The Secret of the Nagas (51 page)

‘Who are we to decide when it is time for him to grow up,’ said Kali. ‘The choice belongs to him. He will make all of us proud one day.’

It had been eight months since the march from the banks of the Madhumati. The convoy was only a day away from the Naga capital Panchavati. They were camped near the road, next to a mighty river as big as the Saraswati in its early reaches.

Bhagirath thought that this great river must be the fabled Narmada. The border mandated by Lord Manu that was never to be crossed. They were on the northern side of the river.

‘This must be the Narmada,’ said Bhagirath to Vishwadyumna. ‘I guess we’ll cross over tomorrow. Lord Manu have mercy on us.’

Parvateshwar spoke up. ‘It must be. Narmada is the only river in the southern regions as enormous as the mighty Saraswati.’

Vishwadyumna smiled. They were already far South of the Narmada. ‘My Lords, sometimes the mind makes you believe what you want to believe. Look again. There is no need to cross this river.’

Anandmayi’s eyes widened in surprise. ‘By the great Lord Rudra! This river flows West to East!’

Vishwadyumna nodded. ‘That it does, Your Highness.’

This couldn’t be the Narmada. That river was known to flow East to West.

‘Lord Ram be merciful!’ cried Bhagirath. ‘How can the existence of such a wide river be a secret?’

‘This entire land is a secret, My Lord,’ said Vishwadyumna. ‘This is the Godavari. And you should see how much bigger it gets by the time it reaches the Eastern Sea.’

Parvateshwar stared in awe. He put his hands together and bowed to the flowing waters.

‘The Godavari is not the only one,’ said Vishwadyumna. ‘I have heard rumours of other such giant rivers further South.’

Bhagirath looked at Vishwadyumna wondering what further surprises lay ahead the next day.

‘Ganesh,’ said Nandi.

‘Yes, Major Nandi,’ said Ganesh.

Nandi had slipped back to the end of the caravan to relay a message from Kali to Ganesh. ‘The Naga outposts will follow their standard practice vis-a-vis the convoy, irrespective of the fact that the Queen and the Lord of the People travel with it.’

Queen Kali, ever cautious when it came to the welfare of her people, was indirectly referring to the fact that the progress of the convoy would now be monitored all the way to the Naga capital so that any potential threats could be neutralised.

Ganesh nodded. ‘Thank you, Major.’

Nandi looked back at the small Naga outpost that they had just passed. ‘What security can a hundred men provide, Ganesh? They are isolated, a day’s journey from the city. The outpost is not even fortified properly. Seeing all the elaborate security measures the Nagas have in place, most of them bordering on genius, this one makes no sense.’

Ganesh smiled. He would normally not have trusted any non-Naga with details of their security. But this was Nandi, Shiva’s shadow. Doubting him was like doubting the Neelkanth himself. ‘They cannot offer much protection on the road. But if there is such an attack, they trigger an early warning. Their key task then is to set booby traps along the way to Panchavati as they fall back towards the city.’

Nandi frowned.
An outpost just to set booby traps?!

‘But that is not their primary task,’ continued Ganesh, pointing with his finger. ‘Their key function is to protect us from a river attack.’

Nandi looked at the Godavari. Of course! It must meet the Eastern Sea somewhere. An opening that could be exploited. The Nagas truly thought of everything.

The faint light of the full moon, breaking through the dense foliage intermittently, had lulled the creatures of the Dandak into a false sense of security. All was quiet in Shiva’s camp, everyone fast asleep. Most had been awake till late into the night, eagerly discussing the end of their long and surprisingly uneventful journey through the dangerous woods of Sundarban and Dandak. Panchavati was only a day away.

Suddenly, the quiet of the night was broken by the shrill call of a loud conch shell. Actually, many shells.

Kali, at the centre of the huge encampment, was up immediately. As were Shiva, Sati and Kartik.

‘What the hell is that?’ shouted Shiva, over the din.

Kali was looking towards the river, stunned. This had never happened before. She turned back towards Shiva, teeth bared. ‘Your men have betrayed us!’

The entire camp was up as the conch shells kept persistently sounding out their warning.

Ganesh, closest to the blaring conches at the camp end nearest to the river, was making a beeline for it, Nandi, Veerbhadra and Parshuram in tow.

‘What is going on?’ screamed Veerbhadra, to make himself heard over the din.

‘Enemy ships are sailing up the Godavari,’ shouted Ganesh. ‘They have tripped our river warning system.’

‘What now?’ yelled Nandi.

‘To the outpost! We have devil boats!’

Nandi turned around and relayed out the order to the three hundred men who had already rallied around to face the unknown threat. The soldiers had been following close on the heels of the four men. They doubled back to the outpost, where the hundred Naga men were already pushing out their devil boats.

Meanwhile Vishwadyumna, at the end farthermost from the enemy threat, rapidly controlled his disbelief and started carrying out the standard drill set in place for such an eventuality. A red flame was lit, warning Panchavati in the distance.

Meanwhile, Bhagirath ran up to Vishwadyumna. ‘What are your river defences?’

Vishwadyumna glared angrily at Bhagirath, refusing to answer. He was sure the Nagas had been betrayed.

Bhagirath shook his head and ran to Parvateshwar, who was already gathering soldiers and deploying them in defensive formations along the river.

‘Any news?’ asked Parvateshwar.

‘He won’t talk, Parvateshwar,’ screamed Bhagirath. ‘My fears have come true. They have betrayed us. We walked straight into a trap!’

Parvateshwar clenched his fists, looking at the five hundred men arrayed behind him in battle formation. ‘Kill everything that emerges from the river!’

And then, the sky lit up, ablaze at a thousand points. Bhagirath looked up. ‘Lord Ram be merciful.’

A shower of fiery arrows flew high. They had obviously been fired from a distance, from the battleships racing up the Godavari.

‘Shields up!’ screamed Parvateshwar.

At the centre, Shiva and Kali had issued similar orders. Soldiers ducked under their shields, waiting for the onslaught of flaming arrows to stop. But scores of arrows had already found their targets. Setting clothes on fire and piercing through many bodies. Injuring large numbers and killing some unfortunate ones.

There was no respite. The curtain of arrows kept raining down in an almost continuous shower.

One arrow hit Ayurvati’s leg. She screamed in pain, folding her leg closer to her body, holding her shield nearer.

The sudden attack and its severity had forced most of Shiva’s camp to cower behind their shields. But real fighting was on at the river end of the campsite, within the Godavari itself.

‘Quickly!’ screamed Ganesh. If the downpour of arrows continued for a few more minutes, the entire camp would be destroyed. He had to move fast.

His soldiers, the Suryavanshis, Chandravanshis and the Nagas, were swimming hard, pushing the hundred small boats towards the five large ships rowing rapidly up the Godavari. The small boats, with dried firewood and a small flint inside, had been covered by a thick cloth. Once in range, the devil boats would be lit and rammed into the ships. Fire was the best way to destroy such large, wooden ships.

The ships were sailing up river rapidly, the flaming arrows still being continuously shot from their decks. Due to the manic speed of the vessels coming towards them, Ganesh’s soldiers didn’t have to swim too far to reach the enemy battle ships. The devil boats were already in place, aligned to ram into them.

‘Light them!’ screamed Ganesh.

Soldiers rapidly pulled the cloth off each boat and struck the flints. The boats were aflame almost instantaneously, before the assassins on any ship could react. Ganesh’s men pushed the boats into the sides of the ships.

‘Hold them in place!’ screamed Nandi. ‘The ships have to catch fire!’

The lookout assassins on the ships turned their bows onto their attackers in the water. A hailstorm of arrows started tearing into the brave soldiers in the river, maiming and killing many. The fire from the devil boats was also lapping Ganesh’s men, but they grimly kept swimming, pushing the boats onto the ships.

All five ships were aflame within moments, but the loss of life till they had caught fire made it seem like an eternity.

‘Back to the shore!’ screamed Ganesh.

He knew he had to form his line on the Godavari’s banks now. As fire spread through the ships, the assassins would jump over or into lifeboats and row up to the shores to resume battle.

Ganesh’s soldiers had barely made it to the riverbanks when they heard a deafening blast. They turned around in shock. The first ship of the enemy fleet had just blown up. Within a few moments, the other ships went up in gigantic explosions as well.

Ganesh turned to Parshuram, stunned. ‘
Daivi astras
!’

Parshuram nodded, shocked out of his wits. Only
divine weapons
could have led to such explosions. But how could anyone lay their hands on such weapons? And that too in such alarming quantities?

Ganesh rallied his men, counting the living. He had lost one hundred of the valiant four hundred who had charged behind him, mostly Nagas — the only ones who knew the drill. The Lord of the People gritted his teeth in anger and marched towards the camp to find Kali and Shiva.