Satyayoddha Kalki- Eye of Brahma

by Kevin Missal

  “It’s going to hinder me when I fight.”

  “Fight? You aren’t fighting. Why do you think I hired the mercenaries? I don’t want us to die.”

  “You want to fight a war from afar?”

  “I want us to be safe, that’s all. That’s what I want.”

  Manasa shook her head. “We are going right now to Kadru and then we are barging inside Jamun’s house and taking his head with us.”

  “The other ministers wouldn’t be happy.”

  “Once I’m in power, I wouldn’t care what they think about.”

  Nanda chuckled. “That’s so you.”

  “Also, uh . . .” Manasa sighed, “I wanted to tell you that after this is over, after we stop Jamun from basically ruining Naagpuri, we should talk about us.”

  Nanda was stunned for a moment. His brows went up and he gasped. “Are you serious?”

  “I thought about it and it . . . well . . . it feels right.”

  “Yeah, sure.” Nanda couldn’t stop grinning.

  “Stop smiling.”

  “Oh no, I won’t, darling.”

  Manasa hit his shoulder playfully.

  “My sources say he is in Naagmandal,” Nanda spoke.

  Manasa nodded. These sources might be the mercenaries who were out there asking around. They arrived at the little island of Naagmandal. The houses that stood here were owned by the important ministers. Initially, Vasuki had bought a house there too, but after his death it had been sold off.

  “Also, you must know,” Nanda said, as they walked towards the main entrance of Naagmandal, “I have alerted Vibhisana about the thing we are going to do.”

  Manasa shot him a look. “Why?”

  “He wouldn’t interfere. I know him. I just thought if this fails—”

  “It won’t fail and we don’t need his help.”

  Manasa was stringent about it and as she reached the gates, the guards tried to question her but the mercenaries, who were more than a dozen, grabbed them, pumelled them to the ground, and tossed them on the floor. Manasa opened the long, bronze gates and walked on the corridor, her each step making a crackling noise as all the guards in Naagmandal were alarmed. Seeing Manasa with her own little army, the guards hesitated to make a move as the mercenaries raved around looking for a worthy challenge.

  She finally reached the main place where the long table was and the fire lamps were lit. In the middle, she saw Kadru looking over some papers. Her men got alarmed on seeing Manasa, but they eased up when Kadru waved them off.

  “What is this, cousin?”

  “This is desperation.” Manasa walked over as she scanned the entire hall of the council. It was empty and the doors to each end of the hall were locked. She looked up the staircases and the balcony which was isolated. “There is a traitor amongst us.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Jamun is the one who is planning a treatise with the Suparns for some reason and he was the reason behind Vasuki’s family’s death.”

  Kadru was confused. “But how’s that possible? He was always there with me and he has been instrumental in rebuilding this city.”

  “No, he’s not. He’s planning to join hands with the bloody Suparns, my dear, so that he can get Amrit for himself and his men.”

  Kadru nodded her head. “I understand. Amrit? You mean the Somalata?”

  Manasa nodded.

  “Why is he doing that?”

  “Taking revenge for what my father did to his father, perhaps.”

  Kadru sighed. “Sister, I’ll be honest.” Her voice was quiet. “I . . .”

  And that’s when the doors opened. Jamun entered with Naga soliders around him, a smile encased over his face. The soldiers that were inside the room pulled out their swords and pointed them towards their mercenaries and Nanda.

  Manasa was confused, her fingers shivering.

  “He didn’t do it because of a petty revenge.” Kadru completed her sentence. “He did it because he worshipped your father, but unlike him you and your brother never wanted the Somas and wanted to stay away from the Suparns. Guess what?” A malicious grin swept her face. “We don’t want that. We want to suck the Suparns dry for they have what belongs to us, gifted to us by the great Lord Sheesha. We decided to acquire it even if it meant giving them the first win, which was Vasuki’s family.”

  “You . . .” Manasa gasped in horror, turning back, pulling out her dagger from the sheath. “You were part of this?”

  “It was my plan, my dear sister, to send those assassins. Jamun doesn’t like much bloodshed.”

  Jamun shrugged at that statement as if it wasn’t true.

  “I didn’t want any complications and there were none. I wouldn’t have harmed you at all if you had been in Indragarh. But no! You had to come to the South, damage us, our big, grand plan of taking back what’s rightfully ours.”

  Manasa attacked Kadru, lurching from her place with the dagger. Kadru countered with a punch quicker than Manasa’s stab. She fell back. Nanda yelled in horror, but Jamun’s men shot an arrow right across his knee as he collapsed on the ground.

  “Husband and wife, planning their deaths together. How poetic.” Kadru came over to Manasa, knelt down, and stared at her. “You shall be executed, both of you, for interfering and talking to Maruda about us. After all, he was an idiot to welcome you, but hey, that’s all right.”

  “The reason . . .” Manasa sighed, panting, “Vasuki didn’t fight for Amrit was because he had seen our father going mad because of it. He had seen what it did to people when they had it.”

  “It’s because they didn’t know how to use it. And now we do.”

  And with that, Kadru punched Manasa in the gut as she lost consciousness, her worlds slowly colliding, both in dreams and reality.

  Urvashi knew her way around her fort. With the help of her maid, Shivani, who had delivered her the letter, Urvashi had been able to leave Lord Kali’s fort undetected and had now reached hers. Shivani had covered Urvashi’s face with a shawl. Kali’s men were still looking for her.

  Guards stood at the front gate, so they decided to enter from the back. Shivani hoisted Urvashi, so that she could jump over the wall.

  Shivani had told Urvashi that all things from their rooms had been kept in the storage room. While the papers and clothes had been burnt, other personal belongings had been stored.

  Urvashi tiptoed on the dark corridors of the fort. There was a door ahead for the servants to enter and exit. Surprisingly, the armoury didn’t have any soldiers on the ground floor, though when Urvashi did descend to the storage room area, she found two soldiers inside, talking.

  She knew she had to distract them in some way or the other. She crept down and then turned to the nearest wall, carefully peering from the corner. They were chatting about the daily affairs of the disorganized state system.

  Urvashi sighed. She had to do something. She closed her eyes, thinking about whatever her guru had taught her.

  If you have no magical object that I’ve given you, the best thing to do is to act on your own. Trust your judgement.

  Urvashi nodded to herself, and then she began to cry. Clutching her stomach, she fell on the ground. The two guards got alarmed and rushed to her.

  “Oh dear, who is she?”

  “Isn’t she Vedanta’s daughter?” said the other one, confused. “How did she . . . is she injured?”

  Urvashi had her back to them.

  “Girl, you fine?”

  They came forward. One of them put his hand over her shoulder. At that moment, Urvashi turned, pulled the sword from the soldier’s sheath and stabbed him in the stomach. Blood sprayed over her face which she wiped clean. The other soldier was stunned for a moment before he took out his sword, but then Urvashi kicked his knee. He knelt and groaned. She pointed the sword at his throat, puncturing it slowly.

  “That’s for betraying my father.”

  She had always liked the idea of killing people and the guru had liked her feist
iness. She had learnt how to kill in her early days as a trainee when her guru had taught her quick, specific methods to defend herself in times of crisis. He had wanted to show her that she could use magic for the right reasons, that it will come in handy when she was in danger. And she needed her skills now.

  She took the storage room keys from the guard’s pocket and walked towards it, unlocking it. Finding herself in a tiny room, she began to search for her stuff, hoping it wasn’t burnt. She had kept it in a turquoise-coloured bag made of tweed. Finally, after searching for some time, she found the stuff that belonged to her, including all the dolls she had carved with her knife along with some Charm. Charm was a powder that could be used to hypnotize people. Urvashi knew exactly how she was going to use it.

  She packed her bag and dangled it on her shoulder as she made her way out.

  She knew where she had to go now.

  Next stop: Prison.

  Lady Durukti was waiting in the same room again, with the same soldier standing outside to protect her. She saw shadows moving on the wall. It was Arjan, walking towards his cell.

  “You are back.” He had a smile on his emaciated face.

  He looks beat.

  Physically, Arjan was ripped, muscular like a wrestler. The bags under his eyes though told a different story. But Durukti was confident that Arjan could have taken Kali in a fight if only Kali hadn’t ingested the Soma.The soldier stepped back as Arjan continued, “You are back, and that means you either have good news or bad news. But at least, you have news.”

  “I am fulfilling my promise.” She was worried. Her hands were clammy, and for some reason her head felt heavy.

  She began to think about Urvashi. She had vanished in the night and Durukti had no idea where she was. Hopefully, Kali hasn’t captured her . . . or has he? But then, Durukti would have known. Perhaps Urvashi had left voluntarily. It was just messing with her mind.

  After resting for an hour, she had come to meet Arjan. Giving the Soma to Arjan was her way of feeling a little less guilty for what she had done in Shambala.

  “Can you release the others?”

  “I can’t do that. That would be stupid. It’ll turn into a riot. I am giving you this.” She handed him the pouch. “Use it well. I don’t want you to kill Kali. Promise me that you won’t.”

  “No, I won’t.” Arjan nodded, keeping the pouch. “You know how to ingest it?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “I’ll figure it out.” He paused. “You seem worried.”

  “I am. Tomorrow you might actually win,” she stifled a laugh, “and I am betraying my brother.”

  “No, you are betraying the king of this city.”

  Durukti knew Kali had to be stopped. Otherwise he would make things worse for everyone.

  And that was when the bells began to ring and the trumpets were blown.

  “Wait, what is going on?”

  Arjan was confused and then a realization hit him. “Someone is escaping.”

  Arjan walked in front and peered out of the window. The window overlooked the field which was inside the prison. The field was filled with prisoners. They were jumping and beating the guards, escaping from there.

  “Everyone has escaped. Did you do this?”

  “No,” Durukti was confused. “But how . . .”

  “It doesn’t matter. You should leave. You are Kali’s sister. If they see you anywhere here, they will kill you. Thank you for the stones.” He hugged Durukti.

  “Are you escaping too?”

  “It’s wise to do so, right?” Arjan smiled as if he couldn’t believe what was happening. He sprinted away into the dark.

  Durukti stood motionless as Arjan ran away. She had stolen the Soma for nothing. There would be no fight now. This was a disaster. She had no idea what was going on and hoped to god that Urvashi didn’t have anything to do with it.

  If so, Durukti was in big trouble.

  Lord Kali was horrified—thinking about the red sea, the red world around him. He was paralyzed; his ears shut down so he couldn’t hear anything. He walked the sands of the red earth, touching them slowly, realizing something was wrong with it. It was not sand. It was blood—the blood of his siblings.

  And he turned when he felt someone touching the nape of his neck.

  “You don’t know the truth.”

  “What truth?” he blurted, angrily pushing and shoving the air as if it would help. There was no sound from the world he was in, but there were voices in his head.

  “The truth about the fire.”

  “The fire?”

  “That made you who you are.”

  Kali recalled the fire—back when he was at the village taking care of his siblings. Durukti had been young, but not as young as the others. And then the fire broke out and he tried to escape, but he couldn’t save his siblings. Durukti had escaped with him. He had heard the infants crying. They had said it was the Tribals’ conflict.

  “You don’t know anything.”

  “What is the truth?” He was panting now. Sweat trickled down his face.

  “The conflict had nothing to do with the fire.”

  That’s not what he remembered. What had really happened that night?

  My subconscious is tricking me.

  “No, I was.” And there was a crackling laughter.

  And then hands from the sand grabbed his feet and they began to pull him inside, down in the gutters of hell.

  “WHO ARE YOU? WHO ARE YOU?” he kept screaming until his mouth was filled with blood and sand and he witnessed the oblivion, the inevitability.

  He woke up.

  Kali was sweating when he saw Koko and Vikoko by his bed. They would never dare to come in the room without his permission if it wasn’t urgent.

  “What happened?”

  “My lord, the prisoners have escaped,” said Koko.

  “Escaped?”

  Kali had dressed himself up. He was walking in the corridor, on his way to the prison. Koko and Vikoko trailed behind him.

  “How many prisoners?”

  “The count goes up to two hundred, my lord.”

  Two hundred! That’s a disaster.

  “Has everyone escaped?”

  “Not all; some were stopped by the guards,” said Vikoko.

  “Kill the stupid prison guards. And there should be round-the-clock surveillance on the streets. Any person with a loincloth around their groin should be shot by an arrow. Take the Yakshas if you want.”

  “Yes, my lord.” Koko nodded.

  Kali was about to reach the prison when he saw the horrible disaster from outside. Partially the prison was on fire, while the guards had grabbed some of the prisoners who had tried to escape. The prison had a rocky, bricked exterior with large poles and watchtowers. There were barbed wires, serrated fences, and grilled windows. It was a basilisk of a building.

  “How does one escape this fortress?”

  “They say the guards helped them escape.”

  “Helped?”

  “We questioned them, but they say they don’t remember anything.”

  Kali shook his head. “You mean to say they were hypnotized?”

  Koko shrugged while Vikoko meekly nodded.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  And Kali went inside the prison.

  Kali was passing down the cells—empty cells. And with each cell, his heart raced a bit more. He felt angrier as each cell represented his failure of not being able to handle this prison, these prisoners.

  Now the people will hate me. They will say that I am worse than Vedanta.

  Kali’s soldiers were behind him. Koko and Vikoko were in front of him when Kali said, “Take out a petition saying that we are keeping everything under control, all right? How many soldiers do we have?”

  “My lord, you have sent two thousand of your men to the Vanar captain and the rest of them are stationed at the villages to maintain order. Some of them have been stationed in other cities. So we have a thousand
men.” Vikoko explained the entire situation.

  Thousand?

  “Call the ones who are stationed at the villages to come to the city. These prisoners must be captured. Who knows what atrocities they will commit in the city now that they are free.” Kali scratched his head as he thoughtfully mused over the situation.

  “But sir, the village people have been protesting against the rise in tax rates. The soldiers stationed there have been keeping these protests under control,” said Koko.

  Kali sighed. “Kill them then. Whoever is protesting, just kill them. In fact, even if one person protests, execute him. We don’t want any revolts. We have a major crisis on our hands. Biggest criminals in the city roam the streets and right now, they could be slaughtering and raping the citizens, and according to me, that’s what should be dealt with first.”

  He finally stopped when he realized that one of the cell doors, even though it was open, was not empty. Curious, he turned to see who was inside. The figure glowed in the shadow of the moonlight being emitted from the grilled window. It was a young boy. He was sitting cross-legged. He had his back to Kali, his wavy black hair glimmering.

  Kali realized who it was. Turning around, Arjan cracked his knuckles, a smile dancing on his face. “Hi there, Kali.”

  “Why didn’t you escape with your friends?”

  “Because I promised you a fight tomorrow.”

  Damn! I forgot about that!

  Kali nodded. “So you stayed? What a fool! I’ll crush you like an ant,” Kali said, confident.

  Arjan stood up. He walked towards Kali and looking straight in his eyes, he softly said, “We’ll see.”

  Kali was unnerved, though he didn’t show it. There was something in his eyes; a glint, a fire. Kali ordered his guards to close the cell doors, but he could see that Arjan hadn’t stopped smiling.

  And for some reason, Arjan reminded him of someone.

  He reminded him of Kalki.

  Urvashi knew she was in trouble when the criminals turned on her. The only person who was supporting her was a handsome, young man by the name of Rudra who was keeping them in control.