The stones had stopped falling. Now it was sand and loose cement and dirt raining down soundlessly from the broken staircase high above them somewhere. Even though Adri was flat on the ground, looking up, he couldn’t see it. He slowly turned his neck and realised he could not see anything at all. They were in pitch black. He would have gotten up, but something was holding him down.
‘Fayne, where are we?’ he asked.
‘In a tunnel,’ Fayne replied in the dark. ‘This is no vault.’
‘I don’t think I can move,’ Adri said slowly. ‘Are you okay?’
‘I landed on my feet. I’m fine, but it is not me you should be concerned about.’
‘Yes, yes, you’re right. Well there-argh-is one thing good about this. I think we’re too far down for the Horseman to be able to sense us.’
‘I hope you are correct,’ Fayne said. ‘But we should get moving as soon as we can.’
‘How’s Maya? And Gray?’
‘They are fine, for the moment. Unconscious as before.’
Adri slowly called upon his spirits in the Old Tongue. None answered.
‘My spirits are all destroyed,’ he said, straining to talk. ‘Mazumder, I need eyes.’
Done.
Adri’s eyes burned blue and he slowly looked around. Two stone blocks pressed down on him, preventing him from moving. Something might have broken inside his body. The dark tunnel they found themselves in seemed to give off a fairly strong magical vibe. It was unpleasant and dank; water leaked from the mossy walls and a pungent smell filled the air. It was not somewhere he wanted to be. Fayne walked to him and heaved the heavy stones off his body, one at a time, grunting as he lifted them.
Adri tried to get up and to his immense relief, succeeded. Fayne was silently looking at Gray and Maya. Adri moved towards them and crouching beside them, he checked for injuries—nothing appeared wrong other than some cuts and scratches from all the running and falling.
‘Gray is not unconscious. He’s been possessed by a spirit which has kept him from moving or responding,’ Adri said, looking at Gray, opening his eyelids and checking his eyes within.
‘So what now?’ Fayne asked.
‘Have you been trained to resist spirits, like Kali said?’
‘Yes.’
‘Hmm. And spirits find it tough to possess other beings which are not human-like in nature. Your witch blood saved you. With Gray, I will have to perform an exorcism.’ Adri paused. ‘It will not take long. Where’s my bag?’
‘Up in the courtyard,’ Fayne said.
‘No food, no ingredients, no medical supplies,’ Adri thought aloud. ‘We will need to hurry our trip into Howrah.’ He took out a chalk, dragged Gray to a side, and propped him in a sitting position against a wall. He then drew a semicircle on the floor against the wall, sealing Gray within. Then Adri sat in front of Gray and slapped him. Hard.
‘Spirit!’ he shouted in the Old Tongue. ‘Spirit!’
‘Quiet,’ Fayne said behind him. ‘The Horseman may be searching for us.’
Adri nodded. A good call. He slapped Gray harder, but his voice was soft. He hissed now in an urgent tone. ‘Spirit!’ he hissed, slapping Gray the hardest he had ever.
Gray’s eyes flung open, the insides a murky white.
‘All right all right! You don’t have to keep slapping me, you know,’ Gray spoke in a voice that was not his. It was younger, but belonged to a male.
‘Shut up, spirit, and listen to me,’ Adri said.
‘Oh God, what is this? A negative circle?’ the spirit yelped when it saw the chalk line. ‘The others have told me about this, though it’s the first time I’m seeing one for myself.’
Exorcism was tricky business, and part and parcel of a Tantric’s learning. Banishing spirits was delicate in itself, but making them step out of a body was always tougher. It could be forced out with certain tools and ingredients Adri almost always travelled with, but for now, he would have to do with talk.
‘You’re trapped in the negative circle,’ Adri said to the spirit. ‘And you can’t leave until I let you.’
‘Does it have thorns?’ the spirit asked fearfully.
‘I haven’t drawn them yet,’ Adri said. ‘I wanted to make this peaceful and quick.’
‘What’s the deal? What do I get if I leave?’ the spirit asked.
‘I will let you move on to the next Plane. I’m qualified for that.’
‘Prove it.’
Adri sighed and brought his tattoos, glowing in the dark, forward.
‘Ah,’ the spirit said. ‘A Necromancer.’
‘You have died recently, isn’t it?’ Adri asked.
‘Why, yes. How did you know?’
‘It’s because of how obnoxious you are. Let me guess—you are not interested in moving on, am I right?’
‘Yes, definitely! I want to see more of this place. I’m in no hurry! You got me right, man.’
‘Out of all the spirits, why did it have to be you who entered Gray?’ Adri said, his heart sinking. ‘Okay, look spirit. You have two choices. I can either torture you inside this circle to the point of no return, where your existence is extinguished and my friend can regain control of himself again. Or you can leave him now, and float about and go wherever and wander forever. I will not absolve you.’
‘No deal,’ the spirit snapped. ‘Some Tantric will call me to his service before I know it. I am not powerful enough to refuse yet. Get me a body and we’ll talk.’
‘I cannot find you a body here, wherever we are,’ Adri said. His patience was wearing thin.
‘Oh, it’s the Ondhokaar. We are in the Ondhokaar,’ the spirit said.
Adri was quiet.
‘We must leave as soon as we can, Tantric,’ Fayne said behind him.
Adri nodded. It was very risky, staying here. He reached into his bandolier and withdrew a bullet. Gray’s eyes travelled to Adri’s holsters, but the spirit saw they were empty. Adri’s guns, of course, were still in the courtyard along with his bag.
‘You don’t have your guns,’ the spirit smirked.
‘Oh, I’m not going to shoot you,’ Adri said, calmly unscrewing the top off the bullet. A bullet filled with holy water. He threw a little on Gray.
‘Leave the body!’ he hissed.
The spirit yelled in pain. The skin, where the water had touched it, released smoke immediately, like acid.
‘Leave the damn body!’ Adri yelled again.
‘NEVER!’ the spirit shrieked, Gray’s entire body convulsing in pain. ‘I want to live! Why won’t you let me live?’
‘You had your chance!’ Adri shouted back, sprinkling more holy water. ‘You had your chance and right now you are dead! You have no right to stop Gray from living his life!’
Gray’s hands and legs began to bend at odd angles slowly as the spirit howled in suffering.
‘He’s a human!’ Adri roared, with complete disregard for keeping quiet. ‘He’s not a bloody puppet, stop that!’
In all his pain, the spirit grinned as Gray’s arms dislocated with soft snaps.
‘That’s it,’ Adri said in anger. ‘I’m going to do something to you that I reserve for the worst of spirits; I’m going to banish you across the River.’
‘What? No!’ the spirit shouted, more in disbelief than in pain this time.
Adri made swift gestures in air and spoke in the Old Tongue. ‘By all that is holy, by the book that records, and the flame that burns its pages, by the crying child and the great divide, by the Angels and Demons, by the truest form of magic and the chaos it inspires, by the power vested in me by the arts I have learned and the forces I command, I banish you across the River!’
‘No! I will leave this body! I will—’ the spirits voice was cut off as Adri touched him on the arm with his forefinger. Then he withdrew his hand and waited.
‘Aargh!’ Gray cried in his real voice.
Adri breathed a huge sigh of relief.
‘My arms hurt like hell! Ow!’ Gray yelled, a
nd Fayne moved towards him.
‘This will hurt only for a moment, little man,’ the assassin said before setting Gray’s arms back with a jolt. ‘Minor dislocations, you’re fine,’ he added as Gray shouted with pain again.
‘Adri—’ Gray said, panting, once the pain had receded enough to allow him to talk. ‘What did you do to him?’
‘I sent it to hell,’ Adri replied.
‘You can do that?’
‘I do not do it because it is a cruel thing to do, possibly the cruellest. The spirit awaits torture and suffering there for a long, long time now.’
‘You should have let it go. In the end it had agreed to leave.’
‘A spirit like that is dangerous, wherever it is,’ Adri said. ‘No, I did what had to be done.’
‘So you could see everything while the spirit was possessing you?’ Fayne asked.
‘I had just lost control, I was still a spectator. And I haven’t been able to see since we fell down here. I can’t see anything right now,’ Gray said. ‘Ow! And I have wounds all over.’
He turned to Adri again. ‘Isn’t a spirit already dead? How were you threatening to kill it?’
‘A spirit isn’t dead or alive. It exists, and though it isn’t possible for it to live again, its existence can still be ended, taken to nothingness. They are tortured souls, Gray, and they’re here for a reason—something they haven’t been able to accomplish, or let go of. When we summon them, we offer them a chance to move on in return for their doing something for us. It works for us, and they get their freedom in return.’
‘There have been Tantrics who have kept hundreds of spirits as slaves,’ Fayne said. ‘Refusing to let them go.’
‘Necromancers have ethics. Dead-talking is always a morally controversial art, there are people who have never supported what we do. We have a code through which we operate; and there will always be Tantrics who will not respect the code.’
‘The government supports Tantrics,’ Gray said.
‘The government has its own set of morals,’ Adri said grimly. ‘They do not follow the true path of what a Tantric is meant to be.’
‘Hence you are no longer with them?’ Gray asked.
Adri did not reply immediately. ‘An engaging conversation. But we must move.’
Fayne picked Maya up. ‘Which way?’ he asked.
Adri’s compass was hanging from his belt. He checked it.
‘That way, the tunnel leads roughly towards Howrah. We can’t go up now, and certainly not here. Let’s move.’
‘I can’t see,’ Gray complained.
‘Grab my shoulder,’ Adri said.
They started walking into the darkness. It was cumbersome and slow, like the walk in the Hive had been—except there were lesser obstacles here, just one main path they followed. Gray had a question.
‘What is the Ondhokaar, Adri? I’ve heard too many references to it by now.’
‘The Ondhokaar is a place watched over by the evil eye,’ Adri replied slowly. ‘It is an ill-fated place, something that has existed since the beginning of the Old City. It is an entire city in itself beneath Old Kolkata; it is a maze, a labyrinth, a network of narrow passageways feeding into one another, and a scattering of huge caverns. There is no light in the Ondhokaar—it is a filthy, dark place that even Angels are afraid to tread. This is where the venoms of the Old City are brewed, this is where the deadliest creatures that roam the city are born. This is a place unexplored, and wisely so. No one knows what the Ondhokaar holds.’
‘We need to find a way out quickly,’ Fayne said. ‘This is not a good place.’
Maya had been following Adri. She had been following him through a lot of the adventures and happenings that had made him what he was, and even though she knew so much about him already, she was still impressed at what young Adri was capable of. Adri burned with hidden power, she realised, as she saw him fight incredibly by himself. There was a reason why Adri never revealed the full extent of his power, only betraying himself in his ingenuity and the unusual way he solved his problems. There was something more to Adri, and it would explain away all of this. Maya kept following him through chapters in his diary, travelling through the different phases of his life and seeing him change as he grew up and became a Necromancer. Relentlessly, she hunted for the reason that made Adri always feel a bit strange and different to her from the beginning. She found it, finally. It was there among the hundred other things Adri had written about. But it was brief, short and simple—almost as if Adri did not want to ponder over it too much on paper.
Maya did not know if the experiences she was having were a recreation of what was there in Adri’s diaries, or if she had somehow gained deeper access to his memories. All she knew was that she saw things like they happened, with a level of detail too great, too intimate, to be of her own imagination. No, somehow she was in Adri’s memories. She had no clue how. But her other great question about Adri was answered when she followed him once, as usual, only to stumble upon something totally different from what she had come to recognise as Adri’s regular schedule.
Adri was hunting a rogue Demon along with another Sorceress, Trish. They were still learning under the government; Adri must have been eighteen at most, but it was clear he was already under the service of MYTH. The two of them were tracking a Demon near the Highlands of Alish’ Ur, far from the Old City. They had been tracking the murderer for several days—the Free Demons had not formed back then, and Demons that killed their Summoners had no organised place to go to. They heard no call from Ba’al back then and thus ended up going on rampages, or hiding until MYTH caught up with them and ended them. This particular one had been hiding, but anyone who had seen the Demon was not spared. It had been extremely secretive; they did not even know what kind of a Demon it was, but they were qualified enough according to MYTH to kill it. Both of them were the best in their batches.
They were on a cliff, overlooking a valley below. Trish was standing and Adri was crouching. He was younger, with short hair and an energetic angry young man look to him; Trish was a pretty girl who dressed like a tomboy. Her hair was cut short and she wore jeans and a sleeveless tee, along with mountain boots, everything black, like Adri. Both of them were dirty, and their clothes were weathered. Adri held a rifle in his hands, a long slender weapon that Maya hadn’t seen before. Trish was weaponless other than her Sorcerer gauntlets, which glinted in the early morning sun. Their supplies were in a duffel bag lying among the rocks behind them.
‘Is that a moor?’ Trish asked, squinting.
Adri was squinting as well. The sun was unusually sharp for the mountains.
‘Might just be. It would be the most obvious place for it to go right now,’ he said.
‘Try and sense it,’ Trish said.
Adri closed his eyes and there was silence, other than the occasional gust of wind whistling past. A mountain bird cried out and he opened his eyes.
‘No good,’ Adri said. ‘It’s either really good at this hiding business, or it’s too far away for me to catch.’
‘You’re not good enough,’ Trish snapped. ‘You should work more on your meditation, Adri.’
‘Bull,’ Adri said. ‘The Demon is hiding itself with something. Its vibes are totally cut off, which is impossible.’
‘I thought the creature was animalistic. But an animalistic Demon wouldn’t know how to use artefacts.’
‘Warrior or mage, then. I have a feeling it’s a powerful one.’
‘Why is it hiding, then?’
‘Why do you think? It wants to survive.’
Trish paused for a moment, thinking. ‘Let’s get after it, then. If it’s dangerous, the sooner it’s put down, the better.’
Adri nodded and got up. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder and picking up his bag, he followed Trish as she led the way down. Maya followed them.
‘You know, Trish,’ Adri spoke up suddenly, breaking a silence that had built up for the last three hours. ‘I don’t agree with what
you said back there.’
‘What did I say?’
‘The putting down Demons bit. They aren’t animals to be put down. They’re quite sharp, actually. And many of them are incredibly cultured and well-read.’
Trish laughed. ‘Look who’s talking,’ she said. ‘A Demon-killer working for the government. All you and me have done for assignments in the past months is put down Demons.’
‘I know what we do and I know what must be done to protect the people,’ Adri said, irritated. ‘Don’t put words in my mouth. It’s the attitude I have a problem with. We should treat them with more respect, Demons.’
‘I think your attitude needs change, Adri,’ Trish said seriously. ‘Tell me what an animalistic Demon is, if not a predator of everything it sees. And take this Demon, for example. You saw the eaten bodies down at the last village. Would you call that cultured?’
‘I think it looks at everything in a different way. Chickens would look at me in the same way, I guess, if I was summoned into a world full of chicken.’
‘Lame logic, Adri. And what are you, a Demon lawyer?’
‘Argh. You could try to look at it from their point of view.’
Trish laughed. ‘All I see is a couple of extremely deadly chickens hunting me down.’
Adri had to laugh too, shaking his head. ‘You’re impossible.’
‘Let’s just hunt this bastard down, Adri.’
That was easier said than done. They entered the moor in another hour and began tracking the Demon, Maya behind them. The Demon did not leave many tracks, and Adri had to work hard to find anything. The ground was hard, making it pretty impossible to find any kind of footprint. When night came, the duo did not rest or camp, continuing, instead, to try and track their prey.
Adri finally ended up tracking it using the flower method, something Maya understood because she had studied it. Some Demons had an affinity for flowers, a strange kind of attraction. For some Demons it was a weakness, even. Flowers were not something the Demons would find on their Plane, across the River—but it was never confirmed what it was about the flowers that attracted the Demons. MYTH had run tests using smell, shape, and colour, but nothing had been proven. The tests were still running.
Tantrics Of Old Page 34
