part0020

Durukti laid her brother down on the bed, carefully placing his head on the lush pillows and laying a long blanket over him. It had been a while since the feast had occurred and many people had come outside the fort to partake in the celebrations.

“Are you fine now?”

“The doctor has given me honey for your throat.”

“It’s not cold,” he mourned, “it’s worse. When I cough, it hurts my body and fire courses inside my veins,”

Durukti knew Kali was a lot of things—strategist, clever, and selfish. But he was never the one to complain. Even in the direst of times, he would be brave and strong, unlike now. She had tried all sorts of herbs, but none had worked.

“Doctors say it could be a western disease spread during the war.”

“The sand affected me? Why didn’t it get to Koko and Vikoko then?”

Durukti shared a glance with her handmaiden, Symrin, who was worriedly standing at the back. She followed Durukti everywhere, working with her not only on personal matters, but the overall arrangements for the fort. Symrin shook her head as she had no answer herself for Kali.

“Perhaps,” Durukti began, “they have more immunity than you, brother.”

“Oh please, I am equally strong.”

“Just because you are strong doesn’t mean you are fit.”

He massaged his chest.

“You need to be in good health to run this state, otherwise the Tribals will take over and the peace you have been seeking for so long will die with you.”

“Don’t I know that?” he coughed and wheezed. He looked at Symrin, and then back at Durukti. “You have found a partner.”

“Indeed,” Durukti smiled. “More so, a friend.”

“Yes,” he glanced again at Symrin. “Do you know, my child, I saved your mistress from a burning town? We were stuck in a dilapidated hut and we escaped with great difficulty. She was almost three years old when we escaped.”

“And saved yourself too,” Durukti proudly added.

Symrin with her cherub voice began, “Yes, my lord. The tales of your bravery have travelled far. But if I may be allowed to ask, how did the fire start?”

The smile vanished from Kali’s face. Durukti turned to Symrin. “It is not of importance. The past doesn’t concern us, the future does.”

“True words,” Kali said, with a disarming smile.

Symrin just meekly nodded.

Durukti kissed her brother on the forehead and walked out. She didn’t say anything to Symrin until they entered the room.

“Should I bring your nightgown, madam?”

“Not now,” Durukti sighed as she sat next to the window, pulling off her earrings. “Never bring up the topic, Symrin. Never let Lord Kali talk about the fire.”

“It might be vanity, but it has a history that no one should know,” Durukti sighed. “Anyhow, do we have something on our worktable?”

Symrin walked over to the chestnut table which had a fire lamp. She then brought a register from there, on which the village names around Indragarh were written. Durukti began to skip through the names as none of them had any importance for her. “Almost fifty villages around Indragarh. We need to send a messenger to all of them with a royal decree that the new taxes have been implemented. Also a pocket of Vasuki’s army to handle any rebellious efforts.”

“Good idea, my lady,” said the young handmaiden.

Durukti pinpointed the names of the villages they would start with, as Symrin noted down on a piece of paper. Symrin stopped at the mention of Shambala, when she looked up and said, “Did you say Shambala, my lady?”

“If I’m not mistaken, yes I did.”

“I remember something about that village, although I don’t know how true it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“They say Shambala was a gifted village by the Gods and they had left a certain, celestial…”

Durukti snapped. “Out of all the people in this city, I am the last person to believe this.”

“But it might help you, for Shambala is supposed to have rocks that have spiritual medicinal properties.” She paused. “My father told me about it. He was a doctor and in the last days of his life, he had been met by a poor villager, an inhabitant of Shambala who told my father that his wife was ill, so ill by the pregnancy that she was close to death. My father couldn’t give him anything for there was no cure for it. The villager mumbled about the magic rocks known as Soma and asked my father whether it would work. My father refused, saying they were all stories and legends. The villager went away disappointedly. A year later, my father had work in Shambala. He reached there and he met the same villager with a happy wife who wasn’t ill at all. In fact, she even had a son. Father asked how she was cured and he had said, ‘the legends were not legends, after all’.” She stopped.

Durukti had digested all of this, but it sounded more of a childhood fable to her.

“It’s supposed to cure everything,” Symrin added.

“Could the villager be lying?”

“Perhaps and perhaps not.”

“So you say no one has used these Soma rocks because they don’t believe in them?”

“They’ve been closed off. At least that is what father said since he had gone up to check the caves himself and found them to be closed off. Someone clearly didn’t want them to be used.”

“How do we get in then, girl?”

“We have an army. We can use man power to push through. The villagers didn’t have the education or the power. They were too superstitious also.” She paused. “They say Soma would cure any disease or illness. I just wondered whether it would be good for Lord Kali.”

“I suppose so as well,” Durukti mused. “What if it’s all unreal, just a story?”

“It’s worth a try my lady, since Lord Kali’s health is deteriorating by the hour and we have no other choice.”

Durukti nodded. “Fine, Symrin. I’ll think about it. He has been saving me my entire life,” she stopped, as she let the moonlight shower over her translucent skin, the smell of freshly-cut flowers and the hooting of the owls adding to the pleasant aura, which gave her a sense of determination.