Rain (The Quest Trilogy-Book Two) (41 page)

There was a foul stench in the air surrounding him. Rain curled up his nose and let out a gust of breath.

“Where have I landed this time?” he asked his Geeya blandly, without opening his eyes.

When several seconds passed by and no reply came, Rain opened his eyes quickly to see what was wrong. His Geeya was standing before him, eyes darting in all directions, looking very scared. For no reason that he could point out, alarm bells began to ring in his head.

“What is it?” he asked in a low tone.

“You are at the palace grounds of Mehrabi, the sorceress. She is extremely powerful and dangerous. She preys on men. And Mehrabi likes to play with her food.”

Rain sucked in a cold breath. “Can I fight her?”

“When the wind blows very strongly, a cow always sits facing away from it.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“If you cannot fight it, don’t challenge it. You are no match for her magic.”

“I’ll have to find a way to escape before being caught, then.” said Rain, looking about him wildly.

Everywhere he looked, there were trees and only trees, and hanging on them, some strange black objects.

“What are those black, twig-like things hanging on all the trees?”

“Those are the drained bodies of her victims, strung on the trees by their necks.”

Rain’s stomach gave a lurch. He thought he was going to be sick.

“Ugh! That’s disgusting! Why are they all headless?”

“They are headless because Mehrabi chops the head off her victims and sucks all the blood through their neck.”

Rain gasped. ”Holy hell! And why do they all have one leg bent at the knee and tied behind at the thigh?”

“She breaks a leg of her victims to prevent them from escaping.”

Rain’s head was suddenly pounding. He could not bear this grotesques scene a minute longer. He held his head between his hands and started to run blindly. Not far ahead, he could see the rays of the sun glitter over the surface of a river and he ran straight for it. The sinister forest ended a short distance away from the bank of the river. As soon as he reached there, Rain collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.

He closed his eyes and concentrated on taking large gulps of air into his lungs. At least the air here was less foul. More breathable. Rain clawed at the edge of the river and dragged his body over it.

A sip of fresh water… that was what he needed.

He cupped a handful of water and was about to drink it, when his eyes fell on the bottom of the crystal clear river. The bed was black, filled with large rocks. Rain peered more closely.

Were those …

Heads! Heads belonging to the bodies hanging on the trees! Rain’s eyeballs turned up in his sockets and he fell on his back like a rock, unconscious.

*****

The first thing Rain became aware of was the warmth. The atmosphere was cozy. It made him feel safe. The next thing he became aware of was the perfume in the air. Everything smelled lovely. Everything smelled like spices and flowers. Soft, soothing music played in the background. His body was stiff. His muscles were tense. Instinctively, Rain jerked his legs.

They were there. They were intact. Feeling slightly reassured, Rain tried to focus.

Where was he? Why was he so tensed? Rain couldn’t exactly remember. He didn’t dig too deep for the information either. Something told him that whatever it was, he didn’t want to remember it. He remembered one thing, though. He remembered he was extremely thirsty. He groaned softly and smacked his tongue. His mouth felt like it was on fire.

Two fingers gently prodded his lips open and poured sweet sherbet down his inflamed throat. The liquid soothed him, giving him strength.

“That’s right,” said a husky voice, “drink all you want.”

And Rain drank some more. He opened his eyes, searching for the owner of the voice.

Two heavily made-up, kohl lined eyes came into focus. Dark as the night. Intense, intuitive and intelligent.

“You are awake …” said Mehrabi, flashing rows of gleaming white teeth.

A fresh blast of heady perfume hit Rain’s nostrils, clouding his senses, filling him with desire. Mehrabi was drawing little circles on his bare chest with her finger, sending shots of thrill running down his body. She had his head cradled in her lap.

“You should eat something...” said Mehrabi, her fingers slowly traveling downwards.

Rain stopped her hand with his, put his other arm behind her neck and slowly pulled her down towards himself. Mehrabi drew back a little and gave a throaty laugh.

“
This
, you can have for dessert!”

Rain shook his head, pulling her down again.

“Anything you wish …” she breathed, before bending low and starting to kiss him in earnest.

With every passing second, Rain got lost more and more. He stroked the length of Mehrabi’s back with both hands. She shifted her weight on top of him, deepening the kiss. Somewhere in the recesses of his brain, a voice cried out a warning.

‘Rain! Nooo …!’

He blocked it out. He was, at present, fairly occupied. His hands began to undo the laces on Mehrabi’s back. Once undone, Rain pushed the hindering slivers of fabric away and stroked a finger up her bare spine. Mehrabi gave a groan of pleasure.

Rain moved his fingers over her spine rapidly in a series of calculated movements. Mehrabi’s body gave a violent spasm and she let out a choked gasp as her body froze stiff. Rain heaved her body off himself and jumped to his feet, his breath falling hard.

His Geeya flew to him.

“Rain! I thought this was the end, for both of us! What did you do to her?”

“Subodh’s spinal spangler.” answered Rain, his chest heaving. He looked at the paralyzed body of Mehrabi. Her face, too, was frozen in its expression of shock; eyes bulging in her sockets and burning with fury as they followed Rain’s every movement.

“It won’t last too long, though. I have to finish her off while I have the chance.”

Rain drew out the sword of Halion and with a swift stroke, lopped Mehrabi’s head off.

“Now what?” he asked.

“Out of here. As quickly as you can. The place is guarded heavily by magic that gets activated at sundown. You must leave before that happens.”

“How much time do I have?”

“Only an hour.”

Thankfully, they were on the ground floor of the palace. Rain jumped out of the window and raced away from Mehrabi’s chambers.

“Where is the exit to this place?” yelled Rain, so he could be heard above the rushing wind.

‘There is no exit. No one ever leaves.’
his Geeya answered in his head.

“How am I supposed to get out then?”

‘The only way to leave this place is by crossing the river. There is a desert on the other side of it where Mehrabi’s magic ends.’

Rain felt queasy at the mere thought of swimming across that river, but it was his only way to escape this place. He ran to the river and halted at its bank.

Did he have it in him to swim across? It was not a very big river. From where he stood, he could see the golden sands of the desert stretching out beyond. Rain looked down into the water at the ugly black faces with their eyes shut forever. An overwhelming sense of nausea gripped him and he retched on one side.

“I can’t do it!” he gasped. “I can’t swim across!”

“Swimming isn’t the only way to cross a river.” said his Geeya.

Rain’s head jerked up. She was right. He didn’t
have
to swim. If he could just …

“I’m going to make myself a raft.” said Rain, jumping to his feet.

“You won’t have time. The sun is hanging low. You now have only half an hour.”

What was he supposed to do now? Thought Rain in despair. And then he spotted it.

“A banana tree! I can use its bark as a canoe!”

Rain raced to the banana tree and began chopping at its bark with his sword. He had it felled in no time.

“Hurry, Rain! The sun is setting!”

Rain worked on the tree like a maniac, chopping it in the middle and hacking away the large leaves. He had not yet finished when the last of the sun dipped out of sight, into the horizon.

For several minutes, nothing happened and Rain continued to hack away. Then, there was the sound of a loud snap. Rain turned towards the sound and almost fainted again. One of the dead bodies hanging on a tree had snapped the rope holding it by the neck and landed on the ground below. It was now lumbering itself up on its single leg. Following the first one, there were several more snaps as the bodies freed themselves and fell from the trees. They stood up on their one leg and began to hop towards Rain with their arms outstretched.

“What do I do? What do I do?!” yelled Rain.

“Get into the canoe!”

“But it’s not done yet!”

Hop, hop, hop they came.

“Doesn’t matter. Get in. NOW!”

Hop, hop, hop came the bodies, closer and closer.

Rain picked up a dead branch to use as an oar, threw his little canoe into the river and jumped into it. He paddled away from the bank as fast as his hands would let him.

The bodies had now reached the edge of the river bank, where they stood motionless, for their target was now beyond their reach. Rain kept paddling, forbidding himself from looking down for he knew that if he did, he would lose the courage to go on. He would have stuck to his rule, too, if a sudden movement below hadn’t caught his eye.

“What was that!” asked Rain, peering at the river bed.

It was till black, but there was now so much white in it, too. Rain felt the blood in his veins curdle. The eyes on the heads were open, and all of them were looking up at him.

A head floated upwards and popped out of the water, instantly turning towards Rain like a magnet to a pole. Seconds later, several more heads floated upwards.

Pop, pop, pop they emerged.

Soon, the river was full of bobbing heads, all glaring at Rain. They started to converge upon him, snapping their jaws. Rain paddled in a frenzy, hitting any of the heads that got too close. Soon, he was surrounded by them. There were too many for him to fight. They gnawed at the edges of Rain’s canoe, chewing it up as quickly as they could while Rain batted at them with his dead branch. Rain looked at the shore. So close! If only he could make it.

Within minutes, they had gnawed away most of the banana bark. Only the portion on which Rain stood was left.

“Come on, Rain! You can, make it! Just jump!” cried his Geeya.

Rain kept bashing away at the heads.

He couldn’t cut this distance in one jump. He would have to land once on the bobbing heads.

“I can’t!” said Rain, tears of desperation now streaking down his cheeks.

“You can, Rain, You can! Don’t think about it. Just jump!”

Rain took a deep breath, and with a roar he jumped off the bit of bark, landed one foot on the sea of heads, and pushed himself with their support onto the bank of the river. The instant his feet touched the desert sands the commotion behind him stopped, and the heads receded to the depths of the river.

Rain, however, didn’t stop. He stumbled to his feet and he ran. He ran until he could no longer see the dreaded river. Until he could no longer see Mehrabi’s palace. Until it was too dark to see anything at all. When he was sure he was safe, he collapsed and let the blackness swallow him once more.

*****

CHAPTER 35

Day turned to night. And night turned to day.

The endless cycle continued … and time passed. Every day, he only concentrated on making it to the next. How many days had he been here? He didn’t know. Didn’t like to think about it. Thinking hurt.

He would not have bothered to survive either, but something … a promise made not long ago to never go away, kept him going. Told him he had to survive. And he obeyed without thinking.  Because thinking hurt.

Occasionally, a face would break through the fog obscuring his memories: Sweet, smiling …with long, white-blond hair. He liked seeing the face but didn’t like thinking about the girl.

Because thinking hurt.

… And time passed.

*****

His Geeya materialized before him holding a bun and some dates. Rain took the food and ate it without complaint. She had been doing this for the longest time now, feeding him and sheltering him because he had stopped caring about things like eating, drinking, sleeping. He ate when she brought food. Slept when he was tired. And the rest of the time, kept moving. In no particular direction; just onwards.

Thankfully, he knew the desert. She was his friend. He had been on her sands before and learnt lessons from her silence earlier, and wanted and needed it now.

“Rain …”

His Geeya was speaking to him.

She had spoken very little in the days gone past. Rain swallowed the last of the bread, took the pouch of water she offered him and drank to his fill. Then he lay back against a sand dune and nodded for her to go on.

“Rain, it’s been eight months since we’ve been here …”

Eight months? He didn’t like to think, but he thought that was a lot.

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m good.” said Rain, in a voice that was cracked and hoarse from disuse.

He cleared his throat and spoke again. “Is everything all right?”

His Geeya sat down beside him. “Pity you couldn’t collect any wisdom from your last task. Maybe that’s why we’re still stuck here.”

She had never mentioned the events of that horrible day before now and Rain had never let his mind wander into those dark alleys of his memories but now, as his mind harked back to that day, he found that it didn’t hurt his head to think about it.

The desert must surely have been healing him, for his thoughts were clear and lucid and brought with them no pain.

“On the contrary, I did collect a wisdom on that last Quest.” said Rain.

His Geeya was genuinely surprised. “You did?”

‘Yes. We, humans, always think that life is a blessing and death is a curse. But that is not so. Both life
and
death are a blessing. It is a gift to have some people alive, and a gift to have some others dead. Nobody who is alive should be dead, in other words, waste their life by simply existing. And nobody who is dead should be forced to live again. They should be left in peace. You get what I’m trying to say?”