The Princess had many doubts in her mind, she was thinking of Prince Deepak. He seemed proud and n.o.ble. Ofcourse he belonged to the great Chandra dynasty. He was supposed to ascend the throne, but his sister became better qualified..she heard that tale..

There was a beggar woman who came to the place where contest was happening out of no where..she was covered in wounds and she was mentally unstable, both Prince Deepak and Prince Surya both stepped back , but Princess Samyukta moved forward and helped her, she was most compa.s.sionate. This indecent made her the empress.

When she heard this, she could not help but compare herself with Samyukta, would she be able to do what she did? would she roll in the mud in front of everyone to help a mad old beggar? she was not sure..she didn"t need to partic.i.p.ate in a contest, she was the only one in line for the throne..when Pinaka returned, her grandfather hoped to get him married to her, (In some parts of India there is a custom of getting married to the son of aunt..Pinaka is the son of Empress Chandramati who is the sister of Prince Sagar Nanda) but emperor Krishna Chandra (Samyukta"s father) didn"t lose time in making him his son in law and what happened next was unexpected. They unified two empires and shared the throne.

How many stories she heard about Pinaka..how he fought the evil Devadatta and killed him with bare hands, how his strategies helped win war against Zaffar, how brave and valiant he was and how calculated and intelligent he was..how he freed his mother, how he brought his father back..all these were turned to fables..now he stands unbeatable with the Kala Hara army following him..many believed him to be the re-incarnation of the great emperor Vikram Aditya..

When her grandfather told her about him, she couldn"t help but be thrilled by those accounts. She was jealous of Samyukta..how she herself achieved so much..how she was an architect, a warrior and a perfect match for Pinaka.. after meeting Samyukta her grandfather always insisted to take her as an example and develop herself. She was not as accomplished as Samyukta, and now Prince Deepak is inferior to Pinaka...

Princess Mallika Nanda was not dumb. She excelled in education, she was smart and gifted. She was efficient in art and her paintings were very beautiful. She created her own pallette by extracting colours from flowers and vegetables, she was the only one who knew how to use Lead in paintings in the entire empire. Her paintings had a special sheen to them because of using a metal like Lead. The only drawback was that she could not master the warfare techniques..she could not fight, how much ever she tried..she tried sword, spear, bow and arrow..all possible weapons.. nothing helped..many trainers were changed..but no use..

While she was thinking .. Prince Deepak came and stood behind her..he sighed looking at her.."what a beauty.." he thought..