The Kailashanath Diamond

Chapter 16

Jasnoor hated this journey. Not to mention the horrible purpose. The danger involved in this journey, she thought, was just way too much for her. One, being put on the deck when a rogue eagle wants to kill you did not seem as an excellent idea to her. Two, ripping up that eagle at its heart, she would give that a perfect eleven on ten rating on her ‘Gross’ scale.

The main thing she seemed to be able to do was cook. Even that usefulness was being absorbed by Madhumita, who seemed to be eager to create food out of thin air. Jasnoor privately thought she had a point, but she would counter by saying that food made out of air was unlikely to be healthy.

Even more, to add to her avalanche of objections, everyone seemed to be interested in fighting. Be it mantras, water or sword, everybody wanted to kill dirty great serpents and ugly predators of the sky. She felt that everybody seemed to ignore the fact that anything cannot disintegrate just like that unless bewitched. There seemed to be a slight understanding problem over there.

More and more challenges by Durga was going to, in her opinion, not give Parvati fighting experience, but actually get her severely injured. Durga definitely was a taunting, annoying character.

I mean, which kind of godly parent thinks killing people is a way of helping them? she thought. Even her godly Ma, Lakshmi, seemed better than Durga. The ‘Man Booker Prize Worthy’ story cooked up by Swati only made her seem intelligent, but it seemed to be a tall tale to Jasnoor.

Swati thinks Yama stole the Shweta Padma? Impossible.

Of course, this wild theory was accepted by everyone except Ashwin, who seemed to have taken an objective to practice mantras. He seemed to be preparing for some battle, and Jasnoor dreaded if she would be asked to join the next one. She had whimpered behind the cabin door when the others fought the eagle. She simply loathed birds of all shapes and sizes.

On the deck, the ever-chatting duo seemed to be serious at last. Swati, whose father, incidentally the patron of medicine, was nursing Nandita’s little finger, with Nandita herself glaring at Swati.

‘Will you stop this, Swati? I think you know that more challenges are to come, for Parvati told us about those challenges?’ she said.

‘I know, Nandita, but I feel that something serious is going to happen. My Pitashri is all-knowing, you cannot deny that,’ replied Swati.

Nandita dragged her hand away from Swati’s.

‘Nandita!!’

‘Oh please. Your father is all-knowing so you want to be at the top?’

‘It’s nothing like that!’

Nandita furiously took deep breaths. She seemed to be unable to control her anger, because she continued.

‘So you sense something serious is about to happen. Big deal. So, you mean that this challenge should be ignored?’

‘I am not telling you to ignore the challenges, but I just…’ Swati’s voice trailed away, her sentence left hanging open.

Jasnoor wanted to stop the argument, but it seemed stopped already.

‘Fine. I will inform you if anything serious happens,’ said Nandita and she stalked away towards her cabin.

Swati looked flabbergasted, but she turned her expression to something else, fear.

‘I know something is about to happen, I know,’ she said to herself.

Jasnoor went back inside her room, filled with a useless induction stove. What was she to do with such an useless object? Pass her time cooking things? There were no raw materials, and she could not cook anything just like that. She went out to the cabin corridor. She saw Madhumita lurking around.