Ephemera- Of Fire and Ash

Fire

I know I said last update... but I wanted to pen this down.......

Not edited- read at your own risk (none of my chapters are ever edited...)

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Few days later

The pandavas were in varnavrat, spending their time peacefully without suspicion of any death plan....

"Bhrata bheem, ma!" nakul suddenly exclaimed...

"Nakul no time for your stupid jokes..." bheem said as he ate an ladoo and kunti rolled her eyes..

"But, it is important.." nakul whined..

"Since when did your little brain think of importance.." arjun joked as they all burst out laughing and nakul frowned...

"Ma, not you too." Nakul pouted..

"Arey bhrata nakul, we don't need bhrata arjun to get us too laugh, your face is enough.." sahadev joked as everyone rolled on the floor laughing...

Gaining a control over her laughter kunti asked nakul to continue..

"Do you smell anything strange?" he asked as they others sniffed the air with careful consideration..

Bheema sniffed the air and his eyes grew round. "What is it?"

"Lac, tallow and resin, I think." sahadev tapped on the walls with his knuckles and they made a hollow sound. "This is what Vidura was trying to warn us about. Beware of fire, he said. If I am not wrong this Purochana is Duryodhana's man and he has built this palace with every incendiary material he could find. And surely one night the good Purochana will set fire to this wonderful palace and cremate us inside it."

Bheema's face was a picture. "We must return to the old palace at once! With the moat full of stakes, we will be caught like rats in a trap here. We cannot wait, what if he starts his fire tonight? This place will burn like straw."

Kunti laid a hand on his hasty son's arm. "We mustn't be rash, whatever we do. This is a carefully laid plan. I doubt that Purochana will be in any hurry to set us on fire. He won't want the people to say the Pandavas were killed as soon as they arrived. He will bide his time, at least a month, or more, before he shows his hand."

"I miss jyesth in such situations, he always knew what to do.." arjun sulked as his brothers hugged him.. It will be ok... he is there or not, life must go on.

"He is not the only one who knows what he is doing. Vidura knows about the plot; he got wind of it in Hastinapura. He will not sit idly, while we are killed. So let us be wary, but for the present, let us wait rather than be caught out in haste. We have a long way to go; we must think where that way leads. We must think beyond this house of lac." Sahadev said making others widen their eyes...

Bheema did not agree. "You are forgetting what sort of men Duryodhana and his friends are. Our cousin does not think twice and never did, to kill anyone. He is not going to let what the people say deter him, not for a day. He wants us dead and his way to the throne cleared; and the sooner the better.

I am not for waiting. I say strike back at them. Let us take fire to Hastinapura and finish them when they least expect it. Arjuna by himself is enough for the lot. And if he isn't, I will go with him and tear them limb from limb. We were quite when he took bhrata yudhi away from us but not now..." bheem shone with the prospect..

"We will have no proof like the former.. we need to get away from Hastinapur, we are not going back to a place where my one son was killed, others are trying to be killed..." kunti said decisively..

"Let us set fire to this palace and flee after a week." Nakul suggested using his little brain.. (author laughs)

It was a strained and anxious time. Often, they felt truly like rats in a trap. They kept each other's spirits up, especially Bheema, who joked and laughed even more than usual. Nobody who visited them, least of all Purochana, suspected anything of the anguish they endured during their first week in the house of lac. Now more than ever they missed yudhi, for his judgement in critical situations was the best, but there was no looking back..

On the sixth day of that anxious week, a quiet man with a long face and keen eyes arrived in the palace of lac. In a soft voice, he said, "Your uncle Vidura sent me. I am a miner; I tunnel under the ground for precious stones."

Sahadev glanced at Bheema. He said nothing yet, because he must be sure the man was not a spy. After a moment, the miner went on, "Vidura said to me, 'Duryodhana means to immolate my nephews in a house of lac in Varanasi. Go and help the Pandavas.' So I have come."

Though they found themselves warming instinctively to the taciturn miner, the Pandavas waited for some sign that they could trust him. Suddenly remembering, the miner brightened and said, "Fire is a more terrible weapon than the sword. Against fire a man should guard himself as the rat does against winter, by burrowing." Sahadev beamed as his brothers cauht the sign and the miner set to work... Within a week the tunnel was ready..

Kunti had taken to feeding a nishada woman and her five dark sons, who came occasionally from the forest to visit her. She invited them to her feast for the poor. That night, Kunti was especially attentive of this woman and her grown sons. She took them away from the rest of the crowd into an inner room. There she not only fed them sumptuously but plied them with some very strong liquor, which the miner bought in Varanasi.

Bheema drank with Purochana that night. Now Bheema could drink as much as five men and feel just slightly merry. Obliged to keep up with the unusually friendly prince, Purochana was soon so drunk that he passed out even before he tasted Kunti's delicious cooking.

The feast ended and all the guests left: all save Purochana and the nishada woman and her five sons, who were also unconscious. One of those wild youths was a giant like Kunti's Bheema. A strong wind had risen over the river and the jungle beyond it. It whistled around the lacquer palace.

The Pandavas gathered in the courtyard where a trap door, covered by a flagstone, led to escape and anonymity: the inscrutable future. Bheema said, "The walls will burn so quickly we may not all have time to get away. The rest of you go down into the tunnel. I'll light the fire in Purochana's room and join you in a moment."

Bheema ignited the torch he carried in his hand. When his brothers and Kunti had climbed down into the darkness of the tunnel, he crossed quickly to Purochana's room. The man lay on his back, snoring. Bheema said, "Farewell, Purochana old friend. Sleep now for ever."

They all flee away into the forest... 

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