A Slave who became Emperor Chapter 26

Pinaka was worried about the safety of his mother, the threat to her life did not let him relax . He did not know how his mother was, now he felt scared if he would lose her even before seeing her . . Samyukta understood his pain, she called Shiva . She said, "Shiva, in Indraprastha do you know of any place where the empress could be held captive other than the palace?"he thought for a moment and said, "Princess, there is one small palace in the outskirts of the city, it was built for army generals, Devadatta often goes there . . but I am not sure . . the empress could be held at a house of one of his loyal court officials . . "

Samyukta said, "it can not be, how can Devadatta put the empress in someone's house, someone would have noticed . . the palace for army generals . . where is it exactly . . can you send few spies to check that place?" Shiva nodded and went . The spies went and observed for two hours, they came back and reported to Shiva .

Shiva met Samyukta, he said, "my men noticed that the army palace was abandoned, there was no one positioned outside,but they saw one man entering it carrying a tray of food . . " Samyukta nodded, she asked, "is there a dungeon or a prison in that palace?" Shiva said, "yes there is a prison . . . but . . . " his eyes lost focus as a thought struck him, then he smacked his forehead hard, "why did not I think of it

before, Oh Princess . . there is a tunnel connecting the royal palace and the army general's palace, it was built to help the royal family escape in case of emergency . . " Samyukta said, "quick, let us speak to Pinaka . . "

Both went and said about the tunnel . . this route was only known to the loyals of the emperor . . this was precisely the route taken by the emperor while he escaped with Pinaka . . during that time Devadatta did not think of it . . but now he used it to get the empress out of the royal palace . . they made the army palace look abandoned on the outside . . everything was clear now . .

Pinaka, Samyukta and Shiva headed towards the general's palace . . the old emperor Kailash Nanda sent a dozen of his best men to accompany his grandson . They reached near that palace, it was built of stone , there were no guards stationed at the gate, it looked abandoned, Pinaka said, "Samyukta, wait here with ten men, I will go with Shiva and two others, in case I need help , we will send out a signal . . " she nodded, this needs to be a covert operation, if everyone barged in together, Devadatta might even kill the empress .

There was no one around, Pinaka stealthily went in, he was followed by Shiva and two other men, as they entered inside, there was a huge hall with a stage , the walls were made of stone, the ceiling was high, it was a palace for army general, there was no luxury . . it looked like a fort, there were no one in the hall, as they walked further, they saw a stair case . . Shiva visited this palace earlier, he knew that the prison was located downstairs . . he tilted his head and pointed towards the stairs . . they drew their weapons out and walked further towards the stairs . .

They were walking on their toes, without making any noise, as they reached the bottom of the stairs, Pinaka heard a noise . . he put his finger to his lips and asked his men to be quiet, he drew his sword out and quietly inched forward . . . the men were holding their breath . .

Suddenly something jumped and landed on Shiva's shoulder, it was a cat . . they let out a sigh of relief and inched forward . . there was faint light at the end of the corridor, . . they moved towards the light, the entire corridor was pitch black, there was no source of light coming in . . as they were walking, they saw two guards , they were carrying swords and running towards them, Pinaka striked with his sword , he slashed a deep wound on the chest of both the guards with a single strike . . they fell . . Pinaka moved forward, Shiva heard some noise behind him, he too turned and saw that one guard was approaching them from behind, he fought with the guard and beheaded him . . there was a fire torch in the hands of the guard, Shiva took it and examined the corridor, there were guards coming towards them from every side . .

They were surrounded completely, Pinaka took out a brass plate from his clothing and banged it precisely three times against the wall of the corridor . . It was the signal they agreed upon, but they were not sure if it would reach Samyukta . . Shiva then headed in opposite direction, guards were surrounding them, he saw a war drum, he hit it hard three times with a rod and boom boom boom . . the drum beat was so loud it could have shattered their ear drums . . he waited, he repeated the same signal, . . he prayed to heavens that Samyukta and team should hear it, then Pinaka, Shiva and the two men took their positions and got ready for combat . .

Chapter end