Upon a Burning Throne

by Ashok K. Banker

  Then again, the old man had emerged from a maelstrom in a lake, a maelstrom that he himself seemed to have caused, then walked on water. He was no ordinary itinerant holy man, that was for sure. Who knew what else he was capable of? She shook her head, trying to rid herself of the sense of dread that lingered after his passing.

  Karni took two steps into the lake, then stopped in ankle-deep water. She wanted to rejoin her friends, but suddenly, she had no desire to swim. Not right now. Not today.

  Perhaps not for a long while.

  Perhaps never again in this particular lake.

  She waved and gestured to her companions on the far bank, pointing to the west. They waved back, acknowledging that they understood.

  She turned and ran around the lake, through the trees. The opposite of the route the old man had gone, the long way around. She didn’t mind running an extra mile or two, so long as she did not have to face that fierce visage again.

  She covered the distance in record time, startling a pair of weasels back into their holes along the way. The forest was slowly returning to normal, the sounds and ambiance resuming now after the unnatural event at the lake.

  Finally, Karni saw her friends through the trees and sprinted to meet them. They met in a clamor of cries and embraces and tears.

  “—saw you in the lake and then—”

  “—thought you were sucked in—”

  “—what would we tell your father—”

  “—the king would have our heads for—”

  “—what was that thing—”

  “It was a Nagdevta, wasn’t it?”

  This last came from Ramyakumari, a sweet but simple daughter of a cowherding family. Ramya was terrified of snakes and prayed daily to Grrud, Lord of Birds and archenemy of all serpents.

  “It was an old hermit, that’s all,” Karni told them. “He asked me who I was, then walked off down the path.”

  “Did you tell him you’re the queen of this realm?” asked Jaggatpuri indignantly.

  “I’m not the queen, Jaggi,” Karni replied.

  “You might as well be, since King Stonecastle doesn’t have any sons.”

  “Did he say who he was? I bet it was Seer-Mage Nrudam!”

  “He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.” Didn’t dare ask, she added silently. She gestured past her friends. “Let’s go back. I have to collect my clothes.”

  “Oh, I have them!” Sunidhi said, producing a bunched bundle she had been squeezing anxiously with both hands.

  “Thanks for keeping them unwrinkled,” Karni teased as she shook out the crumpled garments. She slipped them on quickly. “Now, let’s go home. This lake makes me nervous. That old rishi could come back anytime.”

  3

  The girls chattered excitedly as they walked. Most of their speculation was about the rishi’s spectacular arrival. Karni, having seen the event up close, had a theory.

  “I think he used the water of the lake to travel from another plane to this one. The water is runoff from the sacred river, after all. These old hermits have the power to ask River Goddess Jeel to transport them through other worlds, don’t they?”

  “But why come here? There are no gods here to visit. What possible business could he have in our world, let alone our kingdom?”

  They were still exclaiming and debating over the rishi’s identity and mission when a young man slipped suddenly through the trees behind them and began to follow. He stayed close enough to hear what they were saying but avoid being seen. His attention was rooted on Karni most particularly. He watched her every move, took in her every gesture and word, admired the way she shook her wet hair, bumped her hip against a friend’s to make a point, laughed with her head thrown back and hand raised to her chin. There was no question that he was besotted with her beauty and her personality. More than besotted, he desired her. His longing was evident in his look, the way he smiled at her laughter, the wry shakes of his head he gave when she said something tart to her companions and they squealed in delight.

  This man was head over heels in love with the princess of Stonecastle.

  He finally made his move a mile outside the city.

  Coming upon them from behind, he fell into step barely a yard aft of Karni herself, matching pace with them.

  The other girls noticed him first, their eyes widening as they saw him, then relaxing and smiling as he touched his finger to his lips to shush them. They kept his secret, but their own amusement at his presence undid them. Karni noticed their unprovoked giggling and frequent glances behind and stopped suddenly, spinning around with her hands on her hips.

  4

  “What do you think you’re doing!” Karni asked, in a convincingly indignant tone.

  The young man shrugged. “I thought I was coming to the lake to bathe with you,” he said, “but you were already gone by the time I arrived. So I was coming to visit you at your father’s house.”

  She cocked her head. “And what would you have done there? Marched into his court and asked him for permission to visit with his daughter?”

  “Perhaps I would have asked him for permission to do more than visit,” he replied with a grin.

  Her friends gasped in mock outrage at this comment.

  He glanced at them with an innocent expression. “I meant I would have asked him for her hand in marriage. What were you girls thinking?”

  They laughed and flapped their hands at him.

  Karni relented and let her face relax in a smile. She glanced over her shoulder. Her companions teased her, and she rolled her eyes. They were accustomed to Karni and her boyfriend’s antics, and she was accustomed to their teasing.

  “You girls go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you.”

  “Don’t be late or we’ll tell your father the king!” they called out, then ran away laughing.

  “We were supposed to have a rendezvous on the north side of the lake under the ashoka tree after you finished your swim,” he said as they walked leisurely together through the woods in the late afternoon light.

  “I never finished my swim today,” she replied. “Something very strange happened.” She told him about the maelstrom and the strange snake-eyed hermit.

  He stared at her. “You aren’t making fun of me, are you? This really happened?”

  “I swear to you on my ancestor’s name,” she said, reaching up to touch the lower boughs of apple trees as they walked. The apples were still tiny and green at this time of year, and she was careful not to jostle or break them free.

  He whistled. “Who does that? I mean, who comes out of a lake like a snake god rising from the underworld?”

  She turned to him with a gleam. “That’s what I thought too! He even looked like a snake god, his eyes dark and so intense, I thought he was going to open his mouth and show a forked tongue and then—” She crooked her forearm at the elbow and thrust her hand forward like a cobra striking. “He was scary!”

  “Probably just some old hermit-muni on an urgent mission to save the world,” he said. “You’ll probably never see him again. It was a good thing you didn’t get sucked into that maelstrom yourself.”

  “Why? Would you have jumped in to save me if you were there?”

  He grinned. “Of course. I have to protect the future mother of my future children, don’t I?”

  She giggled, covering her mouth with her hand held upright. “First you joked about asking my father for my hand in marriage, now you’re talking about motherhood and children. Aren’t you forgetting one important thing before either of those things can happen?”

  “What’s that?”

  “I have to decide if I’m ready to get married,” she said, ticking off the first point on her finger, “then I have to decide who I’m going to marry.”

  “Oh, is that all?” he asked, “Well, the second point is already decided. As for the first, how about this summer? If you could decide by then, we could be married late autumn, the perfect time of year.” He gestured northward. “The cherry bloss
oms will be in full bloom by then. I know how much you love cherry blossoms, Karni.”

  She smiled. “I do love cherry trees in bloom, it’s true. That does sound very tempting. I will have to give it serious consideration.”

  “Well, don’t consider it for too long,” he said. “Otherwise, my father might pack me off to Dirda to attend a swayamvara.”

  She stopped short, hands on her hips and a frown on her face. “A swayamvara? In Dirda? Whatever for?”

  “For the same reason all princes go to swayamvaras, my sweet. To compete in the contest and try to win the favor of the princess. And if she approves, then to marry her.”

  “In Dirda, of all places?” Karni asked scornfully. “Those Dirda princesses are older than the mountains and more wrinkled than old prunes!”

  He looked at her with a half smile on his face. “Sounds like someone’s more than a little jealous of Dirda girls.”

  “Jealous? Me? Of Dirda girls? Why, I—” She realized he was laughing at her and stopped herself. “You’re teasing me, you scoundrel. You know Stonecastle and Dirda always compete with each other, so you’re just trying to make me angry.”

  He laughed. “Of course I’m teasing. Mayla of Dirda is my sister! Though she is pretty, at that, I hardly think I’d be seeking her hand in marriage. On the other hand, there are other princesses in Dirda who would be worth competing for!”

  She shoved him hard enough to send him sprawling. He was still laughing as she began striding purposefully toward her home.

  “Hey,” he called, jumping to his feet and running backward to keep pace with her, “I was just teasing about Dirda. But I am serious about my parents. They are getting restless, and the invitations to the swayamvaras are starting to pile up. I will have to start attending a few so other kingdoms don’t start thinking that the prince of Mraashk is afraid of competing.”

  “You can do as you please,” she said, walking faster. “What’s it to me?”

  “Hey,” he said, “slow down. Now, don’t go off in one of your foul tempers. I did say that I intended to approach your father and ask for your hand. Not right now, not so casually, of course, but with proper protocol, in a few days.”

  She slowed her pace a bit. “I don’t like to be rushed. You know that. I will make up my mind in my own way, at the right time. It could even be this summer, and then you could approach my father in the proper way, and it’s even possible we could set a date for late autumn. But it has to be my decision in my own time. I thought you understood that.”

  “I do, I do,” he said, “And I know that it’s not done for the boy to seem too eager. Marriage is a woman’s decision, and it’s your right to make that choice when you please. But can I help it if I’m so madly crazy in love with you, Karni of Stonecastle, apple of my eye, that I can’t bear to wait another year, another season, or even another night, to make you my wife?”

  She slowed even further, her face beaming with pleasure at his tone and his words. “I am eager too,” she said softly, almost shyly. “To make you my husband, young Baron Maheev of Mraashk.”

  “Then what’s there to think about?” He stopped and spread his arms. “I love you, Karni Stonecastle. We’ve known each other since we could first talk. We played together as infants in your father’s castle in Mraashk. Our families know each other well and are good friends. Even after you left Mraashk to come live here at Stonecastle, I followed you and changed my entire life to be near you. I love everything about you, from your quick temper to your stubborn will, to the way your back arches where it meets your hip, to how you toss your hair when you walk, plus your strength, your beauty, your love for fried tapioca—”

  She giggled.

  “—your prowess at weapons and combat, your sense of Krushan law, your refusal to give up on any chore no matter how demanding until it is done to your satisfaction.” He then continued in this vein for several more moments, and Karni realized with a start, He loves me. He really, truly loves me. This is not mere lust or youthful infatuation. He genuinely loves me and will care for me as long as he lives. This is a man I could spend the rest of my life with and be happy.

  She started to go to him, then stopped herself, realizing where they were. The spires of the palace tower were within sight, and the rumbling of wagons reminded her that they were within view of the busiest road leading out of the city. And so instead of going to him and reciprocating his expression of love right then, she pushed him away playfully. “Nice speech! Now, go home. I’ll see you tomorrow by the lake as usual.”

  If he was disappointed by her failure to return his eloquent declaration, he did not show it.

  “I’ll be there,” he called out. “And I’ll make sure there aren’t any Naga men stirring up the lake into a frenzy!”

  Karni had already turned and begun running; she waved over her head without looking back. She could imagine the look on his face without seeing it: sweet and wistful and handsome. She laughed to herself as she ran, and allowed herself the freedom to blush deeply and rosily at the thought that she might actually be planning her own wedding in a few weeks.

  That afternoon, she reached home a very happy girl.

  It would be a long time before she felt as happy again.

  5

  The royal compound was abuzz with excitement, men and women rushing to and fro on various errands, the guards looking more alert than usual. Even the horses and elephants and dogs felt the excitement, whinnying, stamping their feet, and barking in their kennels.

  “Princess! Your father wishes to see you at once. He has a visitor!” said Shatabdi, a round-faced palace staple who ran the royal household like it was her own fiefdom.

  Karni frowned. Her mind was still filled with thoughts of an autumn wedding, and she hadn’t quite registered the hustle and bustle around. “What, why?”

  Shatabdi took in Karni’s appearance with a look of horror. “You can’t go before him like that! What have you been doing?” She flapped her hands. “Never mind. Shrutakirti! Mandakini! Take the princess and get her changed into suitable attire. Now!”

  The flustered maids hustled Karni away. She glanced back helplessly at her companions, who all wore worried expressions. Their gaiety after the swimming excursion had vanished completely; none of them even inquired after her rendezvous with Maheev, which was quite unlike them.

  “This visitor . . .” she asked the maids as they dressed her hurriedly in her chambers.

  “A very important seer-mage,” Mandakini sang out as she pulled Karni’s left arm through a sleeve, “His name is Pasha’ar. They say he’s the same one who cursed the king of the gods for letting his elephant Airavon trample a garland he had gifted him.”

  Shrutakirti, who was a mite slower-witted, blinked as she fitted the last bracelet on Karni’s wrist. “He gifted a garland to an elephant?”

  “No, silly, he gifted the garland to the king of the gods, Inadran. That’s why he was so angry when the god gave it to his elephant, who then trampled it.” Mandakini finished adjusting the garment and began combing Karni’s hair over an urn of smoldering sandalwood, fanning it out to catch the scented smoke.

  “What was the curse?” Shrutakirti asked round-eyed. Stories of sages and their curses were a frequent topic of gossip around the palace. Such men were known for losing their temper, and for their penchant for spewing curses at those who provoked them.

  “He decreed that the gods would fall from popularity, just as the sage’s garland had been allowed to fall, and that Inadran would one day become as insignificant as dust.” Karni spoke the words by rote, recalling her itihasa lessons with the royal guru. “That led to the great war between the gods and the urrkh, and the start of the eternal enmity between the two groups.”

  Shrutakirti paused in the act of fixing a diamantine necklace around Karni’s throat. “Goddess save us! He is that sage? He’s supposed to be the worst of them. What if he takes offense with something in Stonecastle and curses us all to turn into asses?”

>   “It wouldn’t make the slightest difference to you then, would it?” Mandakini snapped. “Come on, finish up before Shatabdi curses us!”

  Karni saw the younger maid’s hands were shaking. She smiled and took the necklace from Shrutakirti’s hands, fixing it around her own neck. She put a reassuring hand on the maid’s arm. “Whatever you do, don’t act nervous or scared around him. That will just make him more angry. Be calm and keep your head down, and you’ll be fine.”

  Shrutakirti nodded but wrung her hands nervously as Karni turned to leave her chambers.

  She soon forgot the maid and everything else as she strode quickly toward the royal hall, wanting to run but knowing it would not be proper for a princess to be seen running in the halls. She reminded herself to take her own advice. Stay calm, Karni. However terrifying the stories, he’s still just a man.

  A man who had the power to travel through vortexes of air and water and had ruined the king of gods with a single uttered curse.

  6

  The royal court of Stonecastle was as silent as a tomb.

  Even the court jesters, who were paid to keep people amused and entertained at all times, were uncharacteristically silent . . . because they weren’t present at all, Karni saw. Her father must have ordered them sent away, to avoid causing any offense to the sage. Many priests frowned upon court entertainers. On the other hand, some, like the frequent envoys and merchant ambassadors who traveled the several hundred miles southwestward from Hastinaga, had a taste for Stonecastle’s cultural delights, which might not be as risqué as the hedonistic excesses of the Krushan imperial court, but could be quite titillating in their own unique way. Especially the serapi and harva dances!

  Her adoptive father, King Stonecastle, was seated on his throne, uncharacteristically somber. That itself was strange: she was so used to hearing either boisterous laughter or his cheerful voice in this room. But now his face was composed in a neutral expression, displaying no outward emotion. His ministers, courtiers, and nobles all imitated his example, seated around the hall like wax effigies in a display gallery. The only movement came from the servants gently fanning the sage, who was seated just beside the king’s own throne.