Chapter 42 The Enchanted Lake
The next day, the yaksha took them to the location shown in the lotus key. A serene pond set in a clearing. The center of the pond had a small island, occupied almost entirely by the sturdy trunk of a tree, leaving a narrow perimeter of land around it. Just enough for a person to stand comfortably.
The branches of the tree were heavy with purple fruit. The all-pervasive music was louder here.
“This is the Kalpavriksha, the tree that grants wishes,” said the yaksha. “Your key piece would be within one of the fruits. You need to stand underneath the tree and pray, and if your prayer and the need behind it is sincere, you will be granted your wish.”
Veer made to step forward when the yaksha stopped him.
“Careful. Don’t you see what’s in the water?”
Veer glanced down and took a hasty step back with a muttered curse.
The waters of the pond were a translucent blue green, showing its depths. On the surface floated water lilies, with their large platelike leaves. But if one peered closely, the clear water showed submerged men and women, deep in slumber.
The underwater stalks of the water lilies went into their mouths. They were breathing through the stalks, their chests gently rising and falling with the occasional stream of water bubbles floating to the surface.
On closer examination, he noticed other things about their sallow faces—the tusks protruding on either side of the mouths, the clawed fingers, the deep blue hue of their skin—that made him realize they were not quite human.
“You’ll disturb them if you step into the waters,” said the yaksha.
“Who are they?” asked Veer, dazed.
“Erstwhile kings of the Danava Empire. They are immortal. They don’t die. So, they sleep.”
“Then how do we get to the tree?” asked Chandra.
The yaksha whistled a quirky sound that wasn’t possible to replicate with a human mouth.
Instantly, two figures appeared on the island. They rose to the air and glided serenely over the waters to reach the bank. As they approached, Veer was able to see them more clearly.
They appeared to be half-human, half-bird creatures, with the torso and upper arms of a human and the lower half that of a bird, ending in sharp talons. Their long decorative tails made a rainbow of color as they glided across the lake.
As they came closer, Veer realized that one of the creatures was quite obviously a female. Downy feathers covered their chests, their noses were beak-like, and a delicate claw tipped their thumbs.
The yaksha introduced them as the kinnara couple and conversed with them in a strange tongue. They seemed to come to some sort of an agreement.
The male kinnara waved his hand. A gust of wind materialized a bridge connecting the two banks, providing a pathway to the tree. He stretched a claw-tipped hand toward it, gesturing for them to climb it.
Veer strode forward. The kinnara blocked him.
“It has to be her,” said the female kinnari in human tongue, motioning toward Chandra.
“Why?” asked Veer in a leery tone.
“Because it’s safer for her to cross the waters of the pond. I don’t think the denizens will like it if you trespass across their sleep.” Her voice had a musical quality to it.
“I don’t understand.”
The yaksha spoke. “Let her go, Prince Veer. It’s safer for us all around.”
“I don’t like this Chandra,” said Veer in an undertone, casting doubtful glances at the supernatural beings.
“It’s not like we have a choice here,” she said out of the side of her mouth. “Besides, I’m pretty sure they won’t harm me.”
She walked to the edge of the lake and stepped onto the bridge. The whole time, Veer kept expecting something to happen, but she managed to cross without any mishap.
He let out a sigh of relief.
Once under the tree, Chandra joined her hands in prayer, eyes closed, her head bowed.
Then she opened her hands and held them like a cup.
Time passed. Veer took to sitting on the stump of a fallen tree, absently tapping his sword on the ground.
Chandra appeared to have gone into one of her trances.
Veer acknowledged that she was probably a better candidate of the two of them.
His mind was still in chaos after last night’s revelations and the lack of sleep was getting to him.
Music continued to play in the background, a soothing, unceasing melody. Veer realized that it was the kinnara couple who were the source of the music. They played a multitude of wind and stringed instruments that appeared and disappeared in their hands.
The yaksha seemed to be friends with the couple and had informed Veer, in an aside, that the beings were mated for life, and forsook children—all so they could stay devoted to each other—as was typical of their kind.
The kinnara couple and the yaksha spoke in quiet voices in a strange language. He couldn’t understand the words but understood their cadence. They seemed to be catching up on the news.
Occasionally, he found himself the object of their scrutiny.
Veer’s shoulders prickled when they stared at him.
For some reason, their presence disturbed him.
If he was being honest, being here, in this forest, disturbed him on a deeper level.
But he had no answer if someone asked him exactly what was wrong.
Veer heard Chandra’s exclamation and swung his head toward her, standing up, hand ready on the pommel of his sword.
Up on the island, a fruit had fallen into her hands. A blue light enveloped the fruit, growing brighter and brighter, and suddenly it dimmed like someone had snuffed it out.
Chandra held up the key piece that materialized in her hands, a triumphant smile on her face.
Veer grinned at her and stepped toward the bank. Chandra did the same.
The bridge connecting the two banks disappeared like it never existed.
They both halted, nonplussed.
Veer turned toward the kinnara couple for an explanation. “What’s the meaning of this? Why’d you remove the bridge?”
“We can’t make this too easy for you,” said the male kinnara. Veer heard the laughter in his melodious voice.
“Very well. Do what you want. I’m going to swim to the other shore,” said Veer, irked.
The kinnara barred his way and Veer unsheathed his sword. “I’m warning you. Get out of my way.”
The kinnara replied, “I don’t die, Prince. Haven’t you learned that by now? Anything that dies here is reborn instantly. Even those animals you ‘ate’ have all re-formed their bodies and are doing well. The most you can do is to end me for a few minutes.”
“A few minutes would be all I’d need to rescue my wife,” said Veer, gritting his teeth. He had enough being the brunt of their sick humor.
“How very gallant of you! But are you sure you want to do that? Our song is the only thing keeping those beings underwater asleep. If we die, they’ll start to wake up.”
“And why should that matter to me?”
“Because the world isn’t ready for them to wake up,” said the kinnara, giving a slow blink.
Veer was unnerved to discover they had no eyelids. A thin nictitating membrane stretched and retracted itself across their black eyes.
“The previous kings of the Danava Empire are extremely powerful and not very kind. You think Meru’s a big disaster waiting to happen? That’s nothing compared to what’ll happen if the beings underwater wake up. So, I suggest you heed my words.”
“You trapped my wife, deliberately,” said Veer, frustrated. “I can’t just leave her here. I need her.”
“Yes, we’re very aware of your quest regarding Meru. Since it is so, we’ll let her go. Provided you solve this puzzle.” The kinnara nodded to his consort.
The female kinnari waved her hand. A gentle breeze whipped up dust in his eyes, causing him to shut them. When he opened them, between one blink of an eye and the next, they sprang into being. The doppelg?ngers—three indistinguishable copies of Chandra stood before him, across the pond.
Identical to the last degree. From the mole along the sharp angle of her left eyebrow to the same bewildered expression on each of their faces as they watched one another.
“Who’s your wife really, Prince? Choose the right one and she can go with you,” sang the female kinnari.
“And if I choose wrong?” asked Veer, watching the look-alikes. They didn’t mirror their movements exactly, which was a blessing because their presence alongside one another was already vertigo inducing.
“Then you fail, and she’ll stay with us,” said the male kinnara, sounding distinctly entertained.
“I can’t abandon my wife in the wilderness!” gritted out Veer.
“She’ll be looked after very well,” chimed the yaksha, who had been listening silently so far. “Better than the way she’s been treated by the outside world. She’s very dear to us. Here, she’ll come to no harm. Here, she’ll not die.”
* * *
“What did I tell you that day in the Navari Woods, just before I let you go?” asked Veer.
“You said that not all actions are what they seem.”
The answer that came from three identical throats was the same. Even the cadence and pitch of their voices were the same.
Veer struck the ground with his sword in frustration. He had tried everything he could think of.
He attempted to see if there were small differences in the way they looked or the way they behaved and gestured. But no. They all appeared the same. Even the same expressions crossed their faces.
He then asked them something that only the princess would know. But besides sharing physical characteristics, they each had an exact copy of her memories as well. He got the same answer from all of them, no matter how he phrased the question.
The kinnaras seemed to find his efforts amusing. At least it felt that way to Veer. The way these supernatural beings expressed and assimilated emotions reminded him of the way he was never sure of an animal’s feelings when he was in their minds.
He knew their thoughts, but the emotions and reasoning seemed alien. He had always thought it was the difference between being an animal and a human. If so, these beings were alien as well.
He pondered their situation pensively. Without Chandra, he wouldn’t be able to continue the quest. He needed her to finish the lotus key.
“I am lost, Yaksha. How do I differentiate between them?” Veer appealed to the only being who seemed sympathetic to his plight. “How did they create them all equal? They even have the same memories. It is quite remarkable and impressive, but it makes my task harder.”
“It’s my consort’s specialty,” said the male kinnara proudly. “She is an expert at creating images. Everything, every thought down to the last detail, is reflected.”
“Indeed,” agreed the yaksha. “Her mirror magic is without par. I use the mirrors the kinnari has created for me. It helps me know what happens in my kingdom.”
Veer knew of mirror magic. His father used it occasionally to communicate across long distances, and he taught a little of it to Veer, although Veer could only use it to communicate with his father or his uncle. The kinnaras appeared to use them to make illusions, though.
But…images…mirrors…reflections? Veer glanced at the kinnara couple and then back at the three doppelg?ngers, observing them closely. Surely it couldn’t be that simple.
Chandra was right-handed, he remembered.
“Raise your right hand,” he ordered quietly.
Across the pond, Chandra raised her right hand. The other two doppelg?ngers raised their left.
“That one is the real Princess Chandrasena,” said Veer triumphantly.
“The other two are but reflections. Mirror images. Everything is reversed in their world. Left is right. Right is left. To them they have raised their right hands, but because they are mirror images, it appears to us like they have raised their left.”
The kinnara couple exchanged a look.
Doubt crept in. He was right, wasn’t he? Veer tensed when the female kinnari raised her hand. Chandra vanished from the island.
She appeared a minute later at his side.
“I was afraid you were never going to get it right. Didn’t think the answer would be so simple.” She sighed in relief.
“On the contrary, we thought he’d have figured out the answer way before now. Guess we had too high of hopes on him,” said the kinnara couple. The mirth was back in their voices. “We had no intention of keeping her here. We know she’s needed elsewhere.”
“Then what was the purpose of all this?” growled Veer. He wasn’t surprised when the kinnara and kinnari only smiled mysteriously instead.
“Well, we’ve had our fun. Let’s go back, my husband.” The female kinnari glided across the lake to disappear into the mists on the far side.
The male kinnara followed shortly, but not before bowing deeply to Chandra. “Until the next time we meet, Princess.”