The Kailashanath Diamond

Chapter 17

Madhumita wanted a time machine. (No, she could not summon it; it was one of the Forbidden Items of Creation) She wanted to reverse everything that happened on the ship the previous night. Or even what happened from the previous week. At this rate, one person was vanishing per week, which could not mean good.

Only good news was as such: the boat was moving, and Durga seemed to have ceased giving Parvati some challenges. Ashwin seemed to explain that the Power of Luna was acting upon the ship; the ship would not have moved without Swati.

Nandita seemed to be taking her outbreak of rage very seriously. She seemed to think had it not been her rage; she could have easily made Swati calm. Their spirits were lower than usual, on this particular night, when something peculiar happened. Some news was delivered by Gaurav.

‘Everybody, I want to tell you something.’

Everybody at the dinner table looked at him. Ashwin had a slight expression of disgust on his face; like he had swallowed some nasty Yama Bhaji (Madhumita believed that this was the staple food of Naraka, where rubber is made into a dish by squelching it in a drum of oil and tar. That was exactly how Ashwin had his expression.)

Madhumita saw his annoyance. Gaurav was very unmannered when it came to eating, for he swallowed food noisily and insisted that he would say the mantras to open the fridge. The problem was, Gaurav only kept on humming a bone-chilling sound, and not actually chanting anything.

Ashwin would intervene, usually, with a slight look of horror on his face, and then immediately hide it with a disgusted expression. He would go and chant the proper sloka so as to fill their no appetite stomachs.

‘Yeah, yeah. I hope it’s good news,’ said Ashwin sarcastically.

‘No. Not good news. Swati has been kidnapped by Yami, and Jyoti also has been kidnapped by Yami. Yami seems to want the Kailashanath Diamond, too.’

Ashwin looked like he already knew that.

‘So you mean we need to return both diamonds to Yami?’ asked Nandita, regaining her usual self at last. ‘Yes, we have to, lest we face the wrath of Yami… she will by hook or crook get the diamonds and destroy the living beings,’ replied Gaurav.

‘So what about Kamal?’ Jasnoor asked conversationally.

‘Oh, him. Kamal is a pushpan. He is a flower spirit. The flower spirit of the lotus flower in Altar…’ Gaurav’s voice trailed off at Nandita’s expression. Madhumita knew why: Swati’s Altar, Altar Five.

How had Swati disappeared? Asked a voice inside Madhumita.

Was she… No, she could not be. Simply not. Said another.

But Yami is the guardian of female spirits of Naraka.

So what? Said the first voice.

While Madhumita was debating among herself, Ashwin and Vignesh were amidst deep discussion. Madhumita went to Jasnoor and started discussing about Swati. Suddenly, a blaring bell rang through the ship. It seemed Ashwin had created it.

‘All of you to your beds, NOW!’ said Ashwin’s voice, magnified. All of them obeyed, with Madhumita dreamily switching on the T.V. before lolling away into sleep…

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Madhumita was standing inside a tall and magnificent palace, full in black, with curves with flames embedded on them. She seemed to be moving, dreamlike, through the gates, into a chamber, probably the entrance hall, lined with photos of… photos of gods: gods who were completely looking ugly, and behind that picture was a picture of a woman, tall, stern and beautiful looking, with red hair and an evil, majestic grin.

This seemed to portray the lady in a better light, as though all gods were fools, and she alone was magnificent. Madhumita floated on, past the gates of the building’s court, which was empty, through a long corridor lined with flaming blue torches, past an endless looking hole, into a huge temple.

This temple was not a temple. Not anything from the Bharatiya Samaj. It was primitive, with ugly geometrical shapes, and all of them seemed to portray a lady. The ugly temple was divided into two parts: one which was suspended above the ground and another built on the ground. The lower part was yellow-green in colour, and the upper part was bigger, grander, and was in a pale blue colour, standing out well against the orange sky.

‘Dyaus vame Prithvia Devi Pitam Shri. Kruya do doferam!’

There were weird inscriptions on the walls, in Devnagri script, but with words neither in Sanskrit nor in Hindi. The language, like the temple, was more primitive. Madhumita floated right across the temple, past the pale blue one, into the orange sky.

She kept on floating for what felt like hours, except she found that a dark violet temple, very small, yet graceful, stood right parallel to the pale blue one. The inscriptions here seemed to be in Chinese, but were similar to Devnagri somehow.  Madhumita could make out the words: Aditia Devam Pura! Once she read these words, something took hold of her.

She kept on shouting till she was out of breath. She screamed.

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