The Thirteenth Day (12 page)

That was enough for Guruji to lift his bow and fire.

Blood and saliva dribbled out of Kumara’s mouth. And then his head fell off. A crescent-headed arrow was stuck on the chariot behind Kumara’s while his head rolled aimlessly in the mud.

Kumara’s body sagged to the chariot floor and twitched till life found its escape. I looked at Dhristadyumna and found everyone was doing the same. He lowered his head, conscious of the attention, then looked straight ahead and shouted: ‘Shore up the line, bring the chariots in front.’

The men obeyed and Kumara’s death was soon out of the minds of most, but it stayed with me for the rest of the day. To watch your younger brother being killed before you…it was the thing that frightened me most. I tried not to think how Dhristadyumna would be feeling.

I pushed towards the back while the chariots formed a line up ahead to meet Guruji. A loud crash took me by surprise and I realized that Guruji was already attacking. He was ringed by the Leopard Infantry and supported by a wedge of chariots. Together, they tore apart our front and plunged in.

Shikhandi was the first in Guruji’s path and found her armour cracked in four places for her effort. She fell down on the chariot floor while infantrymen formed up around her. Guruji was not interested. He looked around and having found my battle standard, came towards it. Uttamaujas intercepted him and King Virata who had just pulled up alongside me went up in support. Guruji wounded Uttamaujas with three quick arrows, turned and in an impossible shot, took Virata’s helmet clean off his head.

Guruji’s focus and Kumara’s death had rattled me, and I had ordered my charioteer to head back when I saw Satyaki park his chariot between me and Guruji and discharge a volley of arrows. Guruji responded by breaking his chariot axle, leaving him lying clumsily in a broken heap of wood.

Guruji’s chariot slowed to approach me. I readied myself for the attack.

He was alone. The Leopard Warriors were being held back by our troops, at least for the moment.

He spoke, ‘Putra, I come to talk about peace. Surrender your arms and come back to my camp and I promise you that we will make terms. I swear on my reputation as acharya of the Kuru dynasty that you will not be harmed.’

He raised his right hand to indicate his assurance when a bolt hit him hard in the ribs. Winded, he turned to look at his assailant. It was a young Yadava prince who fitted another arrow and shot him in the chest. I lifted a javelin, my last of the day, and let it fly at Guruji. Even as I let it loose, I felt guilty and was relieved to see him step out of its arc. He turned at the Yadava and fired two broad-headed arrows that crashed into his chest. The prince fell to his knees, wrapping his arms around his torso, and began coughing blood.

Guruji, still patient after going through three duels, turned back to me and said gently, ‘No one else has to die. Just come with me, and you will not be hurt.’ The young Yadava’s coughing had stopped and I saw him fall from his chariot into the dust.

I could handle this. I was a Kshatriya. There was no reason I couldn’t handle this. I just had to hold out till the reinforcements came. They would be coming any moment. I had no reason to be alarmed. I had no reason to panic. I just had to stall for time and stand my ground. I could handle this. I was trained to handle this.

I lifted up my spear and rotated it in my hands. Guruji fixed an arrow. ‘Don’t make me kill you, boy.’

I couldn’t tell if he was bluffing. So I picked up my square shield and crouched behind it, my spear balancing on the rim of the chariot. Guruji drew an arrow and fired.

The arrow flew behind me. I turned back and saw the princes of Kekaya.

They were five, dressed in identical red armour with red dhotis trimmed in gold. I had never seen them fight individually for they always arrived as a unit, formed like an arrow head. The eldest in the front flanked by the two middle brothers, who were, in turn, flanked by the two youngest.

Guruji’s arrow narrowly missed the eldest. He raised his fist and signalled his brothers to wait. Guruji regarded them, their arrows at the ready. From behind, Virata, wearing a new helmet, and Satyaki, riding a new chariot and joined by two Panchala warriors, fenced Guruji in.

Virata spoke, ‘Put down your bow and move away from Yudhishthira, Drona.’

Guruji looked at the men surrounding him, and when his charioteer made to turn the horses, he tapped the man lightly on the shoulder. The charioteer put down the reins and waited.

The truth was that Virata had spoken naively. No one in that circle wanted to fight Guruji. Not even Satyaki, who had trained under him in Hastinapura and knew his tactics.

Virata spoke again, ‘Drona, the bow. Put it down.’ This time his voice cracked.

Guruji kept staring at me fixedly.

‘Yudhishthira, come back,’ Virata was losing the argument, and Guruji hadn’t said a word.

My charioteer led me out of Guruji’s way and took me behind Virata and the Kekayas.

‘I’ll count till three, Drona. Drop your bow.’

All of us had our bows drawn, praying for the old man to spare us.

‘One.’

‘Two.’

Guruji’s charioteer snapped the reins and charged the chariot directly into us. We fired our arrows—me, Virata, Satyaki, the Panchala princes and the Kekayas. Two hit Guruji on his breastplate while the others went off their mark. I fumbled with another arrow and saw the two Kekayas on the right go down. Then the two on the left. The eldest spun out of his chariot with a dart in his collarbone. Guruji’s chariot came thundering towards me with Virata, Satyaki and the Panchala princes desperately trying to intercept him.

Two arrows dislodged the left wheel of my chariot and it fell with a dull thud. I lost balance and tumbled outside. I staggered up and saw that Guruji was engaged with the two Panchala warriors along with Virata. Satyaki was a little distance behind.

The fight didn’t last long. Both the Panchala warriors were killed with arrows through their necks. Satyaki took their place and fought a short duel with Guruji, matching him blow for blow, till his breastplate fell apart. Virata entered the fight and had his helmet shot off once again and bow shattered. A massive roar erupted as a group of Leopard Warriors broke through and formed a protective cordon around Guruji.

I couldn’t decide whether to run or resist and waited for the last moment to arrive and push me off the cliff of my indecision.

The Leopard Warriors stalked me patiently, and I backed away, spear in hand. Clarity arrived in its tardy fashion. There was no way I could beat off so many soldiers
and
Guruji. So I really had two options—kill as many soldiers as I could before they overpowered me or not expend any strength and give up without resistance. Given a choice, I would have taken option two, thrown my spear down and walked away peacefully with them. Since I couldn’t avoid capture forever, it made no sense depriving another family of its patriarch.

On the other hand, I had a reputation to maintain as a king and a war chief. I had to sacrifice myself at the altar of example for the bards to croon about for millennia.

Once again, I found myself denying everything I was, for everything I stood for.

I clenched my spear and prepared to thrust.

A cry broke out from the right but I was too preoccupied to pay attention.

A few Leopards fell in the front, arrows sticking out of their backs. A couple of them wheeled around and were cut down by darts. It was Arjuna. He was firing rapidly but his accuracy didn’t appear to be affected. The Leopard Troops lost interest in me and organized themselves in a protective formation covering themselves with their shields. Guruji came up to meet Arjuna, firing bolts all the while. Arjuna dodged and shot back his own, which Guruji duly sidestepped.

Arjuna finally pierced Guruji on his chest and Guruji replied with one to his shoulder. Our boys in the infantry had begun overpowering the Leopard soldiers who were falling back. An axe-man got up from behind Guruji’s chariot and tried to drag him down. Guruji smote him across the head with his bow and got hit in the ribs by Arjuna for his lapse of concentration.

Guruji’s charioteer held his nerve and steered the chariot away from the fight and I saw Guruji clutch his ribs and sit down.

I dropped my spear and leaned against my chariot. For the first time that day, I began looking for my wounds. They were minor yet again and wouldn’t last the night. I had lasted a whole eleven days and would fight on the twelfth.

The sky blushed purple. The day had survived us. A conch sounded, signalling the end of hostilities for the day.

I was sixteen. It was the evening before our final arms demonstration to the Kuru elders. The training pit was normally empty at this time. And I would go there to gather my wits after the day, to sit alone in the cool evening mud with a treatise on poetry. I was sitting under a torch trying to read when Guruji came out of the darkness. He looked mildly surprised to see me. I got up, dusted my back and bowed. I was not breaking any rules and was within my rights to be at the training pit till nightfall.

‘Ready for tomorrow, putra?’

I nodded unconvincingly.

‘Come to practise then?’

I nodded again and held the parchment tightly behind my back.

‘I don’t remember teaching you boys any martial art that involved wielding manuscripts.’

I looked at him sheepishly and brought the parchments.

Guruji took it and leafed through the pages.

‘You’re too young for this stuff.’

I raised an eyebrow.

He noticed as much and looked curiously at me.

‘We’re the same, you and I. You are a Brahmin in a Kshatriya’s body, and I, a Kshatriya in a Brahmin’s.’

He chuckled at his own observation.

His words came back to me as I saw his chariot disappearring over the shadows of Kurukshetra.

I
t had been a disappointing day, one which I wanted to end as quickly as possible. Drona was just steps away from Yudhishthira when it all went wrong. I should have gone after him myself. Drona was too slow, even with the Leopard Warriors backing him. I would have taken my pot-bellied pandit of a brother twice over and still had time to deal with Arjuna.

After hastily swabbing my bruises with a mixture of water and turmeric, I set off to the war council where Suyodhana had ordered an immediate meeting to discuss the events of the day. I didn’t look at Varahamira or Shatrujeet for their opinions and went straight in.

The sabha was quiet. Shakuni stood leaning on the Speaking Staff. A wayward javelin had bruised his hip in the retreat. Shalya was also present, sitting with stiff composure. Gada warriors were used to being thrashed. He would fight tomorrow again.

‘The spy reports are in. It has been confirmed. They knew of our plan to get Yudhishthira. We should have sent more soldiers after him.’

The staff went over to Bhagadatta.

‘We can send every soldier we have. But the fact remains that we haven’t been able to crack through their centre in the past ten days, in spite of all our Atirathis and Maharathis. My elephants have not got the support they’ve deserved up front. And once we’ve made a start, there’s been no one to follow through. Radheya, where were you today, lad? We had trimmed up the line beautifully. I thought your boys would roll them back to Indraprastha. What happened?’

He was being a little unfair now. We had gone far into the Pandava centre but Shakuni’s horsemen hadn’t held. Was this Drona’s doing—pitting Bhagadatta against me?

I took the Speaking Staff and replied, ‘I think we did well today. We pushed into the centre and cleared the way to Yudhishthira. I hear that some of the members in this council even got close enough to disable his chariot and wound him.’

Drona looked at me without flinching, ‘Are you blaming me for today, boy?’

I couldn’t risk an open conflict with Drona. Not yet.

‘Not at all. I truly believe the day went well. Think about it, Yudhishthira was protected by Virata, Drupada, Satyaki, Shikhandi, Abhimanyu and some more whose names I don’t know. That’s more than Grandsire had around him.’

Drona scratched his beard absent-mindedly and was silent.

‘You may be right, suta.’

I continued, ‘It’s good that they know of our plan to capture Yudhishthira. Saving his frightened hide will distract their attention from actually winning the fight. We should keep tomorrow’s plan simple. The more soldiers we can divert away from Yudhishthira, the better will be our chances of taking him. We should attack in two forces. One to distract the Pandava effort, and one to bring Yudhishthira home.’

Shakuni nodded, ‘Agreed. Radheya’s right. Don’t complicate anything. Simple plan. Stick to it.’

Suyodhana spoke, ‘But that’s what we tried today. Arjuna still broke through our ranks and got to his brother. How do we stop that tomorrow? And if not Arjuna, there will be Bhima to contend with. And their troops. The Indraprastha Chariot Corps are the best fighting force in Kurukshetra.’

I caught Kritavarma shift in his chair. His Narayanis had never got such praise from Suyodhana.