Chapter 24 Combatting the Undead

• 1st Century, 57 BCE: Hilly terrain and Forest area near Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India
• In his mind, he still wasn't sure about whether the path he was treading was right. He was known and respected by the people for his righteousness. Then was it moral to love a brother's wife? This secret attack he had planned - it was all for the sake of Nandini. How dare someone seek her for his carnal pleasures? And what kind of a man his brother was? He wished he'd have killed him too. But he was Vikramaditya. He couldn't let his personal emotions come in between his path of dharma. He had even questioned himself several times, had tried to suppress his feelings for Nandini .. but those eyes .. those lotus shaped eyes had broken down all barricades of reason. There was a longing .. a yearning in them which Vikram could never ignore. He knew his brother wasn't loyal to her, despite her being caring and dutiful and treated her no more than the other courtesans he slept with. In fact Shankha didn't have respect for any of his other wives too, the second one having committed suicide under mysterious circumstances, the first he hardly paid a visit and the third he had got banished from the kingdom.
• Coming to responsibilities of a governer he was a complete failure, too. The tradesmen had become dishonest in his reign and often cheated the poor citizens. In an incident last year when a devastating famine had broken out triggered by a continued drought of three and half years, Vikram had intercepted sacks of grains being transferred to the godown for blackmarketing . Crime was at rise in the city and young men loved to while away their time drinking and gambling in absence of employment. The capital wasn't garrisoned well and often neighbouring rulers took over forts with ease and government coffers got drained in sending soldiers to drive them away. The people were taxed heavily to recover losses from these self-induced skirmishes, while the governor drowned himself in drinking and merrymaking. It was no surprise that foreign invaders were eyeing India by capturing Pataliputra. What more could he say about the man who had usurped the throne at Pataliputra? He felt ashamed to call him his uncle, own brother of the great Gandharvasena - Indra's son. Vikram recalled what his father had taught the princes when they were young.