ASH MISTRY AND THE CITY OF DEATH (27 page)

he’s my friend.

But she’s a demon.

She saved my life.

But she has killed thousands.

The confusion flooded Ash’s head. He couldn’t think clearly. The Soma? Was it affecting him? Making him see Parvati as something that had to be destroyed?

She
is
good. She’s just doing her duty.

And you are the Kali-aastra. Do yours. Kill the rakshasa.

The punch came out of nowhere and almost took Ash’s head off. He fell head over heels and sprang up, dazed, but on automatic. A cross-arm block stopped the kick and he avoided the body slam with a sudden handspring. Still, as he shifted into a battle stance, his senses swam. The mist hid everything beyond a few metres away.

“You’re trying to kill me,” said Ash.

Silence and fog. Parvati was an assassin, and would use both to take him out.

All around him lay rubble: huge chunks of floor smashed apart, leaving craters and fallen columns. The roof above groaned ominously as somewhere in the distance another huge column crashed down, sundered by the magic swirling between Savage and Vibheeshana. Both were using their command over the elements, Savage now brutally raising fires and winds and ripping open the stone while Vibheeshana deflected and quashed the attacks just as rapidly. The air itself hummed with electric currents, and sparks buzzed and flew across the fog. Elsewhere Khan roared and Jackie howled as they fought each other.

How did I end up on the ‘bad guy’ side of the fence?

Ash stepped across a wide, jagged crack in the floor. The mosaic, once filled with dark beauty, was in ruins. The small tiles had been scattered in all directions and large chunks were nothing but powder now.

There was only one way to end this. Ash wanted Gemma back, but what was the price? He peered into the haze and caught a glimpse of silvery steel and a vague figure stepping closer.

Did she want him dead? Really?

Parvati could have bitten him. Her poison guaranteed death. But she hadn’t. She’d tried to disable him; that was what these attacks were.

They’d been through so much together. Fighting each other was utterly wrong.

But it came down to Gemma. He knew Parvati: the only way through her was to kill her.

It was her or Gemma.

Ash thought of Gemma taking his coat. The way she smiled at him in class. They’d been friends since primary school. They’d played that stupid board game every day, all summer.

She was dead.

“Parvati, please. I just want to save my friend.”

“I am sorry, Ash.” The voice whispered out of the fog, from a direction unknown. “But Gemma is gone. If Savage tried, what you’d have is a monster.”

“Not if he recited the proper mantra. From the Black Mandala.”

Parvati laughed. The sound was cruel and sad. “The Black Mandala is the ultimate source of my father’s power. Savage would want it not only to awaken the Brahma-aastra, but to learn the remaining sorceries. He’d be as great, as terrible as Ravana, the master of all reality. He’s been using you, Ash. Now do you understand?”

He felt lost. “But Gemma…”

Parvati appeared. The fog rippled around her as she approached. The urumi dangled in her loose grip. “The Black Mandala should stay here.” She dropped the weapon. “But the choice is yours.” Parvati touched his cheek. “Let her go, Ash. For both your sakes.”

“I…”

The sound of breaking stone was as loud and sharp as a cannon shot. Chunks of marble shot through the air and knocked Ash off his feet. He crashed down, shaken to his bones. Blood, hot and sticky, dribbled down his back as he tried to get up. His spine screamed and he fell back on his face.

The column above him groaned as the supports cracked, then shattered. With an awful slowness, it began to topple. Dust showered down as blue electric sparks jumped and burst across it, breaking off chunks and slivers that tumbled like the beginning of an avalanche.

Ash stared, paralysed, as the column collapsed. He struggled to his knees, but the dark mass of the falling column covered him, and all he could do was watch it accelerate towards him. He wasn’t going to make it.

Parvati grabbed him and twisted hard, spinning Ash out of the path of the crumbling tower. The impact threw him off his feet and the sound almost burst his eardrums. He couldn’t even hear his own screams.

Ash lay on the floor, gasping in the dust. Thin trickles of blood ran down his torso and limbs from dozens of cuts. He put a hand against his back and pulled at a blood-slicked marble shard, fighting the sickening agony as the edges cut along his spine. Then it came free and Ash gasped with relief. Slowly he got to his feet. He wasn’t dead yet. Biting down on his lip, he wrenched out the splinters in his arms. Blood dripped from the gaping holes, and Ash stumbled with dizziness.

All around him columns began to bow and crack. Great tears rent the ceiling as jets of seawater poured through the fractures, each one expanding moment by moment as lumps of stone tumbled down. The hall was collapsing in on itself. Already the water was splashing round his knees.

Ash approached the fallen column, sweeping the dust from his face. “Parvati?”

Blocks the size of a car lay within a cloud of dust. The floor beneath them was cracked and thrown up like the frozen surface of a wave.

Ash spotted a glimmer of metal and picked up the urumi. Two of the blades had been sheared off and the remaining pair were pitted and scored by the stone. He dropped to his knees, gazing hopelessly at the immovable rubble. “Parvati?”

sh heard footsteps rapidly approaching him. The dust and fog parted as Vibheeshana appeared. He stared at Ash, then at the weapon in his hand. Ash dropped the urumi.

“She’s trapped,” he said as he tried to shift a huge boulder. She had to be trapped. The alternative was too horrible to think about. He sweated and strained, but it didn’t move a millimetre. “Help me.”

“Step away.” Vibheeshana’s skin shone with sweat and he was cut and bruised all over. He moved slowly, and his breath was ragged. Savage had hurt him badly. But he gathered himself, straightened, and pressed his fingers together, weaving and locking them in weird bone-flexing patterns. The nine skulls pulsed with a stark, golden light.

The rubble began to rise – delicately at first, so as not to cause any of it to fall on top of another piece and crush Parvati. Small brick-sized lumps floated away, trailing pebbles behind them. Vibheeshana closed his eyes as his lips moved with silent spells.

The larger rocks began to float impossibly and drift off.

“Come on,” Ash whispered.

They would save her. Vibheeshana would lift the rubble away and they’d save her.

A giant rock rose over him. Ash blinked as grit fell into his eyes. Then, the shadow of the rock having just passed over him, it smashed to the ground.

“Vibheeshana?” Ash said.
That almost crushed him!

Vibheeshana groaned, arching his back. He jerked again, staring wildly at Ash. His lips reddened and parted, and blood dribbled down his chin. A narrow steel sword blade tore through his chest in a sudden burst of scarlet. He went up on his toes as the blade, pushed from behind, stuck out further and further. He reached out to Ash, asking him to help, to do something. Ash took the demon lord’s hands, and Vibheeshana crushed his with desperate strength. The sword began to draw itself out, sinking into the dark flesh, where the sigils thrashed and squirmed as blood covered them.

Vibheeshana collapsed, Ash holding on to him as they both sank to the ground.

“Sometimes it’s worth getting your hands dirty,” said Savage, stepping over the dead Vibheeshana with sword in hand. He wiped the blade clean on his sleeve, marking the white cloth with long strips of crimson, and slid it back into the cane. He smiled at Ash, a grotesque leer through blackened teeth and shrivelled gums. “Thanks for distracting him. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Ash stared at the bleeding corpse. His fault. His fault. Oh God, what had he done? Vibheeshana dead and Parvati under tons of rock. He couldn’t save either.

Savage must have seen the confusion and misery on his face, because he laughed. “Still such a child, aren’t you? Didn’t I warn you once not to get involved in grown-up plans?”

Ash spun round, but Savage raised his cane, and a rock shot out from the pile and hit Ash square in the forehead, knocking him off his feet.

Savage stood over him. Ash could make out three blurred images, melding and splitting each time he blinked. Waves of nausea rolled over him as the pain in his head swelled, overwhelming him. Savage flicked his narrow sword so the point was above Ash’s shoulder. He pushed the point in.

Ash cried out as the Englishman twisted the blade. Then, with a second flick of his weapon, he cut open Ash’s satchel.

The Koh-i-noor fell out. Savage put it in his jacket pocket.

“I don’t need to kill you,” he said. “But you’ll never know why.”

Then he blew some dust off his cane, rubbed the tiger head clean, and tapped it against his forehead in salute. “Goodbye, Ash Mistry. It’s been a pleasure.”

Savage left. His laughter echoed long after he’d gone.

“
ama…”

Ash groaned. The pain throbbed in the centre of his skull as if someone had put a pneumatic drill in his brain. He got up and gasped as the agony multiplied. His head weighed about a million tons. He clutched it with both hands, afraid it was going to break apart.

“Rama…”

Ash opened his eyes and let his vision clear. Out of the fading blurriness he saw Vibheeshana. His fingers twitched and his mouth moved.

“Rama…” said the demon lord. “Hurry.”

Ash crawled to him, ignoring the blood staining his hands and knees. He lifted the demon lord so his head rested on Ash’s lap. Vibheeshana looked up at him. “My lord Rama. I tried. Forgive me.”

He’s delirious. He thinks I’m the prince.

“What can I do?” Ash asked. “Tell me how to save you.”

“Not important,” said Vibheeshana. “You must stop Savage from getting the Black Mandala. Ravana wrote the secrets of all ten sorceries upon it. Savage aspires to be as great as my brother.”

“But how? No human can contain all that magic. Savage would be torn apart.” He could barely handle the seven sorceries he had already mastered, twisting into hideous shapes each time he cast a spell.

“That’s why he wants the Brahma-aastra. It would counteract any changes, prevent the colossal energies from destroying him.” Vibheeshana sighed as he sank into Ash’s arms, then a humourless smile spread across his bloody lips. “But he’s twice the fool. Ravana cursed the diamond. He told me that if he couldn’t use its powers, then no one could.”

“No…”

Ash stopped himself, and there in the flooded hall, cradling the demon lord, he knew Gemma was never coming back. That he’d failed as completely as anyone could. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair. A sob caught in his throat and he tightened his grip on Vibheeshana, as if he could squeeze another answer, a better one, out of the dying rakshasa prince.

He could picture her in the canteen, looking at him with her hazel eyes. Her shivering in her thin jumper on Bonfire Night. Her standing in his hall.

Her smile.

All that was gone, and for ever. “It’s my fault. All of it.”

Vibheeshana looked at Ash with immeasurable sadness and put his blood-stained hands on Ash’s cheeks. “No. Never think that. Parvati told me why you were here. You wanted to save your friend.”

“I should have listened to Parvati.” He looked hopelessly at the mountain of rubble. She was still there, somewhere. Had he lost her too? “I should never have come.”

“You came because you hoped, and few things are as powerful as hope. That is how the world changes. Now let her go. Give her, and yourself, peace.”

Ash should have known Savage was lying. Deep down, didn’t he know that? His own desires had blinded him. He’d only heard what he’d wanted to hear. Now the terrible truth came to him. There was one mastery Savage wanted above all others. The sorcerer had talked about fixing his past mistakes. “He wants to go back in time.”

“Savage is insane; he doesn’t understand,” Vibheeshana whispered, his strength fading. “To change the past destroys the future. That is why Ravana never used his mastery over Time. My brother was wise enough to know that, at least.”

“Where is the Black Mandala?”

Vibheeshana pointed to the opposite doorway. “Quickly now. Lanka will not last long without my magic to maintain it.”

“But what about Parvati?”

The demon lord smiled. “My niece has escaped more deadly traps than this. Please, there is little time. You must stop him.”

Ash gritted his teeth and hissed. “Savage is a dead man.”

Vibheeshana didn’t reply. A last breath whispered out as the demon lord, the brother of Ravana and the last king of Lanka, died.