He transferred his eyes to Great Lady Sati. “It would be best, in any event, if I set up my headquarters in Lady Damodara’s palace. In order to organize this maneuver, I will need to see any number of people. Better to have such folk coming in and out of her palace than any other. Even if Sanga stumbles across any knowledge of my doings, he will simply assume I was acting on behalf of Damodara himself. And he will never suspect Damodara of such a cruel deed.”
Great Lady Sati did not even pause. “I agree. Do it.”
Nanda Lal chuckled. “It hardly matters, Narses. I don’t have to bother to have you followed. You think I don’t have spies inside Lady Damodara’s palace?”
Narses regarded him calmly. “I’m sure you do. I am also sure that within three days of my arrival, those spies will be expelled from the house. Those who are not dead.”
Nanda Lal froze, his eyes widening. Narses snorted—very faintly—and bowed to Malwa’s overlord.
“I’m sure you understand the logic, Great Lady Sati.”
“It is obvious. There must be no suspicion. Your loyalty to Damodara must be unquestioned. Do not hesitate to kill all of Nanda Lal’s spies, Narses. But do it shrewdly.”
* * *
In the end, Narses did not kill all the spies. He saw no reason to kill the two cooks. Expulsion would serve as well, theft being the excuse—as it happened, a valid one. They were thieves.
He did not even bother to expel the two maids. He simply saw to it that their duties were restricted to the laundry, in a different wing of the palace than that where Lady Damodara and the children had their bedrooms. It was a large palace. There was no way the maids could find their way unobserved to the only other place in the palace which Narses needed to keep secret. The cellar deep below where a tunnel was being slowly extended.
He did have the two guards in Nanda Lal’s employ assassinated, along with one of the majordomo’s assistants. The guards simply had their throats slit while they slept, the night Ajatasutra arrived at the palace. The assistant, on the other hand, had been a retainer of Damodara’s family since boyhood. So, before his own demise, Narses thought it was fitting to show the traitor the greatest of the secrets he had been trying—and failing—to ferret out for Nanda Lal. The secret he had never even suspected.
The assistant’s body then vanished in the bowels of the earth, folded into a small niche which the Bihari miners dug in one side of the tunnel and then covered over. They did not even mind the additional work. Men of their class were not fond of majordomos and their assistants.
Although they did find a certain charm in the way the majordomo had pronounced many curses on his assistant’s body as it was enfolded into its secret tomb. Quite inventive, those curses. And who would have thought such a stiff and proper old man would know so many?
* * *
If Lady Damodara noticed the disappearance of the guards and the assistant, or the reassignment of the maids, she gave no sign of it. Which, of course, was not surprising. The running of the household was entirely in the old majordomo’s hands. Being also a man who had been a retainer of the family since boyhood—and one who was extraordinarily efficient—he was trusted to manage the household’s affairs with little interference.
The daughters of Dadaji Holkar noticed, of course. They could hardly help notice, since they were assigned to replace the two maids—an assignment which they greeted with much trepidation.
“We don’t know anything about how to take care of a great lady,” protested the younger. “She’ll have us beaten.”
The majordomo shook his head. “Have no fear, child. The lady is not hot-tempered. A very kind lady, in fact. I have explained to her already that you are new to the task, and will need some time to learn your duties. She will be quite patient, I assure you.”
Still hesitant, the girls looked at each other. Then the older spoke. “My infant will cry at night. The great lady will be disturbed in her sleep. She will be angry.”