The Cloud of the Princess Part I Chapter 17

It was midnight!

The moon had come out well and was shining like a silver plate in the dark sky.

The air was chill and the wind was heavier than usual. The tall trees danced like mad sages shouting and running around lit fires chanting unobvious hymns.

Nobody seemed to be on the streets of Ponvilayur, the capital of Pavazhanadu. Normally the soldiers would be seen roaming here and there, but even they had retired to bed. The star’s position in the sky was the indicator the soldiers used to find the time when they should retire to their homes. But the stars today were not at all visible and looking up the sky was equivalent to feeling blind. It was black but for the moon.

Without the stars, the soldiers had to make a decision on their own to go back to their homes and not surprisingly all had all made a decision to leave early. ‘After all who would be even willing to try to steal from the houses of Ponvilayur which was ruled by his almighty, the all powerful King Kunjidhpadhanar with huge support of the erstwhile Dhalapadhi Maithreyan and his superb skilled army?’ was their theory for doing so.

And it had seemed to work well till today.

The dark figure moved cautiously until it reached a small Mandabam in a deserted street. It peeped into the Mandabam from outside. It was pitch dark and there was no way it could have found anything by just looking inside. It waited for a while outside the Mandabam carefully hiding behind one of the pillars. Somebody even with a flame torch could not have identified the dark figure hiding. Nothing happened for more than ten minutes.

The place was dead silent.

No movement. No sound. No light.

The dark figure suddenly came out from where it was and went into the Mandabam without making even the slightest sound. Why did it go in suddenly? Was there a reason behind it? It should have seen the dim light from the flame torch at the end of the street. But why did it hurry into the Mandabam? Was it a soldier who was coming with a flame torch? Did the dark figure wanted to hide itself from the soldier?

The flame torch was moving closer to the Mandabam. Somebody was aiming to come to the Mandabam for sure. It possibly cannot be a soldier. Or can it be a soldier who was coming carefully towards the Mandabam after making sure all other soldiers had left?

The flame torch moved into the premises of the Mandabam. Huge shadow of a man fell on a pillar outside the Mandabam. It was exactly the same pillar the dark figure had been hiding a few minutes back. The man was holding the flame torch and he stretched his hands out a bit. The flame torch changed hands. Yes. There were two men who had come to that place. One of them was holding the torch till now and he had just given it to the other person. The first man bent below as if trying to find something at the bottom of the pillar. He stayed in that position for a few seconds. He rose above after a minute and took back the flame torch from the other man.

“Everything is fine. You can go in. Walk straight till you reach a pillar. Stay there till something happens“

The second man started to move inside.

“Wait”

He turned back.

“Try something bad and you just can’t imagine what will happen to you”

He walked into the Mandabam without responding.

It was dark outside and it was darker inside. The man felt as if a black heavy blanket was covered tightly over his face. Nothing was visible. He was proceeding with slow steps. The next step he made was out of pure hope that there would not be a deep pit below. It was freezing cold at that time of the night but a drop of sweat committed suicide by jumping off from his temples. Was he shivering? Was he tense? We could not guess in the dark.

He collided with something hard and stopped. ‘Pillar’ – his mind suggested. He did not move further. He decided to wait till something happened. And he craved for the wait to end soon.

A minute passed without anything happening.

“Kangeya!” A huge sound echoed from all corners of the Mandabam. It heard like a wave that swiftly passed across the Mandabam creating a strange feeling in the listener’s stomach. The Pillars of the Mandabam should have been built in positions selected with utmost care to bring in such an effect.

‘It should have been built with precise mathematical calculations so that the listener would not able to guess where the speaker was standing inside the Mandabam’ Kangeyan discerned.

Yes. The man who collided on a pillar a second before was Kangeyan. Kangeyan from Araimedu. The one whom a soldier had described as the Kolaiveeran to the King and the Dhalapadhi that morning.

Kangeyan was standing in the dark looking at all directions to guess the source of the sound he had heard. It did amaze him that the sound was crystal clear though there were echoes from all directions.

He replied in a firm voice. “Who is this?”. Surprisingly to him, his voice did not echo all around the Mandabam. For a second, an unusual fear of the unknown clutched Kangeyan’s throat. ‘Why doesn’t my voice echo all over? Whom am I speaking to? Is there a man somewhere here? Or am I imagining things? No… I understand it now. Yes. It has to be like that. The echo would be produced only when someone speaks from a particular place in the Mandabam. The Pillars should have been designed keeping a particular place in mind’.

A wave hit him again.

“Did you not know why you have been brought here? And don’t you know whom you are talking to?”

“I quite know the reason why I have been brought here. Just that I did not know that the Dhalapadhi would fear to come and talk straight into my eyes. I have already killed two hundred men in the prison. I am fed up of seeing dead bodies. I will not hurt you Dhalapadhi. You can come out in front of me.”

“I can execute you if I wish to. You don’t have a reason to talk against me”

Kangeyan roared in reply.

“Neither do I have a reason to talk sweet to you. I am not Sembaruthi to flatter you and praise you for things you never did. I am Kangeyan. I am the lion. Not a meek cat. I am an army. Not a single human being. “

“You have no rights to speak of a woman whom you no longer have control upon. She might have been your sister’s daughter. But now she is somebody else’s wife. It is against the law to speak how you did just now and you can be brutally terminated for it”

“I expected to discuss something else here. Unfortunately the Dhalapadhi of the Kingdom seems to like talking about women more than anything else.”

At this point, light from a flame torch fell on Kangeyan’s eyes. His eyes shrunk instinctively and it took a few seconds to see what was going on. A man was standing with a torch in his right hand.

It was not the Dhalapadhi.

The man roared.

“Did you ever think I was afraid of you? You might be a lion. But I am hundred lions tied together, roaring and pouncing. I am powerful than you ever can be. And if you think in your dreams that you can replace me, let that better end in your dream. “

Kangeyan was shocked to death. He was expecting to see the Dhalapadhi but whom he was seeing was even more powerful. An uncontrollable fear clutched Kangeyan’s face. And it showed out well. He was looking with terror at the burning red eyes of the King Kunjidhapadhanaar.

The King spoke in a much calmer voice.

“Kangeya! I could have asked you to come to my palace and could have talked with you. But I did not do that. Not because I fear you. Not because I think you are dangerous. But because you know something the importance of which you may not understand now. I accept you are a great warrior. I know that you were thrown out of the army for consuming alcohol. But do you know why you were thrown into the prison? Not because you consumed alcohol. But because you were planning something against the Oorasar in Araimedu. And you could not have even guessed that. Doesn’t this show that the Dhalapadhi is more cunning than all of your secret army? I know some of your men are still roaming out trying to gather strength against the Oorasars and throw them out of power. But I don’t fear them at all. They can pose a threat only as long as they hide in the bushes. Once they come out, we can thrash them into nothing. But I fear something else. Something that you know. Something that you mentioned to the soldier in the prison. Something about the Cloud of the Princess. What is it? Who is it? I know you know the answers. Tell me Kangeyan. If you tell me the right answers, I will even consider giving all your secret army a separate piece of Pavazhanaadu to rule from. You can be the King there. You can make your own rules there. Nobody shall be restricted from alcohol consumption there. It shall be your land. Your mud toy. You can shape it as you like. But tell me before that about the cloud of the princess.”

Kangeyan had recovered from fear.

“Cloud of the Princess is the name of our secret group. The group that you just promised to give a part of Pavazhanaadu to”

“It is a lie”

“What makes you think so?”

“Your secret group was never well formed. There were too many internal politics among yourselves that you did not even decide on one leader for your group. There was no way you could have agreed upon a name for your group. You just communicated by using the term ‘oorasan’ whenever people of your group met secretly”

Kangeyan was stunned to understand the King’s knowledge about his secret group.

He was silent. A lot of things were running in parallel inside his mind.

“Tell me Kangeya… I have already agreed upon giving land to you if you tell me what you know about the cloud of the princess”

Kangeyan remained silent for some more time.

He asked suddenly.

“Which month of the year is this?”

“What?”

“Is this the month of Chittirai?”

“Yes. But why are you asking that?”

“And when does the Povurnami fall this month?”

“Don’t test me Kangeya? Why do you want to know all this now?”

“Tell me my lord. When does the Second Povurnami fall this month?”

“Didn’t you see the moon when you came here. Tomorrow is the Second Povurnami”

Kangeyan shouted in fear.

“Oh my god. The cloud of the princess have already started attacking their first victim”