Scion of Ikshvaku Read Online Free PDF Page B

save her husband first. She needed her wits about her.
    She looked at the horses. Blood was pouring down their sides in torrents, and specks of flesh hung limply where the skin had been ripped off. They were panting frantically, exhausted by the effort of having pulled the chariot through the dense field of thorns. But she couldn’t allow them any respite. Not yet.
    ‘Forgive me,’ whispered Kaikeyi, as she raised her whip.
    The leather hummed through the air and lashed the horses cruelly. Neighing for mercy, they refused to move. Kaikeyi cracked her whip again and the horses edged forward.
    ‘MOVE!’ screamed Kaikeyi as she whipped the horses ruthlessly, again and again, forcing them to pick up a desperate but fearsome momentum.
    She had to save her husband.
    Suddenly an arrow whizzed past her and crashed into the front board of the chariot with frightening intensity. Kaikeyi spun around in alarm. One of Raavan’s cavalrymen had broken off from his group and was in pursuit.
    Kaikeyi turned back and whipped her horses harder. ‘FASTER! FASTER!’
    Even as she whipped her horses into delirious frenzy, Kaikeyi had the presence of mind to shift slightly and use her body to shield her husband.
    Even Raavan’s demons would be chivalrous enough not to attack an unarmed woman.
    She was wrong.
    She heard the arrow’s threatening hum before it slammed into her back with vicious force. Its shock was so massive that it threw her forward as her head flung back. Her eyes beheld the sky as Kaikeyi screamed in agony. But she recovered immediately, the adrenaline pumping furiously through her body, compelling her to focus.
    ‘FASTER!’ she screamed, as she whipped the horses ferociously.
    Another arrow whizzed by her ears, missing the back of her head by a tiny whisker. Kaikeyi cast a quick look at her husband’s immobile body bouncing furiously as the chariot tore through the uneven countryside.
    ‘FASTER!’
    She heard another arrow approach, and within a flash it slammed into her right hand, slicing through the forefinger cleanly; it bounced away like a pebble thrown to the side. The whip fell from her suddenly-loosened grip. Her mind was ready for further injuries now, her body equipped for pain. She didn’t scream. She didn’t cry.
    She bent quickly and picked up the whip with her left hand, transferring the reins to her bloodied right hand. She resumed the whipping with mechanical precision.
    ‘MOVE! YOUR EMPEROR’S LIFE IS AT STAKE!’
    She heard the dreaded whizz of another arrow. She steeled herself for another hit; instead, she now heard a scream of agony from behind her. A quick side glance revealed her injured foe; the arrow had buried itself deep into his right eye. What she also perceived was a band of horsemen moving in; her father and his faithful bodyguards. A flurry of arrows ensured that the Lankan attacker toppled off his animal, even as his leg got entangled in the stirrup. Raavan’s soldier was dragged for many metres by his still galloping horse, his head smashing repeatedly against the rocks strewn on the path.
    Kaikeyi looked ahead once again. She did not have the time to savour the brutal death of the man who’d injured her. Dashrath must be saved.
    The rhythmic whipping continued ceaselessly.
    ‘FASTER! FASTER!’

    Nilanjana was patting the baby’s back insistently. He still wasn’t breathing.
    ‘Come on! Breathe!’
    Kaushalya watched anxiously as she lay exhausted from the abnormally long labour. She tried to prop herself up on her elbows. ‘What’s wrong? What’s the matter with my boy?’
    ‘Get the queen to rest, will you?’ Nilanjana admonished the attendant who was peering over her shoulder.
    Rushing over, the attendant put her hand on the queen’s shoulder and attempted to coax her to lie down. A severely weakened Kaushalya, however, refused to submit. ‘Give him to me!’
    ‘Your Highness…’ whispered Nilanjana as tears welled up in her eyes.
    ‘Give him to me!’
    ‘I