The Mists of Brahma

by CHRISTOPHER C. DOYLE

  Jignesh fixed them with a stern eye. ‘This will also be the final project for all eight of you. If you acquit yourselves well, you will be formally enrolled as members of the Gana once you return.’

  Arjun was thrilled. He now understood why Maya and Amyra were missing. They still had a long way to go before they could become Gana members. But he did wonder what had made the Sangha change their mind.

  ‘Do not take this project lightly,’ Kanakpratap warned them, taking over from Jignesh. ‘We are going up against the vikritis. This is not a practice run. None of you have fought vikritis before. But we believe that you are ready for the challenge. Never forget, even for an instant, that they are extremely dangerous. The cost of forgetting something so critical can be enormous.’

  ‘If you fail, you may forfeit your life,’ Jignesh added, his usual, blunt self. He looked directly at Arjun. ‘We think the eight of you are ready for this trial by fire. It is now up to each of you to prove that you are, indeed, ready.’

  ‘Any questions?’ Kanakpratap asked.

  ‘When do we leave?’ Arjun countered.

  ‘Now.’ Satyavachana stepped forward. ‘There is no time to lose!’

  ‘Okay,’ Kanakpratap said. ‘Kshatriyas, equip yourselves. Do it now. We must leave here fully prepared.’

  Arjun, Tanveer, Varun and Adira nodded.

  ‘Virachayati kavach.’ They all uttered the mantra simultaneously and were instantly sheathed in the special new armour that the Shastrakars had developed for the Kshatriyas of the Sangha.

  Each one also silently summoned their respective weapons—Arjun, Varun and Adira calling for their swords and Tanveer his bow and arrows.

  They turned to look at Agastya, Gopal, Anisha and Sonali, all of whom now stood beside them holding brahmadandas. Due to their seniority in the Gurukul, they were eligible to have their own brahmadandas, which was otherwise the sole prerogative of the Rishis who were part of the Gana and the Sangha.

  Once the eight children were equipped with their weapons, Kanakpratap and Parth summoned their armour and swords.

  The Sangha force was ready for battle.

  Chapter Fifty-seven

  Arrival

  The Bhimbetka Caves

  Madhya Pradesh

  The small group of thirteen—the eight children, Satyavachana, and the four Mahamatis—materialised next to one of the rocky outcrops that lay strewn within the dense forest that surrounded them. It was in these outcrops that water, several millennia earlier, had carved out natural caves, which had then been used for shelter, and expressions of artistic creativity, going back thousands of years.

  Arjun shook his head to clear it. When Satyavachana had told them that he was going to transport them to the Hall of Archives, he hadn’t known what to expect.

  But he certainly hadn’t expected it to feel like being thrown into a whirlwind.

  The journey had lasted just a few minutes. He was still in a daze.

  From the expressions of the other children, it was evident that they too felt the same way.

  Soft, intermittent booms came to their ears through the still winter air.

  ‘What is that?’ Arjun wondered aloud.

  ‘The vikritis,’ Satyavachana said grimly. ‘When we saw them earlier, they were at the entrance leading to the caves that are open to the public. My guess is that they are moving fast and blowing up some of the caves as they go along.’

  ‘It will take them some time to get here,’ Usha said. ‘There’s over 1800 hectares to cover. And over 700 caves. Only a few of the caves are in open forest; beyond those that are accessible to the public, the forest thickens and the going will be slow for them, even with their destructive proclivities.’

  ‘We need to spread out and encircle the entrance to the Hall of Archives,’ Jignesh said. ‘We don’t know which direction they will approach from. But we can be sure that this is their target. There’s nothing else here of importance for them.’

  Arjun looked back at the sheer cliff face that towered behind them.

  Was this the entrance to the Hall of Archives? He wondered what lay inside. What did it look like? He had never even heard of the place before tonight.

  And how did the vikritis know where it was located if it was so hush-hush that even the students of the Gurukul didn’t know about it?

  Jignesh was speaking again. ‘Each Mahamati will accompany a pair of you and take up positions.’ He looked at Satyavachana. ‘Maharishi, you are free to take up your position where you will.’

  Satyavachana’s face was grim. ‘I’ll be around,’ he said.

  Before anyone could say anything, he disappeared.

  Jignesh frowned. He hated it when Satyavachana acted like this. But there was nothing he could do. At a gesture from him, the group split up into sets of three; each Mahamati accompanying a Kshatriya and a Rishi.

  Kanakpratap stood with Arjun and Agastya while Jignesh took charge of Varun and Gopal, Usha went with Anisha and Tanveer, and Parth set off with Sonali and Adira.

  Kanakpratap’s voice floated into the minds of the others as they took up their positions. He was using his new armour to communicate telepathically.

  Remember, Kshatriyas, that you can now communicate with everyone else, including the Rishis. If you need reinforcement at any time, call for it. Don’t wait. The vikritis are dangerous and, unlike us, they fight to kill.

  Arjun followed his uncle as the latter pulled him and Agastya into the shadow of one of the rocky outcrops.

  ‘We have the advantage of surprise,’ Kanakpratap explained as they huddled in the shadows. ‘They won’t be expecting to see us here. But we know they are out there and approaching us—if the entrance to the archives is their goal. The forest is quite dense, so it will afford us good cover. We will be invisible to them if we stay perfectly still.’ He paused. ‘But let us not forget that the forest cover works both ways. We know they’re coming, but we won’t see them until they are almost upon us.’

  Above them, the clear winter sky was dotted with stars which failed to penetrate the thick canopy of leaves and afforded little light to those on the ground.

  Arjun waited, wondering.

  What was going to happen now?

  Chapter Fifty-eight

  Anticipation

  The Bhimbetka Caves

  Vishwaraj didn’t like this at all. He preferred to size up his opponents, study the landscape, and then plan his course of action.

  That was how he had always acted in the Gana.

  He liked to know what he was up against.

  But tonight was different. He was going in blind. And he hated it.

  To start with, neither he nor his companions knew exactly where the entrance to the Hall of Archives was located. It had changed since he had last been part of the Gana. By a stroke of luck, he had managed to find an Akshapatalika whose body he had possessed in an attempt to learn the new location. But he had not had enough time; all he had been able to find out through his machinations was that one of the entrances lay somewhere here, among the Bhimbetka caves. Being a former member of the Gana, he knew the mantra that would open the entrance. At least that hadn’t changed.

  Vishwaraj wondered about Shukra’s strategy. He didn’t understand it. Power was meant to be wielded.

  And Shukra had the ultimate power.

  Why, then, was he creeping around, trying to stay under the radar, instead of using his power to demolish all the obstacles in his path?

  True, Shukra had told him that he hadn’t found all that he was looking for. But wouldn’t it be easier to attack the archives, destroy their Keepers and then search among the ruins rather than sneak around trying to do things the hard way? It would have been so easy for Shukra to penetrate the Hall of Archives and find what he wanted.

  But, no, Shukra preferred to use intellectual power rather than brute force to accomplish his objectives.

  Anyway, Vishwaraj knew he had a job to do. He could only hope that the vikritis with him w
ere up to it.

  ‘Any luck?’ he demanded, as a vikriti powered a ball of fire towards a lone monolith that shattered into fragments on impact.

  ‘No luck,’ the vikriti grumbled. ‘There’s miles and miles to cover here. It’s going to take all night.’

  ‘Then we’ll take all night,’ Vishwaraj told him. ‘But we’re going to find it. We have to.’

  They had ignored the rock shelters that were open to the public and concentrated, instead, on checking out the others. It was time consuming, but Vishwaraj had figured that it was extremely unlikely that the entrance to the Sangha’s archives would be among the caves that thousands of people gawked at every day, and where the forest cover was sparse.

  No, the Sangha was smarter. They would have ensured that the entrance was located in a place that was inaccessible to the sadhs—deep in the forest, where the trees clustered thickly together and where the public was denied entry.

  There was no way to determine exactly where the entrance lay, so they had employed the simple expedient of demolishing parts of, or entire, rocky extrusions. The idea was to get the Akshapatalikas to reveal themselves. If the natural formations that concealed the entrance to the Hall of Archives were damaged or destroyed, surely they would rush to defend it?

  At least, that was the expectation.

  And Vishwaraj was determined to complete the task he had been assigned.

  Near the Entrance to the Hall of Archives

  Arjun shivered. Not because of the intense cold—his armour kept him well protected against the winter chill, unlike the Rishis, who had to wear woollen robes to keep themselves warm.

  It was the anticipation, the wait, that made him shiver. Especially since he didn’t know what he was up against.

  This was only his second live confrontation with the forces that the Sangha battled. The last time had been in the clearing outside the Gurukul entrance, against Shukra’s army. There, he had had the advantage of seeing who, or rather what, his adversaries were. Tonight, he had no idea. And the forest around them would ensure that he wouldn’t be able to see them until they were upon him.

  All he knew was that, somehow, they were even more dangerous than the clumsy creatures he had faced that night in the clearing.

  All right, everyone alert! They’re here. They’re advancing from our side. Kanakpratap’s voice floated into Arjun’s head.

  He was instantly alert, scanning the night for any sign of the vikritis.

  How had his uncle got to know that they were here?

  Then he saw it.

  Chapter Fifty-nine

  Confrontation

  Near the Entrance to the Hall of Archives

  Vishwaraj frowned and held up an arm, signalling for the others to halt.

  Something was wrong. He didn’t know what it was but he could feel it in his bones. There was something different about this place. About the rocky outcrops that loomed before them.

  It wasn’t the shape or form of the rocks, which were virtually undistinguishable from the darkness of the forest around them. It was something else.

  He snapped his fingers and the multicoloured orbs floating ahead, nimbly gliding between branches of the dense forest around them and lighting up their path, winked out instantly.

  Was there someone out there?

  It certainly felt that way. He was attuned to the vibrations given off by all things, living or inanimate. Everything in the material world had a natural frequency of vibration, and he was sensitive to these.

  Until now, all that he had sensed was the vibration of rocks and trees.

  Now, he could feel a distinctive warm hum of vibrations emanating from a certain kind of living being.

  Humans.

  Were they the Keepers of the Archives?

  Had he and his band of vikritis succeeded in smoking the Akshapatalikas out into the open? Had the Keepers heard the sound from the demolition of the structures and emerged to see what was happening?

  Vishwaraj had no way of guessing that there could be an ambush ahead. He could not imagine that the Sangha could have learned about his mission. He had gathered his band of vikritis quietly, without too much fuss. He didn’t necessarily need forces that were skilled or had immense powers. All he needed was numbers to put Shukra’s plan into action. No one, apart from the vikritis he had recruited, knew about his mission.

  His mind reached out, searching for Shukra.

  Where was he?

  In the Shadow of the Rocky Outcrop

  Arjun realised how his uncle had detected their enemy.

  The blue and red lights had appeared suddenly, like glowing fireflies in the darkness. As his uncle had pointed out earlier, the tree cover was dense, adding a layer of shadows to the natural darkness of the night. If the vikritis had to pick their way through the forest, the lights that guided their steps would have to stay as far from the tree cover as possible. There was no other way they could see where they were going. The flip side was that the lights were also visible to the defenders of the archives.

  Without warning, the lights suddenly disappeared.

  Darkness reigned.

  They know we are here.

  Kanakpratap’s warning echoed through Arjun’s head, even as the young Kshatriya wondered how the vikritis knew of their presence.

  We wait. Let them make the first move. Stay alert.

  Arjun gripped his sword tighter and nodded, oblivious to the fact that no one could see him in the darkness.

  Near the Entrance to the Hall of Archives

  Vishwaraj made up his mind. If someone was indeed hiding in the forest ahead, his plan risked revealing their presence, but it was the best way to proceed without endangering anyone in his group.

  He was sure of the plan. It was the ideal way to take whoever was up ahead by surprise and inflict some damage to their ranks.

  Something was happening to him.

  Something within him was changing.

  The sense of power that he had felt when he was with the Nagas was returning. It was taking over, energising him, giving him a sense of invincibility.

  He smiled to himself in the darkness.

  He was going to enjoy this. If only he could see what was happening.

  In the Shadow of the Rocky Outcrop

  Arjun waited, the uncertainty beginning to weigh on him.

  Everything was still and silent. Not a leaf stirred.

  Were the vikritis still out there?

  Why aren’t they moving forward? He asked telepathically.

  Parth responded. They’re planning something. Watch out for the unexpected.

  Kanakpratap agreed. If they’ve detected us, they’re going to use proxies. But if they do, at least we won’t be taken by surprise.

  Arjun didn’t like the sound of that. What proxies?

  He didn’t have to wait long to find out.

  Suddenly, there was a sound of scrambling from the dense section of the forest ahead of them, accompanied by blood-curdling shrieks and a foul stench that seemed to pervade every molecule of the air they were breathing.

  Every member of the defending team knew instantly what was going to hit them; the elders from several years of experience and the students from their lessons at the Gurukul.

  Bloody hell! Varun’s panicked thought rushed through Arjun’s mind. How many of these are there?

  Chapter Sixty

  The View from Above

  In the Skies above the Bhimbetka Caves

  From far above the caves, Maya—or, rather, her atma— watched in horror at the scene unfolding below her. In her atmic form, she could see past the dense tree cover as if it were broad daylight and the forest was one large treeless plain.

  After Satyavachana had left her at the Gurukul, she had not returned to her body, but had waited near the cottage where her dorm was located.

  She had watched as Kanakpratap had roused the boys, and Usha the girls, and ushered them swiftly into the Assembly Hall.

  Burning with c
uriosity, she had restrained herself from floating into the Assembly Hall to eavesdrop on the group’s plans. It didn’t really matter. She knew what was going to happen and she knew where they were going. There was no point in being discovered. If Satyavachana knew that she had disobeyed him, he was sure to be angry and would probably ensure that she was confined to her dorm.

  All she had to do was bide her time.

  So she had waited, knowing that Satyavachana would be transporting the defenders to Bhimbetka. That was the only way they could get there in time.

  When she thought the coast was clear, she entered the Assembly Hall tentatively, to check if everyone had gone.

  It was empty, though the lights were still on. Probably to ensure that the group didn’t return to a dark hall.

  The next moment, she was hovering in the sky over the dense forest that engulfed the Bhimbetka caves, watching as the vikritis made their way towards the entrance to the Hall of Archives, using explosive fireballs to blow up caves and rocks alike along the way.

  She had watched as they stopped, and realised to her dismay that they had detected the presence of the defending force from the Gurukul. And then, as she looked on, she saw the vikritis unleash their weapons on the group from the Gurukul.

  Maya’s surprise and horror came from several sources. In the brief span of time that her lessons had lasted, she had learned from Satyavachana how amazing atma travel could be if you knew what to do and how. Since the atma had no physical limitations, all the constraints of the physical body were irrelevant. It had been simple for her to learn to control her atma so that she could see in multiple directions at the same time, observe things that were in close proximity or far away with the same clarity and focus, and have clear visibility whether it was day or night, clear or foggy. The laws of nature that applied to physical forms ceased to apply when she was in her atmic form. And there was more, the Maharishi had promised her, that she would learn in due course.