The next morning, rather dawn, Maisha witnessed quite an unexpected and embarrassing situation when she barged into Vikramaditya's chamber before allowing the one of the footmen to announce her presence.

She squinted her eyes shut, muttering an "ugh," as the pair dispersed followed by a curse. The woman hurriedly picked up her half torn scrambled clothes while Aditya dressed himself and ushered the woman to leave. Maisha, being a tease as she had always been, smirked at Aditya who was not really pleased with her deteriorating mannerisms.

"Oh come on, you can finish later. Go masturbate or something. But right now, you need to tell me more about that spy cause I can't find Dev. I've been searching for him for quite sometime now," she laughed a bit trying to make him feel more embarrassed.

"Oh, he's not here. He didn't accompany us back to the palace yesterday, remember?" He asked rather annoyed for being bugged so early for such a trivial matter.

"Ohhhh," she realised stretching the monosyllabic answer as Aditya guided her that the same charioteer would take her to the desired location. As she was about to depart, Aditya hesitantly called her out,"What is 'mastubate'?"

Maisha grinned, almost exploding in laughter as Aditya's fists tightened, feeling insulted. "It means touching yourself, Your Majesty." She thought he heard him say, "Why would I do that? I have people for that." But she managed to contain herself just for enough time till she ran out of west wing. Hit by the early morning breeze Maisha burst into a fit of laughter at Aditya's double meaning remark as the palace guards titled their heads, ever so slightly, at her unusual behavior for a Chief, suspecting dubious activities. He can't even do it himself. Maisha broke into another fit of laughter, twisting the words he said in utter innocence and ignorance.

__________________

"What are you doing here?" Dev enquired defensively, eyes drilling Maisha as she stood there rather nervous in his scrutiny.

"That brut...er.... I mean His Majesty, sent me here. I speak western languages. I might be of some help." Nice save Maisha. She thought.

"Where did you learn it?" He inches towards her trying to intimidate her by his towering figure as she just sighed in defeat. She was smart to know he hated her and the entire kingdom suspected her of treachery. And by kingdom, she meant the palace. But the fact that the brute was her only hope of survival and safety in this world, made her despise the situation all the more.

"Look Dev, as much as you want me gone, I don't want to stay here either. Trust me when I say this, I hate this place, it's people and it's King. And that's why I left that night. I suspect you know who I am too, right? Because otherwise, I would've been long dead." It was Dev's turn to be silent. She was accurate.

"I don't want any of this. I just want to go home. And the only way I'll ever be able to do that is if I carry out whatever tasks that King of yours assigns me till I earn my freedom. You and I both know, he'll find me, torture me and make me regret why I was born dare I escape once more. So yes Dev, I come from far far away, farther than you can imagine and I am not a fucking spy cause I don't give a frigging damn about your dynasty."

Maisha didn't know she had so much pent up frustration. She had realised how much alone she was and how much she ached to be home. Her heart pained at the recollections of her past, her friends, her family and even her d-bag ex boyfriend. They all knew her and she realised for the first time what sense of security one felt when surrounded by familiarity.

"He's this way," Dev broke the silence rather quietly bobbing his head slightly in the direction of the suspect. His tensed frame was relaxed now as he casually jammed his hands in the pockets of loose khaki trousers. The building was made of stone and rubble and it was dim lit at night. After turning for a few times in the long corridors, and climbing down a flight of stairs into the basement, with Maisha following behind, they entered a small dingy rooms whose only source of air and light was the solid iron door that seldom opened.

Dev opened the door and allowed Maisha in. She almost puked at the sight and the state of that man. His nose and jaw was fractured surely and vermin were crawling all over him as he winced in pain. "What do you expect me to get out of this? He basically a dead meat." Dev shrugged leaving Maisha alone with the man.

"What's your name?" Maisha started with basic questions.

"I non loqoui," the man repeated for the thousandth time as Maisha knew her fears had come true. He was speaking Latin. She barely knew any Latin, although her Spanish and German were good and her French was average at best. Maisha had joined the interpol six months before the incident, that changed her life, happened. She had been working with CBI and was hired by Interpol after that. Kidnapping Nicholas Maverick was her second mission and it was not really a difficult task so she didn't have any back up. She was still learning her way through languages, dialects and mingling into different races in order to become irrecognizable among the crowds, being a ghost citizen of almost every country, it was all in progress. She was a sort of private option for the Interpol, doing jobs out of their jurisdictions. She remembered that she had gladly accepted the offer and resigned from CBI giving an explanation of mental breakdown. She did want an adventure of her own and he had finally got one, at least that's what she thought. Look at the irony of me having an adventure. She thought.

She tried her best to remember the Latin poems she had once read out of curiosity, the words she had learnt in a Latin class while her ghost stay at Mexico which lasted for only two weeks.

"Quod nomen.....er.... tibi est?" Maisha repeated the question with evident difficulty praying that she would understand the response.

"Amelius," the man stated in ease.

"Unde venistis?" (Where are you from?)

"I non loqoui," (I won't speak) he said stubbornly as Maisha mentally groaned.

"Quod si non fueris locutus es ad nos, et inutilia sunt extra hominem, alioquin interficiemus te," (If you don't speak, you are useless to us and the man outside will kill you) Maisha mentally patted herself on uttering such a long sentence. Mr. Sanchez, her Latin teacher would be proud.

"Nonne vos cognatione frater," (Don't you have a family, brother? ) And that was enough to break the man already emotionally emaciated by the grueling pain and the constant and painful pinching of the blood sucking vermin.

"Macedonia. Missus in imperium magnum regem. Ad nos quosdam regni tui et cum confirmata sunt omnes suspiciones malæ artis nos abhinc duos menses constitit. Sed illud est nimis sero autem. Qui vocavit vos in suum vestris malis. Quindecim bellum gerunt fortes exercitus Romanus. Romani conversa pulvere vos vincet," the man admitted in a prophecy and he laughed hysterically at Maisha's white face, whose pallor was more evident than the existence of Christ himself. With those words, the spy coughed some blood and went limp.

(I was sent by the Great king of Roman empire. He was informed that your kingdom was going to attack us and our suspicions were confirmed when all the trade stopped two months ago. But it is too late now. You have called upon your own doom.The mighty Roman army shall wage a war at fortnight.You shall be turned into dust while the Romans emerge victorious)

Maisha quietly exited the room to find Dev patiently waiting, hope of getting a confession fading with each passing second. He looked at Maisha with questioning eyes as she barely coughed up the words, "I think we should expect a war pretty soon."

_________________

"How is this even possible? We stopped trades with the Romans more than a year ago. But that was purely because of poor profits and high transportation costs besides the fact that the route consisted of many bandit dominated areas who looted goods. ," Aditya seethed in disbelief as Maisha explained the whole situation in a meeting only Maisha, Dev and Aditya were attending.

"But he clearly said two months ago. Who had been selling them things all this time in our name then?" Maisha questioned.

"Our preparations to curb the attack at the east side might've confirmed their suspicions too," Dev piped in pinching the bridge of his nose.

"This means that the uprisings in East are related to this," Aditya's head was in his hands now that he had realised that he was trapped.

"Whoever is behind all this, they had been planning it for quite sometime now. Deviating our attention by instigating the minorities in the border areas, causing large number of weaker attacks to keep us occupied while they fed lies to powerful empires, thus turning or allies against us. The final blow was to wipe us out." Aditya regained his composure reciting out the strategy of the perpetrators loud enough for the other two to hear seeing if he had missed something.

"And the greater probability lies that they are one of us," Maisha concluded.

"It has to be a team too. A single person can't manage to do this," Aditya said as the two nodded in agreement.

"I can think of only three names right now," Dev spoke out after a long silence. "Angad Rai Chaudhry, our foreign affairs minister who communicates with all foreign kingdoms on our behalf. He has access to communication.
Maharana Chayanpratap Goenka, who controls trade. If I remember correctly, he suggested we cut off our business ties with the West in the first place. And the last Suryabhan Misra , the provincial governor of the Bengal. He had been producing results far inferior than his capabilities. I won't be surprised if he was involved in the instigation." Dev expressed his suspicions.

"I think I may have an idea," Maisha spoke out hesitantly as both of them listened attentively.

"Right now, I need all help I can get. Maisha, go inform the soldiers about the war. Be as discreet as possible. Start with the strategies, I will discuss with you guys and the provincial heads of their battalions today evening. If the Romans challenge for a war, I can't deny. King's duties. So, we need to be prepared. Dev, send your best and the most trusted people to inform the provincial heads regarding the meeting and bring with along today, here in the palace. I can't really trust anyone right now. Also go and personally see if the new equipments are ready. Send more workers to Agastya ji. We don't have a second to spare. Maisha, how much time do you need to test the equipments?" Aditya barked orders after listening to Maisha's strategy.

"Two days at most."

"Good. If everything goes fine, we might be able to just save ourselves in time. Dev I need you to send my regards to the Roman King and clear all the misunderstandings. It would be a miracle if the letter reached in time. But we still have to try."

"Do you want me to go there in person, to make sure the letter isn't lost ?" Dev asked.

"No, I need you here. Send your best man for the job. Besides, if I'm right the letter might never reach. And I don't want you dead. Even if it does reach in time, they'd be on our gates by then."

"So there's no turning back now?" Maisha asked nervously.

"Yes, I'm afraid we're too late and traitor is getting ready to enjoy the impending doom." Aditya straightened himself once again and spoke," But I will do whatever it takes to protect my people, my kingdom and fear not, I will find those bastards and make them regret their existence."

Aditya exited his chambers for the court in his usual demeanor hiding all the turmoil inside him excellently while Maisha and Dev started carrying out their orders as discreetly as possible.

A/n : that was some intense writing. Hope you guys like...

Please do vote share and comment. It would be wonderful to cross a thousand mark before I finish this book.