Chapter 28 The Recuperation #2
“I think it’s supposed to reveal the hiding place of the key piece.”
“Uh, Veer. We already know that. The lotus showed us this temple, right?”
“Yes, but this felt different. Like something had changed. Like something had clicked open, you know, like a key in a lock.”
Shota still appeared skeptical.
“Look, I know it sounds fantastic, and you are right to be skeptical. But there is a way I can prove it.”
“How?”
Veer glanced at Chandra. “Can you open the lotus?”
She nodded and did as he directed.
The blue light reflected off the confused faces of Chandra and Shota. Before, the image in the central receptacle was that of the temple as a whole. But now it was showing three horizontal perches in parallel atop a pillar.
“The dhvajastambha,” exclaimed Shota and Chandra simultaneously and then looked at each other in surprise.
“I can believe that this is where the key piece is hidden,” said Shota, excitement creeping into his voice. “The topmost part of the pillar is made of the same metal as the idol.”
“We need to see this pillar right now,” said Veer, attempting to stand up, but it set off a coughing spell that ended with his wheezing.
“Idiot…you have just survived a near drowning. Take it slow for a while at least. Leave this to me,” said Shota.
“There will be festival celebrations going on for the next few days. The pillar will be decorated, and many people will be visiting the temple, prostrating before it. It will be hard to approach the pillar right now,” Chandra reminded them.
“Then we shall wait until later to retrieve the key piece,” said Shota, standing up to make his leave.
* * *
Steel-like claws flashed, and Chandra ducked the onslaught as the kite, Vihari, dived for her. His screech rang out as the big bird flew in the cramped space of their hut, his large wingspan upsetting several objects in the vicinity.
Chandra thought briefly of bailing outside, but Veer was still on a rush mat, various medicinal pots and unguents around him.
There was no telling what Vihari would do after, if she disappeared from his eyesight. She straightened, causing the bird to focus once again on her with hate.
Vihari was usually well behaved. True, she got the impression he didn’t care too much for her, but then, the bird didn’t seem to like anyone apart from its master.
The bird was intelligent and, more than once, she had to tell herself, he wasn’t an ordinary mountain kite.
Veer gave him respect and a status equal to his friends.
It didn’t help that she had fooled him once before, when she evaded his surveillance. It appeared he took it personally. After that incident, she had heard the kite had actually left in a snit and Veer had let him go with no reservations.
Just as the kite dived, coming straight at her, claws hooked, she tripped backward, fortunately, falling safely against a rush mat.
“Vihari, stop!” came Veer’s voice. The kite screeched, as if in rage at being denied, but it glided to a stop.
“Are you crazy, woman? What did you say to upset him so much?” Veer stood up and helped her to her feet, checking her for injuries.
“Me? Nothing!” She batted his hands away. “Your bird is insane. How was I to know that he understood human language?”
“Ah, did you subject him to your sharp tongue as well? He isn’t as tolerant as me.”
“Tolerant isn’t the word I’d use to describe you right now. All I did was ask him to stay outside until you woke up. Umph, take your hands away. I’m fine. Why weren’t you able to control the bird sooner?”
Veer looked at Vihari, they now shared identical eye color. The bird hopped onto the extended arm and Veer took him out without a word.
“Hmph,” she said, when Veer remained in silent conversation with his kite, just outside their hut. “I have work to do. I’m leaving,” she said, raising her voice.
“Wait, I need your help with something,” he called back through the open door.
Why couldn’t he have gotten one of his friends to put this on for him?
Chandra had a million things to do with the festival celebrations this evening.
Agrani was already running her ragged. And she had been fasting since morning as a part of her pledge to the goddess for healing her husband.
But she had stayed when Veer asked her to.
He appeared entirely too comfortable for someone who had to be in pain from the extent of injuries he had sustained. He had woken up just a few days ago and already looked like he was healing rapidly.
Vihari blessedly had left, on some mission his master had for him.
She dipped her fingers into the pot of ointment and touched it to one of his bruises, trying not to notice the warmth and suppleness of his skin.
It was just ointment, and he was just a man, for heaven’s sake; why was she getting so worked up over it? Over him? She had done this before to injured people who came to her mother’s dispensary. It ought to be no different.
She finished the job, trying her best to keep her mind on the task and not the way his muscles bunched, ignoring the goose bumps on his skin, which could either mean he was cold or affected by her touch. She finished and turned to leave when he called her.
“Wait, I think I have some bruises here too.”
She reluctantly crouched down and examined where he was pointing.
“A little to the left…bit more,” said Veer.
“I don’t see it,” she said, confused, and then spotted the crafty gleam in his eyes. She suddenly realized he had cleverly moved his body while she was distracted, trapping her in place. She couldn’t move away without brushing against him.
“It may’ve faded, but I still feel it. I’d like some medicine to be applied there too,” he said, his voice suspiciously innocent.
“You’re making it up. There’s nothing there!”
“Why would I do something like that, Princess? And why are you hesitating? It is not like the medicine is going to harm me.” He tilted his head, pretending to have come to some conclusion. “Or are you having trouble thinking of me as any other patient?”
She thrust the pot into this chest, annoyed. “Apply it yourself.”
He grinned and caught her wrist.
“Why do you enjoy tormenting me so much?” She hadn’t meant to ask that question, but it flew out of her mouth.
He, however, seemed to take it seriously. “I believe the joke is on both of us, Princess. If I am to be the only one to suffer this insanity, the least I can do is to make you acknowledge its existence.”
“Am I interrupting something?” a deep, distorted voice came out of nowhere.
On the far wall of their modest hut, Veer had hung an ornate mirror and a face was now peering out of it.
A man with graying hair at his temples and a beard looked from the mirror. He had a scar above the right eyebrow and the bearing of a commander, but gold ornaments glinted at his ears and throat, and his robes—what they could see—appeared to be of finest quality.
Chandra screamed.
“It’s all right. That’s my uncle.” Veer stood up. “I’d forgotten we agreed to conference now. Sorry.”
“Your uncle?!” Her eyes still bugged.
She wanted to ask what he meant by “called him.” But as Chandra glanced at the mirror again, realization dawned on her that she was looking at Pourava, the king of Vivismati.
Chandra only had a vague recollection of Veer’s relatives.
It wasn’t surprising she didn’t recognize him at first glance.
She hadn’t recognized Veer after seven years and she had met Veer before her marriage.
The day of her wedding had passed in a haze when a million other things had needed her attention.
Realizing her position over Veer, she hastily moved away, mortification painting her cheeks a deep, dusky red. Her humiliation was now complete. Not only were they caught in an embarrassing position, but it had to be someone from Veer’s side of the family who witnessed it.
Gathering what dignity she could, she bowed low to King Pourava, hands pressed together in greeting, and fled without looking back.
* * *
“Well, you seem to be getting along well,” remarked King Pourava when she left.
“She has her uses,” said Veer dismissively, not wanting to discuss Chandrasena with his uncle. “How are you, Uncle? I heard from Father that you wished to speak to me?”
King Bheesmala had the magical ability to communicate across long distances. He used magical mirrors and farseeing stones imbued with his powers. Before he left Rajgarh, Veer took one of the magical stones. He used it whenever he wished to speak to someone from afar.
But communication with close family was always with the aid of these mirrors.
“Yes, that’s correct,” said Pourava. “So, how does the quest fare? Bheesmala was saying you had some issues at the caves of Amaravathi?”
Veer knew his uncle didn’t contact him to ask about the quest, but he dutifully recounted the events.
“Hmm…this quest isn’t easy by the looks of it. Just be careful. You’re traveling with people from Amaravathi, after all.”
His uncle harbored a deep dislike of the southern kingdoms and growing up, Veer had heard enough to last him a lifetime. “Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?” asked Veer instead, forestalling a lecture about how he needed to always remain on guard.
“We found the whereabouts of Surasen,” said his uncle.
Veer felt a quiet satisfaction at hearing those words. For the past year, Surasen had made himself a thorn in Veer’s side. He was the leader of a small group of nomads who demanded some land to allow his people to settle and grow.
What he did, however, when Rajgarh refused, was to make a nuisance of himself by raiding the merchants going across the trade routes that stretched along the borders of Vivismati and Rajgarh.
Ordinarily, Rajgarh had no trouble with suppressing someone like Surasen, but he proved himself to be shrewd and cunning. His people were loyal to him and trained, in both magic and combat. Veer had been trying to bring him in for over a year with little success.
Before he received the summons from his father regarding Meru, he had been closing in on his hideout.
“What do you want us to do?” asked Pourava.
Rajgarh and Vivismati were not just neighbors sharing a border, but also closely related.
Pourava was an honorary uncle to Veer, who had spent part of his childhood training in Vivismati.
After Veer was made the western general of Rajgarh, they often coordinated their defenses together.
Surasen was a common problem for them.
“Please keep an eye on him. I’d like to be there when we make the move to apprehend him,” said Veer.
Pourava stroked his beard. “How long do you think this quest will take?”
“It is difficult to predict how long, since King Amarendra has seen fit to hide the key pieces. We have only until the turn of the new year, anyway, before Meru starts erupting.”
“Hmmm. I think I can wait that long. But if he makes any wrong moves in the meantime, I’ll have to act.”
Veer inclined his head in agreement.
“Will you be coming toward Vivismati anytime soon?” King Pourava asked. “Your cousin, Revathi, was asking about you.”
Veer doubted that. His cousin was a mischievous woman obsessed with adventure and often got into scrapes.
She drove Veer’s mother mad with her schemes that usually involved Veer’s sister, Vireni.
They grew up together like cousins, and he could never see her as someone other than a girl, like his sister, no matter how much his uncle wished otherwise.
Pourava seemed to hesitate but finally spoke his mind.
“How you handle your wife is your matter, Veer, but I’d caution you not to forget that she’s from Amaravathi. You can’t trust those people.”
“I can handle it,” said Veer, hiding his irritation. Veer respected his uncle and relied on him. But he would be the first to admit that he could be prejudiced against the people of the southern kingdoms.
“I know you can. But I want you to be alert, as well. You are my only nephew and I don’t want any harm coming to you,” he said before leaving.