THE CURSE OF BRAHMA (40 page)

I wish you and your children the best in what you need to do
.

Kansa

Ugrasena stifled a moan as he finished reading the letter for the second time. He couldn’t believe Kansa had sent this reply to him in response to the loving letter he had written.
He has twisted everything I wrote
, Ugrasena thought with anguish. He read the letter a third time. And slowly but perceptibly his grief turned to anger as he read and re-read the provocative words etched on paper. The royal rage mounted as he read the last line—‘I wish you and your children the best in what you need to do.’ In one sentence, Kansa had estranged himself from the entire family.

Ugrasena took a deep breath. His mind was made. He took a sheet of royal stationery and began to write a brief reply for Kansa.

‘You called me, My Lord?’ Airawat stood at attention as he entered Ugrasena’s chambers.

‘Yes,’ Ugrasena replied in a tired voice. ‘I want you to leave for Bateshwar immediately. Tell Prince Vasudev that I want him to come to Madhuvan at once.’

Ugrasena paused. He knew his next words would be especially tough on Airawat. ‘Tell Vasudev he will be leading the Madhuvan task force against the asura assassins.’

Airawat blanched. ‘But, My Lord…Prince Kansa?’

‘The prince will not be returning to Madhuvan for some time Airawat,’ Ugrasena said quietly.

Airawat stared uncomprehendingly at his king. ‘Won’t be returning to Madhuvan? But how is that possible? Haven’t you told him the danger we are in?’ Airawat’s voice rose unintentionally as he strove to understand the meaning behind Ugrasena’s words.

‘I have told him everything. He has still decided to forsake his family…and his country,’ Ugrasena snapped uncharacteristically.

Airawat bent his head in grief. He had not had any doubt that Kansa would return to Madhuvan as soon as he knew what was happening here. But it seemed the prince ascribed more value to his rift with his father than he did to his love for the motherland. ‘When do you want me to leave for Bateshwar?’ he said in a monotone.

‘Right away!’ Ugrasena commanded. ‘And send Rabhu to me. He needs to carry a letter back to Kansa today itself.’

Airawat nodded and left the room. He couldn’t believe Kansa had forsaken them in their hour of greatest peril. He hoped this was not a portent of worse things to happen in the future.

Ugrasena watched the retreating figure of Airawat. He rolled the letter for Kansa and inserted it in the royal scroll. He hoped Rabhu felt rested enough to make another trip to Magadha, today itself.

Rabhu handed over the latest letter from Ugrasena to Jarasandha. He was half-dead from the exhaustion of making another trip to Magadha, without a break; Ugrasena had insisted that he leave immediately with the letter.

Jarasandha took the letter from Rabhu’s hand. He extended his hand to give the messenger a purse laden with gold coins as payment for his services. Rabhu did not make any move to accept the reward.

‘What’s the matter with you, you scoundrel?’ Jarasandha roared in anger. ‘This payment isn’t enough for you now? Being greedy are we?’ he snarled threateningly.

Rabhu shook his head. He felt strangely detached from the situation. It was a moment of truth for him. All these years, he had been selling out vital information to Jarasandha and the king of Magadha terrified him, like he did everybody else. But right now, Rabhu did not feel afraid of anyone, not even Jarasandha. He hadn’t felt this way when he was riding back to Magadha with Ugrasena’s latest letter in his possession. He had simply thought this was the last time he would serve Jarasandha. But now that he was face to face with the king of Magadha, he felt a strength he had never known before. He knew he could have pleaded exhaustion and requested Ugrasena to send someone else with this letter. But there was a high possibility that whoever else Ugrasena would have sent to Magadha might have also been in Jarasandha’s pay.

‘You have given me enough in the past, My Lord,’ Rabhu said softly. ‘You don’t need to pay me for this service.’

Jarasandha looked disbelievingly at Rabhu.
Birds don’t change their feathers
, he mused to himself.
Why is this man not accepting compensation for this job?
He shook his head in consternation. But he decided to keep a close watch over the messenger while he was in Magadha.

‘I am not going to offer you this money again,’ he said gruffly. ‘Have you changed your mind?’ Rabhu shook his head. ‘No, My Lord. As I said earlier, I don’t want any payment for this.’

‘Get out of my sight then and wait till I summon you,’ Jarasandha snapped impatiently. He wanted to read the letter quickly to see what it contained; and to gauge whether he would need to call Upadha to forge yet another letter for Ugrasena on Kansa’s behalf.

Rabhu bowed to Jarasandha and left for the waiting quarters reserved for messengers, presumably to linger for Jarasandha’s summons till the king was ready to call him again. But he had no intention to wait there. He wanted to look for Kansa to tell him the truth of Jarasandha’s betrayal. He realized Jarasandha would kill him for this, but the feeling of detachment he had been experiencing lately seemed to keep the panic at bay.

Jarasandha hastily pulled out the letter from the scroll. He couldn’t wait to read Ugrasena’s response to the forged note he had sent on behalf of Kansa. His face lit up as he read the letter from Madhuvan.
I won’t even need to alter this
, he thought with malevolent glee. The reply Ugrasena had sent for Kansa would sever the father-son relationship completely.

He carefully placed the letter back into its scroll and resealed the lid. Then, humming a tune under his breath, he went in search of Kansa. He couldn’t wait to see his brother-in-law’s reaction to the letter.

Airawat gaped in admiration as he reached the outskirts of the Kingdom of Bateshwar. The last village he crossed ended half a yojana (four miles) before the main city started. The road leading from this village up to the gates of Bateshwar was cobbled and was extremely narrow. Airawat guessed the width of the road was no more than one-and-a-half gavuta (nine feet). Normally, the road leading up to any city’s gate was almost always broad and expansive, in order to give visitors a sense of largeness. The military commander in Airawat understood however, why Bateshwar had purposely kept this road so narrow. Any enemy attempting to attack the main city would find it hard to bring the full force of their army into the city at one time.

The road was so narrow that it would make it impossible for more than four cavalrymen to ride alongside. And the cobbled road would render it difficult for the horses to move fast. The horses and their riders would make ridiculously easy targets for Bateshwar soldiers mounted on top of the city gates.

The gates themselves were a sight to behold. They stood at a majestic height of ten gavutas (sixty feet) and were intricately carved with figures of Shiva and Vishnu in various martial postures. The depth of the gates was almost half a gavuta and they were made of saag wood, considered even tougher than iron. It would have been impossible for any battering ram to break through this barrier to the city. Airawat wondered what mechanism Bateshwar had in place to operate the opening and shutting of such massive gates. He made a mental note to check this before he left the city. As he rode closer to the gates, he noticed the guards standing at the entrance grow perceptibly alert. Their hands were placed lightly on the handle of their swords even though they kept them sheathed. Airawat had to consciously restrain himself from reaching for his own sword. The atmosphere at the gates seemed charged with tension. A large man, presumably the captain of the guards, approached him even before Airawat had dismounted.

‘Identify yourself before you dismount, traveller.’ The captain was polite but there was a taut note in his voice that bordered on curtness.

Airawat felt the first stirrings of irritation. He wanted to meet Vasudev and return to Madhuvan as soon as he could. The excess security and the barely concealed curtness of the captain made him impatient. He took out his passport and personal ID papers identifying him as the cavalry commander of Madhuvan and handed it over to the captain.

The captain’s eyebrows shot up as he saw the documents. When he spoke, his voice was gentler than it had been earlier, ‘My name is Hitarth, and I am captain of the guards. I apologize for holding you up, Commander Airawat. But I will need to have these documents verified before I can allow you to enter. Also, I will need to know the purpose of your visit to Bateshwar.’

It was Airawat’s turn to raise his eyebrows. He felt his instincts go on high alert. It was customary for documents of even senior visiting officers to be checked at the city gates of any kingdom, but the security officers would do that after they had at least allowed the visiting officer to dismount and sit in the waiting room. This kind of behaviour was unprecedented. But Airawat was a man who respected processes, and if this was how things happened at Bateshwar, he would play along. He wondered, however, what had happened to warrant such tight security.

‘I have come to meet Prince Vasudev on a matter of great urgency,’ Airawat said quietly. ‘You can verify this directly with the prince, Captain Hitarth. Meanwhile, I will wait here till you check my documents.’

Captain Hitarth gave a smart salute to Airawat and turned back towards the entrance gate. Airawat saw him pass his documents to someone on the other side of the city gateway, through a small opening. ‘Run this through the lab for me, and make it double quick,’ he snapped the instructions to a guard on the inner side of the city walls.

‘Give me a few minutes, sir,’ a voice replied from the other side.

Airawat looked in surprise at the source of the voice. He couldn’t fathom how the voice could be heard so clearly on this side, through the thick wooden partition. He looked closely at the gates. He was able to see a small box perched at shoulder level, just above the opening where the captain had passed the documents to the other side. It seemed like a contraption through which guards on either side of the city walls could communicate with each other.
Ingenious
, reflected Airawat to himself.