The Aryavarta Chronicles Kaurava: Book 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

woman before picking up his cloak and following his friend out.
    ‘This way,’ the Secret Keeper led Govinda away from the road outside and headed into the woods nearby. The wayside inn was one of the many that dotted the Great Road that ran the length and breadth of Aryavarta, girding its wide expanse into one united region. The road was the empire’s pride, its life veins, and imperial soldiers patrolled its every stretch with diligence. It was imperative that the two men quickly put as much distance as possible between them and the road.
    Govinda followed the Secret Keeper without protest, sheathing his sword as they walked into the darkness. With the knowledge that came of a common training, he knew the scholar was leading him to where his horse Balahak was tethered. As the two men emerged into a glade, the silver-white Qamboja stallion greeted his rider with a hushed whinny. Govinda lovingly stroked the horse’s neck before turning back to the man beside him.
    ‘Wash your sword and yourself as soon as you can. Unless, of course, you want to be brought before your Emperor on accusations of murder?’ the scholar needlessly instructed.
    Govinda nodded. ‘What about you?’ he asked.
    ‘I’ll be fine. Once I get rid of these blood-stained robes, they won’t even think of looking for me. What is one harmless scholar, after all, in a land like Aryavarta?’
    The statement carried an air of finality that Govinda did not like. He stepped forward to place his hands on the other man’s shoulders. ‘Why did you come here, my friend? Why did you really come looking for me? If anyone had seen us together, everything we’ve worked so hard for would be ruined!’
    The scholar nodded his agreement, but added by way of counter, ‘I had to see you, Govinda.’
    ‘In Rudra’s name, Acharya, why? You’re not a man of sentiment.’
    The scholar frowned. ‘I can be on occasion, though this is not one such. I’m here because you’re still here.’
    ‘You think I’m keeping a secret from the Secret Keeper?’
    ‘I think you have too sly a tongue to admit it and too much of a brain to ignore what I’m telling you.’
    ‘And what are you telling me?’
    ‘Leave! Your task here was done three months ago, yet you’ve tarried far too long and that unwise act worries me.’
    ‘What doesn’t worry you, Acharya?’
    ‘Don’t quibble, Govinda. I never worried in the least when you were busy being a decadent flirt, but you are an outcast now… Accept it, my friend.’
    ‘You’re right, Acharya. I am an outcast. My Empress…’ Govinda chuckled as he corrected himself and let his voice betray a trace of affection, ‘Panchali…my brave, petulant Panchali, has sworn me into leaving, to never return. I shall make one last journey to say farewell, and then…’
    ‘Rudra help you, Govinda. You leave those you love behind forever.’
    ‘We left them behind many years ago, Acharya. We left them all behind the day we became who we are.’
    The Secret Keeper felt his heart grow heavy with the ties that had been broken and forged by that one truth alone. Reverentially, he whispered the word that bound them both: ‘Firewrights.’
    4
    DEVALA ASITA MOVED THROUGH THE MISTY FOREST DAWN WITH the stealth of familiarity and the certainty of confidence. He felt no fear. He could hardly say the same of the men who were pursuing him, or at least those who remained alive and able after setting foot into these woods. In these times of plenty and prosperity, the dark depths of the Eastern Forests had become a haven for the last of the lawless, the ultimate refuge for those who were evil enough and desperate enough to continue with their outlaw ways. The unified dung pile of Emperor Dharma Yudhisthir’s unified Aryavarta, as Devala liked to think of it.
    It had been a hundred days since Dharma Yudhisthir had been crowned Emperor, and every one of those wretched days had lacked nothing in peace and bounty. It was, the people warmly said,