As they wait, Yudi turns to the Lion Man, “Os this slope more difficult that it looks? It’s like it’s trying its best to stop us.”
“It was never going to be that easy, especially not so close to the Isthmus” says the Lion Man.
Yudi looks up to the top of the slope. “So we are almost there?” he asks.
Lion Man cautions him, his tail swishing slowly. “This is the toughest mile of our journey.”
Yudi laughs then. “Well. Thanks for clearing that up!”
Rai and Tiina finally catch up and collapse on the ground at their feet.
“Whew,” says Tiina, looking at Yudi. “Stop showing off...You made that look so easy. I almost killed myself trying to follow the pace you set.” She looks at Rai who is too winded to speak.
Yudi responds, “You mean if someone like me can react in so dramatic a fashion to the Elixir, then it is definitely going to make a much bigger difference on someone as superior as you?”
“No, no …” she begins to protest and then shrugs. “Yeah, that’s true.”
Rai intervenes. He gets to his feet with an effort. “Come on, you two” he pants, “Let’s get going. Time enough to fight once we have got the Isthmus back to its source.”
The two of them follow Rai, who is close on the heels of the Lion Man. The space between Yudi and Tiina is filled with unsaid words. They lose track of time, keeping pace to the rhythm of their feet and the beat of their heart. Tiina starts humming, first tunelessly, and then more musically as she finds the song which has been replaying in her mind for a while, a tune reminiscent of the opening credits of Star Trek. It has been running incessantly through her subconscious and her dreams since she heard it at the pub earlier. She starts humming it aloud and first Rai, then Yudi join in with smiles on their faces. Even the Lion Man swings his tail in response, as they continue to walk up.
As they turn the first bend then, they come to an abrupt halt as they run almost slap bang into two beasts of gigantic proportions fighting with each other. Both of them are breathing fire from the main face on top of their bodies and have an additional face in the centre of its stomach. From the mouth of the second face is spewing a dark purple liquid, which seems to eat away everything it touches. Tiina realises that the main face itself does not have eyes, which in effect were provided by the second face stuck to the centre of the stomach. The Lion Man cautions “Don’t look them in the eye.”
Yudi exclaims, “Are you kidding?”
The Lion Man shushes him, “And keep your voice down …”
Yudi immediately shuts his mouth in response.
Tiina whispers, “I thought these were all dreams?”
“Yes, of course they are, but if you attract their attention they will pull you into their reality and you don’t want that,” says the Lion Man with what seems like a suspicious twinkle in his eyes.
Rai shakes his head and raises his eyes up to the heavens. Together, they swiftly run under the arch created high overhead by the raging beasts. And continue to flee until they turn the next corner. They slow down then, but at the urging of the Lion Man keep going.
And as they approach the next bend, Tiina suddenly stops and asks the Lion Man, “Wait a minute, I guess we are going to find some other shocking scene around the corner and we just have to make sure that we do not react in any way or get pulled into the scene, right?”
The Lion Man smiles broadly. “You’re right. But the challenge is to keep moving, and not gape like tourists either …”
Once again, Rai takes the lead. “Come on, then.” They round the next corner and this time step into a peaceful scene for a chance. There are rows of sunflowers with people bent over the rows, seemingly harvesting them. It seems quiet, but as they pass by Rai peers more closely at the flowers and gets a complete shock when one of the flowers leaps out, neatly slicing off the head of the closest man. He realises that the flowers are carnivorous, like elegant Venus fly traps, and the beings bent over them are not harvesting, but are each bound to the thick stalks like sacrificial offerings. As he watches, another flower changes shape to reveal sharp white teeth among its jaws, biting off the head of the man attached to it.
Rai stifles the scream that rises to his throat, he looks around and realising that none of the others have noticed the details of the scene, keeps the finding to himself. As they go around the next bend in the path, he realises they have reached the peak. The twin moons of Saturn are clearly visible now, as are its two rings, crossing in the distance. And, not far off on the horizon, for it is a plateau that they have emerged onto, is the temple of Shaitan.
Heaving slightly with their efforts, now they start walking at a brisk pace towards the temple. They are about halfway there when Yudi stops. The others have already gone ahead a few metres when they realise that Yudi is lagging behind. Rai turns around impatiently and asks, “Now what?”
The Lion Man and Tiina, who are a little further ahead, stop on hearing Rai’s exasperated comment and turn around. They walk back to where Yudi has stopped near the edge of the plateau close to an outcropping of rock. The Lion Man looks at him. “What is it? You have something on your mind?”
“Yes, “says Yudi “I don’t think I can do it… Somehow it doesn’t feel right,” says Yudi.
“Why not?” asks Rai.
“Why is it our mission to kill Shaitan and return the Isthmus? There are so many others who can do this. Why us?” he asks
“Why not us?” asks Tiina.
“Yudi,” says the Lion Man “you were the most reluctant to cross over to the other side of the screen, and now when we are almost at our journey’s end you hesitate.”
Yudi sits down right where he is. “I don’t think I can do this... I am really sorry guys” he lets the sentence hang in the air. “I don’t think I can carry this burden of being the one... you’ve got to find someone else to go with you...”
“But you are the only one on whom the Elixir has had any effect,” Tiina says in frustration. “Only you can help overpower Shaitan. We can’t go without you.” Tiina’s words don’t seem to have any effect on him. Yudi looks into the distance refusing to meet their eyes.
Rai can feel the rage build inside him and without realising what he is doing, he marches up to Yudi and slaps him. When there is no reaction from Yudi Rai puts his hands on Yudi’s shoulders and shakes him... “You are such a coward!” Yudi does not reply. Giving up Rai walks away to look into the distance still angry.
Tiina and the Lion Man look at him in exasperation. It is obvious they are not getting through to him. They look at each other. “What do we do now? “asks Rai.
“Pray?” ventures the Lion Man. They look at him and realise that he is not joking.
Tiina closes her eyes and thinks of Mimir. “Help us,” she says. “We need you now, Mimir. Tell us what to do next.”
As they stand there, the wind picks up in speed until it is literally blowing the sand around them into dust devils, until they cannot see their hands in front of their eyes. They stand there waiting; wondering what is going to happen next. And Mimir walks out of the sand burst, with the storm dying down behind him. Tiina opens her eyes and exclaims, “Mimir! Finally.” She runs up to him and hugs him. Mimir smiles, hugs her back. Together Mimir and Tiina walk up to Yudi, who has not moved from his previous position.
Mimir kneels down beside him and touches his shoulder. “Do you hear me? Yudi?”
“I hear you,” says Yudi, opening his eyes. They look at each other exchanging thoughts swiftly. The others watch, puzzled at first, but realising very quickly that they are speaking on a different level.
“I can’t, Mimir. Don’t ask me to.”
“I will not ask you to do anything against your will … But tell me what it is that worries you.”
“I can’t do it,” says Yudi. “I cannot kill Shaitan.”
“Cannot or will not?” asks Mimir.
“What’s the difference?” says Yudi.
“There’s
a world of difference …”
“I won’t kill him,” Yudi says, emphatically.
“So you feel the power, you know you can do it. However, you just do not want to?”
“No I don’t want to … I am scared.”
“Scared of what?”
“This power, this power that’s coursing through my veins; I can feel it so completely …”
“And it fills your being, your very presence. Right?”
“You know how it feels for me, don’t you, it is changing me. Giving me an insight into the infinite, into the hearts of my friends. I can read their thoughts as if they were mine. I can finally see. And it is all so clear. And …”
“And?” prompts Mimir.
“And so meaningless. Why should we do this? What’s the difference?”
“It is all the difference in the world. Whether you manage to kill him or not finally does not matter. What matters is that you use the powers that have been given to you, for what they are meant to do. Act without worrying about the results.”
“But how can I not worry? How can I separate myself from the consequences of my actions?”
“Act because that is your wont. You have the power and it would be worse if you did not use it for the reason it was given to you.”
“So that is it. I just have to do it. Don’t I have a choice?”
“Your only choice is to keep doing what you have to do."
“And what if I didn’t do so?”
“If you don’t kill Shaitan, then evil will take over the universe completely. And you and every living thing will feel the consequences of your non-actions.”
“It’s a heavy responsibility to bear …” Yudi falters.
“Only if you think of the outcome. Focus on the now. Carry out what you have been given the powers for. And leave the rest to the universe to decide.”
Yudi finally sees light; he gets to his feet, looks at Mimir and smiles.
Mimir is back on his feet. He smiles back, placing his hand on Yudi’s shoulder. “Follow your heart and everything else will fall into place, Yudishtra.”
Yudi turns around to look at Tiina, Rai and the Lion Man, who have been watching from afar. He walks towards them and says, “I am ready now.”
Tiina meets him halfway and embraces him. “We couldn’t do this without you.”
Yudi puts his arms around her and hugs her tightly. Then, remembering Mimir, he looks for him to find he has disappeared. “I hate it so when he does that.”
Rai and Tiina burst out laughing. “He is a God, or almost. He is entitled to come and go as he pleases.”
The Lion Man sets off at a brisk pace, followed by the three as they walk up the final summit to the temple. The grounds around the temple are covered with roses blooming and flowers of almost every kind, fountains of water spraying the air with droplets. The air is scented with the blooms. Tiina cannot help but smile as she stops to smell the roses.
“Well, these beings may be evil, but they sure are keen gardeners,” says Yudi, eliciting a reluctant nervous laugh from Tiina. They walk through the rolling landscaped gardens until they come upon the temple. It is made of white marble, with a soaring dome and ornate carvings, set with what seem to be precious stones running around the sides. They walk through the massive doors into a central hall with a domed ceiling held up by ornately carved pillars on each side. On both sides of the central strip are beautiful fountains, and beyond that, through the open windows, they can see the garden running all through. It’s a very long hall and they walk the length of it, coming closer to what seems to be an elaborate structure, shaped much like an ornate jelly fish, set at the very end of the hall. The structure is made of pure crystal and seems to be floating, not quite touching the ground. And on it is a shining turquoise jewel, in a wrist-strap shaped crystal setting.
“The Isthmus!” gasps Tiina.
As they watch it, the Isthmus seems to float up gracefully from where it has been placed and hover there in front of them. As they watch anxiously, the Isthmus moves back and away from them, gliding back serenely until it snaps itself around the slender wrist of a beautiful woman, who looks up at them with limpid eyes, and smiles. The four of them gaze at her bowled over by her charm and grace as she begins to glide towards them, holding out her slender wrist with the Isthmus snapped around it. As they watch she unclasps the amulet and holds it daintily in her other hand. “Don’t you want this?” she asks, looking at Yudi, who swallows and says, “Yes, I do.”
“Well, then, come and get it, won’t you?”
She chuckles, mockingly holding it with the thumb and forefinger of her left hand, and waits as Yudi takes one step forward, then another, and another.
Tiina suddenly gasps. “I know you.”
The woman lifts her eyes from Yudi’s and in doing so breaks the connection with him. Her eyes dart to Tiina and she raises her dainty eyebrows. “You took your time, dear sister,” she says.
Yudi looks from one to the other, for the first time seeing the resemblance between them. They have the same slender build and graceful walk and hold themselves with the same fluidity of limb. “Maya?” he exclaims.
The being merely smiles holds out her palm with the Isthmus in it and beckons to Tiina with the other hand. “Come and get it!” she says and laughs aloud as Tiina walks forward. With a scream, Maya rushes towards Tiina and then, just before reaching her, changes to become almost transparent, bouncing around the walls in a zigzag motion, her manic laughter echoing off the walls.
Tiina gives chase. Both of them move very fast, crossing each other, speeding up till it is difficult to differentiate one from the other. The laughter from the woman builds up to a crescendo, only to turn into a scream as she crashes down to the floor and the amulet falls out of her hand. Tiina lands back onto her feet next to the fallen figure, panting heavily. She bends down to feel the pulse at the base of the neck and looks up in time to see the Lion Man put away his sword. He shrugs. “It had to be done,” he says.
Yudi walks up to the being. “Maya,” he says.
In death, the figure has regained its human form and looks like a frail, fallen young girl, its features now very close in likeness to Tiina.
Tiina looks at Yudi and Lion Man, her eyes filled with pain for the sister that she had lost a long time ago. “I will find him and kill him for what he did to her,” she vows. Yudi picks up the Ishtmus and they watch as he straps it onto his right wrist. The three of them stand still, waiting for something to happen, then look at each other and exhale with relief when nothing happens.
There is no sudden explosion, nothing to show that it was the end of the world. Just silence. They stay frozen for a moment, just savouring the feeling of relaxation, not quite believing that they have finally completed their mission.
And then, just as they are beginning to think that perhaps things will be easier now, Tiina notices that the crystal and the throne like structure on which the Isthmus had been placed is melting, and all around her the temple and the gardens and their surroundings are beginning to fade.
“Let’s go,” she says.
They turn around and run back all the way along the length of the hall through which they entered, the Lion Man leading the way.
The ground under their feet is now beginning to shake and they are not more than halfway back, when up rises a creature which could have been concealed in the shadows, been one with the floor all along, or have just materialised. Whichever, it rises up; it’s back to them, and slowly turns around to face them. It may well be someone’s idea of a joke being played, a hybrid of heaven meets hell; a young child’s drawing of a favourite God gone wrong. They come to a halt, taken aback by the sheer audacity of the being as it turns around and shows itself in its entire misshapen splendour. It has four arms and extremely strong trunk-like legs. Yet the beauty of its profile is breathtaking, shaped like a Greek God, with blonde hair on both heads neatly styled. He is buffed right down to his pedicure feet, each of the toes
wide enough to bounce off many of the oncoming humans in one go.
Marring it all, as if an immense scar in the ground is an ugly wound that runs through the centre of his being. As they come closer, though, Rai realises that it’s not a wound, but a massive mouth; a massive hungry mouth, he corrects himself, for as they watch the mouth in the middle of the being opens and roars so ferociously that the noise runs around the structure, round and round, echoing, forcing Tiina to put her hands over her ears to block it out.
Then swiftly and before any of the others can react, the Lion Man takes an aggressive stance in front of the being, stamps his feet, thrashes his tail from side to side and roars in response.
“Run,” he roars to them. “Run now.”
The three of them take off, running towards the exit, only to be abruptly stopped by the heavy weight of the Lion Man crashing down in their path. He lies there stunned as they stop, shocked, not believing that someone as powerful as him has been struck down with seemingly such little effort.
Rai, who is the closest to the creature, turns around and flinging himself at him, holds onto his massive legs. Then, pulling out his sword, he plunges it with all his strength into its flesh, cutting off its leg. The beast roars in profound pain and, bending down, swipes at him as if he were a fly, throwing him against the crumbling wall, where both the boy and the beast collapse as a heap onto the floor.
Simultaneously the Lion Man rebounds back on his feet. He shakes his head to clear it while running towards one of the pillars, which is now beginning to crumble around them and uses it to springboard onto the shoulders of the creature. The Lion Man wraps his legs around the face of the creature with his hands around the upper eyes, effectively blinding it.
The creature roars again in fury and in trying to dislodge the Lion Man, takes a massive jump upwards, hitting the ceiling, dislodging even more of the timber. It then thuds down so heavily that it crashes through the floor, disappearing through a large black hole and into the darkness of what appears to be a long black tunnel illuminated by a bluish-green light, as the creature and the Lion Man tumble out of sight. And in the quiet that follows, one of the massive pillar falls with a crash.
The Destiny of Shaitan Page 18
