The Cloud of the Princess Part 1 Chapter 11

King Kunjidhapadhanaar was seen with a bit of concern on his face as he asked the question to Dhalapadhi Maithreyan.

“Do you really think Pavazhanadu is safe from the outer world at all?”

After a few minutes of silence in the room, Dhalapadhi Maithreyan who was now seen sitting in front of the King’s throne said in a pretty low voice

“I am not sure my lord… But I have made arrangements to find out”

The King’s expression became a bit relaxed. He seemed excited.

“Arrangements… even before we discussed the situation… You are a gift to me from the gods Maithreya… You are undoubtedly a gift… So tell me… what are the arrangements that you have made?”

“I am just doing what a Dhalapadhi must be doing my lord… and I am afraid if I am really doing it the right way or not” – The voice had a tinge of worry in it.

“Aah… Worry…. To the mastermind Maithreyan?? I am really surprised. “

“Well… Ayya… With the way things have developed in the last few months, I should say it is not really favorable for the Kingdom. A number of complex political changes are expected to happen anytime in the next month or so and depending on what will happen, we might have different problems to tackle… And I am really worried because I am just not able to guess what will cause what now... “

The King thought for a minute and then spoke.

“I can understand your situation Maithreya… And this mysterious message we have received just adds to the confusion… I sometime even get the feeling that people around me are acting strangely for a few months now… I can also sense some big disaster to break out anytime… I unfortunately have no option but to wait for it to happen…. “. The king paused here and after a second or two spoke in an aggressive tone as if he had realized something suddenly.

” Warriors are men who kill their enemies by slashing the sword on the face…and take pride in the blood that spills out from the enemies neck and mouth as he falls down dead… I am a warrior! I can fight anybody face to face… but as a king I just can’t be a warrior alone… I need to act as a manipulator. I must pull people’s legs and get things done. I must attack men from behind when they least expect it and kill them psychologically...Personally I hate this Maithreya… I wonder how I was born in the bloodline of Thiru Aadhirayar, the most cunning manipulator that the world knows of… I just do all these sins because it concerns the welfare of the people. That is my only solace.”

“And that is exactly why a King needs the Dhalapadhis and Mudanmandiris my lord. Haven’t you heard and read poems and verses that say Thiru Aadhirayar himself depended a lot on his favorite Mudanmandiri Kesavanaar to tackle difficult problems”

“True Maithreya… I think even I should leave all the political problems to you and the Mudanmandiri and go to the top of Asuragiri and live the pure life of a sage…How wonderful would that be… to get up before the sun rises, to have a cold shivering bath in Amudhu, to meditate for hours together, to eat fruits right from the trees, to think always of god and be peaceful for eternity”

“Ayya… I think that is not going to happen any time now and I think the people of Pavazhanaadu are not going to let you do it that easily…I feel we have something important to discuss now and we better do it right away”

The King who had lost himself in thought got out of it and spoke as if he was in a hurry.

“You are right Maithreya… let us discuss about the message that I received… what do you think it tries to convey? And more importantly whom do you think would have sent it?”

Maithreyan adjusted his position in the chair. He cleared his throat and spoke.

“It is not very easy to answer the questions you are asking my lord… especially because the message doesn’t have much to say except that it warns of an upcoming disaster in the Kingdom from the outside world. Moreover the way it reached us is really interesting. The message has been given to one of our soldiers who receive written pleas from common people every alternate povurnami day, screens it based on importance and forwards it to his higher official. The official does similar screening and passes on to his higher official. Only the messages that pass more than ten such levels of screening and those that are really important reach you. The others of course are forwarded to the concerned authorities for immediate action. We normally don’t expect people to put down their names in the pleas unless they are specific to individuals. This practice is being followed for over three years now and I have not even heard of a single occasion where the pleas have been written just for fun. The common people don’t misuse it because of the efficiency with which our authorities investigate the problems of the people and get it solved immediately. Another valid reason that I could think of is that, most of the common man does not know to write. He would want someone else to write a plea for him. So I really doubt if it is a common man who has written this message. Because he might not even be sure that it would reach you. The underlying system in place is transparent from him. He only knows that a soldier collects his pleas periodically and somehow it gets translated into actions. Of course if he needs to meet you, he always can do it by giving the right reasons to the officials. Moreover you travel across the kingdom and meet the common people very often. So nobody would want to convey such an important message in such a manner”

“So you are sure this message is something we need to worry about.”

“Exactly my lord… but the problem is the target at which we must be worried about”

“What are the possibilities?”

“Many.”

“Like?”

“Let me list them down for you. The first and foremost target we must be worried about is King Eezhendiran who rules Eezham. It was more than a century before, when King Sugumaran and his twin brother Eezhendiran fought among themselves and tore Pavazhanadu into two parts. The Eezhendiran of today is the seventh generation of the Eezhendiran who split the Kingdom. The other side of Amudhu has always been a problem for us. Though we have somehow managed to have trade relations with sailors traveling from Eezham to Pavazhanadu and Pavazhanadu to Eezham, we have never have had good solid relations with them. The sailors always live in fear and terror for they never know when a war can break out between the two Kingdoms. And from what I hear from my spies, Eezham is silently preparing a war against us. I use the word ‘silent’ because this preparation has been going on for more than five years now and the preparation is almost over. They can attack us anytime this year and though we are preparing too, it is going to be tough for us to stop them if they attack us right today.”

Maithreyan gave a pause and continued.

“Eezham is a known evil. It is a problem that lies right in front of our eyes. It is a battle of power and pain, of swords and blood – face to face, chest to chest. So even they are to attack us, we will get the information at least a day before. So there is no reason I can think of this message relating to Eezham though we may not throw the issue away just like that. There are more problems that are inside the Kingdom than outside. Let me list them too.

We have hundred and thirty Oorarasars in our Kingdom, with hundred and twenty of them controlling not more than ten villages. The remaining ten are the powerful

Oorarasars - controlling from ten to fifty villages. The Oorarasar of Araimedu and the surrounding villages is Sethupadhiyaar- a man of iron heart. As you know, he removed all the men from his army a few years back because they had succumbed to alcohol addiction. It was a bold move and all of us, here in Ponvilayur praised him for it. But in a few weeks after the incident, the group of soldiers who were thrown out started to get together in nights and planned a secret operation. Their aim was to join hands, become powerful, attack Sethupadhiyaar when he least expected it and claim the post of Oorarasar. When I first heard about this plan from my spies, I laughed at it. This as because, even if they get successful in throwing Sethupadhiyaar out of the post, the army from Ponvilayur would attack them and crush them into emptiness. But as time went by, I heard shocking news from my spies which made to revisit my opinion on this secret group. The secret group had actually started to convince soldiers of other armies under other Oorasars to join them in their mission so that they can throw away all the ten powerful Oorarasars at the same time and combine all the villages under them. Now that meant trouble. I least expected this from them. But the problem we had was that the group was meticulously organized and it was even difficult for us to spy on and find out who was the leader of the group. It took us more than a year to find out a few big names in the group. I initially planned to have all these people arrested immediately but then went against it. It was a wrong idea because if I did not give proper reasons to arrest them, it would result in several problems from other Oorasars who are not very much in our side. They are always looking for a chance to protest against us and I did not want to make a silly move. I waited for a while before I got an idea. You had ordered us to arrest people throughout the Kingdom who drank alcohol in the day time. I used this as an opportunity to arrest some of the big names of the secret group and throw them into the underground prison here in the palace. The fact that these people were already been thrown out of the army for consuming alcohol helped a lot to make others believe that they were arrested for the same reason again. “

The King was floating in surprise.

“Maithreya… I never knew that such a group existed at all. Why did you not mention it to me before?”

“Ayya… initially I thought the group could not do much at all. But later when I found they might turn dangerous, I arrested them before they grew in size. So I was under the impression that the group was destroyed forever. So I did not have to tell you about them. But with this message, I am just thinking if it might have been from this group which has become very powerful without out knowledge.”

The King spoke in a frustrated tone.

“Better late than never. We need to watch them more carefully Dhalapadhi. Make arrangements for that. And tell me who others can are the suspects. And what other things am I unaware of”

“Ayya… Forgive me for not having informed you about the group. And it was not hidden from you purposefully. Time and situation made me not to inform you about it. Hope you understand my lord”

“Yes I can… Tell me about the other possibilities Maithreya”

“There is one other possibility ayya. I have informed you this before and even warned you several times. Let me just re-iterate it again.

It is the powerful alcohol merchants who may have joined hands together against us my lord. There is every reason for us to believe that they might go against us. Though we have announced to give gold and silver to them to stop selling alcohol, I can see nobody really satisfied my lord. We have discussed over this a number of times and we have not yet come to a conclusion. But one strange thought arises in my mind now. Since a considerable part of the alcohol is brought to Pavazhanaadu from Eezham via Amudhu, there is a slim possibility that the alcohol merchants might have agreed upon something with Eezhendiran though I have no idea what. “

The king thought for a while.

“May be you are right Maithreya. Even I have the same doubts. There are a hundred things we must think of before proceeding. And we must make sure we must pick the right one among the hundred and attack” The king closed his eyes and looked towards the ceiling. Things started to sink in slowly.

There was silence in the room for a considerable period of time. After a while, a slightly shivering voice of Maithreyan broke the silence.

“Ayya…”

The King opened his eyes and looked at Maitreyan.

“Yes Maithreya … tell me… You sound different suddenly? What is up?”

“There is one more possibility that we have not thought of at all”

Maithreyan’s expression changed suddenly. His eyes had widened and he looked a bit afraid.

“Oh… What is that?”

“If that is true, then it could be the worst thing that could happen to Pavazhanaadu”

“Please tell me what it is Maithreya… You are making my blood boil”

Maithreyan measured every word he spoke. And as he spoke, the Kings expression changed slowly to resemble the fear of pain and death of a goat about to be slashed into two pieces.

“Whatever we have discussed so far are just problems on the south of Asuragiri. But we may never know if someone from the unknown mysterious land on the other side of Asuragiri has sent this message to mark our end. And if that is the case, then we are absolutely naked to the solutions my lord”