PRINCE IN EXILE (35 page)

‘You have what you want already,’ Kausalya said. ‘Leave Kaikeyi out of the rest. Set her free from your power. Let her be herself again.’ 

Manthara smiled and frowned at the same time. ‘Herself? And who might that be? What woman is it you speak of, Rani Kausalya? A snivelling, self-centred, self-indulgent, hedonistic woman whose only goal is to pleasure herself into oblivion from dawn to dusk? A spoilt overgrown brat of a girl who has never truly matured over the mental age of fifteen? A selfish bitch of a she-whelp who cares about nothing and nobody but herself? Is that the woman you want her to become again?’ 

‘If that is all she was, then yes, let her be just that,’ Kausalya said. ‘But a lot of those faults were encouraged by you. That’s very clear now. From the outset you were manipulating and shaping her to suit your own dark purposes, just as you yourself have been manipulated by your evil master.’ 

A dark cloud passed across Manthara’s sneering features. ‘I’ve had enough of your rubbish talk about manipulations and misshapings. First old whitebeard, now you. I’ll advise you to watch your tongue when speaking of my master, Rani Kausalya. Even being Rama’s mother won’t help you much if he takes offence at your blasphemous accusations.’ Her lips curled in a snarling smile. ‘After all, he can hardly come running all the way from Dandaka-van every time you are in trouble, now can he?’ 

Kausalya bit her cheek to hold back the retort that was on the tip of her tongue. No, she admonished herself. It would not do to cross words with this vile creature. Manthara was only a tool in the hand of a greater power. If she was to win this war, if not this battle, then it was against that greater power that she must pit her strength. 

‘I have a message to give you, Manthara,’ Kausalya said quietly. ‘A message you must pass on to your master, wherever he might be at this time. Can you do that?’ 

Manthara peered at her suspiciously. Her eyes were filmed over with some condition of her age, Kausalya saw. By rights she should have been partly or wholly blind, yet she was able to see. Then Kausalya realised that the occlusions had not been there before. As recently as Holi feast day, she recalled seeing the daiimaa’s eyes quite clear and grey as ever. The explanation for this unnatural phenomenon came to her in a flash of insight.
He has blinded her, that she might see only that which he wishes her to see. So he has given her cataracts in both eyes and made her blind to human reality. Everything she sees is distorted by the asura shakti she uses in place of natural eyesight. And the more she uses that unholy shakti, the more he corrupts and controls her
. 

‘What message might that be?’ Manthara asked suspiciously. ‘You’ll be sorry if you try to pull some sorcerous trick on me, rani. Don’t go underestimating my powers. I may have laid low all these years, but every moment, every season, I was gaining great vidya and shakti from my master. Now I am able to take on any seer you pit against me, no matter how much Brahman shakti he may wield.’ 

Kausalya held out her hands, palms facing up. ‘Do I look like I mean to attack you?’ She indicated the empty, cavernous sabha hall. ‘Do you see anyone else here besides me? Or perhaps you think I might speak a simple mantra and call upon the devi to grant me her strength.’ Kausalya paused, indicating a portrait of the devi that hung on the wall behind the dais. ‘And her trishul as well.’ 

Manthara started. For a second, her eyes flashed to the portrait, reacted, then blinked rapidly. The daiimaa visibly fought to regain control of her emotions before she glowered again at Kausalya, her eyes flashing green this time. ‘Don’t patronise me, rani. You had your say, now speak your message and get lost from here. I have better things to do than to stand around and banter with you all day. Speak!’ 

Kausalya took a deep breath and released it slowly, using the pranayam method to calm her senses and slow her metabolism. If her judgement was correct, she ought to have bought enough time by now for the others assembled outside to play their part. Yes, it was time to act now, before the old witch grew more suspicious and simply blew her away with a blast of her asura sorcery. She wasn’t afraid of personal harm coming to her as much as she was anxious not to lose this precious opportunity to disarm and disable this cursed thorn in the side of her family and future. Manthara must go, and she must go now, before she turned Ayodhya itself into a seething swamp of asura evil. 

And the burden of ridding the land of the witch fell to Kausalya. Now. Here. At this very place and time. 

‘Listen well then, old woman. This message is for your master, he who calls himself Lord of Lanka. Ravana! Hear these words now! And feel the power and might of Brahman towering before you!’ 

She stepped forward and bent down to pick up the still weeping Kaikeyi lying on the floor. ‘Rise, sister,’ she said gently. ‘The time has come for you to think and act for yourself, not as a pawn in this game of thrones and souls.’ 

And before Manthara could grasp what she was doing, Kausalya placed her hands tightly around Kaikeyi’s head and began to chant the Sanskrit slokas Guru Vashishta had infused into her mind before she had entered the sabha hall. 

||
Asuryah namah tey loka aandhyen tamasavratya
||

||
Tan asthey preytyabhigshanthi yet keych atma-hanah janah
|| 

Manthara screamed. The foulest curse Kausalya had ever heard was spat from the green witch’s lips, aimed at Kausalya’s heart. It was less an abuse than a spell. Something struck Kausalya directly in the chest with the impact and unbelievable painfulness of a dagger flung at her breast. She staggered back, teetering on the brink of the dais. Manthara screeched again, furious at being outwitted, and threw her hand out, palm facing Kausalya, making a shoving gesture. Kausalya felt as if the hand were at her breast, pushing with savage force, rather than ten yards away. She lost her balance and fell violently off the dais, arms cartwheeling instinctively. 

Devi protect me!
she cried silently, then she hit the ground with a bone-crushing crunch and lost consciousness. 

She came round a few seconds later to see Manthara dragging Kaikeyi by the hair towards the throne. She blinked, and stars flashed before her eyes, blazing white and then black and then red. She tried to feel if she had broken anything. She couldn’t tell for certain, but she didn’t think so, although the back of her head ached terribly, and her elbow was sore too. Luckily for her, the sabha hall was carpeted from wall to wall to accommodate all the samiti representatives who sat cross-legged on the floor. 

She struggled to her feet and called out, ‘Kaikeyi, listen to me. The spell was broken the instant I uttered that mantra. You have been freed of the witch’s curse. Resist her, fight her if you must. She has no more power over you.’ 

‘SILENCE!’ Manthara screamed, turning to point one gnarled finger at Kausalya. A spear of light as thin as a longbow arrow shot from the tip of her finger straight to Kausalya. It even felt like an arrow when it struck her in her right shoulder, the impact powerful enough to lift her off her feet and fling her further across the sabha hall. She landed several yards away, but regained her feet almost immediately. Agony exploded at the juncture of her right shoulder and collarbone. 

‘Kaikeyi,’ she shouted. ‘Fight her!’ 

This time Manthara could take it no longer. She let go of Kaikeyi and turned fully towards Kausalya. 

‘Enough!’ she cawed. That was what it sounded like to Kausalya, like a crow cawing in indignation. ‘This time you transgress too far! For twenty years I’ve watched you prosper and grow from strength to strength, prancing around like the gods’ own gift to the world. Acting as if you’re better than all of us lesser mortals. Who do you think you are anyway? Just because you bend your head in prayer, that doesn’t make you pious and free of sin!’ 

‘No,’ Kausalya replied, standing as straight as she could without revealing any of the pain she felt from the sorcerous blows. ‘That comes only from really being pious and free of sin. Are you free of sin, Manthara? When the devas weigh your sins against the rest of your karma, do you think they’ll be pleased with all you’ve done? Do you think you’ll be rewarded or punished?’ 

‘The devas have no hold over me,’ the green witch said scornfully. ‘I am in the employ of the Dark Lord now. His power is greater than any other. He protects and rewards me. You dare to doubt his shakti? You dare to defy him? Then it’s time that you learned just what he is capable of.’ 

And Manthara raised both her hands and began chanting a mantra aloud. The language she spoke was alien and terrible to human ears. Beside her, Kaikeyi cried out and clapped her hands over her ears, her face twisting with pain. Even at this distance, Kausalya’s ears were assailed by the sound. It was the most awful, bestial tongue she had ever heard spoken.
Rakshasa, she’s speaking rakshasa
. 

A ball of fire the size of a wine-bladder coalesced between Manthara’s parted hands. It blazed green and black and tiny lightning bolts flashed within its core. The sabha hall was filled with a roaring wind, as every atom and molecule in the air was dragged inexorably towards the unnatural phenomenon called up by the asura mantra. Manthara turned the burning ball of sorcerous fire around, not actually touching it with her hands but able to manipulate it somehow. It grew stormier, like a thundercloud building up an electrical charge before unleashing its fury. Kausalya raised her hands instinctively before her breast, then lowered them slowly.
I can’t fend off that thing like a pillow thrown at me
. She saw the difference in scale between the two earlier blows Manthara had flung at her, and estimated that if they were respectively a dagger-throw and then an arrow-shot, by that reckoning this weapon would be akin to a lead weight flung at her by a siege machine.
It will shatter my bones like glass
. 

Manthara reached a climax in her chanting, concordant with the ball spinning faster, like a dervish out of control. The lightning in its core flashed brighter and louder, filling the entire sabha hall with its blinding green blaze and billowing like a gale through the chamber. 

Kausalya braced herself for death.
If this is how you wish me to go, then so be it, maa
. 

At the very last moment, just as Manthara raised her hands to unleash the ball of asura witchfire, a figure staggered across the dais and fell on the daiimaa. Manthara was too absorbed in her chanting to see Kaikeyi come at her, and the rani shoved Manthara hard enough to throw her off balance. The witchfire ball spun out of control momentarily, shooting up to strike the ceiling above. The plaster and stone of the sabha hall ceiling shattered at the impact, showering down chips and shards and debris over both women. Manthara howled in frustration and rage and lashed out at Kaikeyi. Her hand struck the queen across her exposed midriff, leaving four sharply defined slashes, like those made by an animal’s talons.
Or an asura’s
. Kaikeyi gasped and fell to her knees, clutching her belly. Blood welled up in the cuts. She looked up and her eyes met Kausalya’s.
She’s herself now, the spell is broken
. Then Kaikeyi keeled over and fell on to her face on the dais floor. 

‘No!’ Kausalya shouted, running towards the dais. ‘You’ve killed her! You’ll pay for this, you witch!’ 

The ball of witchfire had bounced off the ceiling and fallen down again - straight into Manthara’s hands once more. The witch shuffled forward, snarling in rage at Kausalya. ‘She’ll live,’ the hunchback screamed. ‘But you won’t!’ 

And with all her strength she flung the witchfire ball at Kausalya. 

Kausalya stopped dead in her tracks.
Devi help me
, she cried silently. But the words came out aloud. ‘Devi help me!’ she heard herself say above the roaring of the wind and the green fire. 

And then the witchfire ball came at her like a thundercloud sent down to wreak death and destruction. 

SEVEN 

A sound like a thunderclap exploded in Kausalya’s ears. Her vision was seared by a light so dazzling she could see only whiteness for several moments, whiteness tinged by a corona of flickering green. She thought she had lost consciousness, had lost life itself, but when one moment passed, then another, and she realised she still stood on both feet, still felt her heart thumping like a dhol-drum in her chest, and smelled the same acrid odour that had pervaded the kosaghar after Manthara had used her asura sorcery to vanish, only then did she accept that she was still very much alive. 

She opened her eyes and saw a chiaroscuro of flashing, flickering lights, winking in and out of existence. She waited, praying for it to pass, and in another moment or two she began to discern faintly, as through a thick fog, the outlines of the pillars of the sabha hall, the royal dais with the great silhouette of the sunwood throne, and two figures, one standing, one lying prone on the dais. She blinked and squinted, straining to see, and like a miasma out of swamp-mist, her vision swam back into focus. 

Manthara stood over the prone, still form of Kaikeyi, her hands clawed into a bestial rictus. The green witch-flame that had blazed in her eyes and fingertips and at her contours had vanished. She stood in her usual hunched posture, grimacing in Kausalya’s direction. It took Kausalya a moment to understand that what she had taken for a grimace was actually intended to be a smile. Who was she smiling at? Kausalya? No, her gaze was directed slightly to Kausalya’s right.