The War of the Grail

by Geoffrey Wilson

  The soldier leapt to his feet, but Jack was already bounding over to him and jamming his knife-musket into his stomach. The blade ripped through cloth and skin and impaled the man deep in the gut. The soldier gasped, his eyes bulged and he clattered back against the wall.

  Jack caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye and turned just in time to see a second soldier lunging at him with a knife-musket. He saw a glint of steel as the blade slipped towards him.

  He gave an involuntary grunt and dodged to the side, the knife missing him by an inch. The soldier was unable to stop himself and lurched past. Jack swung his musket like a club and battered the man in the back of the head with the stock. The wood thumped against the man’s skull, and the soldier groaned and staggered forward.

  Jack raised his musket. As his assailant spun round to face him, he pulled the trigger. The firearm flashed and spat smoke. The bullet caught the soldier in the middle of his chest and he stumbled backwards out of the opening Jack had just run through. He swayed for a moment, took a few more steps backwards and then toppled to the side.

  Jack heard the sounds of fighting all about him in the ruins – shouts, groans and the crackle of muskets. The crusaders were battling with the troops, but he couldn’t see anything in the gloom.

  He turned to press on into the fortress, and then jolted when he found himself facing a soldier who’d crept up to a gap in the wall opposite and was now pointing a musket straight at him.

  Jack reacted in a split second. He dived to the side just as the firearm burst and coughed smoke. The bullet whined past and flew out through the entrance.

  He crunched on the ground, slid a short distance, then twisted himself round, raised his hand and scrabbled to bring the Lightning yantra to mind. The soldier clicked out his musket’s knife and charged. But Jack had already grasped the yantra and now he barked the words of the command. His arm shuddered and went numb as the lightning coursed out from his fingers and thudded into the soldier’s chest.

  The soldier flew backwards out of the opening, disappearing into the murk. Jack rushed across to the entryway and saw the man lying motionless in the middle of the adjoining chamber, a trace of smoke rising from his chest.

  Jack spun round, looking about wildly in all directions.

  Where would the next assailant come from? How many of them would attack him?

  But no one came. He could still hear the guns rumbling along the wall and muskets spluttering from the breach, but here in the ruins it was silent. He heard no further sound of a struggle.

  Was that a good sign?

  He gripped the musket tightly and darted back out through the entrance, heading towards the wall. As he came out into the open again, he saw a handful of Henry’s men limping from the shadows.

  ‘What happened?’ Jack shouted to them.

  ‘Got most of the heathens,’ one of the group replied. ‘Rest of them ran off.’

  Jack grinned. This was good news. Perhaps there was still a chance of saving the fortress, after all. ‘You lot stay here and make sure no one else attacks us from behind.’ He gestured towards the breach, where the villagers were still battling. ‘We’ll hold them off over there.’

  The man nodded and instructed his comrades to stay where they were.

  Jack jogged towards the opening in the wall. His head felt strangely tight and heavy. He recognised the feeling – he was depleted after using Lightning several times.

  Ahead of him, the ground was dotted with the dead and the dying. Most of the fallen were Henry’s men, but a handful of European Army soldiers lay amongst the bodies. Several of the injured groaned and clutched at Jack’s ankles as he rushed past.

  He heard a series of cries coming from the breach. A phalanx of soldiers had burst through the opening and were now engaged in hand-to-hand fighting with the villagers. He saw Saleem jab a soldier in the stomach with his knife-musket. Mark despatched another by bashing him on the back of the head with a rock.

  Jack ran faster. He had to get back to help his people before they were overwhelmed.

  But he had only gone a few more paces before a scream coming from the edge of the breach brought him to a halt.

  A woman had cried out. He knew that voice. He would recognise it anywhere.

  Elizabeth.

  He stared into the shadows at the foot of the wall. A gun on the ramparts thundered and the glare pushed back the darkness for a moment. In the livid glow he saw Elizabeth backed against the wall and surrounded by ten soldiers, all of whom were pointing their muskets at her. A figure lay on the ground nearby. As far as Jack could tell, it was Godwin.

  He observed all this in a second before the light blinked out and shadow fell across the scene again. But he could still make out the dim outline of his daughter and the men threatening her.

  His heart shot into his throat and he couldn’t stop himself uttering a guttural cry. He struggled to call the Lightning yantra to mind. But it was taking so long. The soldiers would fire at Elizabeth at any moment.

  Someone shouted from the edge of the breach. It was Sonali, standing on a block of stone, her arm raised and her hair fluttering like flames about her head. She screeched, and lightning blazed from her hand. It snaked towards the soldiers and bowled eight of them off their feet.

  She drew breath and raised her hand to strike again. But the remaining two soldiers reacted quickly. They turned their firearms on Sonali and blasted before she had a chance to voice the command.

  Jack heard the crack of the two muskets clearly, despite the ongoing booms of the guns and the shouts and cries coming from elsewhere in the fortress. The sound seemed to ring in his head as if echoing down a long tunnel. The white powder smoke from the muzzles blotted out the view for a moment, but then the haze tore apart and he saw what he’d been dreading – Sonali had been hit. She crumpled, fell off the slab and rolled on to the ground.

  No.

  Jack lifted his hand. The yantra was already hovering in the back of his mind and it only took him a moment to recall it. He voiced the command, his arm trembled and the lightning flew from his fingers. The blaze forked, snarled across to the soldiers and thumped them in the back. Both men flew forward and landed face first on the ground.

  Jack started running. His eyes misted, but he blinked them clear.

  He dashed across to where Elizabeth was crouching beside Godwin.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked.

  Elizabeth nodded and he could see she was unharmed.

  Godwin was sitting up now and rubbing his crown. ‘I’m fine. Just got hit on the head.’

  Elizabeth removed Godwin’s hand and examined his scalp. She then crossed herself. ‘Just a bruise, I think.’

  Jack patted Godwin on the shoulder, then turned to look at Sonali. She was still lying on the ground, and Saleem and Mark were already crouching beside her.

  Jack paused. He didn’t want to go to Sonali’s side, because then he would learn the truth. And that truth couldn’t be good.

  He didn’t want to know, but he had to know.

  He darted across, squatted down next to Mark and Saleem and looked at Sonali.

  She lay on her back, her dark hair fanning across the earth around her head. She was breathing, heaving and biting her bottom lip. Her hand clutched her stomach and blood was oozing out between her fingers.

  Jack felt numb and dazed for a moment, unable even to think.

  Then he noticed her eyes had focused on him.

  ‘Jack-ji,’ she whispered.

  His throat tightened and his eyes moistened. Why did it have to be Sonali who was struck down? Why couldn’t it be someone else?

  ‘Let me see.’ He raised her hand and saw a bullet hole in her sari. The wound was weeping blood.

  He put her hand back and lowered his head. It was as bad as he’d feared.

  27

  Jack felt as though he were walking through a dream. The darkened ruins about him, the black sky, the distant reverberations of the g
uns were not real. The Fortress of the Djinns had always been a figment of his imagination. He would wake up soon.

  But then he looked down at Sonali lying on her back on the makeshift stretcher and suddenly he was back in the material world.

  Sonali was dying. She looked pale and her skin was bathed in sweat. Someone had tied a length of cloth around her waist but it was doing little to staunch the flow of blood. Her eyes were open, but they were glazed and she stared at the heavens in silence.

  He’d seen wounds like that before on the battlefield. Most soldiers shot in the abdomen would die within minutes. A few might survive for longer, if the bullet miraculously missed any vital organs. A very few might recover completely, if a Rajthanan doctor treated them. But here, in the fortress, there were no Rajthanan doctors.

  Jack couldn’t see how Sonali could survive. But he knew he mustn’t think about that. He couldn’t think about that.

  He gripped the stretcher more tightly. Saleem was carrying the other end, while Mark and Elizabeth were scurrying alongside.

  The villagers had held the breach in the wall and the rest of the crusaders, once they’d finally been roused, had managed to drive the enemy troops from the fortress. The remaining soldiers had retreated down the slope and returned to the European Army camp. The gunners on the ramparts were continuing to fire warning shots but, for the moment, the enemy were not responding.

  The crusade was still alive. Jack’s people had not yet been crushed.

  But any happiness he felt about that evaporated when his eyes strayed to Sonali.

  The hospital loomed ahead. It had largely been spared from the bombardment – the enemy batteries having concentrated their fire on other parts of the fortress. The glow of lanterns spilt out from the many apertures in the walls. In the dim light, Jack made out scores of wounded lying on blankets outside in the open. Many more people were swarming around the building or approaching from the darkness. And now Jack heard the chilling groans and cries of the injured inside the hall.

  He swallowed hard and his skin crawled. When he glanced at Elizabeth, he saw that her skin was pure white and her eyes were glistening.

  He and Saleem wound their way along a track through piles of rubble and finally drew up to the hall’s main entrance. They only managed to go a few paces inside before they had to halt. The floor was completely covered in a mass of dying people. Their sighs, shrieks and bellows wafted through the giant chamber. The stench of rotting flesh struck Jack’s nostrils. The monks were overwhelmed and clearly could do little beyond offering prayers.

  A man lying on a filthy mat tugged at Jack’s ankle, whispering, ‘Water.’

  Jack saw maggots crawling within the gaping wounds on the man’s shoulder and chest.

  Jack turned to Mark. ‘We can’t leave Sonali here.’

  Mark was gazing at the tortured bodies sprawled about him, many of them clutching the air or scratching at the ground in their agony. ‘Where will we take her?’

  ‘Back to our camp.’

  Mark seemed to shake himself from a trance. ‘We have a dozen other wounded.’

  ‘They can stay at the camp too. There’s no hope for anyone in this place.’

  Jack told Saleem to turn round, and they headed back out through the entryway and strode as quickly as they could away from the hospital.

  Jack could still hear the screams long after he and the others had plunged back into the ruins and were well on their way back to the Folly Brook camp.

  A fireball slammed into the roof above Jack’s head. The impact made the air quiver and Jack heard the flames hissing over the stonework. A tiny puff of dust wafted down from the ceiling.

  Jhala had ordered the bombardment to continue. No doubt he would be enraged by the fact that the rebels had managed to repel his forces.

  Jack crouched down beside Sonali. She was lying in a side chamber in the palace, along with the twelve other injured villagers. Mary was bustling between them all, tending to them as best she could and dispensing a drink of mandrake, which she said would ease the pain.

  Sonali’s face glistened with sweat in the candlelight. Her head was propped up against the wall using a rolled-up blanket. Mary had pressed a herbal poultice to the wound and tied a fresh length of cloth about Sonali’s waist. Jack doubted the remedy would help, but Sonali had said she wanted to try it.

  Jack took Sonali’s hand. ‘You stay strong. You’ll get through this.’

  Another fireball smacked into the roof and the floor rocked slightly. A larger trail of dust guttered down in one corner of the room.

  Mark ducked through the doorway and gave Sonali a tight smile. ‘The lads have asked me to tell you they’re all praying for you, Lady Sonali. They’re praying hard.’

  Sonali’s eyes moistened and she whispered, ‘Thank you.’

  Mark squatted down. ‘Is there anything I can do for you? Anything you need?’

  ‘I’m thirsty,’ Sonali said.

  Mark’s eyes flicked across to Jack.

  Jack knew what the lad was thinking. They’d all had their ration of water for the day. ‘She can have my share for tomorrow.’

  Jack’s mouth was so parched it burned, but he didn’t care. If Sonali needed water, she was going to have it.

  ‘No,’ Mark said. ‘She can have my share.’

  Jack smiled and patted Mark on the shoulder. ‘Good lad. But give her mine first. She can have yours later, if she needs it.’

  Mark nodded, retreated out of the door and returned a moment later with a tankard.

  Jack helped Sonali to sit up and take several gulps of water. Once she’d finished, he eased her head back down and placed the tankard beside her.

  ‘I’ll be going, then,’ Mark said to Sonali. ‘If you need anything, you just call for me.’

  Sonali nodded feebly and Mark stepped back out of the room. A round shot pounded the ceiling and a line of grit trickled onto his shoulder as he left.

  Jack took Sonali’s hand again. Her skin felt cold and she was shivering.

  ‘I’m all right,’ she said. ‘It’s not so bad.’ She lowered her gaze. ‘I’ve been through worse.’

  Jack’s eyes drifted to her arm. Her shawl had been removed and draped over her as a blanket. Her left arm hung outside the cloth and he could see the criss-cross of scars on the skin. Mahajan had tortured her. She’d hardly spoken about it and Jack had never raised the subject, although he knew she still had nightmares about it sometimes.

  She seemed to understand his thoughts, because she said, ‘I was sure I would die in Mahajan’s castle. Everything that’s happened since I got out has been an unexpected blessing. I’ve been so lucky.’

  ‘And you’ll carry on being lucky.’

  She shook her head sadly. ‘I’m not so sure about that.’

  ‘Don’t say that. You have to have faith. You’ll pull through.’

  ‘You know that’s unlikely.’ She took a deep breath. ‘Listen, I might not have much time. I …’

  A series of shells battered the roof and sent iron screaming against the masonry. Several of the injured lying nearby whimpered and one woman, who’d received a bullet in her chest, groaned and wept. Mary rushed to her side and dabbed her forehead with a cloth.

  ‘It’s noisy in here,’ Jack said to Sonali. ‘I could move you to the storeroom.’

  She shook her head. ‘It’s all right.’ She swallowed. ‘Listen. I wanted to tell you that … that I think very highly of you. I wanted to make sure you knew that. In case anything I’ve said or done might have made you think otherwise.’

  Jack’s throat tightened so much it was hard to swallow. Tears brimmed in his eyes, but he kept them at bay. ‘You don’t need to say all this now. You’re going to live.’

  ‘Please. I have to tell you these things, in case I don’t get another chance. You see, I’ve found it difficult … It’s difficult for me to …’ She frowned, seemed to search for the right words.

  ‘It’s all right. You rest.’
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br />   ‘You remember I said I ran away from my family?’

  Jack nodded. She’d mentioned it to him once or twice, but had never gone into any detail.

  ‘The reason I left,’ she said slowly, ‘was that I was due to be married. It was arranged, you see. I was to marry a rich old man. My parents believed it was a good match. Good for our family. I would be looked after, my father said. I didn’t want to marry this man, but my father pressured me into it. On the day of my wedding, I climbed up onto the roof of my parents’ house with my sister. I could see my future husband’s wedding party coming up the road. And I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t go through with it. So I ran away. I ran to the nearest city, and I never went back.’

  A round shot pounded the roof and she flinched, but then continued. ‘Since that wedding day, I’ve found it difficult to … give myself over to someone. I’m always somehow holding back. I just wanted you to know that, in case you thought I didn’t hold you in the highest regard … that I didn’t …’

  Tears welled in her eyes, and she struggled to continue.

  He squeezed her hand. ‘I understand. You mustn’t worry. You just get better now.’

  She nodded and blinked back the tears. Finally, she composed herself and gave him a slight smile. ‘I have something for you.’

  He frowned. ‘What?’

  ‘In my bag there.’ She nodded towards a small embroidered pouch she often carried.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Take a look.’

  He drew the strings on the bag. Inside, he found a silver box which he opened to reveal two paans wrapped in gold leaf.

  He grinned at her. ‘We’ll share this later.’

  ‘You have it now. You don’t know when you’ll get another chance.’

  He fought back the tears. He didn’t know how he was going to be able to speak, but somehow he managed it. ‘When you’re better, we’ll sit in the sunshine and have these.’

  He placed the box back in the pouch.

  Then he heard a woman clear her throat behind him. When he turned, he saw Elizabeth standing in the doorway. Her face was pale and shone in the candlelight. Her cheeks were streaked with dirt and her eyes were glassy as they stared at Sonali.