Chapter 33 The Monster Within
A scream woke Veer from sleep as abruptly as if he had been doused with ice-cold water. He looked around wildly, his sword unsheathed.
“What! Where’s the danger? Why did you scream?”
Chandra had her short knife drawn, pointing at something on her pallet.
A tiny caterpillar was making its steady, ponderous way along the edge of her blanket.
Veer looked at her, and then toward the worm, confused. “Is that why you screamed?” he asked incredulously.
“That thing was crawling near me, tickling my ear.” She visibly shuddered.
“Such a big knife to kill one measly caterpillar. Don’t you think it’s a bit of an overkill?” he said, half irritated and half amused, bending down to allow the critter to crawl into his palm. “It’s not going to harm you, you know.”
Her wary gaze followed him as he set the caterpillar on a nearby plant.
“I didn’t think you would be the kind of female to be squeamish around insects,” he said, just to rub salt into the wound and watch the deep blush steal across her cheeks.
“Who said I was afraid? I just like to keep my distance from them, and all I ask is they do the same.”
Veer noted the tight grip she had around her knife and raised an eyebrow. She caught his look and forced herself to relax her fingers and sheath the knife.
Amused now, he watched as she raised her chin and, ignoring him, got up and gave the blanket a thorough shaking.
Shaking his head, he observed their surroundings and immediately went on alert. “Where are we?” he asked quietly.
“Huh?” Chandra, who had been washing her face with water in a small earthen pot, looked up. “What do you mean?”
Even as she asked that question, she tilted her head, her eyes widening as she took in the unexplainable the changes in the grove. The pot in her hand slipped to the ground, spilling water.
Veer noted how the sun shone cheerfully through the greenery above. The forest, which was usually redolent with the sounds of birds and beasts, was silent. The very air was still, as if frozen in time.
The banyan tree was the same, large as life. But nothing lived in its branches anymore.
Where were their friends? The rest of the people that came with them?
They were in the same place, but it looked different. Pillars had magically appeared where before there were mere boulders.
“Shota! Billadev?” Veer’s voice was swallowed by the surrounding trees, with no response. Veer went a short distance into the forest. Not even the call of the bird answered him. The silence of the woods caused disquiet to crawl up his spine. He had the weird sensation that he was being observed.
More unnervingly, he couldn’t feel his kite, Vihari. He couldn’t feel any of the innumerable animals in the forest.
He returned to the clearing by the banyan tree. Chandra had already packed their belongings. She seemed to be taking stock of their food supply when he came upon her.
She glanced up, a question in her eyes.
“They disappeared. I can’t find them,” he answered, puzzled. This had never happened to him, that he was cut off from his powers, as if a net were cast over him.
“Come see what I found,” she said, beckoning. Veer crouched on the ground and peered into the gunnysack she held open.
Blue-colored acorns were interspersed among the food items in the bag.
Veer took out a handful and inspected them closely.
“These appeared like normal nuts yesterday. I remember everyone had been eating them,” said Chandra. “Do you think this may be the reason they have vanished?”
Veer shook his head, rolling the nuts in his hand. “We may never know for sure, Princess.”
“Can you ask Vihari and see if maybe he can help us find them?”
The prince shook his head. “I already tried, Princess. I can’t connect to Vihari.”
“What! Why?”
“There seems to be some kind of barrier between my kite and me. And I haven’t sensed any animals nearby either. Don’t you hear the quietness of the forest?”
“You’re right,” she said, turning in a circle.
“There’s something else far more concerning,” he said.
Veer held up his left hand, his face grim. “I seem to have lost my ring.”
He knew she didn’t understand why that was more concerning. Trepidation crept into Chandra’s face. “What’s happening?”
“It looks like the place we’ve been searching for found us first. I’d bet my life that we are in the Dandakaranya. The actual magical part of it. Let’s go, Princess. No point in staying here.”
Thick creepers and leaves crunched underfoot as they made their laborious, slow way into the magical forest. Veer had his machete out, clearing a path though the vegetation. It was a dense tropical forest and there wasn’t a dried leaf in sight.
Sturdy branches with foot-wide leaves formed giant umbrellas against the skies.
The air was filled with the voices of hundreds of birds.
A thousand varieties of plants he had never seen before, vied with their neighbors for a glimpse of the sun, their many dark, colorful flowers heavy with scent and pollen.
Insects buzzed, unseen, while the distant roar of a tiger led to a family of robins taking flight in indignation. Furtive noises in the underbrush and a distant splash of an animal diving into a pond proclaimed life was well and thriving in the forests.
But no animal came into view, even though they had been walking for hours.
The lotus key showed the next key piece location to be a tree on a small island in a pond. The surrounding body of water had shone a crystalline blue with many lotus flowers floating serenely on the surface.
So far, they had come across many streams, falls, and small ponds, but nothing that looked like that enchanting lake.
“How long have we been walking?” asked Chandra.
“Want to take a rest, Princess?”
She shook her head. “No, I am good if you are. I can still walk.”
“Then why are you limping and rubbing your feet every couple of steps? Admit it, your feet hurt.”
Her chin rose. “I said I can walk.”
Veer sighed. “We might as well take a rest. I don’t know if walking is doing us any good. My compass doesn’t work, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we were walking around in giant circles.”
They sat at the base of an immense fig tree. Veer leaned his machete on the trunk and tipped his head back.
“I hope our friends are doing all right. Do you think they’re still in the regular part of Dandakaranya?” asked Chandra, busying herself with gathering dry twigs to start a fire.
Veer had the same thought, but he was too fatigued to do more than nod.
She started the fire and added some water into a pail to let it boil.
“Why did you send your guard, Girish, away?” he asked, watching her move about.
“He is needed more elsewhere,” she said, busying herself, not meeting his eyes.
“For what?” he asked.
“Amaravathi’s business…” she said. Her default answer when she wanted to avoid his questions.
“And you needed to make Girish swear on your life to get him to leave?” he asked, tilting his head to the side. “Kinda felt like he didn’t want to leave you.”
Chandra sat and poked at the fire as she watched the pot of water boil, maintaining an obstinate silence. Her evasiveness reminded Veer of the time in Amaravathi when she refused to satisfy his curiosity regarding Sarun. He wondered now if there was a connection.
She pulled out a handful of dry-roasted chickpeas and popped them in her mouth.
She offered some to Veer, who declined. “Don’t know how you can stand that food,” he said irritably.
“Beggars can’t be choosers. Last chance before I eat them all.”
“And what’re you going to do when you get hungry the next time?” he asked.
Chandra reached into the satchel and pulled out a bunch of sweet yams. “I shall cook these.”
Veer frowned at the bunch of tubers. “Where did you get them?”
Chandra returned them to her satchel. “Found them a couple of miles ago. Saw a squirrel foraging for them.”
“You saw a squirrel? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, it disappeared too fast for me to tell you. Why?”
“We could be dining on squirrel meat by now,” he said.
Chandra made a face. “You know I don’t eat that.”
“That’s right. I forgot. Damn, I’m getting hungry thinking of meat.” He gave her a disgruntled look and spread his palm up. “Give me the damn chickpeas.”
Veer leaned back against the banyan tree trunk; eyes closed.
He still felt hungry after the chickpeas.
Worse, his mouth flooded with water remembering food.
Dark, gory images ran behind his closed eyelids.
He was exhausted. Ever since he noticed his ring was missing, he had been expecting the demon’s presence, but although he felt sick and nauseated, Ilavu was far away.
He glanced at the princess through eyes opened to slits. She was busy peeling the yams.
“There’s something you should know, Princess,” he said.
Chandra continued, intent on her task. “What is it?”
“If something happens to me, you should run.”
Her eyebrows pleated as she made long gashes on the yam with her dagger. “What nonsense are you speaking? It’s obvious you are sick. Let me make a concoction and you’ll be all right once you drink it.”
“The red ring,” he said urgently, swallowing with difficulty. “Without its protection, I’ll be a danger to you, to everyone. You should run when I tell you to.”
“I’m not going to abandon you,” said Chandra, stubborn as always. “I thought the ring was for increased strength, anyway. Why should that matter now?”
Veer wanted to argue more but sweat broke out on his brow as his gorge rose. He suppressed it with difficulty, breathing through his mouth.
“This forest is strange,” she said. Veer focused on her voice to distract himself. “We can hear animals and birds and not one has appeared in a while now.”
“Water…” wheezed Veer. “Can I have some?”
“Yes. Of course.” She got up, then offered him a small leather bottle.
Veer snatched the bottle out of her hands. Out of the corner of his eye, he observed her watching him drain it with a worried look on her face.