Suryavanshi Yuvrani To Empress Of Aryavrat

22: Their expedition

A/N: here's the next part as i promise. Enjoy!
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Kathiravani finished her pooja and went back to the palace. Since she arrived her, she was so busy did a lot of things, she must read documents from Kosala and Ramaprashta respectively, sent letter to Kosala, those letters usually were advice and her point of view of problems in Kosala, and ruled Ramaprashta from far away. She was glad that she founded her own armies and had many of talented officials that she could trust her Kingdom. Mahamantri Kunala always sent documents to her, while Isha, actually served as Advisor of States. And now, in Hastinapura, she was the only Kulvadhu here, and Mata Gandhari couldn't see, and Rajmata Kunti was a widow, so the servants turned into her for several things.

Such a job should've been done by the Queen or Crown Princess Consort, but she actually responsible for that. Not to mention Gandhari actually trusted her a lot.

Kathiravani and the maids were busy counted several things like dry wheat and quilts for the Princes to brought go the war zone.  

"Rajkumari, Maharani and Rajmata  said that if you already finished your task, you should go with them to bid farewell to the Princes,"

Kathiravani nodded, she took a deep breath and forced herself to appeared calm and collected. They walked into the terrace where everyone stood, waiting to mount their own horses, already in their respective armors. She stood beside Gandhari,

"Putri Kaushalya," Gandhari called her, "come, you should do the ritual before they departed, dear,"

"me?" she asked back, Gandhari nodded, she took the aarti thali from the maids and performed their aarti. These Kuru Princes stood in line,

"you should bless them too, Putri," Gandhari continued, "they already took blessings from everyone, but not yet from you,"

She put tilak on Yudhistira's forehead and bent down to touched his feet, but before she could touch, Yudhistira already caught her halfway, he softly smiled, they seemed lost in each other's eyes and completely ignored other people, 

"cough cough!"

Suddenly someone coughed, they both woke up from that trance, Kathiravani could only look down to hid her red face, while Yudhistira walked away shyly, the Elders who saw that smiled, Vidura and Bhisma shared a look of content. The next Princes were younger than her in the terms of seniority, thus they bent down and touched her feet, she blessed them with "Vijaya Bhava".

"anyway, Babhishree, we will emerged victorious in this war, when we come, what do you want for souvenirs?" Duryodhana asked, his boasting made Kathiravani laughed softly,

"what Bhrata Duryodhan says is true, ask for something, Babhishree, certainly we will give it to you when we are back!" Sahadev added,

"yes, Babhishree, besides, we didn't even pay for the foods last night yet, consider it as our payment for you!" Dushasana persuaded, Kathiravani sheepishly smiled at them,

"you come victoriously are enough for me, Devars, no need for other gifts or memento,"

"how can it be like that, Babhishree? You're our first Babhi, it considered a pleasure to us if we can gift you something, and this is our first ever fight in a war, just ask something and we will give it to you," Bhima said making all of them nodded in agreement, it was a rare sight to see Kuru Princes agreed on something.

"ask them anything, Putri, and you shall received it, it is a token of love and respect your younger brothers have for you, don't break their hearts by refusing it, Dear," Mahamantri Vidur interjected, he smiled towards the Kulvadhu, Kathiravani nodded, he looked at the Kuru Princes,

"then, when you come back victorious, along the road, when you encountered something really beautiful for your standard, take that and give it to me, i will considered those precious gifts from my brothers,"

"what kind of gifts is that, Babhishree?" Nakula asked, his smart brain couldn't comprehend what did she want, while Kathiravani shrugged,

"i also don't know what kind of gift is that, Devar Nakul, but all i know is, those gifts shall be beautiful for your standard, the rest? I don't know."

After blessed them, they mounted their horses and went to the war against Panchala.

"May Mahadev blessed them." she could hear Gandhari said, she took her hand,

"Mahadev will always bless them, Mata, i'm sure of it."

They also bid goodbye towards Kunti and Karna, they were both started their journey towards Kuntiprashta, where KuntiPrashta Naresh, King Kuntibhoj waited for his heir from his daughter. Kunti wanted to took Kathiravani with her but she refused, she was also the Kulvadhu of this dynasty, she had responsibilities towards Maharaj Dhritarashtra, Maharani Gandhari and Mahamahim Bhisma.

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A week later while the Kuru Princes were away, Kathiravani sat with Dushala, she played veena while the girl listened to her, and made some garlands. They talked to each others and laughed, simply enjoyed each other's presence.

"Rajkumari! Rajkumari! Maharaj has summoned both of you to his chamber, he says that he wants both of your opinions on something,"

"what is it, dasi?" Dushala asked, "why Pitashree summons both of us?"

"i heard about your engagement, Rajkumari,"

Kathiravani and Dushala looked at each other, they then got up and walked together hand in hand to Maharaj's chamber. Upon entering, they frowned, because Maharani Gandhari also there with Gandhar Naresh Sakuni.

"what is it, Pitashree?" Dushala asked again, Gandhari motion to Dushala so she could sit with her, Kathiravani also followed suit,

"a messenger from Kingdom of Sindhu, they wanted to form alliance with us by marrying Dushala to Sindhu Raj Jayadhrata,"

Sakuni hastily agreed, his niece finally had some use after all these years, Dhritarashtra also agreed heartily, only Gandhari looked contemplated and Dushala had tears in her eyes, Kathiravani frowned,

"may i say something, Tatshree?" 

"say it, dear, your opinion also matter in this,"

"i know who Jayadhrata is, one can say i grew up alongside him and other Kingdom's Yuvraj. His Kingdom is the vassal of Magadha, under Maharaj Jarashandha, while my Father, Maharaj Ranjeet is a close friend and more like Brothers of Maharaj Jarashanda, he is also Maharaj Jarashanda's favorite pupil, in terms of strength and power, few can compared to him in Aryavrat, when Dushala married him, she will be the Sindhu Rani, but,"

"what is it, my dear? You can speak freely, we should consider your point of view in this," Maharani Gandhari caught her hands, Kathiravani took a breath,

"there was a reason why neither of Suryavanshi will consider him good enough to marry one of the Princess, excluding me, who already has engagement set before i was born, none of my family want to have any relations with him, why? You may ask, because despite has those strength and power, Sindhu Raj Jayadhrata is sad excuse of human being! His deeds has been an open secret among us who grew up together, i will not say anything if other Princesses of other Kingdoms want to marry him but Dushala is a sister of mine, i cannot find it in myself to see her being miserable in a marriage she doesn't choose it herself. My husband is away and he will be sad if i don't say anything about this marriage at all, he loves his only sister so much that he talks about her a lot,"

There was pregnant silent in the rooms, Kathiravani sighed, "if Tatshree and Jyesth Mata are concerned, i can actually suggest something, several of my brothers from Kasi-Kosala and Nishada are still unmarried, also, my mother herself is from Videha, and there's also my aunts's nephews, many of them are unmarried, if Tatshree and Mata don't dislike it, then why not let one of them marry Dushala? I can't say that they're Lord Shankar on earth, but i know their characters as human being, what do you think?"

Dushala's eyes brimmed with tears of gratefulness towards her sister in law. She heard many stories about Sindhu Raj during Kanyakul, fortunately her sister in law was here, so that she would not marry that wretched man.

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A/N: the next chapter will be update when the vote reach 20 again. Thanks❤