‘That will be difficult, Your Highness,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘Their ships are sailing downriver. We’ll have to march on road since there are no warships on the Saraswati under our control. They will have the advantage of speed. We will not be able to catch up.’

‘So where should we attack them?’ asked Bhrigu.

‘If we have to attack them, I would prefer to do so at Mrittikavati.’

‘Why?’

‘Lothal is not a good idea. I have designed the defences of Lothal myself, and sacrificing false modesty, I will say that those defences are solid. We would need a ten to one advantage in soldiers to conquer Lothal. We don’t have that. We will be pitting eighty thousand of our men against more than two hundred thousand of the joint Sati-Ganesh army. Attacking Lothal will be a disaster for us; we will lose too many men. On the other hand, Mrittikavati’s defences do not require that kind of numerical advantage. Also, we have twenty thousand of our own soldiers within Mrittikavati. I agree they may be imprisoned, but if they find out that their brother Meluhan soldiers are besieging the city, they may create a lot of trouble for the Lord from within. Having said that, I would expect the Lord to retreat to Lothal and not Mrittikavati, for this very reason.’

Bhrigu had an inkling that Parvateshwar preferred an altogether different strategy. ‘I get the feeling that you would choose not to attack at all.’

‘Not attack at all?’ asked a surprised Daksha. ‘Why not? Our army has tasted victory. Parvateshwar, you should...’

‘Your Highness,’ interrupted Bhrigu. ‘Perhaps we should leave it to an expert like Lord Parvateshwar to suggest what we should do. Go on, General.’

‘The reason I suggest we avoid aggression right now is that the Lord Neelkanth would hope that we attack,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘One cannot attack a well-defended fort without the advantage of numbers. We don’t have that. So by attacking them, we’ll gain nothing and lose too many men. So I say that we stay within the safe walls of Devagiri. If we wait for six more months, Ayodhya’s army will get here. Combined with their three hundred thousand soldiers, we will have a huge numerical advantage over the Lord’s army.’

‘So are you suggesting that we just sit around like cowards?’ asked Daksha.

‘It would not be cowardly to refrain from attacking when the situation is not in our favour,’ said Bhrigu, before turning back to Parvateshwar. ‘Go on, General.’

‘Once Ayodhya’s troops come in, we should march to Karachapa,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘We still have control over the Indus command of our navy. Along with Ayodhya’s soldiers, we will have a four hundred thousand-strong army. Combine that with the vastly superior naval fleet that we have in the Indus, and we can mount a very solid attack on Lothal.’