Chapter 320: The Hooded One
Anarkali nibbled on the piece of bread that Ram held by his fingers.
His eyes lingered angrily on the dried up traces of tear lines down her innocent baby cheeks.
He hadn't wanted to let her go hungry but the food was not trustworthy and he had found it difficult to scrape the safer bits off the stale loaf and offer it for her consumption.
He heard the guards talking aloud outside their cell, overlooking the children's plight. They must have thought that the reason they were silent was owing to their being scared and not because they were incapable of speech.
Ram was determined. He had to do something. Maybe find a way out.
He stood up, lifting Anarkali with him, and began strolling about the cell, inspecting for signs of possible escape. But redemption was barred on all sides with hard stones and prison bars of metal.
If only he was not alone and knew where Kushiji was.
Just then insight struck and he bent down and picked up the bowl of water.
In one frantic fling, he threw it at the bars and the clanging impact rang through the walls. Two guards came rushing to see what had caused the abrupt clatter.
They glared at the boy within the cell where he stood glaring back at them.
He pointed to Anarkali, whose innocently clueless face appraised the men outside the cell as she continued nipping the bread.
Many minutes of furious signalling later, the guards finally got it into their heads that Ram was insisting on them feeding the baby proper food, which was certainly not what they'd served them.
One of the guards cursed the children's burdensome helplessness and went to pass the request to the Master. A few minutes later, the guard returned.
"The Master isn't interested in the kiddies and doesn't want to be bothered by them."
"So we feed them or not?" asked the other.
The first guard eyed Ram, "The Master said let the lad fetch their food themselves."
"From outside?" the second guard was taken aback by the liberty.
"No, idiot," rebutted the first guard, "From the kitchen. Not that there is anything much in there for even the lot of us!"
"One of us needs to go with them," pointed out the guard, "We can't let our prisoners walk about to their fancy."
"We'll take turns," said the first guard, "You go first and I'll go the next time."
The second guard was on the defensive, "Why should I go now?"
"Cuz I went to the Master now, didn't I?" the first guard motioned.
The second guard muttered under his breath, disliking the whole prospect of babysitting the little prisoners.
Ram's heart leapt with delight when he saw the second guard taking out the bunch of keys from his pocket and proceed to open the cell room.
Ram knew they didn't think much of "the kiddies" or that "the lad" would be capable of being troublesome to them. They must have thought that his request for better food was entirely without pretence.
He smiled to himself as he stepped out of the cell.
The guard stopped him momentarily and held out his forefinger to indicate that the boy had only one hour to find food from the outside and then he was to return.
The second guard also signalled something by waving his hand over his eyes which Ram assumed meant that he was keeping an eye on them.
Ram nodded abstractly in return and with Anarakli in tow he began mounting the long, dark steps that led from the deplorable dungeon, knowing well that he was closely shadowed by the following escort.
Though he would be watched and trailed in the expanse of the grace time he was accorded, he was grateful he had been permitted the option.
He held Anarkali closer to his heart, her saliva bathed little fingers grasping a handful of his stained collar as she wondered where he was taking her for a walk.
Focus, Ram, Focus! He told himself.
One hour was all he had to find Anarakli food. One hour was all the privilege he would have before he would have to be locked up again in that dismal cell. And that one hour was all that was at his disposal for making a headway in finding Kushiji.
The General had rode Lightning hours into the night, trying to make up for the time lost in resting. But soon enough, knowing that he couldn't force her further, he stopped to repose a while until his mare's foreleg steadied again.
"Maybe I should transform," muttered the General from where he lay on the cold ground, his arms crossed under his head as he stared at the scattering of stars across the quiet night sky, "I could reach the coast faster on my wings than on your hoofs."
He looked in Lightning's direction to see her reaction to his statement but she was already asleep.
Sighing, he positioned his hat over his eyes and tried to get forty winks himself.
All the while, his mind was acutely aware of the shadow that lingered a few distances away, hidden among the trees, watching him through that hideous hooded garb.
Ignoring her pestering presence, he turned his hat down over his face and ventured into sleep.
An hour or two later, at the break of dawn, when the sky was dimly lit with the pink of the unseen sun's first rays, the General awoke to the wet nudge of his horse's snout.
"I'm up! I'm up!" groaned the General, sliding aside in a motion of sitting up, while with the back of his one hand, he wiped the gross wetness off his cheek.
He picked up his hat that Lightning had managed to knock off his face to better get at him in prospects of arousing him from sleep.
Positioning the hat on his head, he had got on his feet when he noticed the ever-present figure in the dark hood shift in the forest as she rose to her height from her sitting.
The General frowned. He couldn't understand why she was acting in this unusual manner of stalking him.
And what was even more curious, she had never before made herself so exposed, constructing a clumsy attempt to conceal her presence. The only conclusion he could make of it was that perhaps she wanted him to be aware of her following.
Leastways, he was annoyed by the whole ordeal and decided to get something done about it.
He bent down and picked up his coat. Draping it around him, he mounted on his mare, picked up Lightning's reins and led her in the direction of the forest.
Slowly, he prodded her into a light canter through the trees, all the while, watching the hooded shadow from the corner of his eye.
A split moment later, the hooded figure paused.
It was still dark in the forest, among the trees that would let scant light penetrate the dawn air.
But she realized that the mare and its rider had vanished entirely.
The hooded head turned this way and that, trying to capture any sign of movement among the close growing trees.
Confused and in wonderment of having lost them after so long keeping them under her vigilance, she stepped forward, her fingers gripping the sides of her dark robe and the ends of her reluctant robe rustling on the dry leaves.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, she saw of a flash of white right before her and then, in the snap of the next moment, something hard and heavy threw itself against her, toppling her to the ground as she let out a yelp of surprise.
As the adroit General crashed onto his hooded sentinel and earned a yelp from her, his heart froze.
The sound, the smell, the feel of her...
Disbelief rocked his mind but he gulped as he stared down at the face that looked up from the withdrawn hood.
At the Castle, where the family sat gloomily in the living room, waiting for any news of their lost ones' return, the butler appeared suddenly, his visage stricken pale with terror.
"What is it, Chacha?" asked the Elder Lord Manohar, rising to meet him.
The rest of the family stared at him in horror, expecting terrible news. Payal was on the verge of tears.
"It's Anjalibitiya," mumbled the butler in an apprehensive tone, "She's gone."
