The Dreadec Conspiracy - 9

“Father! Mother!” As this voice boomed in their ears, Raghunathan and Padmavati turned around and were confounded to see their little son, Vijaya, standing at the entrance alongwith Biksham, the troops and an unknown man who stood by the side of the Prince. The parents ran and hug him! 

They kissed him several times and wept tears of joy, all of which made Vijaya glad that he had been away from his parents for a while!  After all, had this not happened, would his parents be showering so much love on him? 

Words failed the royal couple and Biksham expounded, “Let me tell you what happened!  Yesterday morning when Vijaya woke up, he could not understand as to how he landed in the Tataka jungle!”

 “What!” the King and the Queen exclaimed in chorus. 

“Yes!  The Prince found himself in that jungle!  At first, he felt very dizzy and then after a while, he began to feel better!  He, then, began to wander in the jungle calling out to both of you!  He heard the growling of wild animals but he feared not! 

Vijaya aimlessly ventured into the jungle and then he found himself in the midst of a jungle tribe who live there!  Unlike our perception about jungle tribes, the child found them to be very loving and caring! 

As none of them could understand each other’s language, they had great difficulty in communicating.  They kept Vijaya with them and today, Sukhraj, (Biksham pointed to the man standing beside Vijaya) who is a hunter by profession, happened to enter the Tataka jungle to hunt a wild animal. 

He went deep inside the jungle in search for his prey and found Vijaya with those jungle tribes!  He had seen the Prince when you used to take him for a ride on Chandrika and therefore recognised him immediately.  He was also aware that he had mysteriously disappeared from the palace yesterday. 

Through various actions, he somehow, managed to convince the tribesmen that he would take Vijaya back to his place, where he belongs.  While Sukhraj was returning with Vijaya, he met us!  I searched for Vijaya, alongwith my men, in the jungle of Kamesthi and then was looking for him at Tataka when we were pleasantly surprised to see the Prince in the custody of Sukhraj!  Well, that’s the story!”  Biksham concluded grinning. 

The King thanked the hunter and rewarded him with golden chains and money.  He also expressed his gratitude to Biksham and his troops for their help. 

Thereby, leaving Vijaya with his rejoicing parents, the others left.

For that day, the King bestowed the responsibility of looking after the kingdom affairs to Biksham and the royal couple spent lots of time with their son.  They puffed up with pride when Vijaya said that he was not afraid of neither being alone in that dangerous jungle nor being with the jungle tribe.  He, in fact, had a wonderful time with the tribesmen who took good care of him. 

His only concern was how to make the jungle folk understand who he was so that they could help him get back to his parents.  The child even went on to say that he was ready to face any wild animal had it come his way! 

In the night, the parents made Vijaya eat some food and then he went to sleep.  Biksham reported to the King that everything had been fine with the kingdom that day.  The King thanked him for his help and told him that on the morrow, they would sit and try to uncover this conspiracy against Vijaya through proper analysis.

Before retiring to bed, both the King and the Queen invoked the Almighty in their minds and thanked him for re-uniting them with their son.  Thereby, they tried to sleep but could not do so!  They were feeling restless thinking about the events which had surfaced in the past couple of days.   

“If only those tribesmen had understood what our son was trying to tell and brought him here yesterday!” Padmavati exclaimed.

Raghunathan smiled at her, “I can understand your feelings, O Queen!  But, the language which the tribesmen speak is illegible to us and vice-versa.  I am sure they must have realised that Vijaya had lost his way in the jungle. 

It could be that they wanted to wait a day or two to see if someone turns up in search of Vijaya before deciding upon the next course of action.” 

Padmavati consented with his views. Then, they pondered as to how Vijaya reached the Tataka jungle! 

“Whoever took him through that secret passage may have left him in Tataka to die!” felt the Queen. 

“Could be, Padmavati!  But then why do that when that person could have killed him by himself?” the King pointed out. 

“Valid point, Maharaj!” the Queen admitted. 

“Also that Vijaya felt dizzy shows that he was made unconscious before being taken from the passage.” the King analysed. 

Thereafter, both of them sat near Vijaya thinking deeply about this event and then the King spoke with his Queen, “This thought just passed my mind!  Could there be a link between this conspiracy and the incident when Chandrika put our lives at peril that evening? 

Now that I am sure of a machination taking shape to eliminate my son, I feel that there might be a conspiracy involved in Chandrika’s wild act on that day. May be, even on that day the actual target was Vijaya!  I just happened to come in the way!  You could be right, Padmavati!  Perhaps there was more to that incident than what I made out of it!”  

“What do you feel could have been done to make Chandrika behave like that?”  Padmavati asked the King. 

Thinking awhile, Raghunathan conjectured, “It could be that she was given something to eat just before we went for a ride!  May be something was mixed in the hay that is fed to her!  I am not sure, O Queen!  It’s just a guess!” 

“In that case, Maharaj”, the Queen pointed out, “Vedant is guilty!  After all, he is the one who feeds her!”   

“But why would Vedant do this?  What would he gain?”  the King pondered. 

Again, a silence ensued for some time.  Then, Raghunathan himself answered his question, “It could be, O Queen, that Vedant was made by someone to do this job.”  Padmavati concurred with the King’s views.

“You could be right, Maharaj!  Of course, Vedant would have never agreed to do this if he was not being paid handsomely!” 

“O Queen, I still find it hard to believe that Vedant could betray me!  Am I making a mistake by suspecting him?” the King asked disturbed. 

“Maharaj, even a noble person can be lured into doing evil activities by offering him money.  It is under such situations where a person’s probity is put to test. It could be that Vedant failed in this test, Maharaj!” 

Raghunathan bit his lip and snapped his fingers, “You have a point, Padmavati!  Not many days have passed by after the Chandrika incident!  If Vedant has been paid an exorbitant sum to be a part of this conspiracy, it could be that he might be having some of that wealth with him even today in his house. 

Let’s check his house and should we come across a mint of money in his possession that raises our suspicion, let’s question him and, may be, the truth could be out!”  Padmavati agreed.  The King decided to conduct this search the next day.

The next day, since Vijaya was sleeping, the King asked the Queen to be with their son and set out to Vedant’s house alongwith some of his men. 

(To Continue)