Rain (The Quest Trilogy-Book Two) (26 page)

Destiny closed her eyes and tears streamed down her cheeks. “That was when I screamed … when I saw her jump …”

Rain looked at the sharp bend ahead from where the girl had apparently jumped. A fall from such a height meant sure death.

“Destiny, I don’t think it was a girl …” said Rain.

“What do you mean?” asked Heart.

By now, Subodh and Angel had reached them and Subodh was trying to staunch the flow of blood from Destiny’s head.

“I think it was an Undead. My Geeya told me they are restless spirits who create havoc and mischief.” speculated Rain.

“I know what you mean.” said Angel, his deep voice booming in the silence. Destiny winced, and Heart asked Angel to lower his volume by a few decibels.

“Sorry.” apologized Angel, lowering his voice. “But I think Rain is correct. The undead do crazy stuff to trouble others and take much joy from it. A few months back, before I met you people, I was walking under a rocky ledge with my cat, Miss Mint. All of a sudden, this huge boulder came crashing down on me. My Geeya pushed me out of its way in the nick of time, but my cat- who limped- got crushed. Then I heard mad, maniacal laughter coming from above. I looked up to see who it was, but there was nobody there.”

“We need to take her somewhere proper, where I can treat her wounds.” rasped Subodh.

Rain consulted his Geeya.

“Is there any place in this forest where we can camp out?”

She nodded, and offered to show the way.

Heart lifted Destiny carefully in his arms and they all followed Rain.

His Geeya led them all to a large clearing in the middle of the forest. The ground was plain and flat here, surrounded on all sides by large trees and bushes. There was a pile of wood cut into logs in one corner, and the remnants of a fire in the middle of the clearing.

“I think someone camped here until very recently.” guessed Angel.

“Yeah, it’s too clean a spot to have just appeared out of nowhere. All the same, it’s perfect. Let’s get to work.” said Rain.

Subodh worked on Destiny’s injuries with help from Heart and Rain, who were able assistants and stocked most of his supplies for him. Subodh needed to use no anesthetic because Destiny had lost consciousness.

“Will she be all right?” asked Heart, his forehead etched with lines of worry.

“I’m sure she will be. She is a young and healthy woman. But she needs to rest for at least eight to ten days.” said Subodh.

That night, Heart went about gathering as many leaves as he could and made a soft bed out of them. He laid his t-shirts over the bed of leaves as added cushioning and then lay the as-yet unconscious Destiny down over the leafy bed.

The next morning, as soon as she regained consciousness, Destiny expressed her wish to leave.

“But you got badly injured yesterday. You have to rest for a few days.” protested Heart.

“I know I need rest. And I will rest. Only not here.” said Destiny, rolling to her side with difficulty and supporting her weight on one elbow to be better able to look at the faces around her.

“But why?” argued Heart.

“Because I do not trust men. And over here, there are only men.”

“You can trust each and every one of us here, Destiny. I’ve known Rain for almost three years now, and I can vouch for his integrity firmly. Angel’s a real nice person, too, I can tell; even though I’ve only known him for a few months. And Subodh here, he’s a healer. You couldn’t doubt his intentions.”

“How are you vouching for Rain and Angel so strongly?”

“I can sense the desires of a person’s heart and control them. That is how.”

“And who will vouch for you?” she asked softly.

Heart stared at Destiny.

The silence between them lengthened, but she met his gaze unflinchingly.

“I am a man of honor, Destiny. And I would lay down my life to defend that claim.”

She looked away. She couldn’t meet his soul-baring gaze any longer.

“Sorry. I’m afraid that is not enough for me.” said Destiny quietly.

She tried to get up, but felt a wave of dizziness and sat down again. Heart reached out to help her, but she crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head stubbornly.

“I’ll manage it. It’s just going to take me a few more tries, that’s all.”

“It’s not like we want to force you to stay among people you do not trust. But pray child, tell me, how are you going to leave with that on your leg?”

It was Subodh who spoke now.

Destiny met the healer’s penetrating gaze for a brief second and then looked away guiltily.

She hadn’t meant to insult the old healer. After all, he had saved her life.

She decided, instead, to take a look at what Subodh was pointing to. Her leg was held straight by two flat pieces of wood on either side of her calf, tied securely with muslin strips.

“Is that a …?”

“Cast? Yes.” said Subodh.

“No.” groaned Destiny. “You don’t understand. I
can’t
stay!”

“Yes, you can, Destiny. You are safe here. I will personally see to your safety.” rasped Subodh.

Destiny sighed in resignation.

She was smart enough to know when a battle was lost. If she had to spend the next few days here healing, it would be best not to antagonize the men here any further.

“All right. I’ll stay.” she acceded.

No one looked more relieved than Heart to hear that.

“You won’t regret your decision.” said Heart.

“We’ll see about that. Did you bring my backpack?” said Destiny, making sure to keep her voice reserved and unfriendly.

“It’s right here.”

“I have a tent in there. Could you pitch it for me, please?”

“Gladly. But why do need a tent? It’s much more pleasant out here in the open.”

Destiny regarded him disdainfully. “A woman needs her privacy. Let’s leave it at that.”

For the first two days, Rain, Angel and Heart would maintain sober demeanors during Destiny’s waking hours but then, as the days passed, they slipped into their friendly camaraderie even when she was awake.

Their primary need here in the forest was pure, clean water and they were never short of it, courtesy their resident water tanker: Rain.

One week after Destiny’s arrival, Rain’s chain began to glow once more and Heart began to fret.

“You could be gone for days … weeks. Even months. What will I do if Destiny decides to stay? She needs fresh water!”

Rain rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, no matter where I am or how long I take, I will concentrate on our camp every day and make it rain without fail.”

Heart stopped pacing agitatedly. “Can you really do that?”

“Duh, no!”

“Damn!”

Rain shook his head and walked out of the camp. He had an upcoming Quest to worry about right now. Heart and his water woes could wait.

Late that night, when he wandered off for a walk alone, Rain left his companions behind as he got sucked into yet another Quest.

*****

CHAPTER 22

He was standing in the middle of a large hall made entirely of marble. Ahead of him, he could see a door. As Rain walked towards it, it opened for him on its own. Beyond the door, there was gravel. Mounds and mounds of gravel with dead, dry leaves rustling over them softly due to the wind.

“A graveyard …” said Rain, stepping onto the mud.

He walked ahead gingerly, taking great care not to step over any of the graves. At the centre of the graveyard were three large glass structures that looked like inverted test tubes. In each of these giant capsules was a girl, suspended in some sort of liquid. All three capsules were glowing: one pink, one blue, and one green.

Rain’s eyes scanned his immediate vicinity. As far as he could tell, he was alone except for the three girls encased in the glass capsules.

Rain walked up to the glass structures to observe them closely. All three girls were dressed in the same white, frock-like dress. They all had long, platinum blonde hair that Rain estimated would reach their hips if it wasn’t floating upwards in the liquid. And they all looked exactly alike. They had only one distinguishing feature: the front portion of their hair, their bangs, which was cut short into bangs and colored differently in each case. The girl in the pink capsule had her’s colored pink, the girl in the blue had blue colored bangs, and the girl in the green capsule had brown.

“Is this some sort of an illusion?” asked Rain, looking the capsule up and down. “There are metal plates bearing names at the bottom.”

Rain started with the pink capsule. “Fire.” he read.

Onto the blue; “Snow.”

And lastly, the green;

“Earth.”

Rain looked up at the girl suspended in the clear liquid.

“What do you suppose these are?” he mused aloud, his eyes trailing the little bubbles flowing upwards from the bottom of the capsule. “Humans? Aliens? Are they even alive?”

He gave a start as his eyes fell on the girl’s right hand, where he could clearly make out a metallic green inscription.

“A Geeya mark!”

Rain quickly scanned the hands of the occupants of the other two capsules, seeing one blue and one pink Geeya mark.

“They’re all sequestors!” he exclaimed. “I have to free them somehow!”

He ran back a few steps and then charged towards the pink capsule, ramming into it with his shoulders. The minute his shoulder crashed into the glass casing, a jolt ran through his body and he was thrown several feet away with the force of the impact. The glass capsule, however, remained unharmed.

Rain got to his feet slowly.

“They’re protected by a force field of some kind.” he said, rubbing dirt off his elbows.

There was the sound of a deafening crack and Rain automatically covered his ears with his palms. The first sound was followed by two more.

Rain opened his eyes to find three withered, ugly women in front of him. Their feet didn’t quite touch the ground; they were floating slightly above it. Each of the three women was connected to one of the capsules with a glowing cord the same color as the capsule it was connected to, and that buzzed and snapped like it was made of electricity. Their eyes were like two thin, horizontal slits on their faces beyond which Rain could only make out red.

“Who dares …”

“To disturb …”

“Our sleep?”

They said, taking it in turns to speak in a wheezy voice that rattled in their throats.

“Who are you?” inquired Rain.

He was surprised to find that his voice sounded so strong. He was even more surprised to find that he was not afraid of them. By now, he had seen and experienced worse.

The witches took it in turns to introduce themselves.

“I am Mull.”

“I am Kull.”

“And I am Pall.”

“We are the three witch sisters.”

“We have survived for over a thousand years.”

“And we will live forever.” They said.

“Have you trapped these girls, here?” said Rain, emphasizing the word ‘you’ and pointing to the capsules.

“You wish …”

“To free …”

“Them?”

“Yes I do.” said Rain.

“Then …”

“There is …”

“A price to pay.”

“Name your price.” said Rain.

“Answer …”

“Our questions …”

“And we will …”

“Let you …”

“Have them.”

“What are the questions?” asked Rain.

A witch flew towards him at blinding speed and halted inches away from his face. The other two witches began floating around the periphery of the graveyard, like sentinels guarding their sister’s prey. The witch before him was connected to the pink capsule. She pointed a pale, withered finger at Rain.

“If you wish to free Fire, then bring me the answer to this question: How can you see without using your eyes?”

She flew behind and the witch connected to the green capsule flew forward.

“If you want to free Earth, then answer this: Bring me an example each- of the ugliest, and the most beautiful – man and woman who have ever lived.”

The third witch, who was connected to the blue capsule, flew forward.

“To free Snow, you must tell me: what are the four lessons that life teaches you?”

They flew behind to stand together again.

“You …”

“May …”

“Leave.”

“Before I go, I have your word that I can have the girls if I answer your questions?” said Rain, trying to make sure there were no loopholes they could exploit.

“Yes.” they said, in unison. They then began to sway and fade away before Rain’s eyes.

Rain took one last look at the three girls trapped in the capsules, and then walked out the door that had led him into the graveyard.

“What now?” Rain asked his Geeya, standing in the marble hall again. “Where do I begin searching for the answers to these questions?”

“Beyond this hall is the forest of Feni, where the Wise old Willow tree lives. She will be able to help you out. She is almost twenty-two thousand years old and as a result, is suitably wizened.”

“I have to get to her then. Can you show me the way?”

“I can lead you to the tree. Getting the answers out of her is your job.”

“But of course.” agreed Rain, and they set out.

*****

Rain traveled through the forest for three days without any food. The supplies in his belt were long over and if hadn’t been for his ability to make rain, he would have gone thirsty, too.

“I’m exhausted. How much further do we have to go?” groaned Rain, flattening his palm on the back of an old tree and pausing to catch his breath.

“We have to go no further. We are there.”

“We are? Where is the old willow tree?” said Rain, swinging his head left and right.

“You’re leaning on her.”

Rain jerked upright in embarrassment, afraid he might have offended the old tree.

“Oops!”

There came the sound of a soft giggle from the other side of the willow tree.