They were three, walking along this forgotten road that stretched for miles and miles, supplemented by trees and boredom all along...
They were three, on a journey...
Their path although in plain sight -clear , was riddled with danger..
The leader stopped mid path, the two stopped, dropped to the ground, all three could feel it in their bones that something was wrong,
The trees on either side looked sinister, blocking off the warmth of the sun,
the path now looked black,
The silence adding to the eerieness...
The three resumed their journey again, unable to shake off the bizzare feeling...
They camped that night under a tree,
That was when the leader had a vision so dark, so chilling that he woke up in a sweat...
The demons of his past came haunting that night,
His father’s killing , his promise to his mom in her final moments...
Escaping the perils of the night,
With two most trusted friends to a distant kingdom....
They travelled through villages, towns and cities,
dressed as labourers, shepherds and
sometimes acting as drunk friends...
The kingdom they ruled now looked at him as a traitor,
the killer of his own parents...
His step sister had taken over his kingdom...
He had given it up,to fulfil his mother’s last promise...
The dream still troubled him, the bloody dream ended with his buddies being executed for treason, their heads chopped off by his own axe in full public view...
The three continued on their journey for ten more days until they reached the port
kandappa gundappa...
It was here that his path became truly dangerous…
They travelled for days , nights and day turning to one,
It was night,when they reached the city,the gates were closed...
There were several other travellers just like the three,
a shepherd had missed the last bell, and ended up on the wrong side of the wall...
So did a group of young men, a pregnant lady,
An old couple...
The night was silent, except for the bleating sheep,
the leader of the three woke up uneasy, remnants of the last dream too vivid in his memory...
It was then, he saw this pack of hunting dogs, circle the pen in expectant joy, in the next minute a long throaty scream from the dying shepherd broke the nights air...
The three of them were given a choice ,to slay these dogs,
wild eyed n blood thirsty, trained to kill and ruthlessly efficient...
Two swords and a mighty axe lay in confinement,the leader of the three looked into d sky...
He jumped into d path of a hungry dog,it bit him hard before his axe came down upon d dog s last breath...
Soon the dogs were culled,safety was restored at last...
But their bravery n valour was well seen,their acts would need explanations, the leader of the three needed medical attention in a land full of enemies...
The gates opened at seven the next morning,the guards cleared d dead...the company of three now accompanied the pregnant lady as her brothers..
her husband had died tryin to protect her...
The lady’ s sister was a doctor,she would help...
A string of spies watched their arrival and started their horses…
A lot of blood had been lost, a patch of red hung as a flag on his dull attire...
They gave themselves names,
Dharak , dhandak and leader was given d name karma...
Dharak, the master of story telling crafted a life full of lies , convincing d lady of their story...
It was noon when the lady took them to her sister s house...
She was a young doctor, she was beautiful, n within a heartbeat she knew karma was her man...
Karma looked at her with awe, shocked beyond belief, her green eyes,
blue robe and the emerald necklace made her a goddess...
She treated his wounds, she stayed at his side for a week...
For almost till then, karma had forgotten danger, his promise, his plan of revenge,
his ordeal of misfortune...
That was when he asked if she knew a scholar named "Hannada"...
Her expression turned grave...
There was fear in her eyes, a trembling in her voice, she almost choked in shock...
She knew, karma was danger the minute he walked in, yet she felt as if she d known him for years...
She kept repeating 'hannada', she fainted...
Karma took her in his arms n placed her on d hay, he too was shocked...
His mom s last words were embedded in his memory, meet hannada n he shall help !
THE doctor Naksha was woken up,her sister enlightened karma with the story...
Hannada was no scholar, he was a trained killer employed by the king...
He had murdered and butchered Naksha’ s husband n her kid in front of her eyes...
There were tears in Karma’s eyes, the other two listened intently as the story went on...
Hannada worked for the king, his father was the king...
Something did not make sense, why was his mother’ s last wish to see a trained killer...
Naksha was married, his heart bled for her ordeal, he was a spider caught in a web...
Meanwhile the kingdom s capital was ready to welcome their first queen...
She sat solemly disgusted, her entire mind in a wreck,but she held her royal poise...
She looked out onto the kingdom she now inherited, thanks to a bizzare turn of events...
A murder and a poisoning, an accusation against her missing brother...
She hated her step mom, but mourned inexplicably for her father, and brother...
She knew in her bones, her brother was innocent,
she also knew his heart was filled with hatred for her...
She had the crown, no trusted ministers, no immediate family...
The kingdom at stake, her dignity on the line, she was named the queen,
the kingdom was decorated in heavenly attire, every street urchin got a gold coin,
she sat on d golden chair caught in a web of deceit...
The birds were gossiping, she heard a few, tell stories of her evil intentions,
her involvement in crime...
She shuddered at those words...
She could see the malice in everyone’ s eyes, she could feel their hatred resonate the entire kingdom...
A hundred flatterers, a handful of men with marriage proposals, a constant threat of death drove her mad...
She was like a dilemna stuck in a web, she decided t find her brother...
She sent twenty strong men to find him...
Dandak went to find them a new shelter,
Dhorak went to ferret out information regarding Hannada,
Karma was at home, for it was too dangerous to let himself out,
for they believed by now a bounty was on his head...
Naksha, sat by the fire, karma facing her; she told him her ordeal, how his husband met his death...
She saw him bleed,his head chopped off by hannada, a big bulky man with a bear like hands, he had smiled to see blood flow everywhere...
Her husband had been a cook in d palace of d general,n had been accused of trying to poison d lord...
She shuddered and cried, karma extended his hands, feeling a sudden electricity pass thru his body, a tinge of happiness in him awakened. Twas gone as fast as it had arrived...
That was when she moved away...
He re counted his story so far...
Karma began , his eyes far far away, searching for words, scraping at memories to conjure...
Very few vague memories came, then his dam of control burst n tears began its flood, the last memory of his father floating by, in a pool of blood...
Next to him lay his mother, clutching at her throat gasping for breath..
.he rushed to her and she told him to find "hannada for help " ,
then she succumbed to death...
Running to his father, he found him dead...d shine in his eyes slowly fading...
Then came d cavalry of men, who somehow knew of d double death, they chased him...
So he ran away, to one place he knew there would be peace...
They branded him a killer...
Cold blooded killer, they did not even let him watch their pyre...
The three then left d kingdom in search of hannada...
Now he talked in gasps of tired breathing, his eyes blood red n troubled heart mourning for d loss of his parents...
For something still troubled him, d eyes of his mother when she told him to find this killer...
Naksha , pulled him out of a disturbing reverie, she looked into his eyes, her eyes full of tears too, she looked for a long time, she hugged him tight...
There blossomed a sense of togetherness in between karma n her...
Karma sister, the present queen of kalgudda kingdom discovered a secret that would stun her forever...
The kingdom of kalasudana, her mother’s birth place...
From there a news came that rattled her very being, karma was not the son of her mother...
Her mother had been so kind to him ,always partial to his belief, always taking his side in argument...
She confided everything to him, she was cold to everyone who did not agree with karma...
She had been instrumental in creating a gap of discomfort between d two...
Now karma’s sister, Purvamudra stood on the balcony of her palace, trying to make sense of everything...
Meanwhile dhandak miles away in d post city, was caught in d web of d spider
Hannada s torture chamber...
Dhorak arrived with Naksha to the place where the legendary battle had begun,
he carried dhorak to safety , she tended to his wounds...
Dhorak played his part, he fell protecting his childhood friend karma...
Karma bent his knees in despair n fell to his knees, pleading hannada to stop this madness...
He laughed that sinister laugh,
Told him Jabakini, his mother; was never his mother...
She was the sole survivor of a clan, karma s father s father burnt to the ground...
An entire palace, a entire city an entire mass of humanity in flames, burnt alive all because the fallen fort of ours refused to send all our women as bounty...
Jabakini was his daughter, the last lady of his clan...
Karma said, he knew it all...
Every year on the day of victory march, when the entire kingdom lay in joy, she wept...
She had told him of her gory tale...
There were flames everywhere, karma s mother had watched it burn, his father the general pushed her into a tunnel under the house which led directly to the river...
She had run and kept on running to the river, found it marred in blood, bodies floating, life taken away, her friend without her eyes. Her legs cut floating dead...
Then they poured fuel and burnt them all...
now even the river burnt...
She escaped it all, she swam the entire channel, fifteen years later she met karma s father as the princess...
Magala s daughter kani, was married to the king of the kalgudda to seal peace...
Magala had always maintained a hatred for them,
hannada need only tell of an elaborate plan to power...
Rani Kani waited thirty two years to kill karma s father...somewhere in between those years she had started to love him, until hannada sent her an ultimatum...
She stabbed her husband three hundred times, and called his son for help, she took the poison ready for her...
Her mission in life ended when she told his son to meet hannada and run...
Hannada would cull him...
Daughter of Magala’ s second wife would get the throne...
Her real daughter had been killed the day of her birth and switched with Magala’s birth child...
As the sword rested on karma s shoulder, and hannada culminated his story...
The sword went up high, and came down upon karma s neck..
Then came a piercing cry...
Naksha had pulled away an axe, crept behind the killer, fueled by her own rage, her eyes hungry for to avenge her husband...
She let the axe meet his head, a mass of blood brain exploded...
Karma fell to the ground still alive, but with a scar down his shoulder....
She collapsed to the ground shocked dazed n shaken...
She woke karma up, he carried the final remains of both his companions away...
They disappeared from d map of the world...
The queen’ s hunting party came two days later to the port city to find the land in chaos...
The queen’s men searched every house and inn in the port and neighboring villages ,
They found no trace of them …
It was as if they had hid in a rabbit hole along the way,
The queen called off the search a few weeks later,
She ruled the kingdom for thirty five long years, never once could anyone find her brother,
But she knew his whereabouts, she held that as a secret, the entire kingdom thought their prince had died in exile…
the queen never married, putting an end to a vengeance, grounding the clans to dust…
In her twelveth year as a queen she had met a lovely lady with three kids in a village,
her name was Naksha…
and then she met him, a small farmer back from work, her brother who had long disappeared...
he told her of everything he had done and cleared every question she had except why he had not returned,
and he bade her goodbye,
that was the last time they saw each other again
....
