THE CURSE OF BRAHMA (48 page)

asudev stopped to survey the hazardous terrain ahead of them. The rough pathway was strewn with boulders of varying sizes and the trail they were on suddenly branched into a multitude of narrow byways. It was anyone’s guess which of these was the right one and led to the assassin’s lair. Vasudev knew each of these byways could be a death trap, and he could well be leading his men to their end.

The platoon of men that Airawat had gathered together for the task force had grown to a full brigade of five hundred hardened soldiers under Vasudev’s command. It had taken a month to select the men and train them to achieve the unbelievable standard they had reached before Vasudev finally announced them ready to battle the asura assassins. He had started the training as soon as he had reached Madhuvan from Bateshwar. Airawat had been awed at the intense training regime Vasudev set for his men. Yet the Prince maintained an easy camaraderie with all of them and it was evident to Airawat that he had the loyalty of each man present there.

Two days back, one of Ugrasena’s trusted spies had brought news that he had sighted a few suspicious-looking men at Hastinapur. The spy had been keeping watch on their activities for several days and he had finally become convinced that they were assassins in hiding. While they worked within the city, they did not dwell there like the other workers and traders. This in itself was odd. To add to that, they looked vastly different from the other traders and carried themselves with the air of people trained to fight. Finally, one day the spy decided to follow the men to find out where they stayed. He trailed them at a distance, but just when he thought they were reaching their destination, his horse stopped and refused to move further. The spy realized the horse had badly hurt its hoof, and it would be pointless to follow the men on foot. He walked ahead for some distance and came to a point where the road branched into several directions. Rather than follow them further and risk being exposed, the spy had returned to Hastinapur and requested an urgent audience with Dhritarashtra, who was acting as regent of the powerful country in the absence of his younger brother, Pandu, who was currently undergoing penance in the forests of Chaitraratha, along with his two wives. Under the sage advice of his vrddhah (grandfather), Bheeshma, Dhritarashtra handed the spy a communique for Vasudev, giving him permission to enter Hastinapur with his task force.

Vasudev and his men had ridden hard and covered the distance of twenty yojanas from Madhuvan in two days. They had now reached the point where the spy had lost the trail of the men he had been following. Vasudev turned around as Airawat rode ahead with the spy to join him. The rest of the men were halted at a distance waiting for instructions from Vasudev.

‘Is this the exact location you lost the men, Aniruddha?’ Vasudev looked at the spy.

‘Yes, My Lord,’ Aniruddha answered, amazed that Vasudev knew his name. He had no idea that Vasudev could have rattled off the name of each of his five hundred men with ease.

Vasudev glanced at Airawat. ‘What do you suggest? Each of these paths could be a trap leading the men to their deaths.’

Airawat nodded in agreement. Like Vasudev, he too had made a quick assessment of the situation, which included analysing each of the byways. He had a question for the spy: ‘How many men did you say you followed Aniruddha?’

Aniruddha considered for a while. ‘I think there must have been about thirty in all, sire.’

Airawat nodded, his expression thoughtful. ‘What are the chances that there could be other men…men that you may not be aware of, but are companions of the people you followed that day?’

Aniruddha understood where Airawat was going with his questions. He shook his head ruefully. ‘I have no idea, sire. I never saw those men interact with anyone else at Hastinapur. But there is always the chance that there could be other groups like theirs functioning in other parts of the city. And…and all these groups may be dwelling in the same place.’

‘In which case it could be both, an advantage as well as a terrible drawback,’ Vasudev intervened. Both men stared at him.

‘If there are several groups holed up together somewhere up there,’ Vasudev said, pointing in the direction of the byways, ‘then this would be a brilliant opportunity to catch them all at one go.’ He paused, before continuing in a quiet voice, ‘If, however, their numbers are too large, then not only will they have the advantage of knowing this terrain, they could also possibly outnumber us by a large margin.’

There was a lull in the conversation as each of the men debated the situation in their own mind. Vasudev was the first to break the uncomfortable silence. ‘We have one major advantage though. They don’t know we are coming for them.’ He grinned at the others and they felt their confidence returning.

‘This road branches off into five lanes, My Lord,’ Airawat said cogitatively. ‘We don’t know where they lead to and whether they even link up at a common point. If we were to split our men across each of these lanes, we may end up spreading ourselves too thin.’

‘What do you suggest?’ Vasudev asked his second-in-command.

Airawat nudged his horse to move forward and signalled Vasudev and Aniruddha to follow him. He stopped and dismounted as they came to the point where the path branched off into different directions. The other two followed suit. Airawat beamed with satisfaction as he pointed to two of the bylanes. The grass grew heavy on these routes and there were no indications of any footprints, of man or horse.

‘These don’t seem to have been used in a long time, My Lord,’ Airawat said with a pleased look. ‘That leaves the other three bylanes. I suggest we split up into three groups and see if the roads meet up ahead.’

Vasudev nodded. ‘I will take one of the paths. You take another one Airawat.’ He paused, ‘Who do you think should lead the third route?’ ‘Tantra!’ Airawat’s answer was swift.

Vasudev nodded in approval. Airawat had chosen wisely. Tantra was a veteran and he was the oldest in the task force. But despite his age, he could move more nimbly and swiftly than any of the other men. More importantly, he had a clear head on his shoulders and was not rattled easily. In the absence of Vasudev and Airawat, the men would be safe under his command.

‘I will take a company of a hundred men with me. You and Tantra take a battalion of two hundred each,’ Vasudev said, looking at Airawat.

Airawat looked distinctly uncomfortable with Vasudev’s decision of splitting the numbers. He didn’t want the prince to go into enemy territory with the smallest force. ‘I think Tantra and you should go in with a battalion, My Lord. I will take a hundred men with me.’

Vasudev shook his head in mock exasperation. ‘When will you learn to take orders, Airawat?’ he joked. ‘My decision stands. I will go in with a hundred men. Speak to Tantra and get the men ready. I will join you in a moment.’ He dismissed the two men and continued to stare contemplatively at the lane he had chosen to take.

Airawat watched as his scout kneeled down and put his ear to the ground. He had not heard anything, but the scout’s keen senses had apparently picked up something. He stayed with his ear pressed to the ground, till he was certain he had the right information.

‘Sixty men, sire! And by the sound of it, it looks like they are having a meal,’ the scout said with conviction as he raised himself from the ground.

Airawat was impressed with the man’s abilities.
I wouldn’t have been able to figure out how many men there are, leave alone what they are doing
, he thought to himself with a smile.

‘How far do you suppose they are from here?’ he asked the scout.

‘A quarter of a yojana, sire,’ the scout said with a certainty born out of years of experience in reconnoitering.

‘Hmm,’ Airawat mumbled. Then he gave the order to his men. ‘Move at a slow trot. Let’s hope the scoundrels are too busy eating to have posted a lookout. When we are within shouting distance of their camp, we will make the charge at full gallop.’

The men nodded wordlessly, their faces agog with excitement at finally encountering the enemy they had been training to destroy for the past few months. Their horses gradually fell in formation as they followed their commander. Airawat had got a special shield made that was attached firmly to the elbow of his left arm. Since the bonara had cut off his hand at the wrist, this was the only way he could carry the shield and protect an assault to his body.

As they approached closer to the assassin’s camp, they could hear the raucous banter of the asuras. Airawat was amazed that they hadn’t posted any sentinel. But he realized they probably didn’t expect anyone to venture into these bylanes. An ordinary person would have got lost in the maze of twists and turns they had encountered since they had split up with the other two groups. It was only their scout’s skill that had ensured they stayed on track.

Airawat gave the signal for his men to stop. He unsheathed his sword and held it high, pointed in the direction of the asura camp. His men followed his example and took out their weapons. Then, as Airawat gave the signal to charge, they let out a blood-curdling roar that seemed to shake the earth. The horses caught the frenzy of their riders and charged with the full might of their breed. Sounds of ‘Har Har Mahadev!’ rent the air as the men followed their cavalry commander into their first encounter with the assassins sent by Pataal Lok.

The men in the asura camp did not stand a chance as the Madhuvan battalion came at them like a battering ram smashing through everything in its way. Airawat loped off the head of an asura who attempted to assault him with a mace. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw another one hurl a spear in his direction. Airawat barely had time to bring up his shield to ward off the attack. If he had been a second late, the spear would have sliced through his neck. Before the gigantic asura had time to launch a second attack, Airawat goaded the horse in his direction, and leaped off the mount to engage the demon on ground. The asura took out a curved blade from his scabbard and in a series of swift thrusts, forced Airawat to fall back. His opponent was faster and more adept than any warrior Airawat had fought till date, and for a brief moment, Airawat felt the initial symptoms of fear as the asura continued to push him back. In the aftermath of losing his hand in the fight against the bonara, Airawat’s self-belief in his abilities had been shaken worse than even Mandki knew. And at this juncture, the absence of confidence was costing him heavily. All around him, there were lusty screams of men killing each other and being killed. His sudden irrational fear left him temporarily paralyzed and his antagonist had him pinned against a tree. The asura suddenly brought down his sword with all his might and the force of the blow was such that it cracked Airawat’s shield in half, which then clattered to the ground. Airawat was now completely vulnerable, with only his sword to protect him. The asura gave him a malevolent smile and moved in for the fatal blow.

At that moment, there was a chorus of ‘Har Har Mahadev!’ from the Madhuvan battalion. The familiar scream of the Madhuvan war cry shook Airawat from his self-induced stupor and served to calm his frayed nerves. He recovered in time to parry a deadly thrust from the asura, who stumbled with the force of his own blow. Before he had time to recover his stance, the tip of Airawat’s sword had pierced through his thick neck, jutting out through the other side. The asura’s eyes rolled over in pain and disbelief, and he tottered to the ground. Airawat watched his body hit the ground in the same instant that he became aware of the deathly silence around him. He turned around and surveyed the camp site. Not a single assassin had survived. Their torn and bloodied bodies lay slumped on the ground. The entire camp had been decimated.

One of the soldiers approached Airawat, his face betraying his anxiety. ‘Sire, your…your hand!’ he said hesitantly. The stitches on Airawat’s damaged arm had opened up where the shield had been wrenched off by the asura’s blow. Blood flowed profusely from the open wound. Airawat compelled himself to ignore the pain. He clenched his teeth to prevent himself from screaming in agony as the soldier made a tourniquet under the arm to stem the flow of blood.