Saving Satyavan ✓

Chapter One

She had failed.

Savitri knew from the victorious, yellow gleam in Dharmaraj's eyes that she had failed. Her eyes widened and her lips parted, as if to speak again, to fix her mistake while she still was swept up in the same breath, but no words came out. All she could do was stare silently, eyes wider than the dark earrings that dangled from Dharmaraj's gray ears as his lips broke out into a wide grin. Two white fangs were displayed to Savitri, and a blue tongue.

The tongue that devoured the souls.

"I'm sorry, Savitri." Dharmaraj's voice was so deep that it made the ground under her knees rumble. Savitri stood with haste, but kept her hands flat together, still praying to the heavyset God.

"No, I made a mistake," she said calmly, hiding her fear underneath her tongue and hoping that it would soak back into her skin and not into her words. "For my last wish, I wish for Satyavan to return to life."

As if he heard her, the lifeless, glimmering blue silhouette of Satyavan's body convulsed on Dharmaraj's shoulder. Savitri's hopes lept, but Dharmaraj didn't seem unpeturbed. He lifted his shoulder, bouncing Satyavan's body. Immediately, the convulsions stopped, and Satyavan returned to being lifeless.

"You used your last wish incorrectly, Savitri," Dharmaraj said. He gazed at the dead body in Savitri's lap, but he felt no emotion as he watched the doe-eyed girl stroke her husband's curly locks. He had done his job. "You were told of Satyavan's curse. Perhaps if you had listened to the words of Narada Muni, you wouldn't be in the position that you are in today."

At the mention of the sage, Savitri's spine straightened. Her lips pressed in a thin line and she gazed firmly back into Dharmaraj's golden eyes.

"I have never cared about Satyavan's curse," she said calmly. "I was born into royalty, Lord Dharmaraj. My father taught me to lead a simplistic lifestyle, and I have no issues with doing so. Marrying Satyavan changed nothing about my life apart from the clothes I wore and the house I lived in."

"And yet, you spent the last three days without food," Dharmaraj noted in an equally calm voice. "You knew that your husband's days were numbered, and yet instead of spending any time with him, you chose to fast and meditate?"

"I was praying for his life," Savitri defended. "Satyavan understood that."

"Maybe he did," Dharmaraj agreed. "But were you really praying for his life?"

"What do you mean?"

But Dharmaraj only laughed. He put a hand on his stomach and laughed, his head tossed back. The trees swayed around them, as if laughing with him, and the grass blades sifted against each other and made gentle clapping sounds.

"You are young, Savitri, and you have much to learn," he said instead. Once again, he gazed at Satyavan's lifeless body, then with the mace in his right hand, he touched the exiled prince's soul. Savitri could only watch in horror as her husband's soul disappeared in a crackle of bright white light.

"You are a very devoted and pious woman, Savitri, I will give that to you," he continued. "But your husband must come with me now. It is his time, and you must accept that."

"No, I will not accept it." Savitri felt fury brimming over her eyes in the guise of hot, salty droplets. Her bangles jingled as she wiped them away. "Satyavan is my husband, Lord Dharmaraj. He is not your property. You cannot just take him away from me when our life has hardly started!"

"You were warned," Dharmaraj repeated as he turned. "By your father and by Narada Muni. I cannot blame you for who you fell in love with, however, you made your choice. And now you must pay the price for that choice."