Chapter 13
I blinked. At the back of my mind, a little voice began laughing hysterically.
This is like being on one of those reality TV shows, I thought. You think you've got a grip on things and then bam! Something else drops on your head.
"She's my aunt?" I asked. Max shuffled his feet.
"I ain't sure she'd take kindly to being called an aunt, as such," he said. "And I don't think she'll be rushing to play 'appy families with you. She, er, she blames yer Mum for her brother's death."
"That's ridiculous," I snapped. "Sam was killed by a demon. Kind of an occupational hazard for you lot, isn't it?"
Before he could answer, there was the sound of a lot of huffing and puffing behind us. We turned to see the little Indian man with the bow-tie hurrying up to us, his round face now more red than brown.
"Wait! Please wait," he wheezed.
He bent double, both hands on his knees, drawing in deep breaths. Max and I looked at each other, bemused, then back at the panting man. "Too many chapattis, that is my downfall."
Finally, he managed to straighten up, patting his hair into place before beaming at me. His teeth were very white and even.
"My dear Miss Deva, it is an immense pleasure to make your acquaintance. Lucian Chakrabarty, at your service. Might I have a word?"
I glanced at Max.
"I think I was about to be thrown out of here," I commented. Chakrabarty turned to Max.
"My good fellow, I will see to it that Miss Deva is escorted off the premises."
I hardly dared look at Max, not sure how he'd react to being called 'my good fellow'. But he replied amicably enough.
"No problem, boss. Kaz, I 'ope you find your Mum, darlin'. And I 'ope I 'aven't upset you in any way." He shook my hand gravely, then walked jauntily back down the corridor, whistling tunelessly between his teeth.
"What can I do for you, Mr Chakrabarty?"
"Lucian, please. I was a big fan of your mother."
"Are," I said sharply.
"I beg your pardon?"
"You are a big fan. She's not dead."
"Yes, of course, how thoughtless of me." He took out a handkerchief and wiped his forehead. "Shall we walk?"
We strolled slowly towards the main dome, but instead of walking through the centre, he veered off down a narrow passageway. This one wasn't plush and carpeted, like the Chairman's corridor. It was a simple, brick-lined tunnel that seemed to lead upwards. It suddenly struck me I was doing what they always told you not to do; walking off with a complete stranger.
"Where are we going?" I asked suspiciously.
"Somewhere where we cannot possibly be overheard." He leaned towards me conspiratorially. "Walls have ears, Miss Deva."
"They do?"
"It is surprisingly difficult to keep anything quiet in headquarters. The new Chairman is, how do we say, concerned about subversive elements."
"Like you, you mean?"
He turned a surprised face towards me.
"Goodness gracious me, we have only just met, and already you think I am subversive? I really must work on my demeanour."
We had been walking steadily for five minutes when I saw a large, bolted door in front of us. Lucian reached for a keypad and pressed his hand onto it. There was a loud click and the door swung open.
A blast of hot, humid air hit me in the face. The sound of traffic and people, lots and lots of people, washed over me. We walked into a cramped, dark space and as my eyes adjusted I saw we were in a makeshift hut. Precariously balanced wooden pallets and bits of planking leaned against corrugated steel, all held together with a plastic covering. Lucian closed the steel door behind us and ushered me towards the exit.
We stepped into bright sunlight, the air pungent with exotic scents. A mix of spice, jasmine and incense assailed my senses. Turning to glance behind me, I saw we’d emerged from a shack identical to dozens of others, a little shanty town stretching along a low bank set to one side of a road. Rickshaws and little motorised tuk-tuks sped along with no regard for other road-users. Women in brightly coloured saris squatted in front of mats full of bananas and mangoes, calling out their wares. Half-dressed children ran around chasing dogs, their eyes heavily lined in kohl, staring curiously at the two strangers who had suddenly popped up in their midst.
"So this is India?" I breathed, wonderstruck.
"Have you never been before?"
"Never."
I felt a pang of regret that I'd never shown any interest when Mum had suggested it. It was so big, so colourful, the sights and smells overwhelming. Lucian tapped me on the shoulder.
"Turn around," he suggested.
I turned to see the most famous mausoleum in the world, the building I'd been standing under just a few minutes ago.
The Taj Mahal, built by the emperor Shah Jahan as a final resting place for his beloved wife, now one of India's biggest tourist attractions.
"It's not, you know," murmured Lucian. I jumped.
"Sorry?"
"You're thinking, that's a tomb built by a king grieving for his dead wife. But it's not. The truth is, Shah Jahan was a member of the Guild. And a rich one at that. But he was never fully accepted because he wasn't a Hindu. He was Muslim. So in order to ingratiate himself, he built this and gifted it as the headquarters, which it has remained to this day."
"That's... that's astonishing," I said weakly. Was nothing as it seemed?
"Did you think we had somehow excavated underneath it and no-one had noticed?" he smiled. "The underground premises were built at the same time as the marble structure above, five hundred years ago. Come, Miss Deva. Let us sit."
We walked towards the landscaped gardens in front of the Taj, ignoring the outstretched hands of the children who trailed after us. I looked at their dirty clothes and faces, and wondered if this is how Mum had lived when she was a child. We sat in one of the garden seats overlooking an artificial lake. The air was hot, and I shrugged off my denim jacket, enjoying the feel of the sun on my skin.
"So what was so important you couldn't talk to me inside?" I asked. "Not that I'm complaining."
"You may have noticed some, ah, dissent in the Chairman's office," he began carefully. "Crepuscular is, ah, a determined leader, but he is still finding his feet. In truth, he was elected in something of a hurry because the last man in the job had a sudden heart attack."
"Crepuscular," I said, trying to get the name right. "What kind of name is that?"
"The one he chose. We all choose our names here in the Guild. It symbolises the fact that we are outside normal life." He smiled at me, his teeth looking like a dentist's advert. "I was not born as Lucian, just as your mother did not start life as Mari."
"Oh." Something else I'd not known. "So Dark is a determined leader. But? I assume there's a 'but'."
"But he lacks imagination. He is incapable of seeing the demons as any more than rabid dogs that need to be put down."
"But that's not true! They can plan, they can exercise discipline. Our team in Mallow Bottom think they've found a way to create hellholes, and they're trying to make them permanent."
Lucian wiped his forehead again with his handkerchief.
"That's what I believe too. And one or two of the others on the Board agree with me. But the rest won't accept it. They agree with Crepuscular, and they refuse to see the danger. They're all too set in their ways."
"But why? The Guild are the ones who're supposed to know about these things. They're supposed to be protecting us."
"The problem has been a long time coming. I suppose you didn't notice the elephant in the room?"
"There was an elephant in the room?"
"I mean, the glaring omission which no-one talks about? The thing missing from a room full of Guild leaders?"
I cast my mind back to the Chairman's office, the meeting I'd interrupted. Thought about the people around the table. People representing an organisation that had been created fifteen hundred years ago by....
&
nbsp; "Hindus," I said suddenly. "There were no Hindus, apart from you. In fact, come to think of it, there was only one other person there who wasn't white."
"That's Aloysius, he's the Head of Training, and he's my... er... how old are you?"
I gave him a withering look.
"If you mean, he's your boyfriend, I won't be shocked."
"My husband, actually. Well, you have hit the nail exactly on its head, Miss Deva. The Indian men and women who formed the Guild have gradually been weeded out. I myself have had to work exceedingly hard to make it to the upper echelons. The Guild has many Hindu members but I am the first in two hundred years to make it into the inner council. In truth, it is one reason I chose the name Lucian, to make myself more palatable to the others. They see me as their token."
He gave a little grimace, and I sympathised. I knew how he felt. I was the only Indian at school, too.
"The Hindu mystics are long-gone, Miss Deva. The problem is, the ones in charge now do not have the same grasp of mythology as their predecessors. And I count myself among them."
"What's your job at the Guild?"
"Head of Mythology."
"Oh. But doesn't the Library have all the information you need?"
"We suspect not. We think the original founders took a lot of information with them when they left. And now there is some opinion that the Guild is not operating correctly, that we have been too complacent. The dismissal of the threat posed by the Demon Sphere is just the latest example. A group of us are trying to change things, but in the meantime, I want you to relay a message to your comrades at Mallow Bottom. Please tell them I have made an extensive study of the Demon Sphere, and its mythology largely surrounds the timing of the full moon."
"Yes, that was in the book we got from the Library."
"But did you know that the full moon is an amplifier? Whatever ritual the demons have planned, they will almost certainly use a full moon to substantially enhance the result. I spent years researching this, Miss Deva, and I am quite sure that what they want to enhance is negative energy."
"What's negative energy?"
"The energy that derives from pain and fear, Miss Deva. Every time horror is unleashed, every time deaths occur, I believe a certain amount of negative energy is released. My working theory is that the Demon Sphere can store this, and use it to open hellholes to the prison dimension."
"Your theory? You don't know?"
He shook his head sadly.
"Alas, no. There's no proof, despite my best efforts to find it. I even came up with a way to deactivate it, to drain the negative energy harmlessly. But Dark wouldn't listen, he says the theory is unsubstantiated. He confiscated all my research. I was just a humble assistant back then, you see, and Dark was my boss. And even though I have risen through the ranks, he is still the boss. And now..."
"Now he doesn't want to admit he was wrong," I realised. "That would be an embarrassing failure."
"Exactly. But his embarrassment could lead to catastrophe, Miss Deva. The Demon Sphere must be destroyed before the creatures find a way to make hellholes permanent." He leaned towards me, gazing at me earnestly. "No-one at headquarters will listen to me, but you have the estimable Professor Danby and the incomparable Violet Peters at your disposal. I was hoping you would help me."
"I see. You want me to be subversive too," I said drily. His eyes widened and he fluttered his hands in apology.
"Please forgive me, I never meant to ask..."
"No, it's okay," I cut him off. "I'll help you. But in return I want your help in finding Mum." He leaned back.
"I see. Negotiation. A fine tradition." He thought for a moment. "Very well. I will secure a Warrior to help in the search for your mother."
"Just one?"
"One is all I can deploy without arousing suspicion. Crepuscular already watches the accounts like a hawk. He thinks everyone is trying to undermine him."
"Well, you are," I pointed out helpfully.
"Only because I think he is wrong."
"I don't really care about your politics. I'm not a fan of the Guild anyway, I think you treat your Warriors appallingly. But," I held up a hand as he opened his mouth to argue, "we have a deal. Shake on it."
With a relieved smile, Lucian Chakrabarty extended his hand, and we shook.
"You really are very similar to your mother," he said.
"Everyone says I look like her."
"That's not what I meant. Your mother was always headstrong."
"Did you know her?" I asked with sudden interest.
"Not as well as I would have liked. However, she was recruited by Aloysius when he was a scout. He told me once he had seen something magnificent in her."
"She was living on the streets, wasn't she?"
"In one of the many slums surrounding one of our richest cities. It is a source of anguish to me that my country is so bountiful, yet has so much poverty." He looked at me sorrowfully. "As a fellow Indian, I am sure you can empathise."
"Actually, I don't know much about India." I flushed in embarrassment, feeling caught out somehow. "I was born in England. At least, my birth certificate says I was." I frowned, suddenly realising I didn't know if that was actually true, or another of Mum's lies. "Mum didn't tell me much about her background. For the last ten years, I thought she was a home help."
"Aloysius said he found her curled up in a storm drain with six other children, like feral puppies, so dirty it was impossible to tell if they were male or female. The others ran away because they thought he was a policeman. Only Mari stood up to him. He said she was practically falling over from malnutrition. It is indeed a terrible thing, how children can suffer."
As if to underline his words, a pretty little girl with very dark skin and black kohl lining her eyes came up to me, her hand held out shyly. Her bright pink dress was torn and dusty and she had no shoes. She couldn't have been more than six.
"Rupee?" she asked hopefully. I knew that one.
"Do you have any...?" I asked Lucian. He dug in his pocket and handed the girl a twenty rupee note. She scampered away, clutching it to her chest, and I felt a pang. That had been Mum's life too. A life so miserable, that facing monsters and getting sterilised had been a better option.
Be brave. Those had been her last words to me. But I didn't know if I could ever be as brave as her.
Something Lucian had said earlier came back to me.
"You said you'd found a way to deactivate the Sphere. How?"
"I think I’ve found a way to absorb its power. Again, it's just a theory. But I created another crystal, keyed to its frequency. If it touches the Sphere, it should drain the energy from it. I made it into the shape of a ring." For a moment he sounded very proud of himself. Then he looked crestfallen. "But Dark took it when he took the rest of my research."
"Where did he put it?" I remembered Darius talking about other artefacts when we were in the Library. "Is it in the vault?"
"I don't know. I don't think so. I am sorry, Miss Deva, I am not being much help." He reached into his jacket pocket again, and brought out a card. "Take this, if you please. It's my private line, encrypted. In case I can be of further service."
I studied the card. It had the Om symbol which was now familiar to me, and a number.
"Thank you."
"The pleasure is all mine. Now let us return before we are missed. I sincerely hope you enjoyed your first view of the Taj Mahal."
"It was eye-opening," I said truthfully.
◆◆◆
I got back to find Em floating a pencil in the air.
She was in the bedroom, the one we'd shared the first night at the Mansion. Perched on the bed, she had her palm outstretched, and the pencil was floating just above it. I swiped my hand through the gap to make sure it wasn't a trick.
"How are you doing that?" I asked.
"Isn't it amazing? It's a simple harmonic set up by a few key words which temporarily changes the value of gravity. I modified a music program to plot th
e frequencies."
"You lost me after ‘amazing.’ Can you make me fly?"
The pencil suddenly dropped into her hand.
"Nope. Because that happens. The spell doesn’t last long. You'd be floating along and then suddenly, splat. Anyway, you're too heavy. I can only do pencils and feathers so far."
"What about the locater spell?"
Em looked at me, and I saw the answer on her face.
"I'm sorry, Kaz. We tried, we really did. Violet did it several different ways but we always got the same result. Nothing."
I felt my heart beat a bit harder.
"But that doesn't necessarily mean she's... I mean, there could be lots of reasons why the spell won't work, couldn’t there?"
"The demons could be shielding it," said Em, trying to sound reassuring. "Or she's somewhere the frequencies can't penetrate. Don't worry. I'm sure she's still… I'm sure she's okay."
I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion roll over me. I remembered I hadn't slept since two that morning, and I was still in my grimy clothes. I hadn't even washed the dirt off my face.
I sank onto the bed, suddenly at a loss. I had been running on nervous energy all day, and suddenly I didn't know what else I could do.
"How did your visit to HQ go?" asked Em. I gritted my teeth.
"They're a bunch of stupid old men. They don't believe the demons are planning anything. The Chairman thought I was lying when I said I was Mari's daughter. And he had me kicked out."
"They don't believe the demons are planning anything? But what about the Demon Sphere? What about the missing kids?"
"One or two of them agree with us, but most just think demons are mindless animals." I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes. "They didn't even want to send anybody to help look for Mum."
"Oh, Kaz, I'm so sorry." Em put an arm around my shoulder. "We'll find her, you know we will, we won't stop looking," she said fiercely. She hugged me, and I leaned into her, glad of her friendship.
Daughter of Kali- Awakening Page 13