Chapter 2

After the ill-fated and traumatizing night, she somehow managed to escape the soldiers. She took a secret passage to flee. The secret passage began from her mother's chamber, thus rushed towards it, to look for that vase.

When she reached the chamber, she quickly did so, as her mother told her. And as expected, the door to the passage opens, which was hidden on the wall like camouflage within the wall.

"Shh…! I hear voices from inside this room, let's check this as well. We need to find that princess or the master won't forgive us.", one of the soldiers of Braheshwat whispered, but loud enough to be heard by Shivantika.

Hearing this, she quickly enters and closes the door without giving it a second thought with tears flowing through her cheeks, her weeping in sorrow of losing the joys of the entire world. As the door is shut close, it appears such a camouflage that nobody could tell that there was a door on the wall.

Entering the passage, Shivantika realizes it is more of a tunnel. It was so dark that she couldn't see anything.

Suddenly, she hears something. On a distance, she saw a gate open. Some kind of light was coming out from there. It was the only way out of there, as it was a one-way tunnel. She moves towards the light and tried to see what was emitting that.

She rushes towards the light and BANG! She trips and falls down. This wasn't enough for her on that sorrowful night, that something bit her foot, too. She wondered it might be just some kind of insect, like a mosquito, and thus she continued moving and come out of that vast tunnel and follow the light.

Just when she wondered she was out of that tunnel like thing, she suddenly heard some voices of footsteps coming from back, she exclaimed and tried to run for her life, but she started to black out and saw her foot getting blue and fell on the ground and wondered that it might be her end now and she would be caught by the enemy's soldiers, and she closed her eyes. She later realized that other than the voices from behind, there were some other footsteps too, but those got closer to her. The footsteps belonged to a man. He picked her up and took her with him.

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The scene shifts to Shivantika waking up in a cottage like house. She regains her consciousness, however not fully awake. She is in a subconscious like state. She could hear everything happening around her, and also the man sitting beside her bed.

When she slowly opens her eyes, she could clearly see who that man was. He was in his late forties, wrinkles of old age around his eyes and mouth, wrinkled skin, black eyes, short beard and small moustache with small ingrown hair highlighting the edges. Actually, Shivantika knew that man.

Lying on the bed in a weak condition, she exclaims "MAMA!!" (*mama refers to the maternal uncle (brother of mother))

"Don't speak or it'll worsen your health. I know everything, the Maharaja and Maharani are gone and too is the kingdom. Everything is in chaos now, but you are safe here, for now", he says.

She was in the village, which she was supposed to reach, and also with the man she was to meet.

He was not her maternal uncle by blood, but he shared a bond with her mother. Shivantika's late mother and her uncle were friends since childhood and they too were sworn siblings.

With a confused expression on her paled face she asks, "Mama, you are still alive. I am so at ease now. But how are you safe in a situation like this when everything has been destroyed?"

Her uncle explains her why the enemy cannot attack this village and narrates the story behind it, that once the ex-ruler of Braheshwat kingdom fell very sick and that illness had no cure anywhere in the world, but, in this village, as this was the village of physicians. To obtain it, he made a treaty with her uncle's father, the ex-chief of the village, that in return, the then ruler and his descendants would never attack the village.

Just as he finished his words, his daughter Nayantara entered the room in a hasty condition, with a panicked look on her face.

"Father, she has been already fed the antidote of snake's venom, but they, they are here, it's not safe anymore."

"It's ok, I know it...," he turns back his head and says, "…you know what to do. Keep her safe at all costs. Pack all the necessities and leave immediately. Take her to her destination. I will join you both soon."

Nayantara quickly helps Shivantika to get up, and starts packing up all the important things like jewelry, money, clothes and the most important medical books and scriptures.

Seeing this, Shivantika couldn't grasp at first about what was happening; however, she then guesses maybe it's the soldiers and they are looking for her here too.

Her uncle too exits the room. He looked brave and cool, but at the same time terrified, too. 

Shivantika tries to regain her energy while Nayantara was packing. But then, both of them heard a loud banging. They both got scared. Hearing the noises coming from outside of the closed door, they heard soldiers and the Mama having a quarrel regarding the whereabouts of the Princess Shivantika. In a fit of rage, one of the soldiers took out his sword and inserted it. Shivantika and Nayantara couldn't see the scene, but could only hear the manly screams of the last breaths of a person and see the splashes of blood.

Looking at this obnoxious scene, they wanted to cry and help him, but couldn't. They both tried to get a hold of themselves and thought of escaping using the back door. When the soldiers left, Shivantika opened the door, looked around to confirm if they have left. Sneakily both of them escaped using the back door, and somehow managed to leave the village, and went towards the forest which was near the village on a hill.

When they both reached a distance, they turned and saw a horrifying scene of bloodshed and screams of people asking for help and mercy. Even the children weren't blessed with mercy from those bloodhounds. Nayantara was heartbroken at such a scene. The place where she was born and raised, where she spent almost all of her life, was just now devastated and ruined.

Shivantika pulls her hand and takes her with her. When she thought they escaped, they saw a man running towards them. Shivantika wondered he might be dangerous and one of the callous soldiers of Braheshwat, but Nayantara knew him. He was a survivor of the massacre, too, and she knew him.

"Nayan you are alive, I am so glad to see you fine.", he said.

"Shubhangi, he is my neighbor Rajveer, Rajveer she is my cousin.", Nayantara introduces in that extreme situation, but she knew it might be better to make the introduction first than to cause a misunderstanding later.

Shivantika could not understand why he called her "Nayan" and why Nayantara called her Shubhangi, to clear her doubts Nayantara whispers in her ear that she cannot let others know of her identity or it might become dangerous for her. Shivantika got a little upset upon hearing his name, as she remembered "Veer" and his deceit and betrayal.

"It's good that someone besides us too is safe. Now we have to run from here as far as we can so they cannot catch us", he makes a remark.

"I know a place. It is the Shi state. I heard that their Empress Dowager was the princess of this kingdom earlier and she was the sister of our late Maharaja," Shivantika suggests.

Shivantika knew for sure that she can't disclose her identity, but she had to reach her aunt in shi state by any means, thus she decided to suggest the idea. Her fingers crossed, really wished Rajveer to be convinced and to agree. Nayantara being already in her team, she had no worries.

"It sounds feasible…", says Rajveer convincingly, agreeing to Shivantika, "… but not at the same time. How will we reach there? The soldiers are everywhere. What if they catch us?"

Replying to him, Nayantara says, "Why are you so negative? Learn to be optimistic, as for reaching Shi state, I know someone who can help us."

"But for that, we need to reach Kayati. That's our only way possible."

Rajveer couldn't believe Nayantara's words, as it was the capital of Braheshwat, and currently the most dangerous place for them. He tries to explain it to Nayantara that it is really dangerous to go there. However, she was not convinced at all and said she knows what she was doing.

Just as Nayantara finished her words, they heard someone's footsteps getting closer to them, like someone was eavesdropping. As they turned their backs, they saw a soldier in Braheshwat's soldier uniform was about to attack them. Seeing this, Rajveer got alerted, took his right foot back, formed wrists to fight and attacked.

He fought with him to save their lives. When the soldier got tired, Rajveer used a technique of attacking his acupressure points to make him pass out.

They tied him up to a tree and when he regained his consciousness; they questioned him for good. Asked him questions like why they attacked them and the village, who were they after and who was behind all this chaos? But before he could answer, he licked his left wrist and swallowed something. Suddenly, a white froth started to come out of his mouth, his eyes got red and died the very next moment.

They were in an embezzlement why the soldier did this, as this was very clear like clean water that they weren't going to cover their hands with that tied soldier's blood, and now they couldn't get any answers.

Continuing with Nayantara's plan, they decided to move, because it wasn't safe to stay in the same place for a longer period of time.

"Here, take these pills. After consuming this, your appearance will change a bit. Your eyes will get a little smaller, your eyelids will too cover your eyes a little bit and your skin color will be changed from brown to pale, too. This will help us to get safe from the enemies. Also, change your dressing style, too, into some kind of a hanfu. With all this, they might think we are travelers and according to the treaty made by the forefathers of the rulers of the Shi, Ampranam and Braheshwat, no matter the situation they cannot attack the people of Shi.", says Nayantara.

"Wow, Nayan you are very smart" Rajveer compliments.

Each of them takes one pill, and as Nayantara said, the pills performed what they were supposed to.

Shivantika's looks changed from her brown skin to pale undertone. And the same happened with Nayantara and Rajveer.

 All of them took their clothes and wore them somewhat similar to of a Hanfu (*Chinese traditional dress) and continued their journey to first reach Kayati and then the Shi state.