A Spy..?

After making the poison powder, Aarv and Shama both returned to the fort late at night. Saying goodbye to Shami, Aarv then walked towards his house inside the fort.

As boron, he was given some special privileges inside the fort, like his own house inside the fort. When Aarv reached his house, he saw 100 guards standing in the courtyard of the house.

As soon as the guards saw Aarv, they saluted him with respect. Aarv nodded at them and entered the house. The house was a traditional house made up of limestone with golden decorations all around it.

Aarv was amazed at the craftsmanship of the delicate artworks that were hung on the walls of the house.

"Is this the prosperity of medieval India…?'

He finally got to know why India was called 'Sone Ki Chidiya' (A golden sparrow).... Here even the soil was plated with gold…!!

---

The next day was eerily quiet for the whole Chittod fort. Although people were doing their work normally, there was a certain uneasiness in the air that all the people inside the fort felt.

After waking up, the first thing Aarv did was to assign training for his soldiers. The training especially included Archery practices, to be more specific, Horseback archery practices.

"Stabilize your bow, breath in and while breathing in, pull the string in one motion…."

"Keep your body and your hands parallel…"

"If you are unable to hit the target, you won't receive breakfast…"

The voices of the three instructors that Aarv brought along with him sounded like thunder inside the whole fort relieving the uneasiness that was spreading between people.

Aarv looked at these instructors with approval. The best way to remove uneasiness in people was to make them feel safe, telling them that the army inside the fort is still strong…

The practice lasted the whole morning… Watching the 100 guards practice diligently, some Rajput warriors came forward to practice with them. Aarv did not stop them, even started provoking them,

"Jijja, if you hit the target, today's dinner will be on me…"

"Hahahaha…" the crowd loved such provocations and started cheering for the middle-aged man…

As time passed more and more Rajputs started joining the practice. Some joined just for fun, while others to show their might while saying that they want to lose their bones.

The training for soldiers lasted the whole morning. By the time the training ended, other lords along with Supriya had already returned from their task. They were only able to get food which could last them 2 months at most. Supriya also mentioned that it was impossible to gain any more rations without getting noticed.

Aarv understood her point and nodded "Two months of extra rations are enough for us… now we need to focus on something different…"

"Do you all know why the fort of Chittod, which is the biggest fort in India, fell…?"

All the other lords looked at Aarv curiously. They also saw that the history they were taught was wrong, so they all wanted to know the truth.

"Alauddin Khilji used a new weapon that Chittod had never seen before… they used trebuchets…"

One thing he had to give credit to the Arabs was that they stole technology from different places and used them as an advantage in countries where the same technology was absent.

The trebuchet that Arabs stole from the Romans and used them against the fort of Chittod where they never saw such a rock-throwing machine.

"Let us talk about how we can counter the trebuchets…"

Aarv looked at the crowd in front of him. He wanted to involve everyone in the discussion and put out their views on the situation. Soon the debate began, as all lords started to come up with different ideas while counteracting others' ideas…

"We could ambush them at night and destroy these trebuchets…"

"But the king won't agree to such request… and Alauddin will guard them like babies in the middle of Arab camp…"

"We could try to light them on fire…"

"Trebuchets are made out of wet wood… how are we going to light them on fire..?"

The debate continued for a while before John who was thinking for a while suddenly spoke…

"For a big trebuchet to function properly, balance is the key…"

John started to lay out his plan for counteracting the trebuchet. The more he talked, the more people started to approve of his plan.

'That's an IITian engineer for you…'

Aarv thought as he looked at John. Although he knew John loved machines, this was the first time he saw John talk about something passionately.

After finished speaking, John looked at him with eyes asking for approval. Aarv saw them and instantly said,

"We will do as our baba Ranchoddas said…"

"Hahahaha…"

The whole crowd erupted into laughter at his remark. Even Supriya, who usually kept quiet also started laughing at the remark while looking at embarrassed John.

The meeting concluded on a happy note and all the lords left doing their assigned work.

At night, at a certain deserted alleyway inside the Chittod fort, two people were discussing among themselves,

"Have you completed writing a letter to Delhi about John's plans…?"

The person in black hood nodded and took a letter written in Arab language and gave it to him.

"Pewwwww…"

The person looked at the sky and whistled strangely while waiting patiently. Soon enough a screech of an eagle came from the sky.

"Skreee…"

The eagle landed on that person's hand while he took the letter and tied it to the eagle's claw and sent the eagle back into the sky.

"Now let us see how they will feel when all of their plans will fail in the future…"

There was a maniacal look in the man's eyes.

"How stupid of them to reveal their plan so openly…"

The other person also mocked the lords for their naivety.

"Allah-hu-Akbar"

Both of them said as they exited the alleyway.

Although their actions were swift, three people in the fort noticed their movements.

"Aarv babu, should I capture the eagle…?"

The instructor right beside Aarv asked him.

"No need, let them send the news…"

Aarv said with killing intent in his eyes. This was the first time the instructor saw killing intent in his eyes which made even a veteran like him feel threatened.

The third person who noticed their movement was Maharani Padmini who was looking at the sky at the moment. As a Sinhala princess who grew up in the dense forests of Sri Lanka, she had developed a pretty acute sense. The movement of the eagle landing and taking off did not escape her eyes.

'Looks like we have some rats in our Chittod…'

She thought as she said, "Dai… called Gora Badal here… we have some things to discuss with him…"