Padmini

Chapter 24

Release

If I could tell you how it broke my heart, leaving Leila behind that day in the rain, determined to help both Vayu and Badal. But I lack the words, we all did. I only knew she needed me to go, so I did what she needed me to do. Leila has always needed me more than anyone else and I try not to fail her. I know our father would understand. How it came to be that our frailest was left behind, alone, as we climbed on.

We need our energy now, to try and get to Vayu. It is nearing the fifth day, and it is foolish to assume, even with Leila’s unflinching intervention, that a human can last beyond that time, injured as he is. So we climb. We climb because we must, because it is all we have ever done these past five days, because a few days ahead, the Koi will unleash her wrath. Because, at present, despite the rain and our weariness, we still can.

It is almost a sheer drop all the way down, should we lose our balance. I try not to think of that. More for Aum’s sake, he is so brave. And my little Taru, how mature she is being, showing Aum where to put his feet and hands going up, imparting the training of 12 years in an instant, without appearing to do so, preserving his sense of independence, self. Such a skilful being, my Taru, so perceptive sometimes, for all her heedlessness. And I am thankful for Tir, sniffing out places to jump up higher from, nimble footed and stealthy. When he cannot go higher, we haul him up, Aum and I, together with ropes.

The goats are sure footed, they have left us behind, up these steep inclines, and the horses are following them. It is slow going, but we’re getting there. It should have taken us an hour or so with all that training behind us, but we hadn’t anticipated for livestock and dear Aum. A vertical drop, but hidden crevices, which we can negotiate carefully, close to the water’s edge, the waterfall thunderous in our ears as we move, reminding us of our mortality should we stumble.

Sitara is excited, I can feel it – she knows Vayu is near. The crevice he has fallen into is somewhere close. Waman is further up. But if we can locate Vayu, see if we could get to him from down here, instead of trying to reach Waman (adding hours to our journey) and attempting to pull him up from there…Though climbing higher really suits us better. The higher we are, the better for us. It has been five days of climbing, and we left three days after the Garud came to me. Today is day eight. The Koi rises with the full moon two weeks from now. It is nearing its final fulfilment, the Garud’s prophecy. We have six days left. The rain is a drizzle up here at present, but the air is cool. Too cool. We will need warmer wear, but will it help? We’re already so soaked.

Finally. It is over, this horrible climb. I see Taru and Aum checking Tir for injuries, checking the goats, the horses. We have broken through. We cannot stop though. We need to find Vayu. Taru is up ahead, closing in on more sheer rock face. I can sense she is all in turmoil. Our injured stranger is behind it. Can Vayu keep himself alive these last few moments till we reach him? Has Leila managed it, despite her anxiety over Badal 800 feet below us?

Taru is glancing at Tir, but he doesn’t need her look, he already knows what to do. He is charging at the rock face – he’ll be hurt, no wait, there is an opening, just wide enough for a slender human or a bony animal to slide through with care – disguised from a distance, it shows up only on approach. Tir is like lightening, he’s already cleared it, his long, lean frame has melted through.

I can feel Taru’s anxiety, she’s guiding Tir to Vayu. I am so proud of Sitara, she has managed to seem icy calm in difficult times. Not like Leila, we are so tense around her most times, possibly without realising it. I must remember to make sure not to show it, so Leila doesn’t feel our unease, she is so sensitive.

Right now, Tir’s attempt is valiant but difficult. It is an agonisingly slow process at this time, he must find a further pathway through that crevice he’s entered. But I think he has, oh, he has. He has found Vayu, TIR HAS FOUND VAYU. Weak, but breathing. Breathing, my Leila, what magnitude of power does your fragile self mask, that a dying, badly injured man has been kept alive for five days, without food?

Taru is not in turmoil now that Tir has found Vayu. She is thought communicating that to his twin, so much higher up. She is following Tir into the crevice, she is lithe and slender enough, even though she is tall. Aum won’t fit, he is hanging around at the edge, harrowed and restless. She’s now gotten to Vayu, she’s bringing him through, half of his weight supported by her Familiar. Tir, for all his boniness, is ferociously strong. They’re coming through the crevice now, Aum helping chip at the rock to pull them through – they’re clear.

Aum has taken Vayu from Taru, is laying him on the ground. Something about his limbs, the shape of his now unconscious form makes my heart beat faster. I step closer just as Aum turns him over, so his face is visible to us all. Normally my control is absolute, but the harrowing climb, the uncertainty over Leila, the sheer danger of our predicament has weakened my resolve. I cannot help the cry that escapes my lips, so startled am I, it is an audible gasp.

Aum looks at me weary but concerned, but I am looking at Vayu. I do not have the time to shield my thoughts from Taru, she has seen them clean, all of them. She knows what I have seen, what I am feeling now and how stupefied it has made me.

Because that unconscious stranger lying on the rock in front of us – he is the self-same of my dreams, dimpled, laughing, grave. His eyes flicker open at my cry. And I am looking into translucent eyes, the exact same eyes that have haunted my dreams these 12 years past, till I believed I would go mad.

The moment his eyes open, the rainbow begins its dance around his head. I know Taru has seen the colours, she is exclaiming in recognition, wonderstruck, as enchanted at 17 as she was at age five, upon seeing him for the first time. We are in the presence, without question, without rational explanation, of the being we have up until now, known as the Garud.