Realm of the Goddess (16 page)

He smiled, finally. It made me feel better. But mostly I felt great that I had kicked ass. Demon ass.

Chapter Sixteen

We salvaged what
we could from my now completely soaked backpack. I ended up with a few bottles of water, a change of clothes and my dagger. Luckily, the map and most of the food supply had been in Shiv’s backpack. After drying off, we entered the cover of the jungle. Aware that we were walking into territory restricted to outsiders, we both kept a vigilant eye out for any angry inhabitants. Secretly I hoped that if I could convey to them that I was an envoy of Kali, so to speak, they would welcome me. Of course, I had no idea what awaited us. My incident with the crocodile demon had not attracted any unwanted attention, but I knew that could change at any moment. The map gave us some sense of which direction we were headed in. Since high-tech gadgets were completely useless here, Uncle Suresh had the foresight to include an old-fashioned compass in our supplies. It came in handy now. According to the map, the temple was located somewhere on the northern tip of the island. The dense forest provided a welcome reprieve from the sun’s intensity, and it was alive with birds and all kinds of tropical flowers. I could not identify a single one, but that did not stop me from being awed by the sounds and scents that filled the air. I had lived in cities all my life and the air here was so fresh, it was unlike anything I had inhaled before.

We walked along for a while before stopping for a rest. We had packed fruit and other dry foods, which we now rationed to last us as long as possible. After a little while we continued on our way.

“Should we stop here for the night, Callie?” Shiv asked as it began to get dark. “This seems like a good place.”

I looked around. We had arrived at a small clearing where a few fallen trees formed a sort of cover. Luckily for us, in this part of the world the temperature rarely went below eighty degrees Fahrenheit, so sleeping out in the open was not going to be dangerous as far as the weather was concerned. The chances of us avoiding being killed by wild animals were not so optimistic.

“That actually sounds good,” I said. “We should try to find some food. I think there were banana trees back there. I’ll go see if I can get us a few.” I turned and walked back the way we had come. Soon I reached a cluster of banana trees heavy with fruit. I poked around a bit, looking for a ripe bunch. It took a bit of muscle and the Swiss Army knife I had salvaged from my backpack to break off the right bunch but eventually I was holding six bright yellow bananas for our dinner. I walked back to the clearing and saw that Shiv had been busy too.

“How on earth did you get those?” I asked, looking at the pile of green coconuts on the ground beside him.

“It wasn’t easy, but I still remember how to climb up and get these,” Shiv replied, looking quite proud of himself. “When I was little, my dad would bring me to Kolkata to visit my grandmother. I’d watch the gardener climb up the trees and get the coconuts. I begged him to let me try it too, so whenever we visited I was allowed to get some. I haven’t done it for a few years, but I guess there are some things you don’t forget.”

“I guess not,” I replied, sitting down beside him on the log and handing him a couple of bananas. We ate them in silence, and then I helped Shiv cut the tops off the coconuts with his knife. The water was refreshingly cool and sweet.

The sun had set by then, so we had no choice but to settle in for the night. I decided to keep first watch, since I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. I had too much on my mind and there was a lot to process. The night brought with it a whole new arsenal of sounds. Some were soothing while others made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I started thinking about all the dangers lurking in the night but stopped before I gave in to hysteria. All the stories of man-eating tigers I’d heard as a child did nothing to ease the worry, but I didn’t have the luxury of worrying about that now. I watched Shiv sleep, his right arm stretched out over his head. He slept peacefully, his thick, dark lashes fanning out over his cheeks. I was glad he was able to get some rest. At least one of us would be well rested to take on whatever tomorrow would bring. Suddenly I felt a burning on the back of my neck. My fingers flew to where it was stinging the most. The skin there felt raw, and when I looked at my fingers they were smudged with blood. In a panic I shook Shiv awake. He sat up immediately, alert, ready to defend.

“Shiv, there’s something on my neck,” I said, picking up the flashlight.

He took a look and gasped.

“What is it?” I asked impatiently. I was sure it was some nasty tropical bug that had laid eggs under my skin and now they would hatch inside me...I could feel myself becoming hysterical.

“It’s a skull tattoo,” Shiv said calmly. I whirled around to glare at him.

“Really? You think that’s funny? Whatever it is...get it off me.”

“I’m serious...it’s a small skull tattoo.”

“How is that even possible?” I was convinced he was teasing me.

“I don’t know Callie, but I’m telling you what I see. It’s a tiny little skull.”

I was officially freaked out. This was way too weird. Even with all the strange things that had happened to me in the last few weeks, this still qualified as bizarre.

“Maybe it’s something to do with that demon you killed.”

“What do you mean?”

Shiv shrugged and put up his hands in mock defense. “Hey, I’m just as in the dark as you are. I’m just throwing out ideas here.”

I shook my head. The stinging had stopped, and only a slight throbbing remained. I decided there was nothing I could do about it now, here in the middle of the jungle.

“Why don’t you get some sleep? I’ll keep watch until morning,” Shiv said.

Surprisingly, I fell asleep immediately. I didn’t know how long I slept but I was rudely awakened by a loud chattering. I sat up, disoriented, and determined that the sound was coming from directly above me. I looked around for Shiv. He was gone. In a panic I stood up, scanning my surroundings. Then I heard him. Or rather, I heard him swear loudly. Then he appeared from under some low-hanging branches.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

“The monkeys...they took our stuff.” He picked up an empty coconut husk and threw it up against the nearest tree. In response, the forest echoed with the amused chattering of the little thieves. This was not good. All our supplies were in that backpack. Without it we could be going around in circles for days. Food-snatching monkeys were not an oddity in Kolkata, so I was not terrified of them. I was more annoyed than anything else because we really didn’t have time for this kind of game. We had to get our stuff back and it had to be now. Only I had no clue how to do that. I started waving my arms about and yelling at them. Nothing. A couple of them swung down on lower branches and just stared at me mockingly. Shiv picked up some more coconut husks and threw them into the trees. Of course the monkeys dodged them easily. Just then something fell from the sky. It hit my head on the way down, which prompted me to say something very unladylike. Shiv bent down to pick it up, but not before I saw his grin.

“What is it?” I gingerly touched my head. There was going to be an ugly bump soon.

Shiv looked up at me, still with the goofy grin. “You’re not going to believe this.”

“What is it, Shiv?” I snatched it from his hand and gasped. “No way. That’s not possible.” It was the compass. “Where did it fall from?” I looked up, which was a big mistake, because just then something soft and slimy hit me. “What the hell was that?” I spluttered, furiously wiping at my face.

By now Shiv had lost it and was bent over with laughter, which was ironic, because the next instant I looked up again just in time to see a monkey throwing a half-eaten banana and hitting Shiv square in the face.
Hah,
I thought,
revenge is sweet
. I was laughing so hard that I didn’t see the next missile coming at me, this time a granola bar. It bounced off my face, landing on the ground. I ducked just in time to avoid the next item, a water bottle. That would have taken me out.

“Shiv, I think they’re trying to return our stuff,” I yelled over the cacophony up in the trees. There were at least a dozen monkeys and they were chattering very loudly.

“You think?” he yelled back, barely dodging something wrapped in cellophane.

We were running around in circles picking stuff up while the monkeys followed us overhead. After some time things stopped falling out of the trees. Shiv and I surveyed the lot. It seemed that we had most things back. At least everything we needed right now. The monkeys had disappeared too.

“Okay, that was weird,” said Shiv, fiddling with the compass. “But at least we have our stuff back.”

Suddenly there was a crashing sound that reverberated through the trees. It was followed by another one, this time a thunderous boom, and then the ground shook. Suddenly I felt a strong breeze out of nowhere and then to my utter disbelief a small funnel cloud descended upon the little clearing, blowing dust and leaves all around us. We were momentarily blinded, and when everything settled, I rubbed the dirt out of my eyes. When I opened them, I froze. Before me stood Hanuman. The King of Monkeys. Not Tarzan, but the beloved god from Hindu mythology. Son of the wind god. Savior of Sita. The stories about him were endless. As a child I would beg my grandmother to tell them to me over and over again. I loved his heroism when he saved Lord Rama’s beloved Sita from the demon Ravana. He was the son of a celestial nymph and the wind god, Vayu. Stories of his childhood antics filled my memories, as did those about his powers of shape-shifting. Now he stood before me in all his simian glory. His body was covered in hair but his face was more human than ape. His long tail swished as he stood before us. He was smaller than I would have imagined, but I suspected that had something to do with the fact that he could change his size at will. All these thoughts swirled in my head as I stood in front of him, at a complete loss for words. I stole a glance at Shiv beside me. He was apparently suffering from the same affliction.

Hanuman smiled at us.

“I apologize for my naughty children,” he said in a deep, booming voice that echoed around us.

“Lord Hanuman...I can’t believe it...” I had finally found my voice, but I still couldn’t trust what I was seeing.

“Yes, my dear. It is I, Hanuman. I have been waiting for you.”

“I don’t understand...”

“I have something to give you, my child.” An object appeared in his hand from thin air, as far as I could tell. I had seen one like it before, in a temple in Kolkata. It was a
gada
, a mace, the favored weapon of Hanuman. He handed it to me. I reached out to grab it by the handle, which was thin on the bottom but increased in girth until it ended in a bulbous top. In the stories my grandmother would tell me, the
gada
was used in the epic battles of the
Ramayana
to destroy the armies of Rakshasas. Now I held one in my hand. It was not as heavy as I had expected. My fingers fit comfortably around the bottom and I swung it, hesitantly at first, then with more confidence. I looked up at Lord Hanuman. He was smiling at me.

“It seems that it is made just for you, isn’t it?” he said with a wink.

Then his expression became grave once more.

“You have a difficult journey ahead of you, my child. This
gada
will help to protect you against the many dangers you will face. It is more powerful than it appears. Use it well.”

And with that he whipped around so fast that all we could see was a cloud of dust and leaves and then he was gone, as quickly as he had appeared. When the dust settled I looked at Shiv. He looked stunned, which was exactly how I felt. In all my life I had never anticipated that one day I would be standing in the middle of the forest having a conversation with Hanuman. He was one of my favorites of all the Hindu deities. His ability to leap over mountains in a single bound, to change his size at will and to heal were all part of my fascination with him. But most of all I loved his loyalty and his willingness to fight for the weak. And now he had given me a
gada
. I held it close, admiring the intricate patterns etched into the wood. I looked up to see Shiv looking at it longingly.

“Here,” I said, handing it to him. “You can hold it for a while.”

It was like giving candy to a kid. His face lit up and he took it almost reverently. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who was a fan of Lord Hanuman.

Now that we had our stuff back, we sat and ate the rest of our bananas from last night, along with some of the crackers the monkeys had so generously dropped on our heads. There was more coconut water too, so I was quite content when we started back on our trip. A quick consultation of the map and confirmation with the compass indicated that we were still on the right track. Back in Kolkata I had read that a big tsunami a few years ago had altered the geography of the island quite a bit, but it seemed that the interior of the forest had remained unchanged. I wondered when and if we would come into contact with any of the few hundred inhabitants. I’d been fascinated to read in several articles that this particular tribe and its descendants had lived on the island completely untouched by civilization for thousands of years. They kept to themselves and attacked any outsiders with spears and arrows before they got too close. Based on that, I thought we’d been pretty lucky so far. We hadn’t seen anybody at all.