Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, thus does not revolve around the real world. Any kind of words or incidents mentioned does not signify anything related to the real world. **

The following day when Jairam Singh murmured again and the physician was called, Anirudh got ready to leave for the Royal Palace to deliver a report to the Crown Prince, who had recently returned, but from where, nobody knew.

Delivering the report was just another excuse to meet and greet him after his return. On papers, or say officially, he worked in the revenue ministry, but his actual job was to report to Crown Prince Ahil about happenings in the capital.

As he arrived at the river bank of the river Miltayi (the Royal Palace was at the other end of the sacred river), he noticed a palanquin inlayed with many expensive stones and gold, and a woman sitting in it dressed in a royal attire as if she was the princess, came out of the palanquin, entered the boat which was only meant for either the royals or their staff and left towards the palace. Even if a commoner sees a person entering that boat, he/she would at first glance would understand he/she was a royal, because it wasn't just about their clothes, their attire, but their transportation was too something which was uncommon for the people to be seen daily.

As the royal boat leaves, the boat for the commoners arrives and everybody boards it.

Anirudh was in a dilemma because it was very rare to see the royals out of the Royal Palace, and that princess figure could not be possible too. Everyone in the kingdom had heard the rumors about the one and only Royal Princess Suragini, that she fell in love with someone from another kingdom and she eloped with him.

Just when he was pondering and lost in his thoughts, he realized he had reached the other end. He stood up and showed his identity proof, which was a pendant with the engraved national animal elephant on it, at the palace gates, after verification he walked towards the chambers of Crown Prince Ahil, which was at the end of the east side of the upper palace where nobody preferred to go, and thus the prince could spend his days away from everyone. As he reached and entered the room where the prince was, he saw the prince on the balcony near the balustrade enjoying the cool breeze, on the top floor of the building.

When he took a step forward, Crown Prince Ahil turned and said with a low smile and sorrow in his eyes, "You're here, Anirudh. What's going on in the capital? Got any news to tell me?"

Ahil sat down on the couch near a table in the room.

Anirudh, at first greeted the prince with a bow and his head tilted towards the floor, responded with a no, but noticed the sadness on Ahil's face.

Before Anirudh could ask anything, Ahil asked him to fulfill his two requests. The first one was to look for new and trusted maidservants for Princess Suragini and the other was to look for a person, a girl to be very particular, from Ampranam who possibly could be hiding in any corner of Braheshwat.

"I hope you can fulfill my requests; I have to turn the rumors baseless and untrue; Princess Suragini has returned, we need to look for trusted people from every field. Whatever the case might be, even though she eloped she is still a royal her image cannot be tarnished. And there's one more thing, after the massacre of kingdom Ampranam, one girl might have escaped and would be hiding in Braheshwat, look for her and bring her to me alive and in one piece. You are the only one who I can trust Anirudh, please don't break it."

Then he gave him a description of the lady he was particularly looking for, however Anirudh for some reason found the description very similar to Shivantika. He wanted to ask Ahil, but he knew he was in no position to ask the royal blood.

Later he wished Ahil farewell and returned.

Upon returning, Anirudh knew that he couldn't question either Prince Ahil or Shivantika of what happened earlier. So, he decided to stay silent and not ask them anything. But deep down he knew Shivantika was somehow related to the royal family, or the prince knew her.

Anirudh was a loyal subject to the Crown Prince, thus could not betray him, but he too couldn't betray Shivantika, she considered him as her brother. He was in a dilemma when something stroked his mind. He could betray neither of them, but there was some mystery between his Highness and Shivantika. She too had doubts, which were somehow one way or another were related to the Royal Palace. If Shivantika could enter as a maidservant in the Royal Palace, maybe some secrets might uncover, and he too wouldn't betray the prince, as indirectly he did bring the girl to him.

When Anirudh entered his house, he saw the same scene as what he left, Shivantika and Nayantara in the room with Jairam Singh lying on the bed, Rajveer practicing his swordsmanship in the back garden and the servants doing their daily chores.

Anirudh tried to convince Shivantika to enter the palace, but she wasn't convinced, because from the beginning she knew she must not enter the palace, as it might be dangerous for her. Even Nayantara was against the idea. But Shivantika knew Anirudh could be trusted, he might have something in his mind, a plan that could not be shared, thus she trusted him and agreed reluctantly. This decision of blind trusting him might become perilous in the future for her.

Seeing Shivantika going alone, Nayantara couldn't stand but go along with her. According to Nayantara's reasoning, Shivantika cannot go alone in such a dangerous and life-threatening place. She had to obey her father's command of always staying beside her protecting her and helping her reach Shi state. Her father had both, Rajveer and Anirudh, and servants and a physician next door, but Shivantika was alone in this vast and lonely world.

The next day, Anirudh arranged some native Kayati clothes and fake identities for them. Nayantara's fake name was Pankti and Shivantika's was Maithili.

The normal clothes which they wore earlier were different, as the clothes arranged now were of inferior quality. Everything had to be perfect, from identities to behavior, from clothes to physique, there must not be any room for any kind of blunder or mistake.

They changed into clothes, lehenga in simple colors and no patterns or work of any kind of stones, to highlight their low status. Tie-dye was the most popular pattern in Braheshwat, which only the rich could afford. So, Nayantara picked a light-tinted green lehenga, whose color was faded and was almost as if she was wearing white, whereas Shivantika picked a lehenga in a light pinkish color which was as coarse as the outer shell of a coconut. They, again, didn't wear any kind of jewelry.

After they changed, and were almost ready to leave, Rajveer came to see them off. Rajveer too wanted to go, but Jairam Singh could have been left alone and he needed someone to take care of him, and also another reason was that Anirudh could not take any risk of taking so many people to the palace and that too a man when only maidservants were asked.

Rajveer sees them off, and he and Nayantara promised each other to meet again and Nayantara promises to return safe and sound.

As they stepped out, they entered a horse chariot, which took them directly to the river harbor on river Miltayi, from where they had to take the boat to the other end where the Royal Palace was situated.

Before getting out of the carriage, they took their dupattas and covered their heads.

They exited the carriage and boarded the boat. This time it was the boat for the royals (or their staff). In the boat, other than them (Shivantika, Nayantara, and Anirudh), there was one other girl too, who was arranged by Anirudh because their identity could become suspicious in future, so he arranged an extra commoner girl as another maidservant.

"What are your names?", asked the girl joyfully and politely.

"I am Pankti", Nayantara replied, introduced themselves, and pointed his hand towards Shivantika, "and she is my sister Maithili and she's a mute."

Shivantika didn't speak a word or make a noise, she understood the assignment of acting dumb, assigned to her by the eyes of Nayantara.

"Oh…! I am sorry. Well, I am Madhumita from Jalkranti" said the girl on the boat with Shivantika and Nayantara in a very pitied, but joyful manner.

***Jalkranti was a small village on the outskirts of Braheshwat with a very interesting history of being warriors. Their story dates back to when both the kingdoms, Ampranam and Braheshwat, had war against each other, and Ampranam blocked the waterway of the river flowing near Jalkranti, which provided water to many major cities of Braheshwat. Jalkranti fought with the Ampranam soldiers who stopped the water flow and destroyed the dam which stopped the water, resulting in water getting to all the cities. Thus, the people of Jalkranti were awarded the title of "The Water Soldiers" and also rewarded heavily, thus the village got its name "Jalkranti". ***

"Looks like you are very excited to enter the Royal Palace", said Nayantara.

"No, actually I….", replied Madhumita, but stopped in between.

Nayantara noticed the sudden long pause of Madhumita while speaking.

She was about to ask Madhumita about the long pause, but the boat reached the ashore (the other end of the river).

They stepped out of the boat and headed towards the entry gate of the Royal Palace. Madhumita and Shivantika walked in front and Nayantara and Anirudh were at the back.

Anirudh grasped Nayantara's hand and whispered in her left ear "Don't get involved in unnecessary business!" while maintaining a distance. It was the first time when Anirudh touched Nayantara or any girl.

Anirudh was always by their side, especially by Nayantara's, but he always knew his boundaries. He never touched any woman, trying to always be faithful and true to Nayantara and always respect them. But this quality was something that Rajveer didn't possess. Before confessing to Nayantara, he had some anonymous affairs of which Nayantara was unaware.

As soon as they reached the Gate, they were stopped for checking. However, Anirudh was with them and thus they weren't checked.

They surpassed the checking and entered.

Shivantika had already been there in the Royal Palace once, but not Nayantara and Madhumita, they were amazed at the magnificence of the beauty and infrastructure the palace held.

Shivantika and Anirudh, both held their calms, but the same could not be said for Nayantara and Madhumita. Their innocence was something Shivantika had once when she had everything, from riches to family, literally everything.

Nayantara was always the kind of person who was smart, understanding, and mature, but her maturity faded when she saw such an amazing place where the royals lived, whereas Madhumita was a very jolly and outgoing person, who was enjoying a new once-in-a-lifetime experience which was quite rare.

The Royal Palace was different from of what was in Ampranam. In Ampranam, there were no two or three storied buildings, but in Braheshwat, there were.

They continued to move towards the Department of the Royal Household and Staff Management, so the three could get some servants' uniforms based on the type of work they were assigned to.

As they reached the department, they entered the main office where the manager was. Anirudh and 'the manager' greeted each other with some sweet and nice salutations and he introduced the new staff members he brought with himself.

The manager was a typical male in his late forties, who, at first, checked out the ladies starting from toes to head and called someone named Maya to bring out three uniforms for the three of them.

Shivantika, Nayantara and Madhumita went inside and changed into purple colored lehengas with a dupatta draped around their heads, which was their uniform and was in the same texture and material as they wore previously. The purple lehenga expressed a feeling of rich but poor and commoner at the same time. It was the color purple which was giving it a look of luxury, but material of the clothes which was for the poor and commoner.

It was as if it was saying, "You are rather rich, but don't forget your place and where you come from."

They changed into the uniform and came outside.

"Anirudh, I hope you have already told them all the details. Your training will last for 1 week and the trial period will be 1 year, after that you will be assigned to the duties you will be the best at and also your uniform will be changed", explained the Manager standing in front of them.

"Maya! Where are their veil masks?"

Veil masks were wore by the servants, which covered their faces but not their eyes.

Maya returns with three purple veil masks, and the three of them took and wore the veil masks, which covered their entire face but their eyes.

After that they registered themselves as the new servants and all the casualties were done, and Anirudh left.

Before leaving, Anirudh gave an emblem ring to Nayantara to use if she ends up in any unescapable situation. Shivantika already had one ring which she used earlier so he didn't give her any.

And Maya took them to the women accommodations, where the three spent and will be spending the next seven nights.

For the next seven days, they spent their time in the Department of the Royal Household and Staff Management and did the basic training that required to serve the royals ethically.

Shivantika and Nayantara both did their training diligently.

On the last day of their training period, when Shivantika was cleaning the Manager's office table, she clumsily dropped one of the paintings from the table.

When she picked up the painting scroll, she accidently glanced at it, and recognized the person in it. It was Radha, her maidservant.

"Maithili, what are you doing? What is in your hand?", Maya entered in the office and asked Shivantika. She took the painting from her hand, rolled and put it on the table.

Shivantika acting to be a mute, asked Maya who the person was in the painting in some signs.

"Oh…! She, she is Princess Suragini. Isn't she beautiful? When she went missing a few years back, her portrait was circulated in every department in order to look for her. But now atlast, she is back" replied Maya.

Shivantika couldn't believe what she just saw, she instantly went back and told Nayantara everything. Even Nayantara was in dismay.

"Its ok Shivantika, after a few days Anirudh will return to meet us, then we'll figure out what to do."

That night, Shivantika couldn't sleep or take any rest because of what she saw then.

The next day, they were assigned the duties and which royal they will be serving.

The three, Shivantika, Nayantara and Madhumita, were assigned to serve the Royal Princess Suragini. It was decided from the beginning that they had to serve the princess, but now it was because The Crown Prince asked the Manager to do so.

After they were assigned to, they went back to their accommodations and started to pack their stuff.

Afterwards, when they were about to leave, The Crown Prince Ahil came. Ahil trusted Anirudh the most with every task, but for his own satisfaction he had to check who the newly hired servants were for her younger sister.

As he entered the office, every officer in the department came to greet him. He asked for the servants who were assigned to serve the princess to be present in front of him.

When the three arrived, their faces were covered with the veils and their faces were tilted towards the floor, too were their eyes. Shivantika was standing in the middle, Nayantara was on her right and Madhumita on her left.

"So, these are the new servants", Ahil spoke.

Shivantika's ears froze. She had heard this voice before. She quickly but elegantly raised her head and looked who the prince was.

As she saw him, she got frozen. She felt chills and goosebumps in the summer noon. She didn't know what to do. She obviously knew the prince, but didn't how to react.

The Crown Prince of Braheshwat, to whom Anirudh serves and almost every citizen of Braheshwat respects was none other than Veer. The Veer she knew and once loved. Whom she met in Ampranam. The Veer who was responsible for the death of almost every person of Ampranam. The Veer because of whom, her family died and what not.

She couldn't believe anything happening in front of her, when she heard him say, "The girl in the middle will serve me in my palace in the upper part of the Royal Palace, and the rest will serve the princess."