The Children of Midnight by Ashok K. Banker

Author:Ashok K. Banker [Ashok K. Banker]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Epic Mahabharata - Book 1: The Children Of Midnight
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Published: 2016-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

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The Lord of the Mountain Kingdoms was no hirsute savage. No doubt, he had ancestors who lived up to the reputation expected of a mountain king: great bearish hulks of men spending their lives carousing and whoring, interrupting these vital activities occasionally to wage war against anyone handy, notorious for their brutish ways and indomitable fortresses.

But Bhagadatta was cut from a different stone.

The current king of Pragjyotisha was a suave, handsome figure clad in a cloak of snow leopard fur that suited his catlike gait and lithe, pantherish movements, as he rose from his seat to welcome his royal guests. He was young, perhaps the youngest of them all, but then again, as they each reflected silently; he had not won his throne by challenge or war, as was the mountain custom.

He had been enthroned by none other than the liberator of Pragjyotisha himself. Lord Krishna Vasudeva. And to have the backing of Krishna was to be untouchable by any and all foes.

Mere knowledge that Krishna's hand was above his head was sufficient to silence any challengers to Bhagadatta's claim. Those few that dared to murmur dissent were pulled back by their own clans and soon grew silent, changing their murmurs to politic praises for the new One King.

The 16,000 mountain clans were too busy repairing and rebuilding their own homesteads and fighting forces after the battle and the debilitating occupation that had preceded it. Even the most cantankerous of them reluctantly agreed that it was no time to be fighting amongst themselves. Perhaps later, much later, when the clans had rebuilt all that had been destroyed to some semblance of its former strength, they would raise the issue again — if the One King lasted that long.

For now, Bhagadatta was, for the first and only time in the citadel's history, the undisputed master of Pragjyotisha. This smooth-cheeked young man — a boy, really, since he was barely within reach of his third decade — was set to rule with an authority that had not been enjoyed by his predecessors for tens of thousands of years.

And because of the consolidated power he represented, the sixteen thousand clans united for the first time in that long history, he was the strongest lord of the citadel that had ever sat the stone throne. Which made him a powerful man by any measure. Even ravaged and debilitated, the mountain state was a force to reckon with, and its unassailable location itself made it impossible for any invading army to threaten — any mortal army. The suscrufa and their asura masters had been a different matter, a shocking interruption to the unassailable dominance of the clans. For other mortal enemies, unaided by supernatural means, the stone citadel was in every sense of the word, ayodhya. A city which could not be broken by war. It was this impregnable reputation and might which compelled the presence of the royal travellers at this moment.

He stood at the doorway of his own aerie, greeting the dusty, road-weary, battered-bum arrivals as they strode haughtily in.

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