Tantrics Of Old (35 page)

‘Are you a God or something?’ Gray gasped.

‘
Zimakh
. Rubbish. The
pashlin
has harboured a Wraith,’ Fayne replied.

Adri knew he could not keep this up. Spirit fire was not something that killed witches; he could only keep them away for now, but he knew the cost of this transformation. He was being drained of energy at a phenomenal rate, and he probably wouldn’t be able to even stand once he was done. Not that it mattered. He had no plan whatsoever—the Wraith had suggested something and he had done it. The Wraith, however, had not taken control of him, merely lent him its power. Adri found it curious, but now was not the time to ponder over this.

‘Mazumder! What now?’ Adri shouted, spinning the fire.

Fayne was examining his wounds.

‘So, the guy from the tomb?’ Gray murmured, still trapped beneath the dead witch. ‘Hey Fayne, how about a hand here?’

‘Pointless,’ Fayne said, but he stooped and pulled the witch off. Gray stood, dusting himself.

I do not know. Vampires were my thing, to be honest
.

‘Beautiful,’ Adri said darkly.

It will be my end as well, Adri. Pity you do not have the energy to make my powers last longer
.

Adri did not reply. His mind raced. Think. A possible way out, any single possible thing that could be done. Nothing came to him. He drew a complete blank, and he felt tired and stupid. His energy was running out. Gaps started appearing in the fire. Adri gritted his teeth and kept burning. The witches were observing them hungrily. Apart from the elder witches, normal Dynes were also there by the droves—they were surrounded by hundreds of witches on every side. And with his spirit vision Adri could see them all, every single detail about every single witch. They had no chance. They would be ripped apart. Adri kept on pushing, but now he was weak, weak in the knees. Maybe it was time to accept the end.

‘Stop,’ Fayne said quietly. ‘There’s nothing we can do.’

‘Gray,’ Adri said, ‘I’m sorry.’

His fire flickered, and so did the other fires in the cavern. Adri noticed it because of his spirit vision, but did not understand. The fires under all the cauldrons, some of them raging, flickered again. There was no wind down here, no sudden draught that could whisk away a burning flame. The witches too, had begun to notice something was amiss—the entire army of witches was shifting in its place, and uncomfortably so. They were looking around, at the ceiling and the walls. The next moment, every flame in the cavern, except the one burning in Adri’s hands, went out.

The witches screeched, and screeched together. The sound was deafening, and caught everybody off guard. All hands went to ears except for Adri’s, who heard even the Wraith cry out in pain. They recoiled to an amazing, unbelievable sight: the witches were retreating. All the witches were heading out of the cavern—scampering, running, growling in low voices, shrieking in high ones. Within minutes they were alone in the cavern. The witches had left without looking back.

‘No,’ Adri said.

‘What-what the hell was that? What’s happening?’ Gray asked, looking at the empty cavern bathed in blue light.

‘Light a fire
now
,’ Adri said. Urgency.

Gray looked around for anything that could be used. Nothing.

‘Matches in my pocket,’ Adri said.

Gray walked to Adri and took the matches out. Spotting a wooden plank close to him, he struck the match obediently, trying to burn the wood. ‘Need paper or something,’ he said, his voice shaking. ‘But Adri, what was that?’

Fayne looked at the surroundings. ‘Something witches fear,’ he said. ‘Something that would scare a witch, something you know, Tantric.’

No one said anything, and silence reigned. Then Fayne spoke again. ‘It’s in here with us.’

Gray managed to light the fire at last. The flame started small, but gradually caught; Adri let the Wraith’s powers go. His eyes turned normal and were hit by darkness, and as he had expected, his body collapsed. He was awake and conscious, but he could not move, and he lay on the ground, panting. Fayne looked at him, then at Gray—hunched over the wooden plank, trying to increase the size of the fire—and then at the vicinity. He could sense the creature. It was watching them.

‘Can-can you see it, Fayne?’ Gray asked.

‘No,’ Fayne said.

Fayne spoke true. Even with his eyes, the creature was not something he could see. That disturbed him. He did not need to know how dangerous it was; the witches had done all the explaining.

The fire had begun to crackle louder now, and Gray headed over to Adri to make sure he was okay. He found Adri still panting and trying to breathe, not able to say a single word. But he could also see that Adri was recovering.

Adri sat up soon. Everything was quiet and Fayne had still not sighted the creature. Then Adri spoke.

‘I can see you, you know?’

It laughed. The laugh was high and had an underlying screech, a hiss to it, like nails grating across a blackboard. Adri recognised it immediately. A laugh from his nightmares. A laugh he had heard time and again, a laugh in whose mortal fear he had lived for years. A laugh which had haunted him in the past. A laugh which still did.

The Demon formed itself slowly, drawing shadow from everywhere. Like liquid. It formed itself a small distance away from Adri. In the semi-darkness, they saw that it was like a gargoyle—a strong bestial entity standing on two legs, with gigantic wings folded behind it. There was no beginning and no end to it, nor were there any details in the smooth, flawless shadow that was the Demon’s skin. It stood there, facing them, not moving.

‘Chhaya,’ Adri said slowly.

The Demon of shadow snickered loudly, and Adri caught a glimpse of white fangs. ‘Not a name you can forget, eh, boy?’ it hissed. ‘Remember.’

‘What do you want?’

‘The smell of your flesh. Same as before.’ The Demon’s voice reflected a savage longing.

Adri got impatient in spite of his weakness. ‘
Al Mashith
!’ he shouted, and the word hit the Demon and burned its existence for a brief second. It hissed in pain and recoiled, taking a half step back. ‘Come to the damn point, Demon,’ Adri growled.

‘So the rat claws at the kite,’ Chhaya said in an amused tone. ‘Does it not realise that at the end of the day, blinded by the sun, all it sees—as it scurries desperately across the open field, towards its lair—is a
shadow
?’

‘I have seen the shadow of death,’ Adri said, ‘and it does not have anything to do with you. So, why are you here?’

‘I work for the great one now, the Demon Commander,’ Chhaya said. ‘He wants to meet you, boy.’

‘Ba’al will have to wait,’ Adri said. He tried to keep his voice from shaking.

The Demon shook its head. ‘He is not used to waiting,’ it said.

‘Ba’al knows me,’ Adri said. ‘Tell him that while the life of an innocent is at stake, we cannot meet.’

‘You think I’m a messenger?’ Chhaya laughed in the same scratchy voice. ‘I’m here to take you to him.’

‘I am not helpless here, Chhaya. If Ba’al gets to know about anything
you
have forced me to do, you know he will not react most-ah-
graciously
. After all, it’s
me
he will be meeting.’

‘You cannot threaten me,’ the Demon said, all laughter gone.

‘No.
You
cannot push me into a corner. I am here for a reason. I will finish what I have started.’

‘So what—’

‘You will go back to Ba’al,’ Adri cut the Demon short, ‘and offer him my apologies and tell him he will have to wait for a while. I will have the audience with him. I know what it’s about.’

The Demon looked thoughtful. ‘I don’t know, boy. You do not have any power over me. All that has ever stood between us has been that stone pillar. Perhaps it is time to come out from behind the pillar, boy, and face me.’

Adri was sweating.

‘I have been ordered to
take
you to the great one,’ Chhaya drawled. ‘Writhing, struggling. If I do choose to follow my orders, I will not be blamed. I couldn’t care less about the innocent life. Screams. They will haunt you some more. Besides, you collect nightmares, don’t you?’

Adri’s mind raced. ‘Ba’al will care. You know that.’

‘For a
human
?’

Adri withdrew his revolver from its holster.

Chhaya looked at it curiously. ‘Ah, don’t tell me. Fire and light, is that it? Are you going to amuse me by shooting at me? Feed me some metal?’ Chhaya laughed again.

Adri stuck the barrel under his chin. ‘Mercury, but a bullet nonetheless,’ he said, talking fast.

‘You won’t kill yourself, you love yourself too much for that,’ the Demon said.

‘If I pull this trigger I’m useless to Ba’al and only you are responsible.’

There was silence.

‘You’re bluffing!’ Chhaya hissed.

‘I’ve been pushed to the edge,’ Adri sniped back, breathing very fast.

Silence. Only Adri’s breaths, rapid. And his mounting heartbeat.

‘Fine!’ the Demon exclaimed at length, sitting down on the ground. ‘I will tell the great one what you told me. He will not be pleased.’

Adri slowly lowered the empty gun. Of course he had been bluffing, but that was a chance the Demon couldn’t have taken. Not when Ba’al was involved. He looked at the creature of shadow sitting in the distance and tried to keep calm. He felt stabs of fear whenever the creature looked at him, an old fear, resurfaced, which he had to fight all the time. He turned to the others who had been silent witnesses. Gray was holding a bunch of Aujour in his hand. He wordlessly handed to it Adri.

Ooh, time for the Tantric to get cooking
, the Wraith said.

‘Chhaya,’ Adri said. ‘I have to brew something, a draught. Your presence would keep the witches away while we are here.’

‘Witches!’ Chhaya rasped. ‘Excellent, I was rather hungry. This hunger, it pains me. Insatiable, she is.’ It laughed. ‘I’ll be around.’ The Demon melted back amidst the shadows.

Adri started brewing the draught, while Fayne and Gray brought Maya down to the ground level. Goatskin bags held clear water that the Dynes used in their cooking, and emptying a cauldron was all Adri had to do. He kept a careful watch on the brew, adding certain measured amounts of ingredients at exact times. He stole a glance at Maya when he could afford it and knew she was dying. Her skin was a pale blue, the poison having reached her very lips, draining them of colour. She lay as lifeless as always.

‘Her breathing is getting shorter! Adri!’ Gray shouted.

‘A little more time . . .’ Adri murmured.

‘You should hurry,’ Fayne said calmly.

‘There had been absolutely no pressure by the poison so far,’ Adri complained as he stirred. ‘This isn’t fair.’

Maya’s body, however, was really giving signs. The corruption was taking effect, something had to be done soon if she was to be saved. Cursing and complaining, Adri prepared the Dreamer’s Brew using all his brewing skills, all the shortcuts he knew. Risky things had to be done, like substituting ingredients and not waiting long enough for a certain section to stew properly—there was no time to make the brew the way it was supposed to be. And then it was over and he was pouring the boiling concoction into a crude wooden bowl. Gray looked at the grey, swirling mass for a second before emptying it directly down his sister’s throat. Adri slumped down with his back against the cauldron, extremely tired, but watching Maya, as did the others. Extremely slowly, her irregular breathing returned to normal.

Gray and Adri breathed out deep sighs of relief.

‘
Paakhiyaad
. That was as close as I’ve seen it go,’ Fayne said. He sat down as well, a rare sight. The other two were dead tired; they hadn’t been sleeping well on their travels, and after this particular rush of events, Adri and Gray felt quite dead themselves. However, they were quite interested in what the assassin had to say, in spite of their fatigue.

‘Nostalgic,’ Fayne said, looking at all the cuts and slashes across his chest and arms. ‘This place brings too many old memories. I was brought up here until my
padar
took me away. He was human.’

‘Then?’ Gray asked.

Fayne remained silent.

‘Well, wasn’t that a lot of information,’ Gray said.

He’s funny, the white haired one
.

‘Yes,’ Adri said.

‘You agree?’ Gray said, surprised. ‘You actually
agree
with what I have to say? Well isn’t that a—’

‘He wasn’t talking to you,
myrkho
,’ Fayne said.

Gray stared at Fayne, and then at Adri. Adri looked at him, then looked at Fayne.

‘It was the only way I could get the vampire hunter’s body,’ Adri said. ‘There was no other way for me to get Maya back.’

‘You gave him control,’ Fayne said. ‘During the fight.’

‘No!’ Adri protested. ‘I just
used
his powers. We would have been dead anyway.’

‘Wait, wait!’ Gray exclaimed, his eyes bulging. ‘There’s another guy inside of you? Like inside you?
Who’s
talking right now?’

‘He can’t talk,’ Adri said.

Oh really now? What is this supposed to be then, the little Angel on your left shoulder?

‘I mean he can’t talk to
you
,’ Adri corrected himself.

‘But he talks to
you
?’ Gray asked, horrified. ‘You two keep having little conversations all day?’

‘He’s helped me out at times,’ Adri said defensively.

‘Wraiths are dangerous, and you of all people should know that,
pashlin
,’ Fayne said. ‘I was afraid of this and now it has happened. I would kill you here and now, but it seems we need you to find the Devil Mask.’

‘What
are
you after, Adri?’ Gray asked, unmoved by the assassin’s words. His eyes were narrow, his tone accusatory. ‘I mean, I’ve been watching you, man. You are facing death again and again. You’re going to any lengths to save my sister, but that’s not it. You want something from my brother, and you want it really
bad
. That’s why you’re going through with all of this.
What
is it?
What
are you after?’