The Cloud of the Princess Part I Chapter 21

Imayaazh and the three other girls who came out of the Vaithiyar's room discussed how to search for Jayendiran in the huge house with people constantly moving here and there. Imayaazh taking charge decided that three of them will go in diffrent directions to look for him while the remaining one stayed near a hall that seemed to have a lot of paitings. If anyone did find Jayendiran, they would bring him to the hall and then the girl who waited there will set off to bring the other two back while the one who found would stay in the hall. The girls seemed to accept the plan. Imayaazh then sent two of the girls to search for Jayendiran upstairs while she decided to search for him outside the house but within the premises. 'That will be the most probable place where i can find him' she thought and it brought a smile to her face. While she had really enjoyed when Jayendiran carefully hinted that she was a poetry herself, she did not let it out through her words. Though her words expressed exactly the opposite of what was in her mind, she made sure that jayendiran understood what she meant by the expression of her beautiful eyes. In a way it made pefect sense.Is it not the eyes that speak more between lovers than the lips ? The reason probably is because, even when the lovers are at two corners of the world, it is the eyes that help them to see their loved ones on the other end of the world as if they were right infront of them. And so it is natural that they speak through their eyes even when they are close together. Moreover every girl has a unique language that her eyes speak. And the only person who can understand and interpret those slight movements of the eyes is the one who has her heart with him. In Imayaazh's case, she had known for years that it was Jayendiran. And she knew Sembaruthi was wrong when she denied Jayendiran and said that she was the happiest person in Pavazhanaadu at that instant. Sembaruthi had only two reasons to be the happiest person. One - She was back to Araimedu after three long years. Two - She was going to meet Kumudhini, the girl she loved a lot. But Imayaazh had a third reason and that was of course to meet Jayendiran. When Imayaazh decided to move to Pavazhanaadu along with Sembaruthi as her Thozhi, she did not even think much about Jayendiran. Though he was very well known to her even then, she did not think that she would miss him. But the strangest of emotions bubble out of seperation and for Imayaazh it slowly happened when she was in Ponvilayur. Her thoughts for reasons she did not know of, kept on shifting to Jayendiran. His image always stayed in her mind and once in a while when Sembaruthi would see a painting of a soldier and ask if it resembled someone, she would somehow bring Jayendiran into the discussion. Sembaruthi slowly began to understand this but never asked her on her face. She would purposefully start discussing about heroic soldiers that Pavazhanaadu has seen in its history and though Jayendiran had no place in that list, would be brought somehow into the topic by Imayaazh. And when Imayaazh cut a joke against Jayendiran sometime back, she looked at him with a beautiful expression that was full of love. And Jayendiran did return it back and she was the happiest person in Pavazhanaadu at that instant by far, she knew. But a moment after that, she also understood that Sembaruthi had also noticed this and was a bit worried if she would take it in the wrong sense. But now, Akka herself had sent her to find Jayendiran and that means, she does approve of him as her soulmate. That gave immense happiness to Imayaazh and so it is very very natural to expect her to go in the direction to search where he most probably would be found.

But unfortunately what Imayaazh found outside the house was not Jayendiran. It was rather a group of people at a distance trying to indulge in a quarrel. She could not immediately make out who the people were and was neither interested in knowing who it was. But something in particular caught her interest. A man at a distance seemed to be someone she knew of. 'Oh...What do i see? That man is wearing a white cloth around his head. Is he not the Sevagan that brought us in the pallakku here? He seems to be involved in some quarrel with someone. Let me go and see what it is about'

She rushed to the place and before she could reach there, the quarrel seemed to have ended. Imayaazh still wanted to know what was happening and asked the group of Sevagars about it.
The chief sevagan asked all other sevagars to leave the place and they left immediately. Then he turned towards Imayaazh and spoke

"Devi... There is nothing to be worried about. It is very common for Sevagars to involve in quarrels in new palces where they go to. We can settle this ourselves. We don't want to disturb you for simple things"

"That's ok Sevaga. It dosen't matter. You can tell me what happened. I will atleast know why men quarrel"

"As you wish Devi. Two men who seem to be locals came asking for this Palakku. We initially thought they were joking, but they seemed to be serious about it. When we refused to give it, they started to quarrel. They did not know that we were seven of us and thought i was the only one here. When our Sevagars who were at some distance came here, the men ran away seeing them"

"Why did they say they needed the Palakku?"

"Devi... they seemed like mad people. They did not give me any reason why they wanted the Palakku. But i am pretty sure that they are not in a balanced mental state"

"Sevaga. I doubt if they are really what you think them to be. Moreover common sense tells me that it is very rare to see two mentally imbalanced people come together and talk to somebody and even go to the extent of quarelling. may be i can think of one thing. They probably drank alcohol somewhere illegally and wanted to hide somewhere not to be found by the soldiers. And they would have thought for reasons only god knows, that the palakku you carry is the best place for them to hide" She laughed as she competed the sentence.

The Sevagan also managed a wry smile.

Imayaazh continued.
"Do you think my explanation is correct?"

"Devi... i think i need to tell you something that happened last night."

Imayaazh became curious
"What is it?"

"As you know, I and other sevagars left for finding food last night to a nearby village. On my way,there was a heavy wind and i realised that i had not tied the palakku to any tree and it would possibly fall down from the position it was in. So i rushed back to the Mandabam when i found from a distance that somebody was trying to lift the Palakku. I could see it in the light of a flame torch that one of the persons was holding though i could not clearly see the face of the person. When i moved faster towards the flametorch, somebody put the flame torch off and it was totally dark. The dark clouds had covered the skies and i could see nothing without moonlight. I decided to slow down my steps when i heard somebody play a strange tune in a flute. I initially thought it was some animal that was making the noise, but later realised it was a flute. I stopped where i was and decided not to move till the music of the flute stopped. I was still for sometime when without the sligtest of my expectation, a huge stone hit my face. I fell down in pain. I heard a few footsteps here and there and there nothing moved. I got only after the moon came out and slowly moved towards the Palakku. Everthing seemed to be as i had left. I have no clue who hit me with the stone or who tried to lift and move the Palakku. Since these two men asked me for a Palakku now, i thought it could be someone who has followed us right from the Durga temple."


Imayaazh was totally surprised .
"Why didn't you tell us about this before?"

"Devi...i thought it would be better not to mention it to you and confuse you since nothing had happened to the Palakku. Moreover i was not very sure of what exactly happened and who exactly was there last night. "

"Ok.. Don't tell this to anybody else unless i ask you to. Not even to Akka. Do you understand that?"

"Devi...but"

"No ... do what i want you to... don't question back"

The sevagan fell silent. Imayaazh began to walk back towards the House.
She had a few things running parallely in her mind. She had just heard that morning Sembaruthi asking the Poosari questions that sounded really wierd. She thought Akka must have had a bad dream. But now some of those questions made sense. And it made sense only if Akka was there outside in the dark last night. 'Did Akka throw the stone at the Sevagan?No it cannot be. She asked the poosari why he had tied a whote cloth around his head. If she had thrown the stone herself, she would have never asked such a question. So did Akka try to move and lift the Palakku? That will never be possible either. Where could she have found a flame torch that the Sevagan was mentioning? ' . Suddenly a strange thought crept into her mind . ' Is Akka involved in something that we don't know? And does it concern the Vaithiyar in some improbable way? Is that why she sent all of us out?'

Imayaazh hurried towards the Vaithiyar's room to find Sembaruthi . She reached near the door and tried to open one of them when a hand unexpectedly pulled her hand from the back. She turned instinctively and somebody dragged her into a nearby small room as quickly as possible and locked the room immediately.

It was Kumudhini and she was sweating and breathing hard.
"Imayaazh. I have no time now. Just listen to whatever i say with utmost attention and care. And come to the bottom of the hill temple along with Sembaruthi in the evening. We need to discuss something very very important. Listen to this very carefully.

'KaarMeni Senkann Kathir Mathiyam Pol Mugathaan'
[black skin red eyes. Man with face like the sun and the moon]
Think of someone in the Kingdom who fits into this description.
Someone in the Kingdom who is really powerful and someone who can probably be in Araimedu now.

I have to go now. I shall meet you in the evening without fail."

And she pushed opened the door swiftly and rushed out running.

Imayaazh stood motionless as she saw the door swing infront of her eyes.