NOVEL WEB Chapter 13: Even the Best Laid Plans Can Go Awry
The hollow cave inside the hill of Northern Mines reeked of blood, fallen soldiers, and death. The Dayita Army continued to fight the Kapala troops at ground level. Aryaman was engaged in a one-on-one fight with the Kapala troop leader. At the upper reaches of the mines, Sanjaya and his men were getting the remaining leaderless Kapala troops under their control.
Aryaman feigned an attack on the troop leader, and as the troop leader followed to block a perceived attack, Aryaman swerved and got behind the troop leader, capturing him in a headlock with his right arm and knocking the troop leader’s sword out with his other hand.
“Where is your leader?” Aryaman questioned him. Aryaman had sensed something was amiss earlier; Sanjaya was able to take down the other troop leaders rather quickly. While he didn’t doubt Sanjaya’s capabilities, the Kapala Army wasn’t to be underestimated either.
Upon hearing no answer, Aryaman strengthened his grip on the troop leader and the latter choked from the increased pressure.
“Answer me!” said Aryaman.
Just then an explosion with shattering sound filled the air and huge balls of fire came flowing down the path from the upper reaches.
Taking advantage of the chaos, the troop leader broke free from Aryaman’s grip.
“There he is!” He sneered, running away and disappeared into the cave.
Aryaman coughed from the rising smoke inside the cave and looked over the vast cave as his men and the Kapala soldiers ran amok trying to dodge the balls of fire. He whistled to catch the attention of the second-in-command in his group.
“Your Highness,” came his second-in-command running towards him. “Let me get you to safety.”
“Anila! Evacuate everyone here immediately,” said the prince. “I mean everyone, including the Kapala troops. We have enough soldiers outside to take them as hostages.”
“Your Highness,” cried Anila in earnest. “Your safety comes first!”
“Nonsense!” said the prince. “Don’t waste time! Hurry up! Let me check on Sanjaya and others. We’ll follow you guys shortly. Stay safe!”
Having said those words, Aryaman ran into the path leading to the upper reaches, deftly moving from place to place to avoid the raging flames from the balls of fire.
Anila took command at once, climbed a huge boulder to gain a view of the cave and whistled thrice for all his men to stop and quickly look at him. He raised his hand straight, then raised it forward. At once, the soldiers quickly formed two strips of amorphous lines adjusting to the space between the fires and proceeded to move out of the cave. The Kapala soldiers followed suit in tacit consent, and neither the Dayita men nor the Kapala men attacked one another. The fire became a common enemy for the time being, and escaping it, their top priority.
Aryaman found Sanjaya and his men along with the Kapala troops trapped by a couple of boulders preventing their escape from the fire in the upper reaches.
“Sanjaya!” Shouted Aryaman on top of his lungs, his voice cut through the roar of the fire.
“Here, your Highness!” came Sanjaya’s reply from behind a wall of fallen boulders.
Quickly assessing the situation, Aryaman searched for and found a long wooden pole nearby.
“Get back!” he yelled to Sanjaya and the others. He jammed the pole into a gap between the boulders and pushed hard, his muscles tensing with the effort.
“Push!” he grunted to those on the other side.
Sanjaya and his men pushed as ordered from their side. After a few tries, the boulders moved slowly, creating a narrow opening. Sanjaya and the trapped soldiers rushed through, coughing from the smoke.
“Quickly, this way!” said Aryaman standing to the side as he directed the men downwards to evacuate.
“Your Highness,” said Sanjaya. “Why don’t you go ahead first? I’ll stay back till everywhere clears out from here.”
“Sanjaya,” said the prince. “Can you do that? I want to check something quickly. I’ll be right back.”
Without waiting for a reply, Aryaman went further into the hollow caves leaving a puzzled Sanjaya to look after the evacuation. The Kapala Chief and the troop leader could still be inside the Northern Mines. As Aryaman ran and searched from one place to another, he finally two silhouettes against a large crevice that opened outwards. They were talking to themselves. Aryaman tip-toed to move closer to them without making any sound. Before he could reach them, one of two men had sensed Aryaman. He murmured something to the other, who nodded and jumped out of the crevice.
Aryaman stopped in his tracks. The silhouette came out of the shadows and into the light. He wore a black mask with a sun on the forehead. His cloak fluttered against the wind from the crevice. He drew out his weapon, the whip-sword, a whip with sinuous metal blades. A faint dark miasma seemed to be surrounding him. This was the Kapala chief. Aryaman tightened the grip on his own sword.
Before Aryaman could react, the Kapala chief lashed his whip-sword at him with remarkable speed. The tips of the whip-sword stung Aryaman’s hand with such force that he let go of his grip and the sword fell from his hands. Before the sword could hit the ground, Aryaman was hit with a ball of fire in the chest that sent him backwards and into a wall. The last thing, he saw before losing consciousness was the Kapala chief gripping his heart and escaping from the crevice.
The Heavenly Assembly was a full house with all of the gods in attendance. Even Lord Vaiswa was in the court, on the right to Lord Purandhara, the heavenly emperor. The apsaras who entertained the gods in the assembly with their song and dance, took furtive glances at Lord Vaiswa, their eyes soaking in the beauty of the stoic god.
“Everyone! Let me first give you an assessment of the situation,” said Lord Purandhara.
“It is true that the barrier between the Swarga-loka and Bhu-loka is sealed. It is also true that as all the gods are present in Swarga-loka at the moment, the seal cannot be opened from one side alone,” said Lord Purandhara
A wave of murmurs erupted in the court.
“How is that possible?”
“What will happen to us then?”
“Are we really gods if we can’t descend to Bhu-loka and take care of our devotees??”
“How long can we continue like this?”
“If we don’t answer our people’s prayers from Bhu-loka, we may soon be forgotten, and people may even become faithless!”
“Gods,” said Lord Purandhara loudly silencing the murmurs. “We have the situation in control. It’s for not for no reason that I’m the ruler of the heavens.” Lord Purandhara smiled with absolute confidence.
Lord Vaiswa’s expression became grim. Lady Sachi who was seated on the balcony above the heavenly court looked at her husband curiously.
“I have contacted the Preceptor of Heavenly Conduit on Bhu-loka,” Lord Purandhara continued. “Fortunately for us, there is an ancient god on Earth. For the time being, this god can take care of the things on Bhu-loka while we come up with a plan to unseal the barrier.”
An ancient god? thought Lord Bhoja. Could it be—?! His eyes widened in surprise as he narrowed the possibility of who this ancient god could be. He looked at Lord Vaiswa, whose expression was difficult to read. Lord Samye was also looking at Lord Vaiswa at the same moment and he caught Lord Bhoja doing the same. He pursed his lips in thought.
“I heard the son of Ila has come of age in Bhu-loka,” said another god. “He could also help for the time being.”
“Is it?” said Lord Purandhara. “Interesting, I’ll look into it.”
Lady Sachi looked on with special interest. The son of Ila? she thought. Ila is not going to be happy when she hears this.
“Let us then focus on what we can do from here in Swarga-loka,” said Lord Purandhara. “Dear gods, you can still receive appeals from your devotees, you can still oversee them. Let’s make the most of that, what do you say?"
The preta was gliding past the outskirts of Arang muttering to itself. As it was daytime, its acute sensitivity to heat tormented it.
This preta is always so wretched, it feels like there’s an oasis but it’s only a mirage. There’s no end of torment for this wretched preta. There’s no end! It kept wailing to itself.
Just then it saw a bullock cart with two men carrying goods, moving away from the city of Arang.
Hehe, humans, humans! Two humans to scare! It thought to itself and followed the bullock cart to spook the humans as a distraction from the scorching heat.