Rajiv Menon -- ThunderGod (28 page)

'My lady, the raja wishes for you to consider his proposal of marriage.' Even as he spoke the words, he regretted it. He had been too formal, a little too impersonal and straight to the point. This was clearly not his forte.

Sachi, with her head bowed, took her time to reply.

'Tell the king that I accept his proposal. I only have one condition.'

Mitra could scarcely contain his joy. He had not expected it to be so easy. Sachi had not let her personal grief come in the way of her duty; she would make a great queen.

'Of course! You only have to name it. The king will be prepared to fulfil any of your conditions.'

Sachi smiled; it was a smile that did not reach her eyes.

'My condition is not for the king. It is for you. I will make my request at an appropriate time.'

'Your request will be my command. Now allow me to take leave and carry this joyous news back to the raja.'

Both Indra and the Sabha greeted Sachi's decision with great delight. The wedding was fixed for a week from that day. After a long while, the population of Aryavarta was unanimous in its joy. The city wasted no time in its preparation for the grand event.

***

A man moved stealthily through the trees, avoiding detection by the Deva night patrol. He leapt huge distances, from branch to branch, landing silently each time. It was not long before he found himself on a giant oak that arched over the royal tent. One quick look around was all it took to see that it was unguarded. The man leapt to the ground and quickly entered the tent.

A sudden sense of imminent danger brought Indra awake. He opened his eyes and saw the intruder in his tent. As the man neared his bed, Indra leapt straight at him like a leopard going for the kill. The man was taken by surprise, but was able to move his head a fraction as Indra's fist crashed into his jaw. The little movement saved him from a broken neck, but the force of the punch was enough to knock him to the ground.

'Stop!' the man called out in an urgent whisper. 'Just because I have been away for a few days, this is no way for you to greet an old friend!'

Indra, who'd been readying to push forward his attack, now hung back with a relieved smile.

'Soma! Had I known it was you, I would not have stopped with one punch. I suppose you didn't think my coronation was an important enough event to attend?'

Soma took his friend's hand, got to his feet and embraced Indra.

'I'm sorry, I was busy working on something.'

'Well, whatever it was, it better be good, because apparently you did find time to visit Nira's whores on several occasions. They have been going around town talking about your newfound sexual prowess.'

Soma grinned sheepishly.

'They were a necessary distraction, I'm afraid. Now I must ask you to follow me, I have something of importance to share with you. Oh! Just one more thing--please try and keep up.'

He ran out of the tent and leapt nearly five times his body length onto the branch of the oak tree and began to retrace his journey. Indra groaned loudly and then proceeded to follow his friend. Oblivious to the Deva patrols below them they leapt from tree to tree and made their way deep into the forest.

They made rapid progress through the canopy and soon they were in a region of the forest that Indra had never seen. The thick undergrowth made progress on the ground impossible. In the middle of this dense jungle was a clearing in which sat a log hut. Soma jumped down from a branch in front of the building.

As Indra leapt to the ground, he felt a dull throb in his head. He had not practised the mental exercises that Mitra had given him and the unfamiliar usage of his divine powers had weakened him. He was a bit surprised to see that Soma did not seem to be affected.

'Soma, you were warned not to use your powers unless absolutely necessary. Don't you realise it can destroy you?'

Soma grinned like the cat that had just got the cream.

'Give me a moment, my friend, I think I may have the solution to that very problem.'

He entered the hut and returned shortly. In his hand, he bore a cup made of the finest crystal. As he held it up to the sky, Indra saw in its depths a pale gold liquid that shone in the moonlight. Soma chanted a mantra and offered the cup to the young raja.

'For you, my king, the elixir of the gods.'

Indra held it to his lips and drank. The liquid had a sharp taste and burned his throat a little. Then he began to feel a warmth in the pit of his abdomen. Slowly it spread to other parts of his body and it was not long before he felt his entire being pulsate with divine energy. All his fatigue disappeared. He shivered in excitement as he hugged Soma.

'I cannot wait for Agni, Varuna and Vayu to return. This is the greatest weapon that you have given us. Thanks to you and this potion, which shall henceforth be called "soma", we are not just going to be great warriors. We are going to be gods.'

***

Varuna stood on a newly-built guard tower and looked out into the night. From experience, Bhrigu had told them that attacks usually came an hour before dawn. Agni and Vayu were already up in the hills where they kept watch on Tajak's horde. They were two-hundred strong and holed up a few hours' march away, ready for the final assault.

The last few weeks had been a hectic scramble to put up defences for the ashram. They had shifted the entire community at least a mile away from their previous location in the shadow of the mountain. The place had been a death-trap and a nightmare to defend. Now they had built a ten-foot high wooden stockade and six guard towers around the new ashram with pine logs taken from the hillside. Every man, woman and child had worked themselves to the bone, and now they finally had a defendable position.

When the attack came, the enemy would have at least a mile of flat ground to cover before they hit the stockade wall. The three warriors had made plans to whittle down the odds considerably by then.

Quivers full of arrows, axes, clubs and hammers were passed around the camp. The villagers lined up, courage and determination writ large on their faces. Every one of them down to the smallest child knew that defeat would mean a very painful death or a lifetime of torture and slavery.

Vayu had trained the men under Shukra, the oldest surviving son of Bhrigu, in close combat. Varuna watched them now, bunched together, hands clasped tightly around their weapons. These people were strong, honest, hardworking folk, but Varuna had his doubts about their skills as warriors. It was one thing to practice weapon drills for long hours, but quite another to apply it in actual combat and kill a man. Varuna hoped the men had the stomach for it.

He and Agni had trained the women and the older children in archery; they had taken to it quite well and learned quickly to work as a team. The younger children, who could not wield bows, had been trained to ferry supplies and retrieve fallen arrows. He knew in his heart that they had done all they possibly could. With a little bit of luck they just might be able to teach Tajak's raiders a lesson they would not forget in a hurry.

The screech of a falcon pierced the still night. It was the signal he was waiting for. Varuna alighted from the guard tower and Bhrigu went to him. The sage, save for his staff, did not carry a weapon.

'It is time, Master. Call your people to arms.'

***

As Tajak led his men down the mountainside, he lost some of his confidence. Something about the scenario troubled him. He had expected to charge down with his men and wreak havoc on the ashram, but it had disappeared. He looked around at the fields: the crops were being tended to, which meant the sage and his people had not moved far. Then he heard the hunting call of a falcon from the slope of the mountain behind him. It added to his discomfort: the bird did not hunt at night.

Agni and Vayu followed at a safe distance as Tajak led his men forward in a tight formation through the fields of corn. The horde soon crossed the fields and came upon a patch of bare land. In front of them was a ditch covered with dry wood, leaves and grass. Tajak laughed. 'Fools,' he thought to himself as he looked at the clumsy trap and leapt over it. As he climbed a gentle rise, the wall and guard towers of the ashram came into view.

Tajak stopped in surprise. His man who had survived the previous raid had told him--before he had been decapitated-- that Bhrigu and his people had help. However, Tajak had not expected to encounter fortified resistance. He ordered his men to stop while he plotted his next course of action. Ahead he saw another ditch: it was covered clumsily much the same way as the one he had passed. He heard the call of the falcon again, this time it came from within the walls.

Varuna lit up an arrowhead that was covered with an oil-soaked rag and shot it high into the air. Tajak watched the flaming arrow as it came towards them from within the walls. He stood his ground and was about to laugh when he saw that the arrow was falling short of its mark, when the enemy's plan suddenly dawned on him. He screamed, 'Run! It's a trap!'

The arrow struck the ditch in front of him and it exploded into flames. Tajak turned to see two more flaming arrows land in the ditch behind them. Vayu took a deep breath, chanted a mantra in his mind and blew gently. A gust of wind caused the flame to fan out in an arc. Agni roared in delight. He and Vayu had prepared a ring of fire: it gave Varuna and his archers a perfect kill zone.

'Archers! Ready your bows.'

Varuna stood once again on the guard tower and gave the command. The women and older children notched arrows and raised their bows.

'Shoot!'

They released their bowstrings and forty arrows flew in an arc over the wall and landed right in the middle of the enemy force. Varuna whooped in triumph.

'Archers! Shoot at will!'

He watched as the arrows fell among the panicked horde. For days and hours on end he and Agni had concentrated on training them to land their arrows on that bare patch of earth, and today the villagers did not fail them. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Tajak realised very quickly that to linger there would mean certain death. He ordered his men to charge forward. The men who could still move responded and followed Tajak as he leapt through the wall of fire.

Vayu and Agni ran along on either side of the fiery ring, their bows busy as they shot arrow after arrow into the savages. From his vantage point, Varuna saw what the enemy planned and ordered Shukra and his men to charge. If they could take the head of Tajak, their troubles would be over permanently. Shukra and his men opened the gate and charged at their enemy.

Tajak saw them come and looked around. About twenty of his men had been able to keep pace; the others struggled with their wounds or the flames. He himself had an arrowhead lodged in one shoulder. His face was a bloody mess from another arrow that had ripped open his cheek till it hung from a piece of skin and flapped against his chin as he ran. His hair and beard had been burnt away in patches. He looked like a demon from hell.

Shukra saw Tajak approach and his courage failed him. Tajak spat, showering him with blood. Then he let out a terrifying yell and raised his club. Shukra dropped his weapon and ran. The men who had come up behind him were taken completely by surprise by the flight of their leader. They slowed to a halt, unsure of their next move.

Varuna screamed at them to fight. His quiver was empty and he looked around desperately for an arrow. Tajak did not break his stride as he threw his club. The heavy weapon twirled through the air and struck one of the men on the head. It split his skull and scattered his blood and brains on the others next to him. That was it. The men lost their nerve and fled towards the fields, away from the action.

Tajak gave a roar of triumph and charged towards the open gates of the ashram. He and his men burst through the gates as Varuna leapt off the guard tower to challenge them. Tajak barked out instructions to his men.

'Kill the warrior first. The rest are sheep waiting to be slaughtered.'

He walked over to where the children cowered in fear.

'Look at them, like frightened deer. Perhaps they'll taste just as good. I think I will roast one of them alive.'

Before he could carry out his threat, a figure threw itself at him and landed squarely on his back. It clawed at his already mutilated face and caused him to scream in agony as he shook it off his back. It was Maha. Tajak dragged her to her feet by her hair and thrust his dagger into her side. Maha screamed in pain, but she did not let it deter her. As she twisted towards him, the knife laid open the side of her belly. Maha gritted her teeth and with her dying breath brought her hand up. In it, she held her last arrow. She called on her final reserves of strength and drove the shaft right through the soft flesh under Tajak's chin, into his brain. She went with a smile on her face, comforted by the knowledge that her enemy had died before her.