The Cloud Of The Princess - Part 1Chapter 24

It was windy and heavily raining. The noise of the downpour was unbearable. It was constant without even a little pause in between. But the even more terrifying sight was what was happening around. Tall trees were dancing in the wind and they were all on fire. It was total chaos all over the place where no human beings seemed to exist. Or may be all of them were thrown out of the place by the wind. It looked like a forest. And all the tall thick trees were on fire. The smoke that covered the place was choking. The heat could be felt. The winds and the heavy downpour were making the place colder and colder while the fire was making it hotter and hotter. It was not a place where men could live for sure. Or may be - may be .... could it be like this? Yes it has to be like that. This is what is people describe as Hell. It perfectly fits the description.

It suddenly felt different. Somebody must have sprinkled water over the face. The senses whirled for a minute. It felt as if some unknown circular force was acting on the forehead.

It felt heavy. Slowly it settled down.

Sembaruthi woke up.

Vaithiyar Elanchezhiyanaar was looking at her. His face was full of peace and calm. The eyes looked so different now. But still there was no doubt that this was the exact pair of eyes that stared at her three years back. When she fell down from the top of Madiyamalai.

But what does that mean now? How can it be the Vaithiyar? If it was the Vaithiyar, then what does that hint at? No... My mind is not stable. I have lost my ability to think, let alone derive conclusions. I shall just wait for the Vaithiyar to talk. I have no other option now but to surrender.

The Vaithiyar spoke

"Sembaruthi... are you alright now?"

"Physically, yes"

"What is the mental block that you have?"

"Who are you?"

"Don't you think that is a funny question?"

"I know you understand what i mean? Why did you ask me to close all the doors? Why are the doors not opening? Are you going to ... going to.. kill me?"

"Did the Dhalapadhi send you here for that? Didn't he give you a job to do? "

"Yes he did. But i am no longer going to do that. I no longer have faith in you. Because you are not just a Vaithiyar. You work against Pavazhanaadu"

"You don't have to have faith in me. But you need to have faith in the Dhalapadhi. "

"Let me ask you directly. Three years earlier, i saw you in Madiyamalai with a torch light. Isn't that true"

"How does that make me work against Pavazhanadu"

"Your eyes... that suggests more than what you think. It seems calm now. But it was not so when i saw you in Madhiyamalai. They were burning red like hell then. They showed me a traitor. They showed me an animal"

The Vaithiyar smiled and spoke as gently as possible.

"Don't you think the claims you are making are baseless? Was your mind steady when you saw me three years back? Was it not filled with fear already? Were you not expecting a particular person to jump out of the bushes at any moment? And was it not at that time you saw my eyes glowing in the light from the torch? But Sembaruthi - the problem now is, i have very little time. Something very important is at stake. You have to make up your mind immediately. You either have to believe me and follow me to where i take you to or go back from this room. I shall wait for another minute for your decision. But keep in mind. Your husband is not an ordinary person. His powers are unlimited. Sometimes his reach is greater than the almighty Kunjidhapaadhanar himself. And what you are doing now is, doubting your husband's brilliance. Doubting the erstwhile Dhalapadhi Maithreyanaar's acumen. And all this you are doing based on no stern evidence whatsoever"

And the Vaithiyar fell silent.

Sembaruthi's heart started to race. She had to make a decision. And quick.

The Vaithiyar did not sound convincing to her. But then, so did her thoughts.

'Could the Dhalapadhi have been tricked by the Vaithiyar? Is the Vaithiyar playing a game here? But what is the purpose of it? What can he possibly do with me? Is he going to hide me somewhere? And then ask something in return from the Dhalapadhi to let me out? No way. That will never succeed. My Husband will not even hesitate to sacrifice me if it will save the kingdom. And iam proud of that. But i will not let the Dhalapadhi take such a difficult decision. I will kill myself the moment i think i will be used and manipulated to get something done against the Kingdom. Here i have the knife. Let me count on that. Let that go into the throat of the enemy. If need be , let it go into the my throat too.' She glanced a second at the knife and thought as if she was talking to the knife itself ' Iam counting on you. I am taking this decision only because you are with me. And please don't hesitate to come and save me when the situation demands. You will still be saving me even if you are going to kill me'

"Yes. I shall go with you" said Sembaruthi.

"Good. Hope you have the knife with you " said the Vaithiyar without any modulation in voice.

Sembaruthi was shocked for a second.

"Are you a mind reader?" she asked with a slight shiver in her voice.

"I shall answer that question soon. Follow me now", said the Vaithiyar and went across the room. He went to a corner and knelt down. He knocked the floor twice. Paused for a second - Knocked it twice again. Paused for a second - Knocked it once more.

A small circular opening was now visible in the floor. The Vaithiyar slowly went down through it. After the whole of his body went into the whole, he turned his head and looked at Sembaruthi. Her expression suggested that she was in shock and surprise.

She slowly moved towards the opening. And went inside it in the same way as the Vaithiyar had done.

It was completely dark inside the opening and it seemed to be a passage that led to somewhere. It was not like a normal passage. 'It must have been done by a very careless constructor' thought Sembaruthi as she was walking along the passage with the Vaithiyar going in front of her. The Vaithiyar was moving pretty quick and it was very difficult for Sembaruthi to adjust to his pace. There was a common technique to move inside secret passages even without absolutely any light. That was to put your fingers into a small hole that would normally be on both the walls of the passage. And move your fingers with the hole. And that would lead you to the other end of the passage. Sembaruthi had heard this technique from her husband a long time back and was using it now. But it surprised her completely to see the Vaithiyar move without doing that. 'May be he has walked in this tunnel for so many times now...' she thought. She suddenly felt strange. She was sweating.

The Vaithiyar spoke in the dark as he was walking.

"Sembaruthi.. This passage may seem to be not well constructed... But that is not because of the person who constructed it. It was because of the lack of time to actually construct it"

"Where does this lead to?"

"You will know that in some time"

"And what am i going to do once we get there"

"Well.... it is better that i tell you that now rather than wasting time once we get there. But before that, let me tell you one thing. If you are trying to find the path with your fingers inside the hole in the wall, you might just get lost"

Sembaruthi froze.

"So, Sembaruthi... you better follow my voice rather than the hole.. This is a complicated passage. It has more than one mouth. We need to go to the right place. "

Sembaruthi still had her fingers in the hole. For some reason she thought she would lose the way if she took her fingers out.

The Vaithiyar continued. His voice expressed concern.

"Iam really sorry to take you in this passage without explaining anything. I fear we will be late if i have to explain everything from the beginning. So i will try to be as concise as possible. So listen carefully to whatever i say.

Me and the Dhalapadhi have found strong evidence of a group of people who are planning something against the kingdom for more than three years now. This group calls itself 'the cloud of the princess' the reason of which we don't know at this point in time.

But what we know is they are potentially very very dangerous. They do not tackle things face to face. Their moves are very well calculated and they have their people spread across the Kingdom and this includes men, women and children. Their first big step is planned tonight when the moon reaches the top of the head. And what they have planned to do is the unthinkable"

The Vaithiyar paused.

Sembaruthi asked in a low voice.

"Are they planning to hurt the king from the back?"

"That was what we thought initially. But that does not seem to be the case"

"Then is it anything to do with the Dhalapadhi?"

"No.. It is neither concerned with the Dhalapadhi"

"Then who else in the Kingdom would they target?"

"We are not sure. We just have a person in mind and we can verify only when we reach the destination"

"So what am i supposed to do now?"

The Vaithiyar paused for a second.

"Take a left now. Your fingers would take you to the right."

Sembaruthi felt ashamed. At the same time, she was now pretty sure she can believe the Vaithiyar. Though whatever he was saying was all shocking, she was expecting something in these lines though she had no clue of the exact problem. She took her hands off the hole and followed the dynamic and magnetic voice of the vaithiyar.

The Vaithiyar continued.

"Yes. Sembaruthi. We will reach the place very soon now. You have to do something very carefully. You need to get out of the hole and go and hide behind the first tree that you can see on your right. Wait in the place till you see something happening. If my guess is correct, you will find a Palakku coming very near to you in sometime. Listen carefully now. Once the Palakku comes, the people who carried the Palakku will walk out of the place. And once they are out of sight, you need to make your moves quickly for you will not have time left later on. You need to get into the Palakku and stab the person inside. And then drag the person' body behind the tree where you will hide. And then get back to the Palakku and sit inside it till someone comes. "

Sembaruthi could not believe what she was hearing. Her whole body was now shivering in fear. The job that the Vaithiyar had given was unimaginable. Her husband had hinted that she might get into a lot of troubles, but now just hearing what was expected from her itself was giving her qualms.

' Oh my god.... I will never be able to stab someone and then drag the body a distance' she thought.

"We are there." said the Vaithiyar.

Sembaruthi saw a streak of light at a distance. It was moonlight creeping into the closed tunnel through cracks. She was getting nervous by the second. Her head was aching like anything. She was sweating profusely. ' Should i do all this ? Why did i chose to come here... this is the biggest mistake i have ever made in my life'

"Sembaruthi.. you need to go now. Follow exactly whatever i say. I shall be watching your moves from here"

"I don't have the courage to do this... i am really afraid. I can't just do all this properly. I don't want to do it...."

"It's past that stage devi. And the Dhalapadhi would not have chosen you without a reason for this job. There is nothing wrong when you are doing it for the kingdom. Have faith in yourself. You will be triumphant"

Sembaruthi was still hesitant to go.

"But why do you think i will be able to stab a man from the back better than anybody else ?"

The Vaithiyar replied after a minute of silence following a huge sigh.

"Devi....The Dhalapadhi is pretty sure that the person you will stab is not a man"