The Serpent and the Crown

The river is dying. In the golden kingdom of  Venginagara, the sacred Krishna  river has begun retreating —  moving backward into the earth  as if something beneath the  mountains is swallowing it alive. The enemy has no face.  The war has no battlefield.  And the weapon is the one thing  no kingdom can survive without. Water. Crown Prince Adityavardhana  makes a choice that will either  save his kingdom or destroy him.  He removes his gold rings, puts  on a beggar's cloth, and walks  alone into the dark mountains  of Karkotaka. The serpent's  kingdom. The enemy's home. Inside those iron tunnels  he will find: A villain who laughs while  children die of thirst. A spy rotting in a cage. A princess who knows where  all the secrets are buried —  and is tired of keeping them. And a crack in the wall that  could either save two kingdoms  or drown them both. — A throne is just a chair  if the land beneath it  is a desert —