Chasing the Sun

XVI

|| - Back of the mirror - ||

A million words would not bring you back – I know, because I tried

Neither would a million tears – I know, because I cried

________

Darkness breathed in relief as it embraced the motionless shadows of Madhavgadh. The stone pillars surrounding her, stood watching like guards of some ancient secrets and the heavens above simply glowered over the shadows it could not dispel. Gayatri sank into the inviting cool folds of the pool parting a sheet of rose petals and jasmine blossoms. The aroma of the water was intense, partly from the flowers and partly from the sandalwood that coated her skin.

The weight of water felt soothing against her weary shoulders as she breathed in the fragrant air. Gayatri sighed and looked up at the incarnate patterns of stars on the Madavgadh sky and held her breath as she sank into the water. The insignificant sounds of the night hushed at once, filling her ears with the otherworldly silence of underwater. Practice reduced the sting of water on her eyes, so much so that when she closed them it was only a dull throb against her eyelids.

The darkness shifted, melted and solidified. Blotches of dark colour appeared on the empty canvas of pitch black and took forms of more shadows, as the silence reformed itself into voices.

It was a vision of a dingy room, cold and dark like some hidden dungeon. The bricks had soaked up the moisture from the deepest pits of earth and often cracked in places. Cobwebs stretched from one wall to the other, like curtains of some ghostly culture. Chains groaned against the ground as the crawling figure whimpered.

"It wasn't me, father I swear!" A broken voice cried as a whip cracked against flesh.

"Who else had access to the venom?" Akif Fisal Khan's agitated voice demanded. The broken shadow on the ground did not respond, instead it continued to whimper.

"Trust me! Trust me!"

"I should have known," when Khan spoke again, it sounded like a thought being voiced. "That a wild animal cannot be tamed – no matter how well trained a beast remains a beast!"

Gayatri surfaced parting the sheet of flowers once more. Drenched hair remained plastered to the sides of her face, highlighting the vicious glint in her eyes when she opened them.

"McLane...McLane," she muttered absentmindedly. "I should have trusted the boy more."

There were footsteps as Gayatri plucked a wayward jasmine from her hair. The young maid who entered looked positively terrified to break her focus.

"Rani sa*," she fumbled over her words not daring to lift her gaze and look at her.

"What is it?" Gayatri inquired lazily, tossing away the flower she had plucked.

"Lord McLane is here – with his daughter."

Gayatri's eyes narrowed a moment before her lips twisted into a smile. She splashed her hand through the water enjoying that particular thought which occurred to her then.

"It seems I'm not the only one," she added to herself, before dismissing the maid with a hand gesture.

**

The evening was falling casting a rosy hue over the surrounding. There was something wintery about the air and the shell pink sky. Marigolds danced over low hedges that edged the cobbled path leading towards the building that stood not very far from the military training grounds and the eastern parts of the main structure of Chandranagara fort. There was a large aviary containing a couple of colourful parrots that spread their wings and called out greetings as she passed. Some smaller foreign birds that Afreen did not recognize chippered in.