Chapter Text
Dhrishtadyumna accepted the hand offered to him and got up. Wiping the corner of his forehead with a towel offered by a servant, he headed back to the stands and sat down beside Sahadev and Nakul.
“And Prince Dhrishtadyumna is defeated!” The announcer called out. “Is there anyone else willing to challenge Princess Sukanya for her hand?”
Whispers broke out among the gathered kings and princes. They thought the challenge was simple: defeat the princess in a swordfight, and win her hand in marriage. As she defeated one opponent after another, Dhrishtadyumna latest in the line, Sahadev stared at her, transfixed. Sukanya’s hair was tied back in a bun, and she was wearing light armour under her bright green saree. Her deep blue kamarbandh had seashells woven into it, and she was wearing simple silver kadas on her feet that glinted in the sunlight. She mustve been no older than seventeen or so. The contest had started at sunrise, and apart from a few short breaks for the princess to fix her armour or hair and drink water, it had been going on continuously. It was past midday, and everyone had realised by now that the task wasn’t easy. The kings squirmed in their seats at being bested by a girl, and her stamina wasn’t running out anytime soon. Except— she was reeling. An attendant brought her an umbrella, and a girl led her away while servants rushed to give her water and some strange medicine. Sahadev tried to decipher what it was. He wasn’t a stranger to concoctions that enhanced one’s strength, but those were usually taken over the course of several months to ready one for battle, not in the middle of two duels.
“You should challenge her,” Bheem said from behind him, breaking him out of his train of thought. “You’ve been ogling her ever since she stepped into the arena,”
“What makes you get that idea? I’m just here to support Nakul!” Sahadev said indignantly.
“And I had no interest in winning her hand,” Nakul said from beside him. “I only sought to see how good she was—” and then added, “for you,”
“Go!” Dhrishtadyumna said from his other side. “I believe my duel with her sufficiently tired the princess out,”
“You can’t be serious! She defeated you and Nakul, and you two are the best swordsmen anyone knows. What makes you think I have a chance?”
“If she likes you, she’ll let you win. That’s how it usually goes. Every challenge like this has a way for the princess to communicate to her suitor that she likes him. Don’t you remember that one in Madra we attended? Your cousin or something?”
Bheem was, unfortunately, right. Every challenge had a loophole, and seeing the loophole in this one was easy. If princess Sukanya really liked the suitor, she would gladly let him best her in the fight.
“Anyone? Is there courage left in the men of Jambudvipa, or are you all scared of being bested by my little sister?” The announcer— who Sahadev guessed was her older brother or maybe her cousin— boomed.
“Go!” Nakul whispered. “She’s getting ready to fight again, she’s had her rest,”
“I told you to go for it as soon as her fight with Dhrish was over!” Bheem whisper-shouted. “Now you’ll be dealing with her at her full energy.
Sahadev looked at the princess once more and took a deep breath.
“It will be harder, now,” Dhrishtadyumna said. “But I believe you can win her hand,”
He got up from his seat and stretched, tightening his vambrace and kamarbandh and allowing Nakul to help him into his armour.
“Actually,” He said, looking at the arena, where Sukanya was doing the same, “I don’t think it will be,”
“Sahadev, you’re doing it again,” Nakul said exasperatedly.
“What?”
“That mysterious smile thing.”
“Oh, that!” Sahadev now threw his head back and chuckled. “I just realised something,”
“What?”
“ANYONE?” The announcer called out again.
“I challenge the princess to a duel!” Sahadev said, his voice floating on the wind, across the arena to where she was preparing herself, to the stands where the royal family was sitting, and to all the opposing kings and princes gathered for the challenge. “I accept the rules of the challenge, and would be glad to have her hand in marriage,”
Sukanya let out a huge sigh and stepped into the arena. At the sound of the conch shell, the duel began. As their fight went on, Sahadev realised Bheem was right. Sukanya was barely putting up a fight. The sword was clenched too tightly and awkwardly for her arm movements to be fluid, and she wasn’t using any complex maneouvers, just blocking anything he sent her way in a frenzy. It wasn’t hard to pretend to be tired or to match his skill level. But she was so bad at being bad at fighting, and if it was so clearly visible to the kings that she was throwing the match— well, he just hoped his brothers(and brothers-in-law) were ready to fight off the horde of jealous kings.
She really wanted to lose. But if she was throwing the match, why was she fighting so awkwardly? And if she liked him, why wasn’t she allowing him to get closer, and maybe…. allow him to flirt with her? Or at least letting him make a final move in the match so he could put an end to this and they could finally get married? Maybe she had spent all her childhood training— she had to have, to match Nakul or Dhrishtadyumna’s skill— and lacked in social skills. That reminded Sahadev of Arjun. Huh. Funny how that worked.
He could see that she was just as distracted as she was, and sought to finish this match so they could finally get married. However, when he made a move that would simply force her to yield, she fell gracelessly on her bottom, the sword landing somewhere else. The move also sent him reeling from the impact(or rather, the lack of it) because he was striking forcefully on….. air……
Exasperated, he walked right up to her, twirled his sword, and with its blunted tip, raised up her chin.
“Do you surrender,”
Her face was expressionless. If Sahadev hadn’t known better, he’d have almost said she looked scared.
“Yes,” She whispered.
“The princess has admitted defeat!” Sahadev called out to the royal stands.
Everything was a blur, then— the other suitors were screaming about her throwing the match(as if that wasn’t the exact point.), Bheem rushed forward and was lifting him up on his shoulders, and Nakul and Dhrishtadyumna were scanning the crowd for allies they could count on to help them fight off the bitter and humiliated suitors, calling Dhrishtadyumna’s brothers, and attendants were running towards the arena to get the princess away from the commotion and to allow her some much-needed rest.
Later that evening, a little bit after dinner, Bheem walked into their suite.
“Sent a letter to everyone, they should be arriving in a fortnight.”
Sahadev had just finished burning off Dhrishtadyumna’s scrapes and talking Nakul down from his wedding shopping frenzy.
“Thank you,”
“Go to sleep, Anuj,” Bheem said finally. “You must be tired.”
“She threw the match, I didn’t even have to try,”
“That means, she really likes you,”
“No, you don’t get it! Something weird was going on,”
“Whatever it is, you also stood for hours in the sun, patched up Nakul and Dhrishtadyumna after their fights, you had to meet her family later, have dinner with them, and you talked Nakul out of a fashion crisis, which, yes, warrants a separate spot in the list. Go to sleep.”
“Fine,” Sahadev sighed. Bheem handed him a shorter cotton dhoti and disappeared behind the partition which held his bed.
However much he tried, though, Sahadev couldn’t sleep. After much tossing and turning, he gave up on trying to sleep, pulled a shawl over his shoulders, and headed out for a walk.