The Kailashanath Diamond

Chapter 18

Swati was astonished. For a second she had been running towards the deck… and poof! She was gone, after seeing the ghostly form of Jyoti mumbling words in a Welsh accent. She did not have full consciousness the whole journey, if there had been any, and she could not focus on trying to get up. She almost died of pain when something sharp hit her at the back of her neck. She could feel something sharp and hard being wrapped around her, and some… not one but something had pushed her into an orange place.

When she fully regained consciousness, she observed her surroundings. Number one, the place she was a kind of cell, like in a jail, with a glistening orange wall which seemed to radiate heat but the floor was thankfully black granite. The cell seemed to be reeking of chlorine, and there was an enormous bump near the corner of the cell.

There was no ceiling. Only vast endless orange sky. Not the kind of orange you see in sunsets, but the evil kind. The one you see in… No, it could not be. Swati could simply not believe that she was dead and of all places to visit after death, she did not want her post-mortem to be in Naraka. What sin had she made to come to this ugly place?

The label next to her eased her tension a bit.

‘High Security Upperworld Vault: Diogelwch Uchel ifynybyd Vault’

Swati could not understand the second set of words, which somehow seemed to be not an Indian language.

The bump next to the wall stirred.

How can a bump move? She could not come to any conclusion except that the bump was not something, but a person. A person. And that person was a girl in tattered white kurta pyjama, with a trishul pinned to it. It was the symbol of Head of Altar One. This means she was… Swati got it.

‘Jyoti!’ Swati shouted.

Her once beautiful hair was smeared with dust and a peculiar red material which Swati did not want to know what. She felt thin and fragile, and Swati tried to lift her. She found that Jyoti was feather light.

If even Swati, (short by Ishwar’s standards) could lift her up, Jyoti must have been fasting for years. It simply could not be possible that Jyoti had lived for so long in such a prison.

‘Maranam taradi mahanam! Yama-vara Yama-swaha! Karuppadivye! Yamiye Vibramhate! Mai y marw byd, gall y cynnydd ymerodraeth! Mai Yama byw yn hir!’ The chants in Sanskrit and… the foreign language. The chants kept on getting louder.

‘Looks like the kidnappers are on their way!’ she whispered to the fragile Jyoti.

‘Kya? Mam Varadam Samajhaste Jyoti! Mama Nama Jyoti!’

Jyoti seemed to be speaking in Sanskrit, and she kept on mumbling her own name. She also kept on telling ‘Samajhaste’ which should have either meant ‘The Bharatiya Samaj laughs’ or ‘Believe me!’. Swati cursed herself for not paying attention in Sanskrit class.

‘What? I will believe you! The Samaj will not laugh!’ she said, adding both of her interpretations in one sentence.

‘Mam… Mam… jaladharam!’ Jyoti said. When Swati put up an expression of confusion and disgust, Jyoti seemed to understand Swati’s deficiency in Sanskrit. ‘I am sorry. I thought you knew Sanskrit. The language acts as a barrier between the dead and the living, so. I want to escape!’ she bawled.

Just as Swati opened her mouth to talk, the orange wall turned grey, and two towering figures that were skeletons armed with AK-47s and had ‘The Anti-Samaj League’ written neatly on their shirts entered the cell, breaking the grey substance as though made of paper.

‘Yama-vara Yama-swaha!’

The building in which they were imprisoned shook like an earthquake had occurred, and an ear-splitting noise, like the bull’s, filled the cell. Jyoti cowered and closed her ears. Swati opened her mouth, furious, and tried to argue with the guard, but she was pushed back by another guard, who bowed to invisibility.

No, Swati was wrong.

It was not invisibility. The air shimmered, and the stench of chlorine reduced drastically, and a man appeared. The guards bowed very deeply, that their skeletal noses touched the ground with a sickening squeak, and the man stepped inside, quite gracefully, and observed Jyoti closely.

‘My go—er— in the name of death! What have you done?’ he asked hesitantly, pointing at the tattered costume of Jyoti. The guards stared.

‘It is- um- very beneficial that we should have that grea- er- filthy costume as um –a souvenir. You know, to show those… um, death people. On my orders, get her out, now, and feed her and pamper her for a while! Now!’

The guards sensed the order and moved away, dragging Jyoti along.

Swati looked at the man. He seemed to be… looking like Yama, but his eyes had a twinkle, and he had looked like he had controlled himself from laughing when he gave orders to the guards.

He spotted Swati’s confused expression and… hard to believe, you know, laughed.

He threw back his head, and shimmered again, and Swati hoped he would go away. No, he did not, but this time, a god, (Swati was sure he was) with sea-blue pyjama kurta, and a very gentle smile, stood before her, smiling with pleasure.

‘Hard acting, isn’t it?’ he asked.

Swati almost cried out in surprise. Vishnu was here to save her! He had come as though gods had no other work and stood before her matter-of-factly, and he smiled at her when she looked surprised. Not fair at all.

‘Pitashri,’ she said, hiding her joy.

Vishnu shrugged. He looked at the wall, and with a steady gaze, turned it to dust. ‘I thought you’d be grateful. But, no, I never seem to predict mankind properly. Never,’ he said, looking at her with a calm and serene expression, like entering Naraka was no big deal.

‘How did you enter, Pitashri?’ Swati asked.

‘Oh, please, Swati, don’t stick to formalities. Call me Father or Dad or whatever. Please do not embarrass me by calling me that old times’ Pitashri,’ Vishnu replied, smiling and winking. He regained a godly composure and said in an authoritative voice, ‘Swati, dear, you have only half an hour left. You have to escape right out of Naraka, and I will get you to Realm 65-A, Bay of Bengal, Tanyakoa River Sector. Don’t look funny, that’s the nearest to your ship. Jyoti will be teleported right with you, and if any skeleton touches her at that time, you will get an extra offer. Take one get two dead people free,’ he continued, winking at his joke.

‘Once you reach there, no Underworld creature may lay hands upon you. It is an important source of godly power. But, beware. Yami is sensing a godly presence here, and Yama is currently… um… out of station. You have to escape, and if Yami alerts the guards, not even I can get you help,’ he said, ending his speech dramatically.

‘Are they alright?’ Swati asked, referring to her fellow academy members.

‘They are in very good hands, thanks.’

Vishnu waved his hand as though saying goodbye, and pushed himself with a humph, and vanished, leaving Swati flabbergasted, confused, and nervous and scared.