Daughter of Kali- Awakening

by Shiulie Ghosh

  "Your mind is deeply mundane."

  "Hey!"

  "And yet I sensed resistance there. Who taught you to do that?"

  I shrugged.

  "Maybe I just have a hard head."

  Dark's jaw worked as if he was trying to stop himself tearing my throat out.

  "Someone inside this Guild is helping you. It is inconceivable that someone as ordinary as you could have wrought this chaos on your own. I will not rest till I find out who it is." He pressed a button on the intercom on his desk. "Send Aloysius to me. And tell him to bring the Watcher."

  Di shifted uncomfortably.

  "Sir, perhaps we should..."

  "Silence!" He glared at me. "Empty your pockets."

  With a sigh, I reached into my jeans pocket and brought out the smart-phone. Dark reached for it, turning it over in his hands gingerly, as if it might carry the plague.

  "Who created this demon program for you?" he demanded.

  "How do you know I didn't create it myself?"

  There was a knock at the door, and Aloysius came in, followed by perhaps the strangest human being I'd ever seen.

  At first glance it looked like three people standing very close together. From the waist down everything looked normal; there were three pairs of legs, three individual bodies. But then you noticed the men were fused together at the shoulders, and only had three arms - two at either side, and one in the middle. They were wearing jeans and a very complicated T-shirt. They must have one hell of a tailor, I thought.

  Three heads swung my way, and I couldn't help noticing the dark good looks and smouldering eyes. They would have been identical if it wasn't for their expressions; one was smiling shyly, one looked puzzled, and one downright belligerent.

  "You sent for us, Mr Chairman?" asked the puzzled one. This was the triplet in the middle.

  "Ah yes. Thank you for coming, Dimitri."

  "He's Dimitri, I'm Konstantino." He nodded to the left. Dimitri was the annoyed one.

  "It was my turn to sleep," he said, looking disgusted. "Why did you wake me?"

  "Apologies, gentleman. I wondered if you'd noticed anything unusual happening on the security cameras in the past twenty four hours."

  "Yes. There was a bloody great demon rampaging through headquarters," said Dimitri. He shot a look of irritation at his brother. "Why didn't you wake me for that, you lummox?"

  "Because you hate being woken up," said Konstantino. "You get grouchy if you're woken up."

  "Not when it's for something interesting," snapped Dimitri. "The only interesting thing to happen for months, and you let me sleep through it!"

  "It was only a hologram," said Konstantino soothingly. "Not real."

  "Gentlemen, I mean before the demon," said Dark through gritted teeth. “Did you see anyone acting suspiciously?" I flitted a glance at Di. Her face was expressionless. But if the Watcher told Dark about being distracted by Violet, if he insisted on having the tapes being played back...

  "What do you mean, suspiciously?" asked Konstantino. I looked at him carefully. The question seemed innocuous enough but there was an edge there. As if he was deliberately being obtuse. He doesn't like Dark. My heart gave a little leap of hope.

  "I mean, anyone acting strangely," said Dark, in exasperation. "Out of the ordinary. Unusually. What do you think I mean?"

  "Oh well then, yes, we saw something unusual," said Dimitri sourly. "Lots of unusual activity."

  "Where? When?" said Dark eagerly. I held my breath.

  "Everywhere!" said Konstantino. "Every day!" He looked at his brother. "Remember that weird thing the other night?"

  "Yeah, and that really odd thing last week? That was definitely strange." Dark looked bewildered.

  "What odd thing? What happened?"

  The third head, who had so far not said anything, sighed.

  "Sir, my brothers are being pedantic," he said. His voice was soft and measured. "This is, after all, the Guild. Everything here, by its very nature, is out of the ordinary. Not a day goes by when we don't see something unusual. You will have to be more specific." Dark's face went red.

  "Oh Bob," said Konstantino, shaking his head sorrowfully. "You ruined it. We could have kept that going forever!"

  "Spoilsport," grumbled Dimitri. Bob smiled apologetically.

  "Get out! Get back to work!" Dark spluttered.

  "But don't you want to know about..."

  "Out!"

  The triplets sauntered out of the office, effortlessly coordinating three pairs of legs, arguing as they went.

  "Killjoy."

  "Shut up."

  The door closed behind them.

  "You," Dark barked at Aloysius. He grabbed the smart-phone and tossed it to him. "What do you have to say about this?"

  Aloysius was clearly unhappy at being addressed as 'you', but his frown faded as he looked at the screen.

  "This is astonishing," he said. He exchanged a glance with Di, which thankfully Dark missed as he was rummaging through a drawer.

  "Ah yes, here it is." He smoothed out a piece of A4 paper. "This is a request from you, Aloysius, from two months ago, asking for permission to try out a new training program on the recruits. A training program involving the use of a demon hologram. Sound familiar?"

  The Head of Training looked steadily at Dark.

  "What are you implying, Crepuscular?"

  "I'm implying that somehow, you allowed this... this... girl," he spat the word towards me as if he was swearing, "to use your program to cause chaos."

  "I did no such thing. You'd better be careful, making accusations like that." Aloysius kept his tone mild, but there was no mistaking his anger. I butted in.

  "He had nothing to do with it," I said firmly. "I have a friend who is a whizz at computers. I came up with the idea and she wrote the program. Nobody in the Guild was involved."

  Di stepped forward.

  "You did read the child's mind, Crepuscular," she reminded him. "You didn't see anything there."

  "She's just a kid, and her mother has disappeared," said Aloysius. "And instead of helping find one of our own, we're racing round shutting down hellholes."

  "Are you saying you approve of her stunt?" said Dark, his eyes narrowed.

  "I'm saying, I understand her reasons. The sooner we put this business behind us, the sooner we can get back to work."

  Dark stared at me, a pulse throbbing in his temple.

  "Your mother, if indeed she is your mother, flouted authority and disobeyed orders. The Guild rescued her from the gutter, but she showed no respect for its rules and traditions." He leaned forward. "We should have left her in the gutter."

  I leapt up in anger, my fists clenched, ready to punch him.

  "Crepuscular, that's enough." Aloysius gently squeezed my shoulder. "She was clearly working alone. Let it go." He directed a measured stare at Dark. "And please don't speak about my Warriors like that. Especially not ones who gave their lives fighting demons."

  Dark gritted his teeth, but in the end he had no choice.

  "Throw her off the premises. Make sure she never comes back. And from now on, I want Mallow Bottom personnel to request permission before they set foot in these headquarters. And by all, I mean Mrs Peters and the Professor."

  "But..."

  "Come on," said Aloysius, steering me towards the door. "Let's go. Before he changes his mind." He glanced at Di. "I want a full report on the incident by tomorrow morning, with your suggestions on security upgrades. I'll expect it on my desk by 8."

  Even the prospect of Di being stuck with hours of paperwork didn't cheer me up. I stomped back towards the Jump room, fuming. I'd worked hard to keep Henry and Violet out of this, but Dark had blamed them anyway. I sensed Aloysius glancing at me.

  "Pretty neat upgrade on my training program," he commented. "Can't believe you ran it off a phone."

  "Keep it," I said shortly. "My friend ironed out most of the kinks. It doesn't crash as often."

  "So I noticed." He pause
d. "You really got under Dark's skin. I've never seen him so angry."

  "Why are you even working for him?" I demanded hotly. "He's a complete and utter..."

  "Shh!" He hushed me urgently, glancing around. "Not everyone agrees with him. But no-one wants to take any action that might weaken the Guild."

  "He's weakening the Guild! He won't help Mum, and he won't listen about the Demon Sphere. Is he really the leader you want?"

  "Believe me, when the time is right, things will change." We reached the Jump wall and I noticed someone had moved the smashed statue. Aloysius dialled up Mallow Bottom, then took my hand between his.

  "If anyone can survive a demon attack, it's your mother. Have faith, Kaz." He kissed the back of my hand. "Now go."

  I went.

  Chapter 19

  Darius and Em were waiting for me in the computer room. They looked at me warily as I came in.

  "Are you okay? What happened?" Em's face was full of concern, and I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to ease out the kinks.

  "Dark shouted at me for a while. Then he let me go."

  "Is that it?" Darius was astonished. "He didn't try to read your mind?"

  "He did, but luckily Di warned me about it. I was able to resist."

  "Resist? That's a very tricky thing to master." Darius sounded doubtful but I ploughed on, hoping he'd let it go.

  "And he called in the Watcher and Aloysius to see if they knew anything, but neither of them gave him any help." I grinned at the memory. "The Watcher just took the mickey out of him. It was very funny."

  "It's not funny at all," Darius snapped. "I told Em about the statue. And the snakes. Thank god everyone else down there was concentrating on the demon. What the hell was going on, Kaz?"

  "Is it true? The statue came to life?" Em sounded both horrified and intrigued.

  "I... " I had no idea what to say. "It was trying to kill me. The Nagas saved me. But you said it only came to life if the Guild was attacked by an enemy!" I glared accusingly at Darius, as if he was somehow responsible. "I'm not an enemy!"

  "Well, you were sort of attacking the Guild," Em said reasonably. "You were breaking into a safe."

  "Yes, but normally an enemy of the Guild is a demon," Darius said. "Why would the monkey soldier think you were a demon?"

  "Especially since you'd already been in the Guild before," added Em. "It didn't react then."

  "But that was with me," said Darius. "This time she was on her own, and it came to life. Why?"

  I shrugged. "I don't know, do I? Thank god for the Nagas, that thing would have taken my head off."

  "It seemed at one point..." Darius started, then broke off and gave an awkward laugh. "Never mind."

  "What?" I saw him exchange a look with Em. "You two have obviously been talking about this. What did it seem like?"

  "Well, like they were having an argument. Over whether you should be attacked or protected."

  They were both staring at me curiously, and I felt a flicker of irritation.

  "Look, I don't know what happened, okay? Your Guild is a freaky place full of freaky things. How am I supposed to know what a statue is thinking? It was obviously confused. I'm just grateful the snakes were there."

  "The snakes, whose job it is to serve the gods," commented Em.

  "Sorry?" Darius and I both turned to her.

  "I looked it up. In Hindu stories, Nagas are divine servants. They serve the gods. You know, like Vishnu and Indra and Kali. Maybe they got confused too."

  I folded my arms defensively.

  "Well, I'm not complaining. As long as they're on my side, they can be as confused as they like. So where's the ring?"

  Darius delved into his pocket and tossed it to me. I turned it over in my hands, feeling its weight.

  "So that will deactivate the Sphere?" asked Em.

  "That's what Lucian said. But I guess we'll have no way of knowing if it works till we find it. Did you see any other useful info while you were in Dark's computer?"

  I was glad the conversation had turned away from snakes and statues, and I wanted to keep it that way.

  Em plugged a USB stick into one of the hard-drives, and several folder icons popped up on screen. She opened one.

  "This is some research on the Sphere that was done twenty years ago by Lucian Chakrabarty. She shot me a glance. "Dark accessed this file the day you stormed into his meeting."

  "He was obviously trying to refresh his memory. What does it say?"

  "Chakrabarty put forward a theory that certain demon objects weren't constructed just to bring bad luck to humans, but that they had a purpose. To permanently weaken the barriers between this world and theirs. But in order to do that, they had to absorb hundreds of years of negative energy."

  "So, they're like ticking time bombs?" said Darius.

  "Precisely. These relics would spend centuries siphoning off the energy from wars and massacres and whatever, storing it until there was enough to open hellholes on demand. The Sphere is one of those relics."

  "So why did the Guild ignore his warnings?" Em scrolled down the document.

  "There was an investigation, and the Head of Artefacts at the time concluded there was no evidence to support the theory. He said it was highly improbable that demons would be able to plan and execute something so sophisticated over the course of several centuries. He shut down the research."

  "Who was the Head of Artefacts?"

  Em turned to us with a brittle smile.

  "Guess."

  "Dark." Darius and I looked at each other. "That's why he's so against searching for the Sphere. He's trying to cover for himself."

  We heard the front door unlocking, and a moment later Violet poked her head into the room.

  "Is the criminal activity over? Only there's a limit as to how far I can push Henry around in his wheelchair."

  "Pish posh, madam, you're not that old," said Henry, as he wheeled himself into the room.

  "I wasn't talking about my age, dear," Violet said acerbically. "I was talking about your weight." She looked at us and raised an eyebrow. "So? What happened? Don't leave us hanging. Fill us in, so we can live vicariously."

  I told them in detail what Dark had said to me, including the crack about wishing the Guild had left Mum in the gutter. Violet's face darkened.

  "That man should never have been elected Chairman," she muttered. "I've got a good mind to go over there and tell him exactly what I think of..."

  "You can't," I said apologetically. "I'm afraid you and Henry are banned from headquarters, unless you get express permission from Dark himself. I'm sorry."

  "That odious individual!" Violet's face nearly matched her name, as she quivered in anger. "I was learning spells when he was still using crayons! Just wait till I see him." Henry put a calming hand on her arm.

  "Let us concentrate on the matter at hand. You have the ring, Kaz dear?"

  I handed it over to him, and he examined it closely.

  "Interesting. And Lucian says he made this?" His tone was sceptical, and I looked at him in surprise.

  "Yes, he says he created it as a counter measure for the Sphere. Why? Don't you believe him?"

  The Professor shrugged.

  "It looks very old, that's all. I have no reason to disbelieve him. I've known Lucian for a long time, ever since he was a researcher. He was always very bright, and very capable." He handed the ring back to me. "So, we know what the demons are doing, and we have the means to stop them. We just don't know where they, or your mother, are."

  I thought back to that awful day on the pier, to Nisgath's words. I have the means to free her, just as I have the means to kill every human on the planet. The demon had made it pretty clear it was going to use the Sphere to free Belzael.

  "I think Mum is wherever the Sphere is," I said. "And I think they're all underground."

  "In the caves? Where the witches' ritual took place?" Henry nodded. "It makes sense. Violet and I will get on it. But I fear we are running out of tim
e."

  "Why do you say that?"

  "Lucian told you about the full-moon being an amplifier. I checked the dates of that old article about the landslide. The sacrifices were carried out at full-moon. I think it's safe to assume whatever the demons are planning, they're going to do it during a full moon."

  "And when's the next full moon?" I asked.

  Em turned to the computer and tapped at the keyboard.

  "In eight days," she said. "Assuming the demons have enough sacrifices."

  "We have no way of knowing that," said Violet in frustration. "It might not even be this full moon when it happens."

  "We have to assume it is," said Darius. "They'll want to do the ritual sooner rather than later. And if the full-moon is just eight days away, they won't want to stray too far from Mallow Bottom. We need to find those caves."

  "I'll comb geographical records for any cave entrances," said Violet. "Though they were probably all covered over in the landslide."

  "We can look at satellite pictures, see if there are any topographical indications," suggested Henry. "But it will take time. We should inform the Chairman of what we've found, ask for assistance..."

  "No!" My voice was harsh and made them jump, but just the thought of begging Dark for help again was too much. "He won't listen. Some of the Guild are on our side, but they won't challenge Dark directly."

  "We can't take on a lair of demons by ourselves, Kaz," said Darius quietly.

  "Then use the next eight days to find out who we can trust. Which Warriors are on our side. Dark didn't ban you from headquarters, so start with Max and Aloysius. Anyone who knows Mum. When we track down the caves, we'll call them in."

  "And what if we don't track down the caves?"

  I thought of Mum, the torture she was going through. Dying again and again.

  "We have to," I said. There was no compromise in my voice.

  ◆◆◆

  Di came to check in with us towards the end of the night.

  "I have had the best time," she said, looking at me brightly. "Listening to senior Guild members cursing you for hours at the tops of their voices. Wouldn't have missed it for the world!"