Rain (The Quest Trilogy-Book Two) (21 page)

The bush dragged forward a tiny bit.

“I’ll come back. I promise.” said Rain.

This time, the bush did not make a move to follow him. Rain walked ahead quickly.

“Man! That was tough. I thought I would never get her off my back.”

“I feared the same thing.” said his Geeya, floating beside him.

“Can you believe that? A demon! In love with me! How in blazes am I supposed to commit to her? The thought itself frightens me to death!”

Rain turned behind again and again to make sure the bush wasn’t following him. It wasn’t. “She trusts me…”

“Love does that to common sense.”

Rain threw his Geeya a look.
‘What is that supposed to mean?’

But she didn’t answer, floating ahead instead, trailing plumes of scarlet in her wake. Rain didn’t want to dwell on this any further. He had a task to do and very little time left to get it done.

“Say, how come it’s still as bright as early afternoon? It should be evening by now.” said Rain, noticing for the first time that they were nowhere close to a sunset.

“Rain, when you took a nap, you slept for two whole days.”

Rain jerked to a halt.

“Whaaaat?!”

“Yes. The forest of Ahura is in the realm of demons. Their days and nights are different from those of humans. Here, forty-eight hours, or two whole days, make one night and …”

“Two whole days constitute just a single day.” finished Rain, not believing the words coming out of his own mouth. “This means that I now have … only one and a half day left…” Rain fell to his knees in despair. “But how did I sleep for so long without waking up even once?!”

“It was the bush you were sleeping under.” answered his Geeya. “Since the demon took a fancy to you, she kept lulling you into a deep sleep to keep you close to her as long as possible.”

Rain was lost for words. He could only shake his head in a mute expression of his worry and shock. His Geeya floated close to his face.

“Don’t give up, Rain. The new Queen’s egg is just a short climb away.”

Rain closed his eyes and purged his brain of all negative thoughts. He was not going to give up. All was not lost yet. Even if he had just one minute left, he would keep going. He got to his feet with renewed determination.

“We, are going up this mountain and we, are going to get that egg.” declared Rain, staring at the top of the mountain where he could see the mouth of a huge cave. He began to climb up the rocky surface as quickly as he could. It was a long way to the top, but not a distance he could not cover in a few hours.

“Why is this entire mountain red?’ he asked his Geeya, as they continued their ascent.

“It is made entirely of rubies.”

“Rubies!”

He felt the desire to put some rocks in his pocket, but stopped himself before he could make any move.

“What’s the catch if I try to keep some?”

His Geeya smiled. “You are learning, Rain.”

“Yeah, well … once bitten, twice shy.” said Rain, and then snuck a quick glance at his chain. Just in case.

“The catch is, if anyone keeps a ruby from Ruby Mountain then the mountain considers them her own.”

“Which means that …?”

“She keeps you.”

“You mean I won’t be able to escape?”

“You will become a part of the mountain. Do you see those rocky formations?”

“Yes.”

“Look at them closely.”

In a short while, Rain was close enough to one to observe it properly.

“It’s a human! Trapped inside like a … a…”

“Yes, it is a sequestor. All of them are.” said his Geeya, with a sweep of her hand, indicating the many rock-like formations dotting the mountain.

Rain fished out the Nahla from his belt.

“This breaks curses, doesn’t it? Maybe it will break the spell cast by the mountain, too.”

Rain touched the ruby rock formation with the Nahla. “Please, free this trapped person.” he requested the stone. The rock formation cracked like thin ice and fell away, revealing a sequestor.

The freed sequestor fell to Rain’s feet, thanking him profusely for setting him free from the curse of the mountain. Then, he bounded off, to make the most of this second lease of life offered to him by fate.

“I can free them all!” said Rain happily.

“I wouldn’t advise that, Rain. You already have more than you can chew in your mouth.”

“How much time do I have left?”

“Seventeen hours. That is all.”

Rain knew he had precious little time on his hands, but he could not bear to leave all these sequestors here. Not when he could free them. Therefore, he tried to free as many as he could before reaching the mountaintop. As a result of his efforts, all but one sequestor had been freed by the time he neared the top of the mountain. Rain looked at the last remaining ruby structure wistfully.

“It’s too far away. You now have time to do only one thing. Either save yourself by getting the egg, or save that sequestor.” said his Geeya.

Rain sighed.

“At least I saved all the rest.” he said to console himself.

“And you did more than well. You saved nine sequestors in all. Six girls and three boys.”

“You’re right. I must move on.”

On reaching the top of the mountain, Rain was about to enter the cave when three huge hibiscus flowers popped out from below the ground, blocking his way. One flower was black, one green and one red.

“What should I do now?”

“One of these flowers contains the egg of the new Queen cobra. The other two are demon impersonations. Figure out which one is the real one and feed the Nahla to it.”

Rain walked to and fro in front of the flowers, observing them from every angle, even sniffing at them cautiously. But he could find no difference between any of the flowers besides their color. He would just have to hazard a guess, Rain decided finally.

For some reason, he didn’t think it was the red flower. It was too obviously the color of a shoe-flower, and therefore, too obvious a choice. He had his doubts about the green one, too; since the demon he had met below was pale green in color. He decided to go with the black flower because it looked the most sinister and uninviting of the three.

Rain took the Nahla in his hand, closed his eyes and hoped he was making the right choice, and then proceeded towards the black flower. The flower had a small bud in its centre which snapped open when Rain came near.

Rain held his breath, and gingerly reached into the belly of the flower. He dropped the Nahla there. He was about to draw his hand out when the bud snapped shut around his arm.

“Yah! It’s a demon!” cried Rain.

He frantically tugged at his hand to set it free but it was caught in a vise-like grip. Then, sharp, needle-like teeth began to emerge from within the skin of the closed bud, digging into Rain’s flesh. He gave a yell of pain and pulled his hand upwards, almost ripping it to shreds.

He had to keep his wits about him, he reminded himself through his panic. His fingers curled around the Nahla in the demon’s belly. Whatever happened, he could not afford to lose this. Then, with his left hand, he drew out the sword of Halion from his belt and slashed at the base of the flower. The flower tightened and squeezed his arm as though gasping for breath, and then slowly withered into a limp, black mass.

Rain pulled out his bleeding arm, his breath falling heavily.

“Looks like Subodh has a big job coming up.” He remarked. “But I still have one more demon to outwit. And I don’t know which of the remaining two is a …”

Rain needn’t have worried. The green flower began to shake, groan and snap its bud open and close. The demon had smelled the scent of the blood oozing out of Rain’s arm and was unable to contain its hunger. Its mouth opened wide and it bared its needle-like teeth.

Rain didn’t lose a second. He raced to the flower and cut it off from its stem. It, too, fell to the ground and withered. Rain then walked to the red flower and deposited the Nahla into its belly. It closed around the white stone and remained shut for several minutes. Then, it coughed out a large silver egg, along with the Nahla.

“Can you beat that?” said Rain, his voice heavy with irony. “It was the red flower after all. Talk about using some seriously twisted reverse psychology.”

Rain picked up the Nahla and touched it to the egg. It cracked open and a tiny silver snake slithered out of it.  The snake made its way straight to the Nahla in Rain’s hand and swallowed it.

Rain watched in fascination as the snake began to grow in size in front of his eyes. Soon, the tiny snake was as huge as Naaga. It had the same glittering green eyes that the previous Queen Mother had had. Then, behind him there was an enormous rumble as Naaga himself slithered out of the open mouth of the cave.

Just in time, thought Rain.

“Naaga …”said Rain.

“Rain, I was under the impression that you had failed me and I came here to make good on my promise to eat you. But …”

Naaga’s eyes flicked towards the new Queen who was now fully grown and as majestic a beast as him. Naaga paused in front of the new Queen cobra and both snakes circled each other cautiously.

A narrow red beam emerged from the stone at Naaga’s forehead and ran the length of the Queen cobra.

“He’s checking to make sure she isn’t just another demon impersonation, isn’t he?” whispered Rain to his Geeya.

“Not really. Naaga can see through demon impersonations. He is passing on the knowledge left to him by his mother on to the new Queen cobra.”

“Is there any way to tell the difference between a demon impersonation and the real thing?”

“It is very difficult … and for a human, almost impossible. A demon has no heart. So, if it were to impersonate a living thing, the only way to tell that it is a demon would be to find out if it has a heart which, as you know, cannot be done without killing it. To kill a demon is pretty tough. You have to be cunning, and quick, and wily. So mostly, if a demon were impersonating something like an animal or a human, telling the difference would be extremely difficult. In the event that a demon were to impersonate an inanimate object like a flower or a tree, telling the difference between the real and the fake would become an impossibility.”

“In that case, I hope I have no more run-in’s with them.”

Naaga finished passing on the information to the new Queen and turned his huge eyes to Rain.

‘Think he’ll reward me for my efforts?’
asked Rain, holding the top of his bleeding arm which was now causing him terrible agony.

“Highly likely.” replied his Geeya.

‘If he asks me what I would like, I’m going to ask for a wisdom …’

Rain glanced down at his chain, and did a double take. The entire thing was glowing. Again.

“My chain’s glowing again?! Why?!” cried Rain.

A second later as he was pulled off his feet and the mountain sped away, Rain had his answer.

*****

CHAPTER 17

Rain was dumped at the gates of a bustling Indian city. He scrambled to his feet as soon as they hit solid ground.

“What? No…no! Pull me back! Take me back! I haven’t collected my wisdom yet!” he shouted to the air around him, not sure who, or what, to address.

His Geeya materialized a moment later and Rain ran straight to her.

“Why am I here? I haven’t had the chance to collect my wisdom from the previous Quest yet!”

His Geeya shrugged. “Looks like it’s time for your next one.”

“But … but what about the one I just completed? I didn’t fail in it. I succeeded in it!”

“That you did. Maybe Naaga just searched you out in order to avenge his mother’s death and your real Quest begins just now?”

“No way!” gasped Rain. “And after all I went through for it!”

“You didn’t have a choice. You life depended on it.”

Rain kicked a stone in frustration. “Still!”

Rain sobered up reluctantly after a long while. He walked away from the city gates into the forest surrounding it on the outside. There, he made it rain over his injured arm to wash away the oozing blood and clean up the wound. Done, he removed a small container of medicinal paste from his belt and applied it to his wounds. Ever since he had begun helping Subodh out he was equipped to handle most such emergencies. He wrapped his arm with some large leaves and then removed a shred of muslin from his belt and tied it around the leaves. All set, he strode towards the city gates determinedly.

“Let’s get this one over with.”

*****

Rain knocked on the huge wooden doors of the city and they swung open slowly. Two enormous sepoys, who Rain assessed to be almost seven feet tall each, were pulling one side of the heavy city gates each. They took one look at Rain and crossed their spears in front of him, preventing him from going any further.

“Please allow me to go inside.” he requested politely to the two sepoys.

They glared at him in silence.

“I’m not a spy. I’m not an enemy. I mean nobody any harm. Now, please may I enter?” said Rain, trying to get past them once more. They blocked his path even more firmly.

“Look, I have important work to do here!” reasoned Rain.

The two sepoys began talking in a language that Rain didn’t understand, pointing repeatedly at him and his injured arm.

Rain looked himself over. He was tired and travel worn. His disheveled clothes and injured arm probably didn’t make for pleasant additions to the bleak picture he painted. He racked his brains for the word for ‘friend’ his Indian friend Shaan had taught him at Mt. Chimpu.

Rain snapped his fingers.
Dost
! That was it!

He tried his luck again.

“Dost! Dost!” said Rain, pointing to himself. “I am a friend!”

The two sepoys stared at him curiously for a second, and then burst out laughing. Rain took this as a positive cue and walked forward cautiously. They didn’t stop him. Rain strode inside confidently. After going a short distance, he turned back to see what the sepoys were doing. They were right behind him.

“Why are you guys following me?” inquired Rain, miffed.