"You mean to tell me that my daughter is missing?"
Alfred, Arthur, Francis, Ivan, Matthew, Mr. Winston and Mr. Smith had not seen the Maharaja until they arrived back at the palace later that night, but before this, they ran into Sadar, the prime minister, and told him about the horrific event of the evening. His reaction included shock and extreme worry. He was also quite frantic, knowing that the Maharaja would not be happy. Now, they were in the grand hall near the palace's entrance conversing on the subject just after Alfred first brought it to his attention.
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Arthur said. "Mr. Winston and Mr. Smith here claim to have seen the capture."
"Why did you not stop them?" the Maharaja asked with frustration.
"By the time we got to the scene, she was in a thick, long bag big enough to fit a body. We couldn't stop her captors from taking her," Mr. Smith said.
"I even found these at the scene," Mr. Winston said, pulling the few diamonds he had retrieved as evidence for her disappearance. "We thought these might have been hers because she had a ton of diamonds sewn on her clothes tonight."
The Maharaja approached the older Englishman and looked down at the small diamonds sparkling as they lie stationary on his open palm. He took them and began looking at them, his heart filling with desperation and worry.
"These…oh my!" the Maharaja said, his voice full of grief as he rubbed his eyes, possibly to prevent tears from falling. "Amisha! No!" Sadar, who had been standing with them, approached the ruler to try consoling him.
"I'm so sorry, Your Majesty," he said with pity. Once the Maharaja calmed himself down, he looked Sadar straight in the eyes and began speaking.
"Mr. Chowdry," he began in a strained-sounding voice. "Send search parties immediately." His tone was forceful and determined. "I want my daughter found immediately. All I pray is that she be alive and safe."
"As do I, Your Majesty," Sadar said. Suddenly, Alfred, whose face was solemn and grave, moved forward and had his input which ended up shocking the Maharaja.
"Your Majesty," he began. "Why don't you just send us out to find her and bring her back?"
"No. Do not prove heroism when it isn't present, young man," the Maharaja said, his dark eyes turning to the blond American. "Perhaps you may be able to, but it would be too much work for five young men. You are unarmed, unprepared for the challenges. With all due respect, I need my soldiers to find her."
Alfred looked at him—the Maharaja's voice of reason rang true. He always viewed himself as a hero just because he idolized comic book characters, but how would he play the hero in a situation like this? What would it cost him just to save the one he loved so dearly? He sighed and looked back at Francis, Arthur, Ivan and Matthew, and then back at the Maharaja, whose face still had a distressing look on it. The five went aside to have their own side conversation.
"What are we going to do?" Ivan asked with concern. "We should save her no matter what."
"I know. We should. As a group," Alfred said with fiery-mad enthusiasm.
"Keep your voice down!" Arthur hissed cynically. "The Maharaja might hear you!"
"Let him!" Alfred responded. "I'll be damned if someone hurts Princess Amisha." The hall fell silent, but Mr. Winston and Mr. Smith broke it with their thick English accents.
"I haven't seen the Raja of Calcutta in hours," Mr. Winston said.
"Yeah, where is he, Your Majesty?" Mr. Smith questioned. The Maharaja gasped, looking at the two Englishmen as he remembered that he left the festivities.
"My, I am unsure," the royal said. "He left just before the festivities ended, if I remember correctly."
"He left?!" Arthur exclaimed. "Wouldn't he be concerned that his fiancée is missing?"
"Yes, I would be," a voice called out.
The voice and approaching presence of Raja Kumar Chatur intimidated the men so much that the great hall was struck silent. He had just arrived to the palace at Delhi after leaving his temple of Kālē Tārā Rakta, where Princess Amisha was confined to solitude before her "sacred" death. His fiery, evil black eyes looked at everyone, but when he stopped to look at the Maharaja, he instantly knew he was upset.
"What is going on here?" the raja asked, approaching the Maharaja casually. The royal looked at the raja and saw his expressionless, casual face. He raised one of his bushy eyebrows at him, waiting for his answer.
"She was taken and we do not know who it was!" the Maharaja exclaimed with worry, looking at the raja. He's such a fool, he thought sinisterly as he stared at him blankly, he should be proud to have a goddess' incarnation as a daughter.
"Really?" the raja wondered, looking at him withy invisible fire in his eyes. "When did that happen?"
Both Arthur and Alfred were not blind to see the suspicion in his voice—they knew that Raja Kumar Chatur was hiding something, but they didn't know exactly what it was. The two young men looked at each other and speculated in a seemingly telepathic way—had the raja been involved in her disappearance? Their mutual speculation continued as the minutes passed.
"It happened well over an hour ago, Your Highness," Sadar told him. The raja looked at him and bit his lower lip, starting at him. Wonderful, he thought.
"What happened? Did any of you by chance witness her…capture?" he asked, pausing to find the right word to say in order to prevent suspicion from anyone.
Ivan, Francis and Matthew picked up on his strange tone of voice as well; Alfred and Arthur looked at him strangely, but then also noticed that their three other friends were suspicious. The two English archaeologists, Mr. Smith and Mr. Winston, Sadar, and the Maharaja were the only ones blind enough to have no misgivings about Raja Kumar Chatur. Of course, the Maharaja had known him for so long and trust had been built between them during their years of knowing each other, also adding to his lack of doubts. Capture, Arthur thought with many misgivings, could he have taken her?
"No, but we found these, Your Highness," Mr. Winston said, showing the diamonds to the raja. He stared at them, then looked up at the two older gentlemen, speculating as he approached them and began circling them as he did Princess Amisha some time before.
"Hmm," he began conspiratorially. "If any of you…gentlemen find my betrothed, let me know."
He walked away without saying anything else, but the Maharaja wondered why he was in such a rush to leave. Walking toward the raja with his portly self, he tapped him on the shoulder and looked at him curiously.
"Are you not concerned about the rajkumari?" he questioned. The raja nodded.
"Yes, in fact I might send search parties out for her," the raja responded.
"But I am doing that, Your Highness," the Maharaja said. "When did you last see her?"
"She was playing with little ones near the city square," Raja Kumar Chatur said.
"I am aware of that, raja! I mean did you see her anytime after that?" the Maharaja asked desperately, trying to get a straight answer from him. Alfred, Arthur, Francis, Ivan, Matthew, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Winston all looked at him as well, but the younger men knew he was plotting something—if not that, what was he doing? Why was he acting so casually and nonchalantly? Now Alfred could see why nonchalant behavior looked bad for somebody, especially if they had done something wrong. Remembering the words of his professor, he continued looking at him conspiratorially.
"No, I cannot recall another time," he said without expression, looking at everybody one more time before leaving the palace. Alfred and Arthur's suspicions grew, and they looked at the Maharaja.
"Your Majesty, something is up with the raja," Alfred said.
"Yes, he seems…well, doubtful," Arthur added. The Maharaja, growing frustrated with the fact that his daughter was missing and that two of the men were accusing Raja Kumar Chatur, a man he trusted so much that there would never be any doubt coming from the ruler.
"No! Please! Do not accuse the raja!" the Maharaja said forcefully. "He is betrothed to her and chose her to be his wife! Why would he do such a thing? It's impossible!"
"We are not accusing the raja, Your Majesty," Arthur said, raising his hand up to cease the tension in the capacious, elaborately-built hall. "We don't know who took your daughter, but we hope and pray that he or she gets found and imprisoned immediately. All we suspected was the strange tone in his voice. It made us suspicious."
"Humph," the Maharaja grunted with a glare as his threw his hand in the air. "The Raja of Calcutta is a very good man, gentlemen. I know that the match made between him and my daughter is ideal. Why on Earth would he just take her like that, let alone even plot something similar to taking her? It is simply impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible," Francis said with an exaggerated shrug. "We know that raja is no good! Look into his eyes the next time you see him!"
"Enough! I do not want to hear any more accusations against Raja Kumar. Understood?" the Maharaja said, blocking out what Francis was telling him. The men all agreed in silence as the Maharaja ordered a few servants come and help him prepare for bed. All of the men got together and huddled, whispering and sharing thoughts about the situation.
"Man, that raja is giving me the creeps," Alfred said with worry. "Do you think…well, maybe…that he may have hired someone to kidnap the princess?"
"No, don't speak nonsense!" Mr. Winston protested harshly. "The raja wouldn't have wanted her hand if he intended on kidnapping her, let alone hiring someone to do the dirty work for him!"
"I agree with Winston," Mr. Smith said. "It simply doesn't make sense."
"But why was the raja gone after her kidnapping?" Arthur asked argumentatively.
"Perhaps he was in a different part of the city?" Mr. Winston wondered, raising an eyebrow.
"I wish the king would just let us be the ones to save her," Alfred said, looking at everyone. "It may be dangerous, but I bet it would be worth it."