Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress (17 page)

arvati looked dangerously demonic in the semi-darkness, just like in his dream: the daughter of Ravana, ready for battle. The scales formed a high collar round her neck, but a few rose to her face, flecking her cheeks with pale green. Her eyes were long sloping slits, larger than a human’s and bisected by her irises. She brushed her fingers through her hair, shaking it loose. As she did so, her face subtly transformed, becoming more round, more human.

“Good to see you too,” she said.

Ash blinked and forced a smile. “I’m sorry. I’m in a state of shock.”

“Get over it.”

He grabbed her arm. “Where’s Lucky?”

Parvati frowned. “I’ve just spent half the night wriggling through the rocks beneath the fortress to find you. She’s not down here in the dungeons, that’s for sure.”

“Then where is she?” Ash looked up.

“First things first. Let’s get out of here and grab the aastra before Savage does something stupid with it.”

“Like free Ravana.”

Parvati turned quickly. “What?” She paused, trying to make sense of his words, then shook her head. “Ravana’s dead. I saw him die.”

“And he’s coming back. Savage intends to free him. That’s why Savage wants the aastra. It’s the key to unlocking your father’s tomb.”

“I… I don’t believe you,” said Parvati. But she didn’t sound too sure.

“Let’s get out and I’ll tell you.” Ash pointed at the grille. “Anyway, he doesn’t have it yet. But he knows where it is.”

“How?” said Parvati. “You had one simple job: keep the aastra safe. Have you any idea what will happen if Savage gets his hands on it?” She slapped her forehead. “What is it about you mortals? Are your lives so short you don’t worry about the long-term consequences of your actions?”

“I’m thirteen. I’m not meant to think long term about anything.” Ash threw his hands up. “They were going to kill Lucky. What else could I do?”

“Your job was to protect the aastra. I don’t care about your sister.”

“No. But that’s because you’re a monster.”

He stared back hard, unflinching. Daring her.

Her gaze lingered on his. “One disaster at a time,” she said. She drew her hands over her head, moulding her skull smooth. Her black hair sank under the skin and she lowered herself to the floor. She pressed her arms to her side and, legs together, transformed back into a cobra. It took just a few seconds.

She slithered into a crack in the rock. Ash watched the tail flick sharply before it too vanished into the hole.

A minute later the grille creaked and began to rise. Parvati, human again but scaled, tossed down the end of a rope.

Ash took it. Three metres to climb. Once, not long ago, there wouldn’t have been a hope in hell he could have done it, not even standing on the shoulders of his classmates in the gym. Then he’d have complained and sweated and dangled like a fool. The teacher would have despaired, given up on him and sent him off to the showers.

That’s what Savage was trying to do, get him to give up.

“Children always lose.”

Not this time, Savage.

Ash used his feet as well as his hands. The rope swung and he struggled to hang on, but eventually he got steady and, hand over hand, worked his way up. Breathing hard, he ignored the sharp pain shooting up his left leg from the injured ankle. He was not going to be left down here.

He hooked one elbow then the other over the pit edge, so his legs dangled in the air. Then Parvati grabbed his collar and hauled him out.

“Come on,” she said. “We’re leaving.”

“No. We’re going to find my sister first.”

“Be sensible, Ash. The palace is crawling with Savage’s servants.” She checked the stairs leading back up. “We’ve got to get the aastra.”

“We’ve got to find Lucky.”

“Listen to me…” But Ash wasn’t moving. Parvati gave up. “Fine. Whatever.”

Ash tore his sleeve off and used it to bandage his ankle, double-knotting the fabric and pulling it as tight as he could. Then he put his weight on it. The pain was a dull pulse
rather than like someone was shoving broken glass into his flesh. It would do for now.

Parvati led the way up the spiral stairs. Every few steps she stopped and Ash held his breath, his ears straining for any slight sound. Then she’d nod and they’d continue up.

“You know the layout?” asked Ash.

“I have been here before.” Parvati stopped at the closed door at the top of the stairs. “But it was a while ago. The old maharajah had a
harem
built, women’s quarters, where his queens lived. Lucky may well be there.”

“Is it near?”

“No.”

Parvati pushed open the door. They were back on the battlements overlooking the river. The tide was in, so the water lapped at the walls.

He’d been in the dungeon for at least one day. The moon was high, its reflection shivering on the oil-black waters.

Parvati pointed to the opposite side of the fortress. “The harem.”

Ash almost missed it. It sat in the shadow of the main building, flickering candles illuminating the lattice windows from within. Someone was inside.

They crept along the high walls. Ash’s heart was triple-
timing. Any second now he expected to bump into one of Savage’s demons. But the night was quiet; no one seemed to be stirring in the palace. Was that a good or bad sign? His nerves were shredded after his imprisonment. The cool wind, charged with the promise of rain and thunder, brought him out in goosebumps. He had to clench his teeth to stop them from chattering.

“Why didn’t you bring help?” he asked. Even if Rishi wasn’t around, there was Ujba, Hakim even. They would love all this ninja stuff, wouldn’t they?

Parvati scoffed. “After your idiotic stunt? Why would anyone risk their necks because of your stupidity? You were told to stay at the Lalgur.”

“Then why are you here?”

She flicked her head. “Because I thought you had the aastra. Don’t mistake this for anything sentimental or heroic. As you said, I am a monster. Monsters can’t be heroes, can they?”

If she could have seen him, she’d know he was blushing. Parvati was saving him and he could at least be grateful. But he couldn’t find a way of saying it. He’d thank her once they’d found Lucky.

What was it about Parvati? He was distracted by the way
her skin shone in the moonlight, by the sleekness of her limbs, the raven-wing blackness of her hair. He couldn’t help but look at her. She crept under his skin.

Stairs took them down to the central courtyard. The last time Ash had been here the space had been covered with tents and filled with guests, food and music. Now the only sounds were the cicadas chirping in the lone tree in the corner and the distant rumble of thunder.

Ash saw the corridor that led down to the water gate and the river. Parvati looked at it.

She’s thinking about going through it. To the river and freedom.

Why not? He didn’t have the aastra. She could take a boat and be back in Varanasi in an hour. But Parvati turned away from the corridor and carried on, to help him save his sister.

“Thanks,” said Ash.

Parvati was startled. She stared at him as though he’d just suffered some mental breakdown. Then she softened. “My pleasure.”

They skirted the edge of the courtyard. If they stuck to the shadows under the balcony, they could reach the harem without being in the open.

“I thought Savage would take better care of his home.”
Parvati brushed a thick curtain of cobwebs aside with her arm. “Maybe he can’t get the staff.”

A nest of spiders poured out of a cranny in the ceiling. The webs around them fluttered as more and more spiders scuttled down.

Ash glanced ahead. Through the darkness he saw were the curved trunks of the elephant statues that guarded the doorway leading into the main fortress building.

“Wait,” he said.

“Just look at my hair.” Parvati picked at the strands of cobweb that had tied themselves to her long black locks.

The spiders were an army now. They fell off the ceiling like a black waterfall, dozens, even hundreds of them, just dropping to the ground.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Ash said.

Parvati hissed and her deadly fangs extended, ready to attack.

The spiders formed a lump on the ground ahead of them. The shape rippled and grew. The tangle of limbs melded together to create a pair of slim arms. They were dense at first with spiny black hairs, but these faded as the limbs took on human dimensions.

The spiders were a solid mass now, and Ash stepped back
as the last of them merged into the body and Makdi stood up. Her face was broken by her eight big round eyes, and instead of a jaw she had a pair of hairy mandibles, each ending with a venomous fang. Her body was now fat, round and swollen. A pair of human arms stuck out at her shoulders, but jutting from her ribs were four long, bony spider legs, two on each side, all spiky with coarse black hair. They ended in stubby human fingers.

Ash spun round, alerted by a clicking sound. Climbing down the walls was a man – a sort of man. His upper torso was covered in black armour, heavy plates of knobbly skin, and he had a pair of pincers instead of arms. His lower abdomen carried three pairs of insectoid legs, and arching above his back was a huge scorpion’s tail, a bulbous sting mounted on its tip. Still other creatures crept across the courtyard towards them, men and women with tails and twitching rodent noses and whiskers.

A match was struck, and a figure came alive in the glow of its small, weak flame. The match moved to a lamp – Ash heard the scrape of glass as the lamp lid was raised. The flame suddenly bloomed.

“Parvati, my dear. How kind of you to visit.”

Savage leaned against one of the elephant statues and put the lamp on its head. Jackie was a few paces behind him.

“Have you missed me?” asked Savage.

“Still not dead?” Parvati’s fangs were long and wet with poison. “Come here and let me fix that.”

Ash stepped back, but where could they go?

Jackie positioned herself in front of her master and the spider-woman stepped closer. With them both protecting Savage and at least another dozen rakshasas around them, Ash and Parvati had run out of options.

“Just give me the girl and I’ll let you live,” said Parvati.

“Parvati, you should be here, beside me,” Savage said. “Like in the good old days.”

“You mean back when you betrayed me? No, thanks.”

Ash and Parvati retreated towards the corridor and the water gate. The other demons formed a semicircle round them, but no one made the first move. Ash remembered that Parvati’s venom was lethal to all living things – including demons.

The rakshasas’ circle tightened round them like a noose.

“You can’t take us all,” growled Jackie. “Not alone.”

“She isn’t alone,” said a voice from behind Ash.

Rishi stepped up beside him and Ash could have wept with relief. The sadhu had his staff ready, sweeping it slowly in a wide arc. The rakshasas shuffled back. The air about the
old man hummed, just like it had when he’d flattened the Humvee.

“What a gallant party,” said Savage. “Cowardly boy, self-hating demon princess, and meddling old fool. The years have not been kind to you, Rishi.”

“Have you looked in a mirror lately?” replied the sadhu. His eyes never shifted from the horde before them, but he spoke to Ash. “To the boat, boy.”

“I’m not leaving without my sister.”

“Then we’re not leaving at all,” said Parvati. “In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re outnumbered twenty to two.”

“I can fight too,” Ash snapped. Hadn’t he spent the few weeks learning? He’d help them.

Parvati snorted. “Er, no, you really can’t.”

“Enough!” Savage slammed his cane hard on the stone, the sharp crack bringing his demons to attention. He pointed the tiger head straight at Ash. “Just kill them,” he said.

“Lucky!” Ash shouted. The harem was just there! If he could just get to it, he’d save his sister. “Lucky!”

Ash’s feet were whipped out from under him. He tried to get up, but thick, white cobwebs bound his legs. Makdi leaped through the air and he stared in frozen terror at her big, black eyes and the pair of fangs jutting out of her jaw.
He tore at the webbing round his feet but thick clumps stuck to his fingers. He wasn’t going to make it.

Then Parvati collided with the spider-woman in a blur of scales and long, spindly legs.

Rishi, his staff in one hand, dragged Ash up. His eyes shone blue, as if minute lightning storms raged within the pupils. All around him the air shivered and electric arcs ran over his skin, sending tingling waves through Ash.

Makdi screamed. Her arms and her too many limbs shook violently.

“Come on, boy!” Rishi shoved him down the corridor towards the water.

“I’ve got to get Lucky!”

Rishi charged into the fray, swinging and jabbing with his staff. Wherever he struck, demons were hurled backwards. But as each one fell, two more entered the battle.

Parvati pushed Makdi off her and stood up. She smiled at Rishi.

Then she collapsed.

Ash saw a pair of puncture wounds on her arm, the skin around them already turning black. The spider-woman and Parvati must have bitten each other at exactly the same moment and poisoned each other. The spider-woman was
clearly dead while Parvati lay there, pale and twitching. Alive, but only just.