After the thirteenth bell. When the world wanted them to sleep. Vanu's tavern celebrated. Mugs thunked, glasses clinked, and laughter rolled like a zephyr. Karnan's song, 'The mountain calls' was an ode, a greeting to the roars, the belches and the curses that friends threw at each other. The crowd danced when he played the lute and went quiet when he sang. Like a wave, the tavern moved with the music. Vanu kept serving food. Breads, stale and crusty, would be dipped in brown soups, and yet not one voice rose in complaint.
Karnan played, his fingers strumming the strings in a rising tempo which was to crescendo with a falsetto. Blood flooded his veins as he inched towards the end.
The crowd roared, he yelled, his voice coming from his head and throat and thrummed the strings up and down rapidly. He kept going for five breaths before finishing with a strong downward swing. The lute vibrated in his hands, its strings ringing into the air. Slowly, the echoes died. The tavern clapped, cheered and again danced. Coins piled up near his feet, into the box he had got from Master Maitree. He loved the applause, but the jingles from the box were what pleased him more.
It's ready. Come upstairs.
He stood. People groaned. He raised his hands, "I apologise, my dear patrons. My heart tears up in choosing to retire so soon. But, I am weary. Too weary now and without rest, I won't be able to achieve a goal that's too dear to me."
A voluptuous woman, wearing a silken long skirt of pink, came forward. Her smile was dimpled, and as she glided toward him with curls bouncing over both shoulders. She looked ethereal. Karnan recognised that she didn't belong there.
She came to him, closer than needed and touched his forearm. He forced a cough to get the blood off his ears and cheeks, back to where it belonged.
She laughed. Her laughter was like rain pittering on a tin roof, and she said in the most feminine of voices he had ever heard. "I was passing this way when the bells struck. The tavern was the first thing that I saw. I was planning on renting a room and quietly spending the curfew. But the moment you opened your lips. My heavens!"
"Tha-thank you?" Karnan blurted. His mind had turned to mush, and his mouth seemed to have forgotten its task. He stood there like a mule as she went on talking about his singing, the texture of his voice and his expertise with the lute.
Karnan. Shri said, sternly. We have a lot of work.
He jolted. The woman took her hand back. Her eyes, wide with concern.
"I am sorry. But, I have to go," he said apologetically.
Her face reclaimed its former serenity. She raised both her palms, "Please, please. Don't let me stop you. I am called Shravni. My father owns an inn in the market district. It's called 'The bear'. We would love it if you could play there. Please keep this." She fished out a metal token from thin air. A space-enlarging art must have been attached to one of the shiny rings she wore.
She offered it to him. It was triangular, made of steel and was painted red. A black circle was drawn over a single side. "When you are there. Show this. You won't be stopped." Shravni leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.
Men booed and hooted. She left him and went out the door. Karnan stood there, his cheek warm and underbelly flaming with heat.
Karnan!
Shri's raging howl was what made him jump and sprint up towards his room, leaving behind his lute, the hollering crowd and Vanu yelling for him to eat first.
….
He climbed the four floors in a heartbeat. On reaching the door, he dipped his plumed bycocket to a beaming Lado. Shri sat next to him. Her eyes turned to slits. He gave a nervous smile and squatted near Lado. His hands were smeared brown from making the pills laid out over a cloth before him.
A week had gone by in planning and making these pills. They were as big as a coin and required ingredients so uncommon that they could only manage to create six of them.
"The jacket suits ya!" Lado grinned.
Karnan nodded in return. He was dressed in a bard's attire. A bycocket with a green feather sticking out of the back. Black pants that fit a little too tightly with a full-sleeved green shirt with a deep neckline. Over that, he had donned a velvet half-jacket. A gift from Vanu as an apology for choking him a week ago. The Vanar was back to his deadpan reactions after that day.
He inspected the pills; they looked just like the ones used by martial artists and even by doctors to heal injuries or infections. But, despite the resemblance, these were of a differing nature. These weren't just pills but yantras. Each one's surface had been carved carefully with a prana-absorbing mantra.
Mantras were the drawings of the paths prana needed to take, kind of like a map to a treasure.
In this case, the treasure was the power of life, the very essence of which was Prana. When fed to a yantra, also called a machine, the energy from nature could be converted into mechanical or even thermal applications. All yantras needed mantras, sometimes a single one and at times more than many.
The pills are done. All thanks to Lado.
He accepted the praise with a thunderous clap on Karnan's back, shoving his feathered hat off his head.
"So now we need to lay them out in the open to absorb the light." He finished Shri's point while picking his headwear and shook it once. Dust erupted like a volcano from it. No wonder his head was itching a lot more often lately.
Shri lowered her head. We don't have time. The tournament will begin after a week; your cosmic light isn't refilled yet, and you don't have a combat-worthy art. A week will not be enough to turn these pills into something potent.
Karnan stroked his chin. "If only we already had a way someone here had already proposed. If only," he snarked.
Shri was frustrated. No. That is too risky. I can't allow that.
"Then you leave me with no option but to attend the tournament as I am."
With nothing to rebuke him with, the wolf stomped her paw down. Her teeth bared, she was angry enough to bite someone's head off. But that didn't stop Lado from petting her head.
"Tsk, tsk, calm, calm now, wolfie! Bardie's idea ain't bad, no?" He said while stroking gently.
Her eyes were closed, and she ducked her head a bit more to make it easier for Lado. Karnan couldn't help but smile. Lado saw Shri as nothing more than a pet, he brought food for, brushed her coat and even cuddled her. On her part, Shri seemed to adore the attention. But, only from Lado.
Now that she was in a position to listen to reason. Karnan explained, "You see, the pyramid's telescope is very powerful. What takes days can be done in seconds there. I will be in and out before you know."
And the guards?
He rolled his eyes, "I have said this many times before, master. But you just don't believe. There are never any guards there. I have seen it in the choosing ceremony. There were no guards."
I don't care. This is an order. You are not going there. The assassin's still unfound. I can't risk your life in this way. Give me some time. I will find another way to charge these pills. For now, insert your prana into them. "
Letting out a sigh, Karnan touched one of the pills. He inhaled, prana enriching his blood vessels and organs; he separated some of the inhaled prana into his chakra. Then, using his prana veins, he guided it to his palm. White mist emerged from his pores and seeped into the pill, which then began glowing dully. He repeated the process for the rest of the pills.
They now carried his scent and would constantly keep pulling light from his star. Once enough had been collected, their colour would then change to a faint silver. Ready for ingesting before a fight.
A seemingly simple method, but hard to implement. A recipe that had been lost, finding the ingredients and then making the dough and the pills was nothing but a living nightmare. But, they had somehow persevered. Lado, a four-drop Pathik, worked under an alchemist, so he rolled the pills, Karnan had carved the mantra over them, and Vanu procured the materials.
"Master, over the last week, we have tirelessly worked on making these. Do you want our work to be washed away, just like that?"
He kneeled before her, hands folded, "Please, believe me as you did at the school. I won't disappoint you."
This argument had been had many times over the last two days. So, Karnan had few hopes of Shri bending this time. She had asked for time, but that was the only thing he couldn't part with. The amount of light he had gathered over the past week wasn't even enough for a single usage of heat strike.
But what else could he do? Defy Shri's order?
An hour. That's all you have. If you are not back by then. I will go after you. She said.
"Really?" his tone brightened, "You are letting me go?"
She swayed her head from side to side. You leave me with no other option. I can't let you fight in the tournament without enough light, and there's no chance you'd forgo participating. There's only this left. But, as I said, one hou-
Karnan hugged her all of a sudden. "Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" he stood, wiping fur from his mouth and nose. "I have already prepared everything. I will start right away," he went to the corner where his clothes were stacked. He bent and pulled out the guard uniform he had borrowed from Shiva, a former patrolman who was a regular at the tavern. Something clanged over the floor as he stood.
It had presumably fallen from his pocket. A steel triangle, it lay on its painted side, glistening like still water. The token that the beautiful woman had given him.
Didn't you use this in the tomb? When you had found me?
Shri's question was lost in the screams his mind threw at him. How could he not have recognised it? He dove downstairs. The crowd roared as he entered. Vanu was busy pouring ale into mugs.
"The woman! The one wearing silk. Where is she?"
Vanu frowned at him, "You talked with her. How'd I know? She came right before your song was done. Went to you, then walked out. As if untouched by the curfew."
Karnan turned and bolted for the door. He shoved it open. Vanu was yelling at him to close it back. The street was empty. He cursed, clutching the token in his palm. He had been bamboozled and, spectacularly, too. But was this visit an invitation or a trap? 'The bear' was the name of the inn, and he could recall there being no such establishment in the market district. Why was he such a dunce?
He pushed down the questions along with the rising frustration. He'd think about it later. He closed the door and walked to Vanu.
"I am leaving for the pyramid," he said.
Vanu gave him a nod and pulled out a badge with a roaring lion painted over it. "Pin this to the clasp of your cloak and be careful."
He returned to his room and collected the pills and the uniform. Shri looked at him, perhaps still searching for means to stop him. He gave her a hurried bow before climbing down to the third floor to change. His nerves had begun to revolt. But he ignored.
I can do it. I can do it. He breathed out the words to calm himself. He wanted to leave before Shri smelled his fears.
…
Shri whined. Her heart was riled with worry. Her breathing was sparse and rushed. The room was eerily silent, and she felt like she was back in the tomb again. The guests had thinned as the hour of slumber was approaching its end. Only two more bells and the city would bustle with life. Her stomach still churned from thinking about the nightless sleep these people were so used to.
She looked at the empty nest above her on the oculus. The cuckoo and her children were out flying and scavenging together as a family. How joyous the feeling must be! To be swarmed by one's own. She sighed and closed her eyes.
Mistress, only a quarter of an hour has passed. He will return. Vanu said from below.
Why does time seem so slow all of a sudden? When will the bell ring?
Patience, my lady. He said softly, If I may. You do know that we don't have much time left, either. Is it right to be attached to that boy now?
Stop bothering me, Vanar. I know my duty well enough. She was annoyed, and a bit surprised at her own annoyance, because Vanu wasn't wrong.
As you wish, my lady. It's my responsibility to remind you.
She did a hoarse growl in answer.
Vanu spoke after a pause. 'I hope you will be ready when it's time to leave.'
She could take Karnan with her, even if he didn't agree. And there was a good chance he wouldn't want to go with her. His loyalty to his clan was overwhelming. To the extent of taking such brazen risks. Her heart ached with a remembrance she didn't want to visit. Her memories hadn't returned fully; still, she felt the pain, the loss. Although all of it was speculative at most.
When do we leave?
Soon, I will have prepared everything. Once Amitabh returns, we will set out. Vanu said.
Shri whined again. It was too early for her to leave. She wanted to see Karnan's growth, even if for a day more. It made her feel like she mattered, like she had something to give, to love, to live for. She wished for Amitabh to never return.
You had mentioned a cabin somewhere in the woods?
After a short pause, Vanu replied. Yes, mistress. I use it to meet messengers and stuff. But why do you?
We will take Karnan there. Seven days remain for the tournament. I want to train him. If he decided to stay back, at least she could make him stronger so as not to be so easily hurt.
The sound of plates hitting the ground and breaking came from downstairs. Vanu waited for a few breaths after that to speak. Why? Why do you care so much for him? He is nothing but a source of food.
None of your concern, Vanar. Stop playing with my patience. A seething growl accompanied her words.
More crockery broke, followed by a resounding crash of a table being upturned. And then a chair. The wall to her left was punched hard and trembled with the impact. A few breaths passed in sudden silence afterwards.
I will ready Rosinante. Vanu said.