Still unconscious for the next hour and a half, Princess Amisha felt drowsy and uncoordinated as her eyes opened slowly to gradually reveal her surroundings. The environment looked to be illuminated by the dim light of candles, the smell was that of frankincense and myrrh burning in a brazier, but what intrigued her most was what she was put to lay on. She looked down, and noticed that it was a bier her body was resting on. Odd, she thought, am I dead? A bier is where you place a dead body. I suppose I am dead.
Sitting up, she looked down and also saw that a few diamonds were missing from her clothing and her wrists were confined in cuffs, which were connected by a thick chain. Princess Amisha's fear grew, trying to pull them apart, but to no avail. Then, she began crying for help.
"Why am I in chains?!" she shouted in a heavy panic. "HELP! Somebody release me from my confines! Explain to me why I am locked in chains!"
Within a few moments, the princess heard a shutter open and close, and through the small opening she saw two familiar faces, making her wonder who locked her in the room lying on the bier with her wrists in iron cuffs. As the door opened, she looked in horror as she saw Ravi and another unfamiliar young man with none other than Raja Kumar Chatur, whose odious, fiery black eyes looked demonic as he stared at the frightened princess.
The raja was dressed in an unusual fashion—he was clad in a velvet black robe, boots instead of sandals that had his pants tucked into them, a strange silver medallion with a flaming red garnet set into it, and an odd, black and red jeweled headdress. Princess Amisha looked at him with trepidation; she couldn't bear to say any words, but how else would she know what was going on?
"Good evening, Your Highness," the raja said, staring at her with pure odium. She blinked nervously and redundantly, saying her first words to the raja in hours.
"What is going on?" she questioned, holding up her chained wrists. "Why am I in chains, raja?" He approached her, which intimidated her to the point where she made him stop by getting on her knees in front of him and beginning to cry, scared for her fate.
"Have I displeased you?" she said in a cracking voice as her eyes filled with tears, groveling at his feet like a slave begging from freedom. Oh no, she thought, maybe he heard Alfred and I during our night together. I have displeased him. Oh my! Waiting for a simple answer killed her, for the moment of silence seemed continuous.
"No," he said. The princess gasped with relief, but still had no clue why she was chained at the wrist. "A prophesy is yet to be fulfilled."
"Prophesy?' she asked, looking up at him with her teary blue eyes. "What are you talking about, raja?"
Snickering sinisterly, he looked down at her as he circled her slowly, speaking while doing so. The princess had yet to know what was really going on, but the answer would soon shock her to oblivion.
"Rajkumari Amisha Mani, daughter of one of the greatest, revered rulers of the East," Raja Kumar Chatur said in a creepy monotone. "You have been sought after by royal bachelors since you were very young. Sultans or their sons have wanted you to be their wife, as did sheiks and other rajas here in India. However, only one prevailed so far, and it was I. It had been my greatest achievement since inheriting leadership of Kālē Tārā Rakta." Princess Amisha looked up at him with fear in her intense blue eyes—he was priest, which she approved of because he was a holy man, but she had never heard of such a religious organization because it was so underground and did not fit traditional Hindu beliefs. She said nothing, but let him speak once more.
"All your life, you have been pampered and spoiled by both your father and the many servants you have in the palace at Delhi. You would spend countless hours in play with your cousins and the servant girls who had reared you from the time your mother…died," he said. "When you were twelve or thirteen, a reputable raja from Bombay wanted you to be the wife of his son, but did your father approve? No, he didn't, all because he was more than willing to spoil you for the rest of your teenage years with fine clothing and jeweled adornments. He never discussed marriage with you, or how important it was for you to marry into a well-off family. I found it very pathetic, Your Highness."
"How does this have anything at all to do with the fact that I am bound in chains, raja?" Princess Amisha questioned, getting angry with his riddle speak. "Stop telling the story of my life and release me! Now!"
"I cannot do that, Your Highness," Raja Kumar Chatur said with a sound of pity.
"Why! Tell me why right this instant!" the princess demanded.
"Hmm, Your Highness, you should have been taught not to speak out of turn with your future husband," he said.
"I am serious, raja. Tell me why I am bound. I demand an explanation!" she said, calming down to be more assertive. Raja Kumar Chatur began pacing around her again, looking down at her long, raven-black curling hair.
"Amisha Mani. It means 'beautiful jewel' in Sanskrit," the raja said. "It fits our purpose well, and my grandfather's prophesy will soon be fulfilled."
"Tell me what prophesy," the princess commanded, her voice cracking as though she were going to cry again.
"My grandfather, Raja Jagadhish Samdarshi, foretold in the year 1867 that the time to sacrifice a beautiful woman of a certain description to Black Tara would be close to now," Raja Kumar Chatur said. The princess was speechless with her heart in her throat—what was he implying?
"Sacrifice?" she wondered with fear in her breathy tone of voice.
"Yes, Your Highness," the raja said, crouching down to meet her at eye level on the floor. With one his large, dark hands, he cupped her delicate face, looking into her eyes. Her lips trembled with fear, scared of his intentions.
"Just what my grandfather predicted," he whispered. "Hair black as the night, eyes blue as the ocean, skin white as alabaster, and a delicate, fair face. You are just what he was searching for. You are a divine woman, rajkumari."
"I don't understand, raja. You want to kill me for your patron god?" Princess Amisha wondered, looking at him as tears began streaming down her face. As she began to cry, the raja looked down at her, his patience wearing thin.
"Stop your tears!" he shouted, gripping her face tighter in his large hand. "I do not think you understand how special you are! You are a woman in good faith, aren't you? You are a devoted Hindu, rajkumari!"
"I am, by my life, raja!" she cried. "I seriously doubt the gods and goddesses would want me to die for them!"
He let her face go and he stared at her with sinister inquisition as he watched her bury her face in her hands, sobbing with fear and hopelessness. She never loved him, but she never had a strong enough intuition to tell if he was such a bad man like he had conveyed to her at that point.
"Your blood is the primal force of India, according to our beliefs. It is not the Maharaja, nor is it any other supreme ruler," the raja said, standing up on both of his feet. The princess wiped her eyes and looked up at him, realizing what her fate was as she continued to cower inside.
"If I am to die, please give me a few more days," she told him with sad reluctance. "I have one request."
"What is that, rajkumari? It must be on condition that you may not leave this temple," he told her forcefully. She sighed and looked up at him.
"Let me see Alfred one last time," she requested calmly, watching him snicker evilly afterwards with his two young men.
"Fool you are, rajkumari. He is a commoner," the raja scoffed cruelly. "It seems like he has tempted you away from me. I was to be your future husband."
"There will be no wedding? Why did you want my hand if you had no intention on marrying me?" the princess questioned, still crying.
"It is very obvious why, rajkumari," he told her. "You are the incarnation of Tara, and Her sacred blood runs through your veins. Do you realize what good your death could do for us?"
"I do not wish to die no matter what the cause is for!" the princess exclaimed. "Please! Let me see Alfred and his group of friends. Please!"
"Very well," the raja said. As soon as the princess felt some sort of relief, Raja Kumar Chatur looked over at Ravi and his other man. "Lure those bumbling fools over here. I have throats to slit."
"NO!" the princess shrieked with emotional agony as she began sobbing once again. She found herself groveling at Raja Kumar Chatur's feet once more as tears dripped like heavy rain from her blue eyes. "If I am found and rescued, I wish the worst for you! I hate you! DAMN YOU!"