Chapter 43 Flight on Vihari #2
“Damn it! I’m not a monster that I’d separate a child from his mother, and I resent that you think I’d do that.” He paused and spoke in a different tone. “Just how sick is Sarun?”
“Well, his mother caught him levitating a while back,” she said, facing the front once again, her voice hollow.
“Sarun remembers bits and pieces of these incidents and he’s terrified of them.
He’s always been a somewhat delicate child, but now the powers seem to eat him alive from within.
Kalpana is taking him to Rajgarh to meet Virat’s parents.
To get some answers.” She threw him a glance over her shoulder. “Is there a way to cure him?”
“From what you’re telling me, perhaps he needs an outlet for his magic,” said Veer contemplatively. “So that’s why Girish left in a hurry. You sent him to accompany Kalpana.”
“Yes, it’s dangerous for a woman to travel alone. And they plan to marry soon, anyway. She’ll be safe with him.” Chandra remained silent for a while. “You think Sarun might have magic?”
“It is quite a possibility,” he said. “Why?”
“Nothing…”
Veer was silent for a while. “Being a wizard is not bad, you know. It’s what you choose to do with what you’re given that has far more impact on your life.”
Chandra curled her fingers into the downy feathers under her after hearing his observation, her mind conflicted. Growing up, she heard horror stories about wizards and after meeting Virat, it was hard for her to sympathize.
After a while, Veer asked, “You seem to be comfortable flying. Do you want to try something different?”
“Like what?” she asked suspiciously.
“Fly with him,” said Veer.
“But I am flying right now?” Chandra turned again to glance at him, and he had a completely serious look on his face. But she didn’t fool herself into thinking he was harmless.
Her husband was never going to be tame. And there was something equally wrong with her that she liked it instead of finding it irksome like any sane person would.
“Not like that. Fly with him, instead of on him. Like the way I’d do with him.”
“But how can I?” asked Chandra, feeling more and more confused. “You use your magic to control him. I can’t do what you do.”
“Not really, Princess. Vihari is magical enough that he needs no additional help from me. It’s just because of my affinity with birds that our bond happens to be easy. But should he choose, he could have a mental connection with anyone. He is one of the divine birds and has that power.”
“Will it mean letting him into my mind? I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that.” She shuddered, recalling how impotent she felt under Virat’s mind control. “It brings back too many memories.”
Veer was silent for a while and then spoke gravely, “What will you do, Princess, when someone you love is at the mercy of a person like Virat? Who can control others’ actions? How will you protect yourself and them?”
“What are you talking about?”
“How will you fight something without knowing everything there’s to know about it? Fly with Vihari to know what it feels like and then you can start building resistance against what you don’t want in your mind. When we were kids, that’s how I built my immunity against Virat.”
“But why should I worry about that? Virat said that he’s unique and there were no others like him.
And he is dead.” Chandra suppressed a shiver, feeling like someone walked over her grave.
She didn’t want to face the possibility of facing someone like Virat ever again.
It was mere luck that she and her friend were able to live through that experience once.
“Virat said what he thought he knew. Does he know all the people in the world? I used to think there wasn’t an animal I couldn’t control, but then I came across several in our journey so far. You never know.”
Veer bent close to her ear. “Utpatana, vanchin cha megham. That’s the incantation,” he said. “Once you repeat the words, it basically creates a doorway in your mind that Vihari can then use to secure a link.”
“Does it hurt?” she asked, swallowing. The pain last time was of the sort that enveloped every nerve ending. She could barely think through it. But…if this meant she could build immunity against the kind of power Virat wielded, she would be willing to attempt it.
“Of course not,” said Veer. “You ought to give it a try, Princess. It isn’t a casual offer either. I’ve never made such an offer to anyone. Vihari will only accept it because I requested it of him.”
“All right,” she whispered and repeated the incantation that he gave her.
Several minutes passed. Nothing happened.
Veer sighed. “You must allow him a bit of entry into your mind, Princess. Right now, Vihari tells me you have a death grip.”
“How come you need incantations when Virat didn’t need one?” she grumbled.
“Because this incantation is like a permission. With Virat, if the intention is to do it against a person’s will, he would hardly need one. His entry would be much more brutal and consequently painful.”
Chandra repeated the incantation over and over again with no results. How was she to relax when she didn’t even know what to relax, she thought, frustration mounting.
“It’s not enough to say the words. You also must mean them. Loosen the grip on your mind. It gets easier if it happens once.”
“But…I don’t know how!” She twisted around to face him. “And don’t say I’m not trying,” she warned.
Veer nodded grimly. “I can see this is difficult for you. I’m sorry, Princess.”
Chandra frowned in confusion. “What are you apologizing for?”
“For this,” he said as they suddenly went into a free fall.
Chandra screamed as they fell, weightless, from the sky for the second time that day. “What’s happening? Are you doing something? We’re going to die.”
“Precisely, Princess. I’m not doing anything. You must control him if we are to continue being airborne. Let him in.”
“I can’t,” she cried. Chandra choked on air. Her throat closed. Her hands spasmed into Vihari’s feathers, clinging tightly.
“Do it, Princess. You know I’m just enough of a bastard to accept the risk. I’m not going to stop him. You’re the only one who can. Focus. Think beyond your fear. It’s not unlike your meditation.”
The ground was coming up to meet them alarmingly fast.
“I can’t,” she whispered past her tight throat.
“Close your eyes, Chandra. Forget everything except the words. You can do it,” came his stern advice.
Chandra shook her head, her eyes watering from the rush of the wind. Her limbs refused to obey her. Fear drenched her body.
“You have to do it, Princess. I’m not going to be of any help here.”
Chandra clamped a hand to her mouth to stifle another scream she felt bubbling up and closed her eyes. No longer able to see the ground, all she could sense was the weightlessness of the free fall.
How can he be so calm when we are about to die? Then she closed off all thought and called on her training to center herself.
She pushed her fear and terror into the back of her mind, her training helping her orient herself. Her throat unlocked from fear, and she whispered the incantation once again.
In her mind’s eye, she felt a door open, like a section of wall had crumbled.
Something alien clicked into place. Chandra felt her consciousness divide into two.
Unlike the brute force intrusion of Virat, this was more like a shared awareness.
At the same time, Vihari leveled off, a few spare feet from the ground.
Chandra inhaled finally, but the relief was short lasting as he began the ascent to dizzying heights.
It took time, but she was able to adjust to flying Vihari. The wind, which seemed so chaotic and determined to unseat her, felt like a benign hand that rocked the swing. As if she had sprouted wings to fly.
She took him over the cloud barrier, flew past a flock of wagtails, confusing them. Together, they swooped, rose, rolled, swiped, and climbed. Chandra forgot when her fear melted away, leading to awe and excitement. It was a different world in the air.
She laughed with sheer happiness, of being one with the bird, albeit each in their own minds.
All too soon, their flight ended, and they landed in a small clearing. Chandra got down on wobbly legs. Veer explained to her how they needed to give an offering of their blood to the kite as a sign of gratitude, and so they did.
“He likes you,” Veer said suddenly.
Chandra reached out and ran an affectionate hand through the soft down feathers of his neck. “It is I who should say that. I’m honored and grateful for this kindness he’s shown me. Thank you. To you both.”
A sudden ice pick headache bloomed behind her eyes and a high-pitched ringing deafened her ears. Something trickled down her nose but Chandra was too dizzy to do anything other than concentrate on standing on her two feet. Veer marched up to her.
He swiped a thumb at her lip and Chandra noticed red. She was bleeding.
“You lied about the hurt,” she accused.
Chandra saw the corner of his mouth tilt up in a smile.
“Your fault for believing me, Princess. Shouldn’t you have learned by now that I am a devious bastard?
” He pulled her close and placed a hand on her neck.
“Put your head down. The bleeding will subside in a while. It gets better with practice.”
“There was no reason to lie,” said Chandra, her voice muffled by his chest.
“Would you have attempted it otherwise, Princess?”
“Was it so important that I do so?” she asked. Chandra felt the pain and the ringing recede as quickly as it came, but she was too comfortable in his embrace to let go.
“I’m sorry for using shady tactics, Princess.
But yes, it’s important to me that you understand, that you feel what it’s like for me, when I merge with the birds.
So you can understand why this is a part of me I cherish.
It’s neither good nor bad. It’s a form of existence, free of human entanglements. ”
Veer tipped her chin and looked into her eyes. “My father’s a long-range communicant. Before his marriage, he explained what that meant to my mother, so she was aware of what she was getting into. Our…situation is different, but as my wife, you’re entitled to the knowledge about how my magic works.
“Suppressing my magic would be like denying my very nature. For Sarun, if it turns out he indeed has magic, it’s the same. Not everything is bad or corrupt. It’s the people who use it that make it so.”
His words made hope spring in her heart. That perhaps there was a way they could pave a path to their own happiness.