Chapter 28 The Recuperation
Veer’s eyes opened. The palm-thatched roof swirled lazily in his eyes before steadying. An intense burn burrowed in his chest. It was unlike the burn of the healing stone; although, he felt the pain of that too.
But this fire was on the inside, like something was trapped there that didn’t allow him to breathe. He coughed violently.
He clawed at his chest, trying to free it. Immediately, his hands were held. He fought them. A cool hand touched his brow. He recognized the gentle touch of a calloused hand.
“Chandra.”
“Yes, it’s me.” Her face came into focus. Her smile radiated through the tears. “You are awake, I’m so glad.”
Was it her or him crying? he thought deliriously.
He tried to reassure her he was all right, but his body demanded rest, and he slipped into unconsciousness.
When he woke up again, Veer felt much better. Enough to sit up on his soft rush mat and take note of his surroundings. He was in the hut he shared with Chandra. Evening sunlight slanted through the bars of the window, lighting up the dust motes in the air.
Numerous shallow bowls with various crushed leaves and unguents lay spread around him. The air was thick with moisture from a steaming pot on the stove. An incense nearing its life smoked on the plinth before a small statue of Goddess Parvathi that his wife worshipped without fail.
An earthen pot of water was placed to one side of his mat. Seeing it brought thirst rushing back. He reached for it.
“I got it.” A hand reached past him. Chandra carefully filled a tumbler with water and handed it to him. He drank greedily, water running past his chin.
She was watching him like a hawk. Concern swirled in the amber depths of her eyes. He was unused to seeing it there. Especially when it was for him. He couldn’t decide how he felt about it.
“I won’t die,” he said. His voice sounded hoarse.
“I’m glad,” said another voice. Shota was leaning against the doorway.
Veer straightened and leaned against the stack of bolsters Chandra arranged at his back. He was bare of chest, and he noticed the red burn mark of the healing stone. A few more days and he would have had blisters from the burn.
The healing stone mended the physical injury, but its use also turned it hot. They, therefore, tried not to use it for long or for minor injuries.
“How long have I been out?” he asked.
“Two days.” Shota sat down cross-legged near the mat.
Veer raised a hand to his head. His memory seemed to take its own time coming back. “What happened?”
“A mysterious storm by a wizard caused lightning to strike the pulleys, collapsing the harness. The statue went down into the lake, and you dived in to save it. We thought you had drowned and then you showed up on the turtle’s back. How does it feel having escaped the jaws of death? Again?”
“Shota…”
“I know. I know. I just had to get it off my chest. I don’t expect it to change anything, even if you make all sorts of promises now.” He sighed. “How do you feel?”
“As you can see. I am all better now.” He spread his arms wide.
“Yeah, you can say thanks to Chandra. The healing stone doesn’t cure anything unrelated to physical injuries. You got a gash from a broken tree branch, but you stayed under the water for so long that you almost died from drowning.”
Veer glanced at Chandra, who looked floored and then bashful at Shota’s praise.
“They are just my mother’s remedies,” she muttered, turning her face away. Did he imagine that incident when she had been crying over him?
“So, what happened?” asked Shota, interrupting Veer’s train of thought, dragging him into the memories of his underwater adventure.
* * *
Cloud blue surrounded him. The sun was barely visible through the murky waters.
Things moved much slower underwater, masking their destructive force—as Veer knew to his cost when a broken branch glanced off his shoulder, opening shallow wounds.
The rope at his waist was the only anchor that connected him to the surface.
The murkiness of the water increased as more debris was pulled into the river. His movements were too sluggish to avoid the flotsam that swirled in the current. Veer expanded his senses, searching for an animal’s presence that would help him out in his current situation.
A turtle responded.
Its head emerged from its shell, the flappers at its side moved as it floated up from its home at the base of the pool.
Veer began to merge his senses with that of the turtle.
Instantly, his vision cleared. He was able to see and feel the water more comfortably. To the turtle, this was home; it didn’t fear the water. Its instincts helped Veer avoid the danger of the large debris.
Veer swam against the current, using his augmented senses, keeping an eye out for the idol.
As luck would have it, he was able to find it quickly, drawn by the current of the whirlpool at the center of the lake. But dismay quickly replaced his elation at finding the idol.
It was caught in the eye of the whirlpool. The motion of the water had prevented it from sinking to the bottom right away, but the weight was too great, and it was sinking at a steady pace.
Veer fought against the flow, but even with his strength, it was a losing battle.
All he could do was watch, hovering in the waters above the idol, as it slowly sank inexorably to the bottom.
The idol struck the bottom with a dull clunk.
A cloud of bubbles enveloped the idol. When they cleared, the reason became apparent.
The stony bottom of the lake had cracked and collapsed under the weight of the idol in a perfect square around it. The base of the idol, up to the feet, had sunk into a pit in the stone.
Veer’s silvery-rimmed eyes widened when the cracks began to glow blue on the stony bottom. A strange but somehow familiar pattern appeared.
Veer floated over the pattern, barely registering that the whirlpool and the circular flow of water had dissipated.
There was something vaguely familiar about the grid of squares, circles, and rectangles that made him think he had seen it somewhere. Where though?
He extended a finger to touch one of the cracks.
The blue light disappeared.
He snatched his hand back. The pattern remained dark, barely visible in the uneven, rocky surface.
His lungs burned from lack of air, almost overpowering his instinct to draw a breath. Veer knew he didn’t have time to puzzle over the pattern. He would just have to come back later, if he needed to see it again.
He put his arms around the idol and tugged.
The idol was heavy. It took some effort, and he needed to use the augmented strength in his left arm, but he was able to free it.
Traces of blue light remained in the dark shallow pit, enough to see a ball-shaped depression there.
Veer peered at the bottom of the idol. A blue stone was embedded into its base.
* * *
“A blue stone, you say?” asked Shota, dragging Veer back to the present.
Veer nodded. “I am sure now that the idol was meant to strike the bottom of the pond and that specific place. The hollow depression in the pit was made to hold the blue stone at the base of the idol.”
He closed his eyes and tried to recall what he remembered of the pattern. “Can you pass me a piece of parchment?”
Shota handed him one, along with a quill dipped in ink and Veer drew from memory.
Shota and Chandra peered closer once he had finished.
“It looks like a map of some sort,” said Shota.
“It doesn’t ring any bells for me,” admitted Chandra, rotating the sheet at different angles.
“All this doesn’t explain how you knew it wasn’t safe to surface,” asked Shota.
“Well, I didn’t exactly know what was going on,” said Veer, memories assailing him once again.
* * *
The passing of time took on a different meaning underwater, as if it had slowed down, just like his movements. But a vague instinct told him that the eclipse was breaking.
The shadow of the turtle kept pace with him as he rapidly ascended.
The urge to draw in breath hammered at him. Everything in him told him to swim toward the light. He was still quite deep in the waters.
Except he was still connected to the turtle and when Veer was connected, the animal’s survival instincts came through as well. And the turtle’s instincts screamed at him that to rise up now would mean the death of him.
But…the idol needed to be lifted out of the pool before the eclipse was finished.
He pondered the dilemma. It didn’t help that the lack of air was clouding his mind. His vision started to go dim around the edges. Something floated in front of his eyes. Something long and pliable.
The rope.
It was still tied around his waist.
He gave the knot a tug, and just like Chandra said, it slipped out easily. He tied it around the idol, and with some prompting from him, the turtle agreed to transport the statue on its back.
Veer gave it a firm tug, his signal to the men above the ground to pull. While he stayed underwater, anchorless.
* * *
“How long was I down?” asked Veer after finishing his recounting of events.
“Sixteen minutes,” said a brooding Shota, propping his chin on his hand.
Veer’s mouth dropped open. “That’s impossible.”
“I know,” said Shota, a touch of sternly. “We were all worried. How did you manage to stay underwater so long? Just because you can borrow the abilities of a fish, doesn’t mean you can sprout gills to breathe underwater.”
“I honestly don’t know.” Veer shook his head in bemusement.
“You sure it wasn’t Lord Brihadeeshwar working one of his miracles?” asked Shota, frowning, only half serious with that statement.
Veer was annoyed at the suggestion. But he didn’t have a better explanation, so he kept quiet.
“Can you bring me the temple map, Shota?” he asked.
“Why?”
“You will know in a moment,” said Veer as he unrolled the parchment containing the temple map and held it against the drawing he had made for comparison.
“I knew I’d seen this before,” he said with mounting excitement.
“I’ll be damned.” Shota whistled. “It is indeed a map of the temple. But what does that mean?”