“That is him, all right,” Silas said, looking up at the giant sculpture of Andhaka at our camp. Vihaan was looking at him with wariness in his eyes, still not entirely convinced that we should have taken him with us to our secret camp.

Silas didn’t seem bothered though, his eyes going to the surroundings, staying on the clear water. “Well, that explains why you two is so damn clean after running around down here for a days.”

“And you will as well, because there is no way you are sleeping close to me smelling like that,” Amara said, throwing a towel at him. She was by far more relaxed as it was her idea to bring Silas back. This place was too dangerous to leave, what would be great, help behind. Silas is obviously trained in combat which is something that both Vihaan and herself was sorely lacking in.

Vihaan can shoot decently because his master had taken him hunting, but that was about it. Amara couldn’t even do that since her mother had been adamant that no lady should ever touch a weapon. It is enough that the men darken their conscious, women don’t have to do the same, had she said when Amara had wanted Amos to teach her how to shoot.

Silas looked down at the towel, then the water, his grey eyes finally meeting Amara’s as she stared at him with unwavering determination. “Are you going to watch?”

He cocked an eyebrow at her, and it took a few seconds before the words registered in her mind. “Don’t flatter yourse-“

Her breath caught in her throat letting out something more akin to a whine when he pulled off his shirt showing a fit body with glistening muscles. Amara’s eyes were almost bulging out of her eyes, forgetting to breath when the grey eyes met hers again. A smirk on his face as he reached to pull down his pants.

Fortunately, or unfortunately according to Amara, Vihaan’s hand covered her eyes and she was pulled away from the way to improper scene. “I know you have the modesty of a stumbling kitten but can you at least pretend to not disgrace yourself.”

“It was his fault!”

“Of course, he was forcing you to gawk at him like a mare in mating season.”

“I don’t like your sarcasm…”

“I do.”

Forced to look away, Amara could only wait as Silas finished his bath. She could hear splashing and water dripping, and finally was allowed to turn around when Vihaan ensured it was safe. Silas ruffled his wet hair, looking aloof as his eyes darted over the reliefs. Staying on a small relief behind some plants.

His face finally showed a strange expression as he watched what look like Kali, standing on her husband’s body. His head being held by one of her arms above her head. Her tongue sticking out as she gulped down his blood with a terrifying expression. What he was looking at wasn’t her though, it was what was formed on her stomache. A small child.

The reliefs following was identical but with one small change. For each relief, the child changed. From looking like a human to a terrifying creature with four arms, tusks like that of a warthog, a third eye on the forehead, pointy ears and four eyebrows.

In the last relief, Kali gave birth to the creature, coming out with swords in his hands standing on a pile of bones, while holding up a severed human arm to devour in its jaws.

A strange tale of the human eating demon race called Rakshasa. According to this relief they were born from Kali after she drank her husband’s blood, that gave raise to the first Rakshasa which doesn’t really fit into the text they have. Asuras like Andhaka and Mayasura, the creator of Tripura, were said to be rulers over the Rakshasa but according to this one, the Rakshasa wasn’t burn until the city fell.

Well, inconsistency exists in most of the texts since they were written during different times and had different interpreters. Amara was just about to explain the relief to Silas when he turned around, looking once again uninterested in it and walked over to the fire where Vihaan sat.

Smelling the scent of fish, Amara rushed over. Ready to steal some fish if need be, but she got the first one and pouted when she took a bite, wondering why she was so eager to get the first bite. They had eaten fish the last couple of days and it has only become worse for each day gone by.

“Do you have a plan to get out of here?” Vihaan asked Silas as he handed him the second fish.

“I won’t leave without the Khadga of Kali,” Silas said, taking the fish without caring about Vihaan’s glare when he received no thanks.

“The what?” Vihaan asked.

“The Khadga of Kali. The sword she used to kill her husband.”

Amara felt her heart clenge. The boy had mentioned it, but not given much description outside it was a sacred artifact that could not fall into the wrong hands. “Why?”

“That is what I was sent here to retrieve. You can take anything else.”

“By who?”

“My employer.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t ask, that is up to him,” Silas said with a shrug, ending Vihaan’s line of questions.

“You intend to do so even if you’ll have to pay with your life?” Amara asked. Silas looked over at her, his eyes flashed with something akin to determination before they grew dim.

“If I don’t get my hands on it, I won’t have a life anyway.”

“Has your employer threaten you?” Vihaan asked, his eyes widened with shock.

“No, I… I am ill. I need help, only he can offer it to me so…” Silas stared down at the fish like it held all the answers, grimacing he bit down once again. “I don’t have a future if I go out from this place without the artifact.”

Vihaan didn’t ask anything more. Amara understood why. Poverty was rampant in India during this time. The harsh taxes on salt and the restrictions of the British ensured that little help was available to the one who couldn’t afford it. Who ever Silas employer was, he was most likely wealthy enough to pay whatever treatment Silas needed.

“Maybe I can offer the same as-“ Amara started but Silas shook his head.

“It isn’t a matter of money. The only salvation lays in the hand of my employer. The… cure is something you can only find in a far off place.”

“Then the employer must be a foreigner,” thought Amara feeling a chill as a thought hit her. Did he have tuberculosis? She has heard that the Europeans has started treatment of the disease and the investigation being conducted shows millions of natives to India having the disease.

Opening and closing her mouth, Amara wavered in asking him but decided not to after a sharp glare from Vihaan telling her it would be unwise. “Then do you know where this artifact is?”

Silas’s grey eyes darted to her, eyes widening in surprise. “You intend to help me?”

“On one condition,” she said, holding up her finger. “You take us with you to meet your employer.”

“No.”

“You don’t even know why.”

“I don’t either,” Vihaan muttered, clearly not understanding her reasoning.

“Well, if he-“ Amara gestured towards Silas,” cannot sell the artifact to us then maybe his employer would. So, we help him get it to his employer, then we can get it from him.”

“His employer sent armed men willing to kill for that damn thing. I would wager my life on him not wanting to sell it!”

“We won’t know until we try,” turning towards Silas again. “Then if you can’t take us to him can you present our offer to him. I am willing to pay anything he want.”

“Anything?” Silas cocked an eyebrow.

“With money!” Amara said, glaring at Silas suggestive glance.

“That is what I meant. What did you think I meant?” he smirked, showing his boyish side, earning him another glare which also reached the snorting Vihaan. Dear god she hates to be outnumbered.

“All jokes aside, is that an agreeable arrangement.”

Silas perused her for a while, measuring her words against her character apparently finding it agreeable as he nodded. Turning back to his food, satisfied with him getting a few new companions to throw at the fire.

*****

The boy looked out over grand room. Stairways filled every corner, pools of water poured from the walls into a pool filled with water lilies. At the center was a sculpture of Parvati, holding the Khadga of Kali, its half moon shaped blade was pitch black, but still glistened as the light of the fires hit it.

Humming a gentle mantra to protect the sleeping mortals, the boy watched the room. Like he had done for thousands of years.

“Still watching over this graveyard?” said a rough voice coming out of the shadows. The boy’s eyes didn’t move away from the Khadga as Andhaka stepped out of the darkness. He was dressed in bright red dhoti with a similarly red shawl covering his right chest. Gold adorned him in the form of jewelry and few could have seen this creature as anything other than a divine being.

“I received the honor of guarding this place from Vishnu,” the boy replied, his voice gentle as it were carried across the room.

Andhaka snorted, “Still a devout worshipper, even when your esteem deva abandoned you here.”

“He didn’t, I choose to be here.”

“Why? Was watching your people in this shape such a joy for you.”

The boy didn’t answer, pain hit his chest as he felt the empty city that once bustled with life. “It was necessary.”

“Why?”

The boy didn’t want to answer, but his king weren’t going to leave the subject alone. It was clear to the boy that he had waited for a long time to be free and ask. “Because what we are.”

Andhaka walked closer, almost reaching the boy’s ear as a whisper send a shiver down his spine. “Asuras.”

“We brought to much havoc upon the world. We needed to-“

Andhaka burst out laughing, holding his stomach. “And the Devas didn’t!? They claimed to be so virtues but on their feet lays countless deaths. We were only described as evil because we acknowledge that violence, death and pain is a part of this world as anything else.

“There is no evil,” the boy said, a sentence he has repeated since ancient time, taught by his master.

“Of course, there is. The devas only claim that there is no such thing, saying that violence and hate aren’t evil while trying to erase them,” Andhaka turned around. “Why does they try to erase those things if they aren’t evil? Why did they say that we had to be destroyed, if we were just as much part of the world as everyone else?”

Listening to the footsteps fading away, the boy finally looked over at Andhaka. “What do you want, my king?”

“Who knows? My brother awoken me. I just want-” Andhaka froze in place, glancing at a relief of Kali and Shiva holding hands. His eyes turning dark before he turned around again. Refusing to answer, as he faded into the darkness.