The War of the Grail (50 page)

She was alive. Just.

Jack crouched beside her and took her hand. She felt hot, far too hot, and the sweat beaded on her forehead. Her eyes were glued shut, but when Jack whispered to her, she managed to open them. With what seemed a great effort, she lifted the corners of her mouth into a smile.

‘Are you all right, Father?’ Elizabeth walked into the roofless chamber near the centre of the palace.

Jack had been standing here for the past fifteen minutes, staring up at the clouded sky. Kanvar had meditated in this spot just days ago. It seemed as though years had passed in that time.

Jack sighed and rubbed his eyes. ‘I’m fine. Just thinking.’

Elizabeth stepped closer. ‘I’m sure she’ll live. She’s strong.’

He lowered his gaze. ‘Sonali, you mean?’

Elizabeth nodded.

‘We can only pray for her.’ He stared back at the sky. ‘And the dead.’ In his mind, he went through a roll-call of those who’d passed away over the last few days: Kanvar, Mark, the other apprentices and villagers, and even Henry.

Elizabeth looked down. ‘I still don’t understand what happened to me.’

‘Neither do I.’

‘I think I got the power to work. The power of the Grail.’

‘Something happened, that’s for sure.’

‘It was strange. I was trying to keep the necklace in my mind, like you said. It was easy. I’ve seen it so much. But nothing happened. I thought I must be getting it wrong, but then I heard that big creature.’

‘The avatar?’

‘Yes. And when I stood up, I saw Saleem and Cecily.’ Her eyes went moist and her bottom lip trembled. ‘I wanted to run across to them. I didn’t know what I could do, but I wanted to do something. But then I chose not to go. Can you believe that?’ She stared at Jack. ‘I decided not to fight for my own child. I decided to stay where I was and keep trying the Grail.’

Jack shook his head. ‘You thought that if you could use the power, you would save Cecily.’

‘No.’ A tear bled down Elizabeth’s face. ‘I thought Cecily would die. But I still chose to stay and try. Just in case there was some chance …’ Elizabeth wiped the tear away from her cheek. ‘The strange thing is, after I made that choice, suddenly the necklace in my head seemed to glow very brightly. And then it felt like everything, the whole world, was spinning around me.’

‘You did the right thing. You
did
save Cecily, after all.’

‘But I thought I would fail.’

Jack gripped her shoulder to comfort her. But now thoughts were rolling around in his mind. It was indeed strange that the yantra had worked for Elizabeth after she gave up on Cecily.

Giving up. Abandoning. Leaving behind.

Could that be the secret? Could that be what he’d been missing?

He’d been able to use his special ability four times. Four times he’d been able to use the power to overcome the law of karma. Each time he’d thought of the Great Yantra. But he’d also learnt there had to be more to it than that. There’d been some other ingredient that had allowed him to use the power.

And when he thought about it, hadn’t he made some sort of sacrifice each time he’d broken the law? Three of those times he’d been near death and just clinging on to life. And each time, he remembered now, he’d given up. He’d decided to stop fighting and accept his fate. He’d been prepared to give up on life itself.

And the fourth time, the time when he’d broken the law of karma while staring at the pool where Sonali used to have her morning wash? What had he given up then?

Of course, it had been Sonali herself. She’d travelled back to Dorsetshire and he’d accepted that she was gone and that he would never see her again.

His eyes widened and he muttered, ‘That’s it.’

Elizabeth frowned. ‘What?’

He stepped away from her and limped back and forth on his wounded foot. For a moment, he felt like Kanvar, lost in his own world of thoughts. ‘It’s about leaving the material world. I should have seen it before. To use the Great Yantra you have to give up the material world. Give it up fully.’ He stopped and looked back at Elizabeth. ‘Jhala taught me that to use any yantra you have to move beyond the material world, see it for the illusion it really is. This Great Yantra, the Grail, is the same, just more so. We cling to the material world. We think it’s all there is. But if we can stop clinging, then we can move closer to the spirit realm. When you gave up Cecily, you gave up something important to you. The most important thing to you. That was the secret all along.’

‘You sure?’

‘I reckon so. If Kanvar were here, he’d be able to tell us. But it makes sense. It all fits.’

Saleem appeared in the entryway. He’d cleaned the dust off his face, but he still looked exhausted and pale. ‘You’d better come to the wall, Jack.’

Jack felt a tremor of nerves. Could the enemy be starting another attack already? ‘What is it?’

‘A white flag. The army have sent out a white flag.’

Jack stood up on the east wall and stared through his spyglass. Down on the heath, in the middle of the plains, were six figures on horseback, one of whom was holding a white flag on a pole.

So, it was true. The enemy wanted to talk again. This was surprising. Their leaders might be dead, but there were still thousands of them encircling the hills – and they could request much greater numbers of troops, should they need them. They could still crush the rebels eventually, or simply wait for them to die of thirst and starvation.

Jack studied the faces of the riders, searching for any sign that might give away their intentions.

And then he froze. He couldn’t stop his lips curling into a smile.

One of the men on horseback was Captain Rao.

Jack rode across the plains, holding a makeshift white flag high above his head. The mare had somehow survived the battle, the centipedes, and the lack of food and water. She seemed as strong as ever.

He drew to a halt beside the riders. Rao gave a small shout of delight and swung himself down from his horse. Jack dismounted and Rao embraced him, patting him on the back.

Rao stepped away and put his hands on his hips, looking Jack up and down. ‘Praise be to the Innocent Lord that you’re safe. When I got here and heard there’d been a battle, I feared the worst.’

Jack grinned. ‘I’m not dead quite yet. But what are you doing here?’

Rao frowned quizzically. ‘The treaty, of course. You remember?’

‘Aye. I remember. I didn’t know whether to believe it or not.’

Rao drew a sheet of paper from his satchel. ‘This is a summary. I got the message at Leintwardine two days ago. I came as quickly as I could.’

‘So, you Rajthanans want to make peace? Now?’

‘Al-Saxony is in flames. Another uprising has started in the Napoli Caliphate. The whole of Europe is teetering on the brink. The Maharaja wants a deal with England. Immediately.’

‘England would be a protectorate?’

‘That is the offer.’ Rao waved the piece of paper. ‘Is the Earl of Shropshire still alive?’

‘He is.’

Rao handed across the page. ‘Get him to sign this, and the army will withdraw from Shropshire. I give you my word on that. The Maharaja has agreed for me to start by negotiating peace in Shropshire. We’ll get the rest of the earls and the regent to sign after that.’

‘The earls must decide who’ll be regent. The Earl of Norfolk has to go.’

‘That is acceptable.’ Rao pressed the piece of paper into Jack’s hand. ‘But you must get this signed first.’

Jack took the page. ‘I’ll talk to the earl. I’ll do my best. In the meantime, we have many wounded, including Sonali. She took a bullet in the stomach.’

Rao drew his breath in sharply. ‘Ah. That is bad news. Send the injured down here. They can go to the hospital tent.’

‘The army would do that? For traitors?’

‘So long as you get that piece of paper signed, anything is possible. Do that, and I’ll have no problem getting them all treatment.’

‘Right. We need water too.’

‘I can send some up.’

Jack took a deep breath. It was hard to believe it, but it seemed the battle – and indeed, the whole crusade – could finally be over. ‘Right, then. I’d better get back up there.’

Rao scratched his nose. ‘Before you go, the army siddhas wanted me to ask you a couple of questions.’

‘What?’

‘General Vadula is missing.’

‘He’s dead.’ Jack gestured towards the fortress. ‘Up there.’

‘Ah. That is as everyone suspected. We request that you send the body down for cremation.’

Jack nodded. ‘I’ll do it. He was inside that thing. That avatar.’

‘Yes, I believe that is so. It’s a very strange story. It’s been a secret up until now, but the siddhas told me just an hour ago. It seems he was in possession of some great power.’

‘The Great Yantra?’

‘Something like that. Not my field, as you know. But Vadula had become more powerful than he’d ever been before, and some of the siddhas seem to think it had gone to his head. He’d gone a bit mad in the past few months, they say. In the end, he decided to use his new powers to create that avatar and seal himself inside it. No one has ever heard of anything like it, but there it is.’

‘He was inside it all the time? From a few months ago?’

‘I believe so.’

‘That avatar was prowling around north Shropshire even before the army got here.’

‘Yes, it seems he’d gone quite mad. He was no longer himself, they say. He’d become as much a machine as a man. He was no longer even commanding his troops. The other generals had taken over. It was all kept secret, though, until now.’

‘That is a strange story.’

‘Indeed.’ Rao cleared his throat. ‘The siddhas also instructed me to ask you about a light they saw up on the hill during the battle. It was as bright as the sun, they said. After that, all their powers stopped working. Do you know anything about that?’

‘A little. I don’t understand it all, but I have a few theories. Can I speak to these siddhas?’

‘If we make peace, I’m sure it can be arranged.’

‘Good. I’ll tell them what I know. I have a few questions for them myself.’

‘Very well. Just get the agreement signed, Jack. And then all this will be over.’

‘Can we trust them?’ Sir Levin asked.

Jack stood with his hands behind his back in the Earl of Shropshire’s residency. The earl was, as always, slumped in his chair. The courtyard was littered with spent round shot, shell fragments and burnt ivy leaves. Many of the walls had been reduced to rubble and cracks fanned across the paving stones.