men in his own army addicted to alcohol. He took a bold decision and terminated all the men in the army who were addicted to drinking. Though he was left with very few men in the army now, he was content. ‘The wars are not happening and it is better having these useless men out than in’ was his reasoning. And Kangeyan was one among those who was culled by Sethupadhiyaar. That was some two years back and since then Kangeyan had not found any work. It was even rumored in araimedu that a secret group had formed against Sethupadhiyaar by the people who were thrown out of the army, and Kangeyan was a major element in it. But Sembaruthi never cared for the politics that was happening in the town. What she was worried about was the constant pressure that Kangeyan was applying on her parents asking them to get her married to him. Sembaruthi’s father was a painter and his earnings were meager that it was difficult to run his own family. Though he was sort of afraid of Kangeyan, he did not want to marry his daughter to him unless he found himself some work and stopped drinking. Sembaruthi would silently pray that Kangeyan never found work.

These days the problems Kangeyan was causing had grown considerably. He stopped forcing her parents to marry her to him and started to directly forcing her. Whenever he talked, it did not make sense. He was drunk most of the times and would blabber irritating words of love to her. She hated the smell of the wine that men drank and did not even want to be near Kangeyan. Her respect to him had completely dwindled over time and she just wanted to stay as away from him as possible. There were some times when he was not drunk and what he talked then made sense only as much as it made when he was drunk. His speeches were mostly related to Sethupadhiyaar and how bad a oorarasar he was. He would say

“Sembaruthi…It will not be long before the criminal Sethupadhi is ousted from the position of oorarasar. I am not telling this because he threw me out of the army. I am telling this because Eezham is silently preparing for a war against pavazhanaadu and as araimedu is on the banks of amudhu, it might very well be the first place that Eezham would attack. And when that happens, with the size of the army that Sethupadhi happens to have now, it would take only the time it takes for the swords to come out of the hilt and cut the neck to conquer araimaedu. But before Eezham attacks us, we men who were thrown out of his army will throw away Sethupadhi and become the oorarasar. Who knows, if everything happens right, even I may become the oorarasan after Sethupadhi. If I become the oorarasan, just imagine how proud your father and my sister would be to see their daughter the wife of a oorarasar. You just don’t understand that you are made by the gods for me, Sembaruthi. We will be the best couple that pavazhanaadu has ever seen and …’

Sembaruthi knew he was blabbing. She hated politics but she knew the basics. There was no way to become a oorarasar by throwing away the current one. Oorasars were appointed by the king to take care of certain number of villages and they had their own army. Though they had their armies, the money for the armies’ maintenance came from the king’s treasury. The king can anytime change the oorarasar if he found somebody was not performing his role properly. But it was an unwritten rule that oorarasar’s chose their successor themselves and the king just approved it. And this successor would be normally the current oorarasar’s son and it was as if he was the king in his land. Sethupadhiyaar had got the position from his father and it was his great great grandfather’s lineage that was ruling araimedu and the villages around for over hundred years now. There were always threats and groups against oorasars throughout pavazhanaadu’s history but none of them had been successful in throwing away a oorarasar. The king respected the oorarasar a lot and never interfered in the local administration. It was a healthy political hierarchy that pavazhanaadu had developed and what Kangeyan was talking would have sounded as stupid to a common man as it was sounding to Sembaruthi. Even if the remote possibility of Kangeyan’s group succeeding in throwing off Sethupadhiyaar from the position happens, it will not last for long as the king’s main army from ponvilayur would storm in and their number and strength would be incomparable to the little secret army that Kangeyan was blabbing about.

Sembaruthi had started avoiding Kangeyan for some months and did not want to get caught by him now. She was walking swiftly without looking back and it was becoming dark and the path was getting less visible. She had to make each step carefully and one wrong step may just be the cause of a free fall. The air had chilled considerably and her hands wrapped her body instinctively. She had considerably slowed her steps when she suddenly heard a shrill sound from a long distance. The moment she heard the sound, she turned with a jerk.

It was the ‘madhuoli’.

It meant danger.

She could indistinctly see at a distance down the hill, her friends speaking with some man and she was very sure it was Kangeyan.

Her heart beat faster. It would get really dark before she got down. And it would be the time when the drunken men took to the streets. She was afraid.

‘What a silly girl I have been. What are my options now?’ she wondered. ‘I can either go up the hill and stay in the temple the whole night and then come down in the morning. But that means my parents would be frantically searching for me. But one of those girls would surely inform them that I am safe. Or I shall run down the hill as fast as I could, somehow avoid Kangeyan and join my friends. Oh! …what is this? What is happening? Who are the other men who are nearing my friends now? They must be friends of Kangeyan-People who were thrown out of the army along with him. Oh …my god… what has happened to Kumudhini, Devaki, Thamarai and Imayaazh? Where are they leaving to without me? And how can this happen?? Are the god’s against me tonight? Why is Kangeyan climbing up? Is he not drunk? He seems to be walking steadily. I can’t go down now… I have to run as fast I could to the top and reach the temple. Let the god who sits there save me. ‘

And she turned towards the top of the hill with tremendous pace ready to start running.

She got the shock of her life.

A dark human figure was standing right in front of her almost as close as touching her.

It had a flaming torch in it's hands and the reddish glow of the flames fell on it's eyes and they were staring like burning balls at her.

She shouted in fear at the peak of her voice, fainted, slipped and started to roll down the hill.