Chapter 33 The Monster Within #2
“Are you that thirsty?” she asked. “You’re drinking more than usual.”
“Are we running out?”
“No, but—”
“Then give me some,” he snapped, then immediately contrite, added, “I’m sorry. I’m just so very hungry. If only a bird or some animal comes into my sight, I’ll hunt it down for food.”
“I haven’t seen you like this before.”
“I’ve never been this hungry. It feels odd. I’ve gone hungry before. But this feels like I haven’t eaten for a month.”
Chandra’s brows were drawn. “I’m sorry. The concoction is almost ready. Do you want to try it?”
Veer nodded.
“Tell me about Rajgarh,” she said.
Veer knew she was trying to distract him. “What do you want to know?”
“I heard its cold there. That everyone wears fur blankets.”
Veer gave a tired smile. “Not everyone wears fur. Who gave you that idea? I admit it gets cold in Rajgarh, but we do see all four seasons, including summer, when temperatures are so mild you can go about bare-chested. The royal palace is built at the base of the lesser mountains of Vindhyas, so we see all kinds of weather.”
“Including snow?” she asked, interest in her voice.
“Yes.” Veer smiled at her excited expression. “I have a palace for myself, higher up in the mountains where there is snow all year.”
“All year round?” The corners of her lips turned down in dismay. “I don’t think I’d like that. I like having the sun on my face.”
Veer went silent.
“Forgive me,” she said, catching his expression. “I didn’t mean to say I’ll dislike your home.”
Chandra passed him the bowl of pleasant-smelling liquid she had ladled from the boiling pot.
Veer sniffed at the bowl and took a cautious sip.
Chandra bent to her own bowl of cooked yams, and they ate in silence.
She kept glancing at him in between. Veer caught her gaze and said, “I’m all right.
Don’t worry so much, Princess. To answer your question, Rajgarh is a big kingdom and not all of it is mountains.
We also see river plains and such. I’m sure you will find something to like so you won’t have to stay in snow-covered places all the time. ”
* * *
Chandra nodded and took their empty bowls to wash and spared a thought about her future. Once this quest was over, would she be living with Veer or would he banish her to some palatial dwelling in Rajgarh and leave her to her own devices? The thought depressed her.
Kalpana should be there for company, though. Hopefully.
Sameera’s information that her maid had dared to take the long journey to Rajgarh, with no one but a seven-year-old for company, told her how desperate for answers she had become.
Chandra had begged and finally had to threaten Girish to go meet up with them and make sure they came to no harm. Poor Girish had been torn between duty to his mistress and worry for his love, and Chandra had deliberately stoked his fears into following her orders.
Speaking of companions who had to part ways, both Maruthi and Matangi had decided to stay behind in the temple city and eventually go back to their village in Thianvelli.
Matangi had bid a tearful goodbye to Chandra, but she knew the girl was happy with her brother by her side and a new friend in Radha.
A retching sound jolted her out of her thoughts. Contrary to his earlier words, Veer looked worse. Beads of sweat dappled across his brow. A pallor spread across his skin. He clamped a hand over his mouth and rushed to the bushes, where he proceeded to empty his stomach.
He came back looking drained. Chandra gave him more water and helped him sit against a tree. Her satchel held the stone that they used to heal injuries, but it worked only on physical ones.
She had used her mother’s drug concoction earlier, but she knew it was not the answer even before she gave it to him. There was something seriously wrong with her husband and she had no idea what it was or how they were going to deal with it when they were deep in the forest.
She placed a cool cloth over his brow and noticed his skin felt clammy. When he opened his eyes, Chandra saw they were unfocused.
“Veer?”
He didn’t respond.
“Veer!” She shook him.
“Quiet!”
“What?”
Some of the clarity returned to his eyes, and he placed a finger on his lips, motioning her to be quiet.
He carefully eased out his hunting bow and pointed it toward a chital deer.
It had appeared silently, and stood in the clearing, its neck craned as it picked the choicest leaves from the lower branches of a tree.
Veer pushed her aside and crept stealthily, but the doe turned its head and, spotting danger, bounded away.
Veer dashed through the foliage, giving it chase.
“Veer! Wait.” Hastily, she threw the utensils into her satchel, cursing when she forgot his machete and had to go back to retrieve it. She followed him as best as she could, picking her way through the devastated vegetation.
By the time she found him later in a small grass clearing, under the shadow of a towering eucalyptus, it was already too late.
His back was to her, and she heard sounds of munching through wet flesh.
His hunting bow was on the ground, the arrow not too far; he hadn’t used it.
Dread sat in her heart. Something was very wrong.
A few feet away the chital lay on its side, dead. Its foreleg was torn away.
“Veer?” she called cautiously, a hand on her sword.
He turned to her, and Chandra took an immediate step back.
Blood smeared the lower part of his face and teeth.
The ridge of his brow bone was an unbroken line of prominence, and his cheekbones stood out in sharp relief.
A steady gleam of red shone through his pupils, the black of his irises expanding to eclipse the whites of his eyes.
He didn’t look human but rather a beast of a man.
The eyes that stared back at her seemed unfocused, like he didn’t recognize her.
“What have you done?” she whispered, shocked.
Some recognition crept into his eyes and the hand holding the bloody haunch of the slain animal lowered.
“I was too hungry to wait for it to be cooked.” he replied, and Chandra jerked back in shock at how guttural his voice sounded.
“Do you feel any better now?” she asked, her hand still gripping the handle of Veer’s sheathed machete.
Veer lowered his head; she watched his hand drift to the animal carcass once again. Was it her imagination or did he really have claws on his fingers? Nausea rose in her throat as he tore another of its limbs, blood spraying on his clothes, which she realized were shredded.
She unsheathed the machete. “That’s enough. This is making you sick.” She strode over and dragged away the animal’s body.
Veer snarled at her, his mouth dripping with blood. What terrified her more, though, were the elongated canines, like that of a beast of prey, that replaced his teeth.
She stumbled back, shocked. Shadows seemed to hug his crouched form. A dark miasma seemed to coalesce around him.
Chandra backed away slowly. “Veer? Are you channeling an animal or something? You are beginning to scare me,” she said, her heart in her throat.
She knew, even as she asked the question, that this wasn’t his animal wizardry.
This was probably what he had been warning her about.
“Say something,” she pleaded, when all she heard were low growls.
The growls stopped. He lifted his head.
“No…No. No. No.” She backed away some more, shaking her head, stumbling a little in her haste to get away.
Veer rose to his full height, and she saw he had grown a couple more inches.
This creature, whatever it was, no longer resembled her husband.
A ghastly smile stretched the lower part of its face.
She flinched at the rows of razor-sharp teeth that filled his mouth.
Its nostrils flared, as if drawing in her scent.
She watched as the thing closed its eyes as if savoring it.
It stiffened suddenly, fists clenched, and Veer momentarily looked back from the creature’s eyes.
“Run.” The growled word was barely recognizable.
She leaped into action. Not pausing for thought, she crashed through the vegetation, slashing her way with the machete, trying to put as much distance as she could between herself and the thing her husband had turned into.
Her back prickled, but she didn’t dare slow down or look behind. A loud roar sounded a minute later.