The Journey Beyond Bhuloka

by Krutant Iyer

  As Murari exited the corridor through the giant door, he looked back to see the soaring tower behind him. It would have been impossible to get out of the maze had it not been for the old man. There was no telling where they would have ended up if they had opened up a wrong door inside the prison tower.

  “Old man – How did you know this was the right path?” Murari asked.

  The old man chuckled seeing Murari’s perplexed expression.

  “If I wouldn’t know this, then woe be upon me. After all, I commissioned building this prison myself.” The old man revealed.

  Murari gaped at him in amazement.

  “You… this prison…?” Murari couldn’t find words to stitch his thoughts together.

  “Yes. I used to be the commander-in-chief of King Nishada.” The old man said.

  Murari stood rooted to his spot upon the revelation.

  Nishada? The previous King of Nisacharas.

  The old man turned to face Murari.

  “Even though I did not concur with most of his methods and ideologies, I admired his determination.” The old man said. “But he became disillusioned with his obsession for Devaloka, which eventually led to his downfall, and death.”

  “Did you take part in Nishada’s attack on the Sadhuvamsha clan?” Murari asked; his face was impassive.

  “How do you know about that?”

  It was the old man’s turn to be shocked.

  “Just answer the question,” Murari said firmly.

  “I could not bring myself to participate in his crusade to slaughter innocent lives to fulfil his desire. That’s when he stripped me of my rank and imprisoned me and the soldiers who were loyal to me in the dungeon.” The old man said.

  Murari expression relaxed a little on hearing this.

  “But how do you know about that incident?” The old man asked.

  “I am a Sadhuvamshi. Veerabhadra is my grandfather,” Murari revealed.

  The old man’s shoulder drooped a little on hearing Murari’s revelation. The Nisachara soldiers also gasped upon hearing his words.

  The old man quickly recovered from his shock and shook his head to clear his mind. He opened his eyes and laughed out loud.

  “If this isn’t fate, I don’t know what is.” He said, still chuckling. “I knew you weren’t just an average kid, but who would have guessed that you are the grandson of Ajitah.”

  “Who is Ajitah?” Murari asked.

  “Your grandfather, Veerabhadra is Ajitah. It’s a title bestowed on the strongest warrior of Balaloka. He remained undefeated in the Ranajira year after year, till the King of Balaloka banned him from participating in the competition. But the title stuck with him.”

  Murari was amazed to learn about his grandfather’s grandeur. His eyes glimmered with joy. He couldn’t wait to meet his grandfather.

  “Sir, we should get moving. Out here, Kirmira’s soldiers can attack us from any direction.” One of the Nisacharas stepped forward and suggested.

  The old man nodded in his direction and turned to lead the way again.

  “One moment,” Murari called the old man’s attention back towards him.

  The old man turned sideways to look at Murari.

  “What’s your name?” Murari asked.

  “Krupa. What’s yours, Kid?” the old man asked.

  “Murari.”

  The old man nodded once to acknowledge his new-found friend.

  Krupa and his troop crossed the garden, moving silently to avoid drawing attention towards themselves. They stuck close to the enclosed garden’s wall and exited through the door on the other end of the room.

  The door opened through a wall and led them to a spiral staircase.

  “Murari, wait!” Mitra said as he gestured the Nisachara carrying him to put him down.

  “We need to get our weapons. It was taken from us when Kirmira’s soldiers imprisoned us.” He said.

  “But you are in no condition to fight. Also, we do not know where your weapons have been kept.” Murari said.

  “Without our weapons, we will be sitting ducks once we get out of the castle. How do you expect us to survive the Nisacharas attack out there?” Mitra reasoned with Murari.

  Murari suddenly remembered the elite Nisachara guards surrounding the Rakshasas and Vajra out in the field. He turned to Krupa.

  “Where is the Armoury?” he asked.

  “Earlier, the armoury used to be in the prison tower, but later it was moved to the top of this refuge tower,” Krupa said. “But Kirmira’s elite soldiers will be protecting the armoury. It won’t be easy to break in.”

  “We don’t have a choice. If we exit the castle without the weapons, we will end up getting killed anyway.” Mitra said.

  “Krupa-Garu,” Murari said, addressing the old man respectfully, “we will head to the armoury first. Once we reach there, we will figure out a way to deal with the soldiers.”

  The old man nodded and turned around to head up the spiral staircase, followed closely by everyone.

  Four soldiers stood guard outside the armoury at the top of the watchtower. Krupa leaned out from the corner to get a better view. He knew there would be more guards within the armoury. The Nisacharas guarding the door stood in pairs on either side of the giant iron door with two Mashaals secured on the wall on both the sides, lighting up the entrance to the armoury.

  Krupa took a step back carefully. Rest of the group waited a little further down the stairway. Krupa came back and apprised them of the situation.

  “We will need to distract the guards without alerting the soldiers inside, or it will be difficult to take control of the armoury,” Krupa said in a hushed tone. “There’s one way. But I cannot guarantee its success.”

  “As long as there’s even the slightest chance, we will take it,” Murari said.

  Krupa explained his plan of action.

  Murari tiptoed his way up the stairway. Leaning carefully, he noticed the four guards. All of them held a spear in their hands.

  Murari and the Krupa’s Nisacharas had already snuffed out the fire from all the Mashaals along the stairway.

  Murari stepped back into the dark stairway, remaining close to the wall. It was time to execute Krupa’s plan.

  Clearing his throat gently, Murari placed two of his fingers underneath the tip of his tongue, folding it and closing his mouth over it, he blew hard. A long, shrill whistle rang through the silence of the tower. Murari quickly ran back and joined the group waiting down the stairs.

  Two guards came running down the stairway as soon as they heard the whistle. Krupa knew they would respond thus to the whistle, as it had been a distress call among the Nisacharas for ages. Even though the Nisachara guards were perplexed with darkness engulfing the stairway, they continued walking down. Murari and his troop were lined up against the wall on their back, waiting for the guards. No sooner had the Nisachara guards entered within their reach, Krupa and one of his soldiers came up behind them and covered their mouth with one hand while grabbing their necks with the other. As the Nisachara guards struggled, Krupa and his comrade dragged them further down the stairs where Murari and one of the pirates relieved them of their spears. Soon the guards were lying on the floor, rendered unconscious.

  While two of the Nisacharas dragged the fallen guards down the stairs, Murari once again headed up to repeat the exercise. Once all the guards were taken care of, Krupa, Murari and the rest of the group walked up the stairway and now stood outside the armoury.

  Krupa activated his Eye of Indriya to take a peek inside the room. Surprisingly, only two soldiers were present inside the watchtower, which had been partly refurbished as the armoury. The two Nisacharas were facing outwards and were bent over two contraptions that penetrated through a small hole on the tower’s wall.

  While the rest of the group waited near the stairway, two of the Nisacharas from Krupa’s crew went ahead and took their position in front of the door. Krupa and another Nisachara emerged behind them holding spears they h
ad taken off guards. On Krupa’s count of three, the two Nisacharas pushed the door open. As soon as they did, the two Nisacharas within the armoury turned around aggravated, but on seeing Krupa their expression gave way to shock and fear. Krupa and his comrade lost no time as they carefully aimed and hurled their spears at the two soldiers. The spears were thrown with such a force that when it hit the soldiers square in the chest, it hauled them off their feet and sent them flying over the wall. Krupa immediately rushed forward to look down the tower and saw the soldiers’ bodies splash on the moat’s surface and disappear underneath. The sound of clashing weapons drew his attention a little further from the moat. Many of the elite soldiers of Kirmira were lying on the ground, writhing in pain. Their bodies had sustained severe burn injuries.

  Murari rushed to Krupa’s side and looked down at the field. Vajra and the Rakshasas were still engaged in a battle with Shumbha and his elite soldiers. Though they were outnumbered, the Rakshasas and Vajra had managed to bring down a lot of Nisacharas. But they were running out of energy, while the Nisacharas kept pouring out of the castle gate endlessly.

  “We need to get down there as quickly as we can,” Murari said to Krupa.

  But Krupa wasn’t listening. His eyes were fixed on Vajra.

  “What’s he doing here?” Krupa asked Murari.

  “What do you mean? He’s our teacher.” Murari responded, puzzled by the sudden change in Krupa’s expression.

  One of Krupa’s comrades started to say something, but Krupa glared at him, shaking his head slowly.

  Just then a loud trumpet went off, resounding through the entirety of the field, announcing the arrival of Kirmira.

  Krupa and Murari leaned over the ledge of the tower to get a better view of the gate below. The giant gate hidden behind the darkness of the inner gate of the castle creaked loudly as it was lowered. It fell with a thud on the ground.

  Kirmira marched onto the field on a horse’s back, following closely behind a troop mounted on mammoth Elephants.

  “The Elephantry!” Krupa exclaimed. “Has Kirmira lost his mind?”

  An infantry of a hundred spearmen marched behind the King. They held massive shields in one hand and spears in another. An infantry of hundred swordsmen marched behind the spearmen.

  As Kirmira’s horse came to a halt on the field, the spearmen lined up on his left, and the swordsmen on his right. Three war-elephants stood to his right a little ahead, while three more covered his left flank.

  “Isn’t that an overkill for battling a small group?” one of Krupa’s comrade was heard saying.

  “Kirmira is a coward. Look at the way he is cowering behind the Elephantry,” said another Nisachara.

  “He is not a coward. He is being cautious.” Krupa said. “Even though they are few in number, he is right in not underestimating their strength.”

  “We must hurry down there. They need our help.” Murari said, turning towards Krupa.

  Krupa hesitated a moment, before turning to the Nisacharas.

  “Arm yourselves. We are heading to the field.”

  The armoury had a great line-up of weapons. The Nisacharas equipped themselves with parashus. The pirate crew tried lifting the heavy shields, but couldn’t even budge it off the stand, so they settled for the swords instead.

  Ballu could not find a mace in the armoury, so he too settled for a long sword.

  “We will need to fix that before you go about swinging that sword,” Krupa said, pointing towards Ballu’s eyes.

  Using a small dagger Krupa carefully made two precise, small cuts on Ballu’s swollen eyelids, draining the blood and fluids from the incision until Ballu could see clearly. Ballu tied a piece of cloth over his eyebrows to prevent the blood from trickling into his eyes and blurring his vision.

  Raaka picked up a parashu, his original weapon of choice.

  Mitra walked up to Murari and Krupa.

  “I will stay back and assist you from here.” He said.

  “What do you mean?” Murari asked.

  “See this device,” Mitra said, pointing towards the contraption penetrating through the tower’s wall, facing the field.

  “I was just examining this. I think I can operate it.” Mitra said.

  “That’s a Ballista, a spear-launcher. I suspect the Nisachara guards were preparing to use it on your friends down there.” Krupa said.

  “But the moment you start firing these spears at Kirmira and his soldiers, they will know about the breach in the armoury, and come after you,” Murari said.

  “Leave that to me,” Krupa said. “I know how to operate the Ballista, and can teach your friend to use it as well.”

  “That’s a good idea. But who’s going to watch your back when you are operating this device?” Murari asked Krupa.

  “We will.” The captain of the pirates volunteered. “We may not prove to be of much help on the battlefield, but here, in this enclosed space, we can ensure no one gets inside the room.”

  “Very well,” Murari said. “Now that everyone’s picked up a weapon, let’s head to the field.”

  As per Krupa’s plan, half of the Nisacharas set out to take care of the archers on the rampart, while Murari’s unit headed down the stairway.

  Krupa explained the details of operating the Ballista to Mitra, while the pirate crew shut the door to the armoury and lined up outside it.

  As Murari ran down the stairway, his mind kept going back to envisaging the moment when Krupa saw Vajra. His expression was unmistakable, even though it had lasted only for a heartbeat. It was an expression of abhorrence.

  Murari reached the end of the spiral stairway and took his position by the wall as he peeked around the corner of the gate to see the situation on the battlefront.

  Kirmira’s forces hadn’t made a move yet. Vajra and the Rakshasas were still engaged in battle with Shumbha, who had also sustained some burn injuries, but otherwise seemed fine.

  As per their plan, once the Nisacharas manage to ambush and subdue the archers on the rampart, Krupa and Mitra were to aim for Kirmira from the top of the tower. The moment Kirmira falls, chaos would ensue among his troops. That’s when the Nisacharas would unleash a sea of arrows from the rampart on the chaotic army. Murari and his unit were supposed to take care of the ones who manage to get past the arrows and retreat to the inner gate of the castle.

  Murari waited for Krupa and Mitra to initiate the attack. A long time passed, and yet nothing happened. Then suddenly, he heard a loud whizzing sound, as if something was aggressively cutting through the air, followed by a thump.

  It all happened so fast that Murari did not even have time to process what he was witnessing. The Ballista had been fired, but instead of hitting Kirmira, it went and pierced the back leg of one of the Elephants.

  The Elephant trumpeted loudly as it shook wildly in pain. The soldiers mounted on its back found it difficult to maintain balance as the Elephant shook vigorously. Hearing the injured Elephant’s cries, the other Elephants also freaked. Seeing the Elephants, even Kirmira’s horse panicked and threw him off its back and galloped away from the Elephants.

  Kirmira now lay on the ground unguarded. Before his soldiers could come to his aid, the injured Elephant had turned around and was now charging in his direction. The Mahout desperately tried to lead the Elephant in another direction, but the Elephant lifted him off its back with its trunk, and flung him hard on the ground, instantly killing him.

  Kirmira was yet to recover from being unexpectedly hurled down by his horse when he saw the Elephant kill its Mahout and charge at him. Kirmira somehow managed to roll to one side, dodging the Elephant’s leg by a whisker. By then, the spearmen had rushed to form a protective huddle around their King.

  But the bedlam was far from over. The rest of the Mahouts had completely lost control over the beasts. The Elephants were trampling over their own soldiers. The swordsmen ran for their lives as the Elephants came after them. The pair of long blades attached to their tusks slashed through the
scampering army of Kirmira’s Nisacharas. Within moments half his soldiers were lying on the ground, heavily injured from the havoc wreaked by the War-Elephants.

  As soon as Shumbha had noticed Kirmira fall off his horse, he had abandoned his fight with the Rakshasas and Vajra and rushed to protect his King, but the Elephants’ mad dash made it impossible for him to reach Kirmira on time. He was now negotiating his way through the trumpeting Elephants. Seeing the Elephants’ mad charge, the horses of the Elite soldiers neighed wildly and refused to budge from their place.

  Vajra and the Rakshasas used this moment to recover their strength, as they beheld the madness that had broken out in the enemy’s line-up.

  Vajra hadn’t missed noticing the flying spear, even though he was engaged in a fight with Shumbha. He now looked in the direction from which the spear had flown in, and noticed the two Ballista pointed towards the field. From where he stood, he couldn’t see who had fired the Ballista.

  Did he succeed in freeing them? Vajra wondered.

  While the injured Elephant had run into the moat, finally ending its devastative run, the rest of the Elephants had been brought under control by the Mahouts, though most of the soldiers who were stationed atop the Elephants had already fallen to their death.

  Just as the soldiers were recovering from their ordeal, the Krupa’s crew of Nisacharas emerged atop the rampart of the fortress. Taking their positions, the Nisacharas rained arrows after arrows on Kirmira’s infantry below, giving them no time to recover.

  Almost the entire infantry of swordsmen had been wiped out. Only half of the spearmen infantry remained standing, protecting their King, as they held their shield up to block the shower of arrows.

  Shumbha finally managed to reach the infantry. The spearmen made way for their commander as he approached the King.

  “How did this happen!?” Kirmira yelled at Shumbha as he crouched low, protected by the shield. “This was supposed to be a walkover.”