Page 60 of A King's Oath

He made rapid hand gestures, completely contrasting his calm demeanour.

Are you sure?

“Of course I am sure!”

Harsh’s hard face turned harder, and then he held his pointer fingers up at the sky, rubbing them up and down. Samarth scowled. Was he reading it right?

“Star?” He asked.

Harsh nodded.

“What star?

Harsh pointed to his phone screen.

“Star in Devgadh? Harsh, come on! Get to the point!”

And then Harsh’s signs were truly baffling.

Rawal << hearts << Star

“Star?”

Harsh snatched his phone back and quickly typed something on the notes bar.

“Ehhh!” He returned the phone. Samarth brought it up to his eyes.

Rawal is in love with Tara Thakker daughter of Jagat Thakker of Devgadh

A shiver ran down his spine. His body erupted in goosebumps. In love? His Papa? How? His back tingled with shivers running up and down his spine. He shook his head, letting out a long deep breath. The tingles kept going up and down. When he glanced up at Harsh, he realised his mouth was open. Samarth snapped it shut, feeling a flood of saliva pool in there.

“In love…” he managed to utter.

Harsh took his phone back, did some more scrolling on his screen. Samarth didn’t know where to look, what to do, what to think. Hehadasked Papa to have somebody to talk to. Hehadwanted him to have somebody like Ava. Somebody to spend time with, to enjoy life with, to share the bad nights and the good days with. Only… Samarth hadn’t thought it would come true like this in an instant. Neither did he know that it would grip him by the neck in that first moment of discovery. He was ashamed to admit even to himself that the thought of his father with somebody else, the thought of his father loving somebody beyond him had locked his entire body in place.

The horses neighed and ran past him. The grooms put them through their exercises. The wind kept whipping. The sun kept dipping.

“Huuu,” Harsh pushed his phone back into his field of vision. Samarth startled. It was a group photo from his Papa’s expedition to Antarctica. He was there front and centre, pulling all the attention to himself even in a photo of fifty great scientists. And in front of him, a shorter young Indian woman, with curly hair and a red jacket — a familiar woman. His Papa’s eyes were on the top of her head, not on the camera — the most incredible smile on his face. The kind of smile he had hardly seen on his face, if ever.

Samarth blinked back tears.Change. Change was coming. If this was true, he had to make peace with his Papa loving somebody else and bringing them into their family. He had asked for this. Maybe his Papa had listened. That is why he had started to talk about it that first night back in Nawanagar.

Then what had gone wrong for Papa to turn like this? Now that Samarth thought about it, Papa had looked so full of life, almost a newer, younger man when he had returned from Antarctica. And three days later, he had returned from Devgadh so lost.

“What happened there in her house, Harsh? Do you know it?” Samarth asked, eyeing the woman. Tara Thakker. Tara Devi. The lady who had caught an orange falling from a tree branch 10 metres high up, in the dark of the night, without even looking up.

Samarth looked Harsh in the eye — “Ajatshatru Kaka has ears and eyes everywhere. Somebody must have heard something.”

Harsh gulped.

Samarth passed his phone back to him — “Type.”

Harsh typed —Papa will throw me out of the house

My room here is yours,Samarth typed back.

Harsh glared at him.

“Our first duty is to Nawanagar, and by extension, to our Rawal,” Samarth declared. “For Nawanagar to prosper, the Rawal must prosper. The Rawal must be happy. Tara Thakker makes him happy.”

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