Tantrics Of Old

by Bhattacharya, Krishnarjun

  ‘Gray!’ He heard Adri call behind him.

  ‘Oh thank God!’ Gray exclaimed, and turning, walked into the darkness faster than the orb could keep up with. Then he tripped and fell. What he tripped over was the Sadhu's Shotgun and in doing so he set it off. In the brief flash of gunfire the entire space was illuminated just for a moment, and in that moment Gray saw something white not far from him. It seemed like a humanoid figure and it disappeared the instant Gray saw it, and then he hit the ground hard.

  ‘Ow, twice,’ he groaned painfully and at that moment, firm hands grabbed his shoulders from behind, pulling him up.

  ‘You okay?’ Adri asked.

  ‘Huh? You were right ahead of me—’ Gray mumbled as Adri pulled him to his feet, and then slung the shotgun around his own shoulder.

  ‘Fast. Lets’ go,’ Adri said, urgency in his voice.

  Gray did not protest. They walked down a couple of corridors and then came to a wider space like the one before. Gray saw a crevasse above him, and Fayne’s dark silhouette standing above with the other orb next to him. A rope was hanging in front of them. Gray grabbed it and Fayne pulled him up to the surface, then Adri. Once out, Fayne sat in the wet grass, resting his arms calmly on his lap. Adri and Gray sat as well, catching their breath, getting wet in the rain. Maya lay next to them, oblivious.

  ‘The hole that you tumbled through closed up with mud immediately,’ Adri panted. ‘There was no way we could have followed you. We rushed and looked for another way and found this crevasse; I retraced steps once beneath and found you. Luckily.’

  ‘There were bones,’ Gray said. ‘Bones down there, human bones.’

  Something rustled loudly near them and all of them turned sharply. Fayne had a dagger in his hand already as he peered into the darkness.

  ‘Anything, Fayne?’ Adri asked slowly.

  ‘My vision does not help,’ Fayne said. ‘There are plants everywhere.’

  Another plant rustled away from the first one. They turned again immediately, gazing into the darkness. But nothing happened and there was silence again, other than the rain.

  ‘You were saying something when I found you,’ Adri turned back to Gray, looking at him seriously.

  ‘I heard you call,’ Gray said, ‘from the other direction. And then you were behind me.’

  Adri paused for a fraction of a second before he got to his feet in one move. He rushed to his bag and pulled it to where they were sitting, and then wordlessly started groping about like a madman until he found his bullet alchemy case. Moving the bag aside, he kept the open box on the grass, in the rain, and started crumbling and putting ingredients into a series of bullets. The bullets were aligned neatly with their heads unscrewed and he filled them quickly and decisively, taking only a moment to think and find the ingredient he needed. Fayne and Gray watched him just as silently, knowing he would not respond if they asked him questions right now. And then he was done. Calmer, he emptied out the bullets in his revolvers and started loading the new ones.

  Another rustle made itself heard, from a new direction. Adri stopped loading and looked in the direction of the sound. The rustling stopped and there was silence. And then from the darkness, amidst the sound of the rain and the night, came a voice. One that Adri knew too well.

  ‘Adri, help!’ Victor Sen cried.

  Adri looked down silently and fitted the last two bullets in his shooter.

  ‘Who was that?’ Gray asked incredulously.

  ‘That,’ Adri said, standing up, ‘was a Nishi.’

  ‘A Nishi?’ Gray asked.

  ‘An extremely dangerous spirit that can imitate voices.’

  ‘What? Does that mean—’

  ‘My voice you heard below, yes. Narrow escape. Now listen to me and fast. Nishis do not attack a group. They will try and single you out. Do not trust any voice you hear; they can imitate mothers, fathers, old lovers, siblings, anyone you know. Do not trust any voice, not even mine. Either wait for a visual confirmation, or make it call your name. It cannot call you more than twice.’

  ‘Okay, but why do you sound like you’re going somewhere?’

  ‘I’m going after them,’ Adri said. ‘Both of you stay here until I get back. Your weapons will not affect the Nishi.’

  ‘Point accepted,’ Fayne said quietly.

  ‘You’re going after them?’ Gray repeated unbelievably.

  In response, Adri moved off into the forest, taking one of the orbs with him. The rain got heavier and came down with greater ferocity than before. Fayne and Gray sat quiet and unmoving, getting drenched. Gray realised he was scared.

  ‘Gray!’ Adri’s voice hissed from the darkness suddenly.

  ‘Oh my God,’ Gray murmured, shutting his eyes.

  Adri’s voice laughed and Gray felt it moving around them in a circle, keeping to the darkness.

  This was it, then. Nishis. I did not know of their existence, the Wraith told Adri.

  ‘They are not vampires. You would not know,’ Adri said grimly, walking unhesitatingly into the foliage.

  True.

  Adri heard a rustle to his right. He drew his gun and walked into the plants on his right. ‘Nishi! Nishi! Nishi!’ he shouted in the rain, walking into the darkness.

  ‘Put the light out, Adri,’ Maya’s voice spoke behind his ear.

  He spun around and saw no one. He knew where the creature was now—in the direction where he had initially been walking, ready to pounce. He spun again and fired. He saw the salivating fangs in mid-air as his gun roared, right on mark. The creature erupted in fire and Adri deftly stepped aside. The creature crashed into the mud, but its fire did not go out even in the rain. It turned and twisted in complete silence, without a single gasp of pain escaping its throat. Adri left it burning and walked into the forest again.

  Voices were whispering all around Gray and Fayne. The assassin heard everything with mild curiosity, occasionally replying, while Gray sat as quietly as he could, hands on his ears and eyes shut. He was terrified.

  ‘We did not finish what we started, Fayne,’ a female’s voice breathed through the woods.

  ‘Do you mean I should have pushed that dagger further through your lungs?’ Fayne asked aloud.

  ‘You cannot refuse a good fight. Are you a coward?’ the voice hissed further.

  ‘You’re the one talking from the shadows,’ Fayne said calmly.

  The voice hissed in anger and left; it came back on the other side and continued circling them. Both Fayne and Gray could feel the voices travelling like bodiless entities, moving freely and with speed all around. Then in the distance they heard Adri shout out loud, again and again.

  ‘I think that was really Adri,’ Gray said. ‘Means he’s still alive.’

  ‘Oh, the pashlin can take good care of himself,’ Fayne waved Gray’s comment aside. ‘I think he sounded angry.’

  You’re angry, Mazumder said.

  ‘Shut up, Wraith!’ Adri spat. ‘And you, any more of you Nishi bastards out there?’

  He was standing in a small clearing and four Nishis lay aflame on the ground all around him. Adri had a flesh wound on his side and it was bleeding. He holstered his gun and kept a hand on the wound. He winced.

  ‘Well, any more of you cowards out there?’ he roared.

  He sensed something move behind him. He spun around and drew his weapon in a flash—a couple of rounds later another existence was in flames.

  ‘Burn, you cruel maggots. Burn well,’ Adri said, looking at the thing.

  You hate them a bit too much, a bit too suddenly. Has it something to do with the one which just impersonated your mother’s voice?

  ‘I haven’t heard my mother’s voice!’ Adri shouted. ‘This vile creature—this bloody spirit has the audacity to call me son in what it supposes was my mother’s voice! I do not believe it, that is not what my mother sounded like! I will summon my mother myself someday and talk to her, not listen to her voice through some cheap Nishi!’

  Ooh. They touched
a raw nerve, I see.

  ‘You bloody bastards!’ Adri yelled, firing again at the already burning Nishis.

  Good thing you’re making sure.

  ‘Don’t you get all smart-mouthed on me now,’ Adri snarled. He looked around in the rain, shouted out some more challenges into the darkness, then retraced his steps with all the grace of an angry bull. Now that he had been around a few, he was beginning to feel their presence more clearly; he felt their vibes near where he had left the others. He approached the clearing and saw a flash of white; he fired unhesitatingly and missed. He dived to a side and the Nishi whizzed past him with a predatory hiss. He recovered with a roll; getting up on his knees and leaning against a tree, he waited. It was coming at him again—Adri dived out of the way again, firing—the Nishi incinerated amidst the heavy rain.

  Adri reloaded a shooter and then moved towards the clearing where the others were. He burst into it, startling Gray, and walked across and into the forest again.

  ‘Nishi!’ he roared with hate.

  Just so that you know, Tantric, I am completely enjoying myself.

  Adri returned more than an hour later. The rain was slowing down and the sounds of the forest were beginning to take over once more. Adri emerged from the forest then; he looked tired and beat, and he had blood all over his shirt. He looked at Gray and Fayne, and finally at Maya. Then he collapsed on the ground next to her.

  When Adri did open his eyes, it was morning and the rain had stopped. He was in a sitting position, his back propped against a tree. He was sore, his body hurt all over; he looked down and saw he had been bandaged. His hand slowly rose to his face and he felt a bandage around his forehead as well. Suddenly he realised he hadn’t had a good bath for days. He reached in his pocket and withdrew his cigarette packet. To his disgust, all the cigarettes were wet. He looked around. He had more cigarettes in his bag, but it was on the other side of the clearing and he did not know if he should try and get to it.

  Fayne sat in the centre of the clearing, cooking something in a small pot. Gray and Maya were not in sight; in all probability he was changing her.

  ‘Anything happen?’ Adri asked. It took him a surprising amount of effort to speak.

  ‘Nothing since last night. We decided to wait here, wasn’t possible to carry two,’ Fayne said.

  Adri squinted in the sunlight and saw a couple of pale blue orbs floating in air still; with a hand gesture he dismissed the spirits. Fayne looked at him.

  ‘Your anger makes you careless, pashlin,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah well, those things were dangerous,’ Adri said.

  ‘But you could have easily dealt with them without getting a scratch. Your training shows. You are still alive, which is not what many can say after a night with Nishis.’

  ‘They’re inherently cruel,’ Adri said. ‘Vicious. The trick to fighting them is to not give them a chance to play their tricks.’

  ‘And the flammable bullets you used,’ Fayne said. ‘There are not many creatures who can survive my blade, Tantric. Since Nishis can, I’m glad you were here.’

  Gray entered the clearing, carrying Maya. He put her down and turned to the other two. ‘God, I’m constantly afraid of a Nishi,’ he said.

  ‘They cannot exist in the light,’ Adri said. ‘It is impossible for them to come out during the day.’

  ‘I wish I knew that,’ Gray complained. ‘I was constantly looking over my shoulder. But that’s a relief to hear.’

  ‘I killed a lot of them yesterday. They should get the message, they’re not really the revenge type, Nishis,’ Adri said.

  ‘So they live in this forest?’

  ‘Nishis are never self-existing. They are slaves, servants of Tantrics.’

  ‘What? How come you don’t have a couple of Nishis polishing your shoes?’

  ‘It isn’t right. They are evil things, and live to kill and destroy. I have never needed such creatures. I don’t even prefer summoning Demons, for that matter.’

  ‘These Nishis might have been servants of Kali,’ Fayne said.

  ‘Exactly,’ Adri said. ‘With luck, he’s close. We shouldn’t waste any more time.’

  ‘We should eat,’ Gray said, looking at the pot.

  ‘And you should look at your hand,’ Fayne said, starting to stir.

  Adri did, and gasped silently. The scales had spread all over his right hand, making it look like he was wearing some sort of dark glove. He contracted and moved his fingers; there was a kind of snap to the movement, but he wasn’t being restricted. He tapped the scales with his left hand. Hard, almost metallic.

  ‘What is this?’ Adri asked, disturbed.

  ‘Something to be worried about,’ Fayne replied without delay. ‘Your body is not meant to harbour two souls. The Wraith is causing this.’

  ‘Mazumder. What the hell is this?’ Adri asked.

  It is unfortunate.

  ‘Come to the damn point.’

  It is a side effect of carrying me. It will leave when I do.

  ‘But what is it?’ Adri asked, not being able to tear his eyes off his hand.

  ‘A bakheeyal. An infection,’ Fayne said. ‘It will continue to spread.’

  ‘Is that true, Wraith?’ Adri asked.

  There are, of course, ramifications of choosing to let another spirit reside in your body.

  ‘I’m surprised you did not know about this, Tantric,’ Fayne said.

  ‘I don’t know everything! The Wraith is saying it will leave when he does. Is that true?’

  Fayne snorted loudly, the closest he had ever come to a laugh. ‘It can go away right now if the Wraith wishes it. It is trying to take over, Tantric. It is consciously transforming your body.’

  Nonsense, the Wraith spoke immediately. Utter nonsense. This assassin is not learned in the way of spirits.

  ‘Of course the mieserkha will deny it right now,’ Fayne continued, stirring the food. ‘But know what’s happening, Tantric. Getting rid of that Wraith is not going to be as easy as you think.’

  ‘Mazumder,’ Adri said, ‘if there’s even a grain of truth in what Fayne is saying, know that you’re not going to get away with it.’

  ‘He knows that. Why else do you think he’s armouring you?’ Fayne said.

  Believe me, Tantric. I have not caused you any harm so far. I have helped you, rather, when you let me through, in the midst of battle when you gave me control. I could have taken over right then if I wanted to, yet all I did was lend you my powers. That should tell you something, not this assassin uneducated in the arts.

  ‘Even Fayne has proved his worth, Mazumder,’ Adri said. ‘We will visit this graveyard sooner than you think, and you better stick to your word then.’

  Rest assured.

  Adri did not know what to think. Things were beginning to confuse him now: the assassin’s bank of knowledge had not been unreliable so far, but even the Wraith had made no mental attack, or stab at control. It had been peaceful, in fact. He regretted not knowing more about this. He needed to get back to the books when he found time again. There was always so much more to learn. His father would know, he was sure.

  He asked Gray to get him his bag. He extracted a cigarette packet which was dry and replaced the soggy one. Lighting a cigarette, he thought about their next course of action while Gray served him his meal in a bowl. After they had eaten and packed the bowls and put out the small fire, Adri finally made an attempt at getting up. It hurt his wounds immediately, and he cursed himself for his carelessness the night before. They had somehow hit a very personal nerve and he had exploded. His training demanded better from him. He shook his head and swore to himself that it would not happen again. He needed to keep a calm head under the circumstances.

  Fayne cut a walking stick for him out of a branch in minutes. His pride told him he did not need it, but a few steps proved otherwise. Slowly, they began walking deeper into the forest.

  ‘This is not good,’ Gray told Adri. ‘You can’t afford to be this stupid, not in a
place like this. We need both you and Fayne to protect Maya.’

  ‘It was a mistake,’ Adri muttered. ‘And I’m the one with the wounds anyway.’

  ‘You know what I mean,’ Gray said, and Adri did not reply.

  They travelled on, the forest getting marshier than ever after the rains, slowing their progress terribly and forcing them to wade through waist-deep water at times. Snakes crossed their path almost continuously and Fayne kept grabbing and throwing them aside with his free hand. When they finally got to higher ground, everyone was happier. A sudden rise in the height of the ground, which led to a more rocky landscape, greeted them. They climbed and then continued, on hard, dry ground after a long time.

  They saw the first stone pillar soon. It was a block of stone slabs one above the other, chains connecting the entire structure. It was old, the chains having rusted ages ago; vines and moss had laid claim on the pillar completely, making it look like a tree amongst all the others. It was the first time they were seeing something like that though, and Adri took it as a sign that they were not far from their goal. Other pillars followed soon, and the narrow jungle path widened out after a while, leaving a stone arch in their way. The arch was just like the pillar in appearance, except it seemed to have a message inscribed across it in the Old Tongue.

  ‘What’s written on it?’ Gray asked.

  ‘It’s intricate,’ Adri replied slowly. ‘And some of the writing has rubbed off. But the gist of it would be “Glory to the Dark Goddess”.’

  ‘The Dark Goddess? I haven’t seen her around for a while,’ Fayne said.

  ‘You mean she’s a living goddess?’ Gray asked nervously.