by T. G. Ayer
“Oh don’t worry, I wanted to be captured. There wasn’t any other way to get here.”
“Well I hope you have a plan. I don’t think I can survive another year in this place. As lovely as it is I prefer my own home thank you very much.”
“Right, we just have to find a way out of here.”
“I would have hoped you would have a pretty good idea before you got yourself stuck here,” said Varuni, her tone icy as she folded her arms.
“Yeah, rub it in why don’t you.” Maya clenched her jaw. “Nik's informants only told us where you were.”
“Next time could you have a proper plan please?” Varuni said, her voice cool and her expression a bit too haughty for Maya’s liking. Given Varuni also happened to be a goddess Maya controlled her tongue and began to pace the floor.
She went over everything Nik and Chayya had told her, everything she could remember about her previous visit to the palace, but nothing stood out, nothing struck her enough to figure out a better plan.
“Will you stop walking up and down? You are making me dizzy,” snapped Varuni. She rose and went to a tray holding a large pitcher and two steel glasses. She poured what looked like water into one glass and handed it to Maya. “Here, drink that. You should calm down enough to give me a chance to sleep.”
Maya took the glass. “Thanks.” A drink of water would probably help to rehydrate her. Lately food and water were the last things on her mind. But when she sipped she almost gagged and would have spat it out if it weren't unladylike. She shuddered. “What the heck is that?”
Varuni laughed. “You’re not very strong for the Hand of Kali.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just that the girl who wields the power of Kali should really have a stronger constitution.”
“My constitution is plenty strong enough. What was that you gave me to drink?”
“I’m not the Goddess of Wine for nothing.”
Maya gasped. “You gave me wine? What is wrong with you? I need to be aware and awake not lying here in an intoxicated heap just so you can get some sleep.”
“Oh, do not fuss. You barely drank any of it. Had I known you were going to be so fussy I would never have given it to you.”
Before Maya could think of a response, the door flew open and the two women didn’t get to continue their argument. Two guards entered and grabbed Maya, each taking her by an arm and manhandling her out of the cell without a word.
The guards soon delivered her to another room, much larger this time, and quite beautiful in its design. The entire chamber was a full circle with alcoves set into the walls. Maya noticed stone statues of Kali and Yama in two of the alcoves. She snorted in silence. A man stood at the furthest end reading from a book set upon a table filled with lamps and incense and trays of things. She got the impression of a hooked nose and sunken eyes, skin as pale as the marble on the palace façade.
Between Maya and the strange man, a large table occupied the middle of the room. Carved from an off-white rock traced with ebony flecks, the table stood at least to Maya’s waist. The surface sank in the tiniest bit and at its center were a row of thumb-sized holes. A rim ran around the edges of the table forming a little gutter.
Maya gulped. The only thing she could think of for the purpose of the holes and the gutter was to drain blood from a victim or a sacrifice. Crap. Now she’d gone and gotten herself into something she had totally no idea how to get out of. How does one get away from an evil torturer anyway?
“Put her on the table.” His voice drifted towards Maya, just loud enough to hear. His tone sounded aloof, cold.
The guards shoved her toward the table. One held her so tight she couldn’t look sideways. Just the action of being pushed forward by a demon hand pissed her off royally. She swung her arm to her right and sent a burst of fire directly behind her. Maya blinked. She hadn’t even considered the possibility she could be hurt by the resulting stream of flames but she didn’t particularly care. Right now one of the guards was screaming like a girl. And she liked that very much.
“Get him out of here.” The pale man turned toward Maya and the remaining guards as her victim was taken away still squealing. He opened his palm and a long ribbon of blackness emanated from his hand. The dark thread swam through the air honing in on Maya. When all four of her guard stepped away from her in unison Maya knew she was in trouble.
Chapter 52
The ribbon of blackness wound around her and despite looking like it was made from air, its strength was unbelievable. It bound her as tightly as any chain ever could have and Maya’s stomach clenched with fear. This sorcerer was way more powerful than she had anticipated.
With the slightest movement of his forefinger, the sorcerer lifted Maya off the ground and moved her through the air, placing her gently on the white stone table. Maya struggled against the ties of the black smoke but it was useless. Even as she felt the hard rock beneath her back, she knew struggling was a waste of her energy.
“Leave,” came the icy instruction. Four sets of boots marched out of the room.
But as the door would have closed, one set of footsteps entered, a relaxed pacing indicating the owner of those feet was in no rush to get anywhere fast.
“My dear Maya. I was so hoping to run into you again.” Kas moved to the side of the table and Maya glared at him, sure her eyes spit flames at his face. “Come now, why so angry with me?”
“Do you have to ask? Let me go.”
“No need to be rude.” Kas ran a finger along the edge of the stone and he turned to meet her eyes. Odd. Was that a hint of sadness in his expression? “I’m sorry it’s come to this, Maya. I thought you would come to my side. But you are still resisting me.”
“And I will always resist you. I’ll never join the side of the demons.” Maya spat her response with a more fevered vehemence than she expected.
“Very well.” Kas sighed, the rush of air sounding genuinely sad. “I'll leave you to the ministrations of Balraj. I hope he'll be resourceful enough to change your mind. At the very least he should be able to find a way to drain you of your power and then it will be mine.”
Kas ran a finger along the skin on Maya's arm, sighed again, and left.
The door closed behind Kas as a thick smoke began to permeate the air within the room. The threads of black shadows still bound Maya into place, her hands strapped tightly to her sides.
“Now, human girl.” Balraj’s voice startled Maya and she turned her head to find him standing right beside her. His bald head gleamed in the light of more than a dozen torches dotting the walls. His black eyes were flat, like dead coals in the deep pits of his eye-sockets. He’d certainly taken time in dressing up to apply a thick line of black Kohl around both his eyes. Pity they made him look more like a living corpse than anything else. “Be still.”
He wore the raiment of a holy man; a wide fabric tied at his waist with a matching length wound around his body and shoulders. The dark orange color didn’t seem right on Balraj whose very skin seemed to emanate evil.
He held onto Maya’s arm and lifted a chain embedded into the stone, winding it around her wrist now freed from the rope of darkness. He repeated the process at the other side of the table and waved a hand across her body. With that movement, the binding shadows rose into the air and dissipated into nothing.
Maya pulled onto the chains but they encircled her wrists so tightly it hurt to even move her hand. “What are you doing?” she said, her voice ringing around the room.
“Just be silent.” He answered with a serene calm as the smoke thickened. He brought a clay vessel to her side, brushing his hand over a burning pile of embers from which the thick smoke billowed. Maya’s heart tightened as she recognized one item in the bowl. A bone. She didn’t want to think where the bone had originated. This was a dark magic Balraj conjured and it frightened her.
The smoke filled Maya's lungs and she coughed and hacked, her body wanting to expel the foul air. From what s
he could tell, the smoke wasn’t having any recognizable effect on her. Not yet, at least.
Balraj took both Maya’s hands and laid them flat, palm facing up. Then he stood at the foot of the table and began to chant. The words were almost a song, a hypnotic melody. And Maya blinked, trying to concentrate on what he was doing. She wanted to be conscious and aware.
But when the sorcerer aimed both his hands at Maya, the pain coursing through her body was like nothing she'd ever experienced in her life. Similar to the fire in her veins when she’d first learned to control it, but also extremely different.
The violence and power in the agony sweeping through her body took her breath away and almost knocked her unconscious. Slowly she began to feel her fire swirling within her, heat building within her abdomen.
Maya breathed slowly, trying to control it, to tamp it down. She refused to let the despicable sorcerer have any of her power.
But it was useless.
No matter how much she tried, she couldn't stop it. It was as if he’d found the origin of the fire and began to pull at it with a power way beyond her own ability.
Fire coursed through her body and flowed straight into her palms. Balraj was ready, his hands outstretched to receive the continuous waves flowing from Maya’s palms. She watched in desperation as he took her Fire, watched as he frowned and drew harder.
Maya's own body burned as if she were ablaze. Perspiration dripped from her face, soaking into her hair. She writhed against the heat and the agony, pulling at the chains not caring they cut into her skin or that her wrists began to bleed. Time seemed to stand still and Maya fell into a semi-conscious fugue, falling in and out of consciousness as the agony rose and fell.
At last, Balraj screamed in frustration and walked to his table. Maya dropped back onto the stone, the constant strain against the pain relieved if only for a moment. She had not an ounce of energy left. If he came back to kill her she’d be completely helpless.
But she held onto the hope he hadn't gotten what he wanted. So hopefully they’d let her live a little longer. Long enough for her to find a way out. Long enough to find a way to get Varuni out of here.
Maya tilted her head toward Balraj, watching to see if she could make out what he was doing. But he leaned on his table, shaking his head.
She slipped into unconsciousness listening to Balraj muttering about something not working.
Maya awakened as her body hit the ground and she went tumbling, only stopping when her head smacked into a wall. She groaned, listening to the tramp of boot-steps leaving and the thunk of the cell door shutting tight. She moved her head and gasped, then righted herself enough to support her weight on one elbow and hold onto her head with the other.
Her fingers came away sticky and red and she hissed at the sharp bite of pain.
"Shhh, lie still. You have a gash on your scalp." The shuffling of feet and soft crinkling of fabric brought Varuni to her. "Where did they take you?"
"Some albino sorcerer dude." Maya muttered. She didn't need to be convinced to lie back. Her body was so weak from Balraj's ministrations all she really wanted to do was sleep.
"That would be Balraj. He is Narakasura's sorcerer. A very ruthless, evil man." A tamped down fury laced Varuni's words. Maya allowed Varuni to lift her head and barely flinched when the goddess moved aside the hair above her temple. "The skin is broken. I will need to disinfect it."
Maya chuckled but it came out more like a cough. "Well, you're not the goddess of wine for nothing, right?"
Varuni laughed. She rose and went to the pitcher, bringing Maya a glass of her wine. She lifted Maya's head, put the rim to her lips and said, "I suggest you drink. You need some pain relief and some rest."
This time Maya drank quietly, not a cell in her body would have dared to say no to Varuni. At last, she lay back. Varuni pulled forward the long piece of fabric of her sari that hung at her shoulder. She tilted the cup and poured wine over the edge. The cell was silent except for Maya's ragged breathing, and intermittent hiss of pain as Varuni cleaned first the broken skin at her wrists and then the wound on her scalp.
Maya fell asleep right there on Varuni's lap. She knew she wouldn't allow herself to fail. Her last thoughts were for Joss and everything she’d sacrificed.
Chapter 53
Maya awakened later, lying on her side facing Varuni who sat in the lotus position looking very much like she was deep in meditation. Maya blinked. Yes, still there. She tried to moved but couldn't. Tried to swallow but found it almost impossible.
She called to Varuni but the sound emerged like something between a croak and a cough. Varuni threw herself onto her knees and crawled to Maya's side. She ran her fingers over Maya's forehead, her eyes pools of worry.
"What's wrong?"
"I am worried, Maya. You are no better than yesterday. What did the sorcerer do to you?"
"From what Kas said and from what Balraj did, I think he was trying to strip me of my powers."
"Well, whatever he was doing to you has weakened you terribly. And I am very afraid they will soon return." Varuni sighed. "I will no doubt get into trouble for this but there is one thing I can do to help you." She set Maya's head back onto the stone floor before rising and heading for the pitcher. The goddess brought the cup to Maya and sat before her cross-legged.
Varuni held the cup in front of her within her praying hands. Soon the goblet glowed and a smooth white smoke swirled around the hands of the goddess and encircled the cup. Varuni began to glow too, and even as weak and tired as Maya was, she could see Varuni's other two pairs of arms rising behind her. The goddess's skin shone a pearlescent shimmering glow.
At last, Varuni sighed and the luminous light faded. Maya was oddly disappointed. Varuni rushed forward and helped Maya to a sitting position while she supported her back. Maya looked at the contents of the cup the Varuni now held before her. A milky white liquid shimmered within the bowl.
"What is this?" Maya already suspected she knew the answer.
"It is the Amrita, the Elixir of Immortality." Varuni said in a whisper. "It will restore your strength to you and I am hoping it will help you in case Balraj sends for you again."
"Will it make me immortal too?"
"No." Varuni grinned. "The amount I am giving you is restorative and healing only."
"Won't they know you've given it to me?"
"No. I've told Kas the only place in which I can make the Amrita is on Mount Kailas. And since he can't get there yet, I've been safe and so has the Amrita."
"That was clever." Maya smiled at the goddess and sipped at the milk-like drink.
"I am not without my tricks." Varuni replied with a wink. "Now you sleep. And if for some reason you awaken somewhere else, remember to act weak and almost sickly. They will expect to be draining you of your power."
Maya emptied the cup and nodded. She closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep without the least bit of resistance. Fortunately, when she awakened she was still in her cell with Varuni. The goddess leaned against the far wall, singing a song Maya hadn't heard before. She trailed off and scrambled to her feet as Maya struggled to sit up.
"How do you feel?" Varuni's gaze flitted across Maya's face, to her body and back.
"I feel . . ." Maya assessed how she felt and was pleasantly surprised. She grinned at Varuni. "Actually I feel pretty great."
"See, my magic worked!" The goddess gloated happily. "Do you feel like eating? You will need your strength."
"Not really, considering where my food is coming from." Maya frowned. "Is it safe?"
"I have been eating it for a while and I am neither poisoned nor dead."
"Good, then I'll eat. I need to keep my strength up. I'm sure they're not done with me yet."
Varuni nodded, and went to a small wooden table beside the door. Apparently, Kas treated his prisoners very well. Three little brass pots contained a variety of vegetable curries, beside which sat a small pile of naan, still steaming. "This meal just arrived so everyth
ing is hot." She brought the tray and laid it on the floor in front of Maya, who attacked the food with a hunger she hadn't known she had.
At last, sated and satisfied, Maya followed Varuni's lead and washed up at a tiny basin in the corner of the room. A spout with running water falling constantly into a little stone bowl set with a drain. Functional yet natural.
"Right, I think I'm ready to start." Maya flexed her muscles, and bounced lightly on her toes. She scanned the cell and frowned.
"What is wrong?" The goddess's face scrunched with concern.
"I'm not sure where the best place is to practice here. No matter where I choose anyone can just come up and look through those bars and see me." Maya glanced at the iron rods set in the top of the wooden door like a little window.
"Oh pssht." Varuni waved a dismissive hand. "I can stand guard for you. It is probably for the best. We do not want them to know you have your strength back."
Maya grinned. She and Varuni hadn't gotten off to a good start, with the goddess almost snapping her head off when Maya arrived the first time to save her. Now, Varuni kept guard while Maya went through the practice routine she and Nik had developed.
The thought of Nik made her hesitate. She worried about him and Chayya. What had they done when she hadn't returned with Varuni as planned? Had they also been caught?
Varuni's high-pitched yelp grabbed Maya's attention and brought her back to reality. She stared at the goddess and gasped. Varuni dabbed at flames sticking to the door just inches from where she stood.
"Sorry," Maya said, a sheepish smile on her face.
"Concentrate. Or you might burn me up next time."
"So are you more flammable than the other gods?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well you are the goddess of wine and wine is flammable-" Maya giggled.
