“I am afraid I couldn’t go with you,” I said, “I am not a man who drinks much.”
“Really?” the wizard said, frowning in a way as though he thought I was joking. I actually drank a little every now and then. “But I would still insist. It would be a way to undo our fault at giving you such a hard time running through the jungle. A little wine will fix things up, come one.”
And without waiting for a final response from me, he turned at the mahout.
“The two of you come along to my house at a slow pace,” the wizard said, “I will go fast and do the preparations for our little celebration.”
And he turned at his heels and marched away.
The mahout began to walk, but seeing that I was not moving, he placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Come, sir,” he said, “I gave you a hard time tonight, didn’t I?” And he pulled me along. Yes, he did so more like a friend than the killer that he had been only a few minutes back, yet I couldn’t shake of the feeling that going to the guest house tonight would not be the best idea.
There was not a single soul out in the streets of the town. The few lights that had been when I had first emerged from the woods were out now. Even insects weren’t singing so much. The silence was making me feel uneasy. The mahout didn’t speak anything on the way to the guest house, but he always had his arm around my shoulders, pulling me along.
But then I told myself that perhaps I was thinking too much? If the wizard and the mahout wanted to kill me, wouldn’t they have done it in the woods itself? They could have just buried me beside the mayor and that would have been the end of my tale. So maybe there was still hope?
We finally reached the residence of the mayor. The guest house was at one side of the campus of the mayor’s home. I looked at the mansion of the mayor. I wondered if the wife and the son of the mayor knew he wasn’t in the house or of the tragedy that had befallen him. I reckoned they were both sleeping soundly, lost in the blissful lands of dream.
The mahout pushed open the gate and we entered the premises of the mayor’s residence and then we moved towards the much smaller guest house, to which a different path led amidst the garden of the mayor. I had never been to the mayor’s residence before, even though I had lived in the same town for all of my life.
We reached the guest house. The wizard had come very quicky earlier, and now he opened the door and ushered us in. He told us to keep our slippers outside, for they were filled with mud from the river bank where the mahout and I had had our struggle.
There were two bottles of wine on a table, with three chairs around it. There were three glasses, but near the wine bottles there was also a queer greenish powder on a piece of parchment paper. The wizard beckoned me to one of the chairs, while he and the mahout slumped down on the other chairs.
“I have been a bit of a wine connoisseur myself,” the wizard said, “the mayor provides good wine. He’s a good man, may he live long.” I barely prevented myself from flinching when I heard these words. The wizard poured wine onto the three glasses and gave me one. I began to sip it, but just then the wizard held up his hand.
“Oh, how can we forget the taste bud powder?” he said.
“The taste bud powder?” I asked.
He grabbed a pinch of the powder from the parchment and spread it over his wine. The mahout did the same.
“Go ahead,’ the wizard said, “get a pinch yourself, you’ll be surprised how it elevates the taste of the already good wine.”
I took a pinch of the powder and added it to the drink. I reckoned it wouldn’t be harmless for the wizard and the mahout had also added it to their drinks.
I was wrong.
While they had added it, they didn’t gulp the wine after adding the powder. They merely acted out the part. I on the other hand blissfully emptied the glass, seized by my love for good wine, even as I disregarded the circumstances under which I had been offered it.
The moment the wine was in my stomach, I felt like I no longer had the leash over my own mouth. This had never happened to me earlier, and in a few moments I had deduced that the powder had other purposes than to merely elevate the taste.
“I did go to the river bank searching for my wife’s ring,” I said, “but I found it on the side of the river where the mahout wasn’t. When I saw a torch glowing on the other side, I crossed the river, overcome by curiosity.”
“And what did you see?” the wizard said with a sly grin.
“I hid behind a large tree and I saw the mahout digging a giant hole in the earth. Beside him was the mayor, dead.” I put a hand over my mouth to stop from saying anything further, but the mahout wrenched my hand away. “I decided it was best to get away and tell the townsfolk. But when I put my leg in the water, I was bitten by a crab and I let out a cry. The mahout was alerted and when I turned, I saw him standing with a sword, ready to kill me. I ran for my life.”
The wizard stood up from his chair. He came behind me and he placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close to my ear.
“The pinch is actually something that we wizards call the Truth Powder,” he whispered, “I could have killed you earlier, but I didn’t want to get my hands dirty a second time. I thought if you are innocent it will just be a useless risk to murder you. Two men suddenly disappearing from the town can become a little suspicious. Alas, you leave me with no option. You are anything but innocent. You have seen way too much. Pray, get to your feet.”
My heart hammering in my chest I obeyed him and got up. I didn’t even beg him to let me go, even as the wizard pulled out a dagger from underneath his robes. The dagger that had visible blood stains, which undoubtedly belonged to the later mayor.
The wizard raised the dagger, gritting his teeth. He plunged it into my chest. The next thing I knew I was lying on the cold floor. I did not feel any pain, but I was well aware of something warm leaking out of my chest, even as the wizard seemed to give orders to the mahout what to do with my body.
My vision began to blur. In moments utter blackness had taken over.
I couldn’t believe it. I was dead.
***
Chapter 21: Gorain the Inventor
I watched as my wife combed her hair sitting in front of the mirror. She was a beautiful woman. Alas, in the fifteen years that I had been married to her, I had never felt any feelings of love for her. Our marriage had always felt like a contract of sorts to me.
My wife was one of the distant cousins of the king. Owing to my skills at making scientific devices that had gone ways in securing the king’s powers over the kingdom, he had gifted me with the marriage, so that I became a part of his family.
Of course, I had never been in a position to say ‘No’ to the king. There had been a different woman that I had loved, but I had never dared speak about her to the king. Doing so would have brought both my life and the life of my love in danger. I had risked my life and seen her away to the very borders of the kingdom and asked her to never come. I had not been able to leave the kingdom myself thanks to a device of my own invention that I wore in a chain around my neck. It was designed to alarm the king if I left the borders of the kingdom.
King Arunzaki had ascended the throne some twenty five years ago. A crafty man, he had established his rule with all might by uniting the various towns and villages located in the southern part of the subcontinent. Then he had shown his true colours after about a year of declaring himself as the all mighty person of the kingdom. Nobody could ever say anything against him. Those who did usually disappeared under mysterious circumstances.
In the eastern part of the empire there was rumoured to be a prison camp where people were forced to do manual labour day in and day out until they died.
Still, others were not as lucky.
Each month there was a Ruler Day. It was always a day of ultimate terror. People were executed in ways that ashamed even the imagination. Sometimes the limbs of the guilty were chopped up, leaving them to bleed to dead, even as all others watched, unab
le to help and being forced to wear happy faces. At other times the eyes of the guilty people would be taken out and they would be forced to run about the kingdom. Anyone who saw them were supposed to hit them or kick them or do their best to cause pain to the guilty. Those who refused to punish the guilty were themselves charged with breaking the law and they faced the consequences on the Ruler Day of the month that followed. Over the years King Arunzaki’s rule had assumed the form of a curse, which could only be lifted if he was killed. Once in a while, a brave heart player would dare to accept the quest to uplift the curse. So far, no brave heart had succeeded. They usually ended up as Ruler Day victims.
My wife was presently done with her hair.
“How do I look?” she asked me.
I faked a big smile.
“Gorgeous,” I said.
She did actually look gorgeous. But I had no emotional connection of any sorts with her. It didn’t really matter to me if she looked gorgeous or not.
“I am going to the Royal Palace,” she said, “one of the queens is having a baby.”
The king had quite a few wives. He seemed to have a new son or daughter every month or two. Plus, he just kept marrying at least twice or thrice a year. He was quite intent on preserving his legacy.
As my wife stood up, there was a knock at the door. It was the maid. She carried a letter in her hands.
“Can I come in?” she asked. I responded that she could. She came and handed me the letter.
“One of His Majesty’s men came with this letter,” the maid said. I opened the envelope.
“A dragon has been sighted. Come to the royal palace quickly. It should be visible shortly and you can use the giant telescope to view it.”
“Dragon?” I found myself muttering.
My wife turned sharply at me.
“Don’t they live in the underground world?” she asked.
“His Majesty says one would be shortly visible and I could use the giant telescope to view it.”
“Then we should go immediately,” my wife said.
I dressed up as quickly as possible. Our carriage was ever ready as usual and off we went.
“Can’t you invent something to improve transportation?” my wife asked when we were moving over a not particularly good portion of the road.
“Someday perhaps,” I said. “My previous attempts had failed.”
It wasn’t true. There were quite a few very successful inventions that I had declared unsuccessful. Many years ago, when I had still been young, I had received the Gift. It was a reward for completing a very special quest that involved me slaying a monster. The Gift allowed me to harness powers in the game world that were otherwise away from the grasps of regular players. Hence it was not very hard for me to invent things, but I made sure to show the king that even I had limitations. Besides, many of my inventions were already being used to terrorize the citizens of the kingdom. Every time I saw one of my inventions being used to torture someone it broke my heart.
The king only recently asked me to invent a device for faster communication, but I told him that such an invention was impossible with my current skill level. The truth was that I could message anyone I wanted. But I had never revealed this to anyone. The fabric of the game world could be pierced and I had used this to my advantage to create wonderful inventions that I kept hidden from everyone’s eyes. Alas, my talents had their limitations. It didn’t help that king Arunzaki had used a special spell on me such that I was bonded to him in a manner that if I tried to use any of my inventions to directly harm him, I would be hurt well or might even die. It was the reason why I was still stuck in this blasted kingdom following each and every command of the tyrant king.
After a while the royal palace came into view. Only the heavens knew what the main motive the king had behind asking me to see the dragon.
We didn’t directly go inside the palace. There was a massive statue of King Arunzaki that stood just before the main door of the palace. In front of this we bowed low for at least half a minute. We would have bowed for longer had we not come to the palace concerned with matters that couldn’t be waited on for long.
My wife parted from me and went towards the hospital wing of the royal palace. I meanwhile made it towards the King’s chamber. I told the guard about having come at the king’s orders and he let me inside.
The king’s chamber was lavish. There were quite a few paintings of the king, most of them depicting him doing something heroic, though in truth the events shown in the paintings were mostly from the Ruler Days when the king committing atrocities as he wished.
The king was not in the room however. But I knew where he must be. Arunzaki’s chamber was more of a double chamber, with steps on one side of the room leading up to a second room, which also had a great balcony which had the famed telescope, built by yours truly. I hurriedly made my way up the stairs and found the king seated on a chair, peering into the telescope, a servant aiding him to move the telescope of considerable size.
“Your majesty,” I said to announce my arrival.
The king snapped a finger and the servant left. Apparently Arunzaki wanted to talk with me alone.
“I think I see it, Zonak,” Arunzaki said. “Come take a look yourself.”
The king stood up from the chair so that I could look into the telescope myself. And there I saw the dragon. It was quite a giant. However, it was what was flying beside the dragon that had my attention. It was a spherical ball of metal.
A memory from a good while ago returned to me. That metal ball looked dangerously close to a device that I had created.
And one which had been stolen by me.
It had been a mere seed back then. One which I could hold in my hands, barely bigger than a thumb nail. The device was designed such that if it was put in the soil in its seed form then over a period of years it would acquire the size of a football using the nutrients present in the soil. Then one could just press a certain button on the device and it would balloon in size, becoming the size of a medium-sized house. A wizard had taken the device from me over a stupid bet at a bar one night in my youth, before I had come under the tyrannical Arunazaki.
“It is a big dragon,” I said, “and there is something flying with it.”
The king laughed.
“That flying ball almost seems like something you could have created.”
It was a question, not a mere statement. I had always turned the king down whenever he asked me to create any flying device with the aid of one excuse or the other. I shook my head.
“Someone of a greater prowess has created it, your majesty.”
“How far do you think it is?”
“Three hundred kilometres maybe,” I said. The telescope was one of its kind. In the upper atmosphere of the game world there were certain folds in the fabric comprising the game world that reflected light in unique ways. The giant telescope was designed such that it could catch this reflected light, which was otherwise invisible to the eye of a player or an NPC, allowing the telescope to view objects past the horizon of the game world earth.
The king placed a hand on my shoulder, meaning that I had seen enough. I stood up promptly. Arunzaki looked into my eye, his gaze feeling as though he was looking into my mind.
“I want that dragon. I was to make a pet out of it. And I want the flying sphere, whatever it really is. It would take at most a day for the dragon to reach us. By then I want you to have created something that could be used to bring the dragon down as well as the Sphere, without necessarily harming either.”
“But, your majesty, how can I in one day—”
“I do not want ‘no’ for an answer,” the king said, “You have served me well over the years. I want you to keep serving me.”
Those words kept repeating themselves over and over in my head as I made my way back to my house. Was the king saying he would kill me if I failed to bring the dragon down? After all the years working as a slave for him, creating things that were the stuff
of his wildest imaginations… Or was it my fault? I had turned down, although tactfully, quite a few inventions that he had asked me to make recently. I gritted my teeth.
I had had enough. A sudden urge to use my inventions against the king came over me. The part that sucked was that most of them required at least a few other people to use. The king had all the soldiers he wanted to operate the weapons of destruction I had created for him.
Suddenly I realised that my wife was staring directly at my face.
“Are you all right?” she asked me, “There is sweat on your brow and your face is red. Are you angry at something?”
Of course if I answered ‘yes’ then it would ultimately mean that I was angry at the king, for he had been the one I had last had any real conversation with. I shook my head. I rubbed my forehead with my hand and closed my eyes, feigning a headache.
“I don’t feel well today,” I said.
“I’ll give you some medications once we reach home,” my wife said, and she pulled my head onto her lap and began to massage me. I wanted to cry. I had a wife to whom I couldn’t talk my heart out. I was the greatest inventor who couldn’t even invent a way out of Arunzaki’s tyranny. I felt like a defeated man. There was no way I could bring down the dragon. Within a day I will be dead.
***
I looked at the pill on my palm. It was one that would allow me to become airborne for a few hours. I looked out at the window of my room at the night sky, trying to calm my shuddering body. This was the first time I had succeeded in making up the guts to do something to defy the tyrant Arunzaki. It was probably the certainty that I would die anyway even if I didn’t go against the king that empowered me, but I was glad that I had been able to conjure the courage.
I had used the pill only once. It was amongst my very first inventions after I had received the Gift. But I had never used it in front of the king, who didn’t know about its existence.
I turned to look at my wife snoring softly on the bed. I made up my mind. I was going to seek help from the dragon. Such a monster could easily wreck havoc on the King. I would plead the dragon if need be. I just hoped that I would be able to communicate with the dragon, which was more than a possibility for there were many myths in the Second World of people having gone down into the bowels of the earth to meet dragons that spoke human tongue as easily as a human. And myths in the Second World were much closer to the truth than myths of the real world as far as I had seen.
Chains of a Succubus Page 20