(Book 5) Hayden Mackay and The Pride of Haima-Endira

5.2 The Grunt Work

Leena and I trotted behind Pruthvi who was flouncing out of the Sharad's palace. Ira had asked us to wait for her there. She wanted to have a private chat with Ashwant back in the cabinet room and then had to bring us the citrus juice before she'd open the Gates for us. "Take your own time!" Pruthvi had said with a tint of sarcasm in his tone before he had stormed out of the cabinet room.

It was snowing heavily. Everything around us was downright blinding. And today itself was the first day to patrol. Pruthvi was biting his lip. He hated the idea of patrolling more than ever. I believed he has taken this commitment to finish the last job Doctor had given him too personally.

"This is worthless," he said.

"And pointless," Leena added, who was as disappointed as he was.

"Clan of Almourah cannot be stopped this way," Pruthvi continued, and that seemed to be exactly the words lingering at the tip of Leena's mouth, "Even if we try to drive them away, they will keep coming back. All those days Leena and I patrolled when Bhupathi bluffed about Tyrell's attack, which never even happened...just so useless and a waste of time."

We stood there freezing in the snowfall. A strong gust of wind swept past us and that caused the three of us shiver. Apart from the sound of snow falling, there was absolute silence among us. That agitated both of them when they stared at me with a look of disapproval on their faces.

"What's running in your mind, Hayden?" asked Leena. "You were way too nonchalant today. No barrage of questions and arguments which is a totally un-Hayden-like trait."

Pruthvi quickly backed her up. "Dude, we thought you'd save us from this patrolling thing. What happened? What's going on?"

"What's going on?" I said, "A lot is going on. But I am still trying to process."

"Talk to us. Involve us in the process."

I took a long breath. "Okay hear me out. King Aghasthya is looking for respect. So I'm thinking why not just give what he wants, atleast for a month or two until he believes that we are not at all up to something."

"And then?"

I shrugged. "Simple. We stop respecting him."

Pruthvi and Leena frowned and shared a quick puzzled glance.

"Listen," I said, "Just because Doctor is not with us anymore, does not mean we stop having jobs. We will have a job of our own. We have bigger problems than ever and only we, as a Samagraha, can solve them." I licked my upper lip. Something suddenly didn't sound right. "You know what, we should stop calling it job or considering it as a problem. We are not in the academy anymore."

"Wait, wait," said Leena, holding his hand up, "Are you saying that whatever it is, we are not going to do it together?"

Her eyes were soaked with moisture and it wasn't because of the weather. "I understand that we can work better as a team. Three of us together means three times stronger. But we shouldn't be forgetting-we are not three, we are five. Leena, there is a promise waiting to be fulfilled."

She suddenly radiated a surge of emotions. There was so much sadness in her face that it bothered me. Perhaps there was something she wanted to confess and Pruthvi's presence wasn't allowing her to.

"We need to have our own plan," said Pruthvi, who seemed to be in his own dilemma. "Let's talk. Argue. Deliberate like those old fashioned lawyers. Let's bring up one obligation each and see where we stand."

"Good idea," I said, peeking back and making sure that there was no sign of Ira yet. "I'll begin with a simple one. We accept Panchayat's orders. Keep doing whatever King Agasthya has been asking us to. Right now the safety of the women is important. So they must be given the top priority."

"No," said Leena, "I think the kings' knights are enough to protect them. Even if we assist them, it wouldn't do any good. They cannot die anyway. We might be able to scare them away like we did yesterday, but eventually, they will come back. So I think we need to finish what Doctor asked us to. Our friends need our help."

"They will atleast live, with or without us," Pruthvi said, "Jyran, by no means will kill his son he is obsessed with. And Celina, even death must be legit scared of her. Guys, aren't we forgetting about Shashi? Just because Almourah is taking over the country does not mean Shashi has withdrawn from the race. He is a megalomaniac. He will still try to prove his authority. And don't forget, he's desperate for the throne. Zarina had already taken the lid off by telling me the way to stop him. We are just one step closer to see his downfall. We got to find the tomb where his body is resting. I destroy it and Hayden, you burn the damn body."

"But that will not completely destroy him," I argued, "that will just make him less stronger or hopefully stop him from hopping onto someone else's body. It's the soul we got to destroy, not just the body. We have no idea how to destroy his soul, do we? Thus we are back to square one."

"In all these cases," said Leena, rubbing her eye, "I mean regarding Shashi and Almourah, there must be a common point that nobody is aware of. Is it possible for anyone to not to die? Nothing and nobody can kill them-this general statement sounds highly impractical. I mean just look- Shaytan Rup was one among the big three but today he is literally dead."

"The root cause for all these situations is Almourah," I said, "and his dark magic. Tyrell is the victim of the dark magic he invented. Shashi is his apprentice. And Shaytan...well..er..."

"Almourah and Shaytan have got no connection," Pruthvi said reading my mind, and then quickly reformed his statement, "Or do they? And we don't know about it yet since they both have a thousand years old history, and presumably, come from the era of first-generation Samagraha?"

Stillness fell. I looked above his shoulders, at the knights who were grazing their horses in the stable, getting ready for the day. Pruthvi had made a wonderful point which I wasn't able to disregard it and neither could Leena.

Almourah did come from the era of the First generation Samagraha, and so did his siblings. The generation and their insanity had always been an underlying reason for all the troubles we were forced to face today. And there was someone else, I was well aware of, did come from that era. My stone began to burn, and I smiled inwardly. Thanks for peeking into my mind!

"First things first," I said, mentally marking him in the list of people I needed to talk in detail, "We patrol for a couple of months. Silently. Until we gain King Aghastya's trust. And within these months we have to find a way to drive these beasts away, in a way that they don't return. And make sure the citizens are completely safe."

"Please don't tell me to live in lemons, I'll go crazy," Pruthvi warned, "I hope there's another way."

"There is," I said, stressing on my words, "King Harsh drew them away and locked them in their own territory, remember? Besides him, it was Doctor who could have helped us reveal the secret."

"Perhaps my grandfather knew as well?" said Leena, shrinking her eyes, "Wouldn't King Harsh share that secret with his friend?"

"So are you suggesting that we should directly ask King Aghasthya?"

Pruthvi adamantly shook his head. "I'd rather cut off my toe. It's less painful."

Leena glared at him. "I wish we had the scroll though. If not to his friend, then King Harsh should have written something down. He wrote his life history in it, so why not? Hayden, I told you to read your grandfather's scroll. Only if you'd ever listened to me, maybe we could have solved this problem by now and..." she stopped abruptly and gasped. "Well, well, well, there's someone else who has read it by heart."

"Who?" Pruthvi asked.

"Hayden knows who I'm referring to, don't you Hayden?" she said, fighting a teasing smile.

I wished Ira to come and open the Gates already. There could be no better excuse to not to say the name and prolong the conversation further. But I had decided to be mindful and do what we must, keeping our personal issues aside. Nevertheless, I knew in my heart that it was time to face the awkwardness I'd been willingly avoiding.

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