Page 26 of A King's Oath

I will still be your friend.

I will come to your rescue in every cricket match.

We will mingle again in one of the many royal events or parties.

And pick up where we left off.

This time she was quick to jot down her next question. And ever-ready to solve a problem or face a challenge, Samarth kept his pencil poised.

What if this goes on for years?

He began to lower his pencil to paper when she added —[2M]

“Alright, now,” Ms. Shanaya’s voice startled him out of the most beautiful world he had ever been in.

“You’ve taken fifteen minutes instead of five. Let’s start defining each term. ARavine. A Ravine is a small narrow valley with steep sides that is larger than a gully and smaller than a canyon.…”

Before Ms. Shanaya’s definitions could cloak their conversation, Samarth pecked his pencil below her question and scribbled the words without even glancing down.

This will go on beyond that.

He didn’t look at Ava then. He looked straight ahead, trying to make sense of all the terms, their definitions and matching them to their symbols, working on containing his panic. Let these not be there in the term paper…

“Now quickly jot these definitions down before the bell rings.”

Samarth bent his head to copy whatever little he could for the few symbols that he had drawn when the annotation beside his last answer caught his eye.

2/2

6. Krishna Gopal Hari

“What did Ajatshatru Kaka say?” Samarth asked, stowing his backpack into the backseat of the car. The sun was setting beyond the mountains and he had finished signing out at his dormitory, having submitted his assignments for the week and delivering the letters — his class teacher’s, his father’s and the Registrar’s. Only then had the warden allowed him to leave for the weekend.

“Eeea,” Harsh made hand gestures, then grunted, then laughed. Samarth snickered.

“Your Papa thinks you are good for nothing.”

Harsh made more gestures.

“Yeah, if my Papa did not let you, he wouldn’t allow you to leave your house!”

Harsh nodded. He was seven years older than him, born with no voice in his throat but with double the spirit in his chest. He was studying through correspondence and was still trying to pass his 12th standard. And that was not due to a lack of intelligence but due to a lack of interest. Papa, their Rawal, had identified that early on and had him train in the Royal Guard, where Harsh had thrived, then graduated with flying colours in Private Securityand Hand-to-Hand Combat. But his father had put his foot down and still had him slog through 12th.

But, Harsh hadn’t wanted to stay in Nawanagar. On this summer vacation, Samarth had conspired with him and had him come up to Doon, as his official ‘security,’ now that he was allowed to leave the campus on the weekends and might need ‘somebody.’ In truth, this was Harsh’s vacation for the next two years.

“You checked the route?”

Harsh nodded, opening the door of their Thar and settling inside the driver’s seat, fiddling with Google Maps. He pointed, and Samarth pushed his head from in-between the front seats.

ETA Badrinath Dham — 3.30 am if they started immediately.

“Perfect. We’ll be in time for Mangala darshan.” Samarth shut the back door and opened the passenger door.

“Heeey!” Ava’s swinging voice made him turn.

“Hi,” Samarth smiled, then frowned, seeing her skipping down the road from the campus, a massive Defender driving slowly behind her. She wasn’t in her uniform, just like he wasn’t. She wore a long yellow kurti over a pair of frayed jeans, looking like nothing he had ever seen.

“What are you doing…” he stopped, seeing her come to an abrupt halt. “I mean,” he added. “Where are you going?”

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