Tantrics Of Old (21 page)

‘But supposing she didn’t,’ Adri pursued. ‘Supposing she wanted to find out something about some professor, or some course, where would she get that information?’

‘Um, that would be Records and Research. Basement. Always the basement.’

Adri turned and ran, the fireball whooshing along. Gray ran after him, overtaking him and shooting down the stairs. When he reached the ground floor, Adri found Gray staring at the darkness beyond the steps leading down to the basement.

‘Adri, there is something down there,’ he spoke softly.

‘What did you see?’

‘Something moved in there. I’m sure.’ For just a second, his voice trembled.

‘I know you don’t like the dark,’ Adri said. ‘But you have to come with me. You’re not safe anywhere else.’

Gray shook his head. ‘If Maya’s in there, I have to go.’

Adri led the way. Darkness had descended in entirety now. The sun was gone, and along with it all sunlight. They were descending into the subterranean in Jadavpur University at night. Sheer madness. But Maya was in danger, owing to his carelessness, his distraction with the book. He would pull her out—or find her body. He bit his lip and furiously hoped it wouldn’t come to that. The fireball floated a little ahead of them, lighting up peeling walls and thick, dirty spider webs, and footprints—someone had been through here recently.

‘Footprints,’ Adri said.

‘Maya?’ Gray asked immediately.

‘Not sure. Stay close to me and the fireball.’

‘These spirits, they obey you?’ Gray asked, looking at the floating fire.

‘Not yet,’ Adri replied. ‘I give trapped spirits freedom in exchange of a certain task.’

‘Oh.’

‘Be on your toes. I don’t like this.’ Adri considered the possibilities, none of them pretty. Silently, he removed some bullets from his shooter and added other ones in their place. The darkness increased as they headed deeper down; it tried to envelop them, but was held at bay by the lone fireball. Gray looked behind him and saw complete darkness. There was no way back. Everything was dead silent except for their footsteps which rang loud, echoing for long spaces.

Something came into view at last, right at the end of the stairs, something that sprung out of the darkness almost magically—a door, wooden, with a faded glass sign on it that said RECORDS.

They opened the door—the creaking resonating for ages—and walked through. Neither the walls nor the ceiling were visible in the light of the fireball—all they could feel was a void, a complete lack of anything solid within their reach, save for the ground beneath their feet. Adri looked down. The ground wasn’t wood or cement, it was raw rock, dirty and unpolished. He inspected the complete darkness on every side; he realised Gray must be terrified.

‘I saw something move earlier, I’m sure of it,’ Gray whispered, right on cue. ‘Oh God.’

‘Easy, now. Just wait for my signal before you go trigger-happy on anything.’

Gray nodded solemnly. His eyes were wide, fearful, looking for activity. It came soon. They walked a little bit in that dark when they heard it. The movement. Soft snapping noises in rapid succession. First to their right, then to their left. Surrounding them. The fireball rose above Adri’s head automatically, as if sensing the danger. The noises gradually stopped. Nothing happened for the longest time. They were being watched.

Adri spoke first. ‘Come on out, now. We know all too well you’re there.’ No riposte; everything stayed quiet. ‘Come on,’ Adri said again, lowering his hand cannon. Silence once more. Then the soft snapping noises began again.

Adri had recognised the creature the first time he had heard the noise. An Ancient. He charted possible outcomes. Adri had no experience in fighting Ancients at all; in fact, he knew of Tantrics who had died at their hands. But he was skilled at negotiating with all manners of creatures, and he tried to think of how to approach the problem. For the first time he noticed how frantic Gray was with the gun he’d given him.

‘Give me that,’ Adri whispered, snatching the revolver from Gray and holstering it. ‘There is an Ancient here. Both my guns are useless.’

‘What is an—’ Gray began and stuttered to a stop as a shape slowly slithered into the light. A human skeleton waist up. Bones old, dry, and yellowing with scraps of cloth hanging on to some of them. Waist down, the backbone widened out—sharp needle-like ribs jutting out—and continued downwards, curling serpentine to support the creature’s entire weight. Its face was exactly like a human skull, except for the prominent canines gleaming in the torchlight. Its fingers ended in sharp claw-like points, dancing gently; whenever it moved, its entire bony structure stirred, making the soft snapping noise that had first alerted them to its presence. Its meandering end moved into the darkness and out of sight.

Adri looked at it. Horror. He realised he was facing all of this just to get the Horseman off his back. Here was a different death, but death nevertheless.

The Ancient observed him and Gray silently, continuously moving in the same place, the edges of its sharp tail shifting, slithering.

‘The girl, is she dead?’ Adri asked.

Darkness, in eyes hollow. Silence. The Ancient stayed where it was, looking at them, swaying gently.

Gray, scared out of his mind and frozen in his place, wondered dimly if what stood in front of him was going to reply to Adri. Did he really expect this monstrosity to have a voice?

‘No,’ the creature whispered back and a shiver ran through Gray. The whisper was nothing more than wind channelled through a dead bone throat, given a certain shape, through a certain utterance. A rush of cold, and the words stayed longer than any echo. He looked at it despite himself, still frozen. Its entire body was just bones, yet it stood, it talked. At the same time, there was a pounding sense of relief.

‘Well, prove it!’ Gray whispered.

The Ancient turned its neck to look at Gray. Then, slowly, another Ancient entered the circle of light, holding Maya’s limp body tight in its hands. She was unconscious, and it held her up from her shoulders; her legs dangled loosely. A ragged doll. The Ancient’s hideous face was inches from hers. Its fangs old, sharp.

‘Did you guys take a bite out of her yet?’ Adri asked, his hands slowly going behind his back. Gray noticed, but the Ancients didn’t.

‘No,’ it replied again in the same hoarse whisper. ‘Not yet.’

The corner of Gray’s eye strained to see what Adri was doing. He realised that behind his back, Adri was turning the chamber of his revolver. Once. Twice. Thrice.

‘Well then, clearly you intend to make a deal, Ancient,’ Adri spoke again, slowly bringing his hands to his sides again, the movement almost imperceptible.

‘You are a Tantric,’ the Ancient moaned. ‘You can enter places denied to us, places cursed. There is one such place you must enter.’

‘What do you want from there?’

‘A crypt guards the body of one of our enemies, Mazumder his name is. He is long dead, this vampire hunter, but we must rip his body to shreds, to little pieces!’ Here the Ancient’s voice rose, high in its tiredness, its age. ‘His skin needs to adorn our walls, his eyeballs need to roll around for our amusement! Get us the body, and we will give you back this human.’ It finished and drew backwards, gently moving its long fingers.

‘How far is this crypt?’

‘Park Street,’ the Ancient rasped. ‘Surely you know the way? It is a day’s walk to the graveyard, Tantric, so I shall expect you back by tomorrow night. If you are not back by then. . .’ It looked at Maya, and the Ancient holding her opened its mouth, revealing its canines, inches from her bare neck.

‘Don’t you dare!’ Gray roared. Both the Ancients turned to look at him, and in that instant, Adri lifted his weapon and fired once, the gunshot echoing loudly in the room. Gray eagerly looked past the smoking barrel of the gun and saw both the Ancients standing perfect and unharmed. Horrified, he looked at Maya and saw a gaping bullet hole in her stomach. ‘You shot-you shot-’ he started, turning to look at Adri with horrified amazement.

The Ancient seemed disturbed as well. It looked at Maya, and then at Adri with distrust. ‘What did you shoot her with, human?’ it asked.

‘A corruption,’ Adri replied calmly, as Gray saw the bullet hole close itself up. ‘Her blood will be so toxic under the minute that your biting her will prove most—
unhealthy
.’

Both the Ancients hissed angrily. The one holding her drew its finger along her cheek, and a thin red line appeared. ‘She still bleeds,’ it breathed. ‘Maybe we won’t feed on her, human. But if you’re late, you will find us playing skittles with her pretty little head.’

‘We’ll need the gun she was carrying. Park Street isn’t close,’ Adri said.

The Ancient holding Maya retreated back into the darkness. It came back soon, holding the Sadhu’s Shotgun. It threw the gun to Adri who caught it and wordlessly handed it to Gray, who took it in a state of shock.

‘The deal is on then, Tantric,’ the first Ancient spoke. ‘Tomorrow night.’ Both the Ancients backed away into the darkness and were gone. The soft snapping noises faded away.

‘We can’t leave without her, Adri,’ Gray whispered, holding the shotgun tight.

Adri looked at the shotgun quietly and shook his head. ‘We have to return with the body. That’s our only chance.’ He turned around and holstering his weapon, started walking back. The fireball took the lead immediately.

Gray stood where he was, the darkness closing in fast around him. Then he turned around, strode up to Adri and pushed him with a cry of anger. The push was hard, and Adri fell on his face. The fireball froze in place.

‘Damn you, Adri!’ Gray screamed. ‘Damn you to hell! Why did you have to do this?’

Adri coughed, sending dirt flying. Slowly, he put his hands to the rocky floor and sat up, examining his cuts. ‘Maya knew the risks when she agreed to come to Old Kolkata,’ he said softly.

‘Why did you have to come to JU?’ Gray shouted. ‘What bloody book was that? What are you after, Adri Sen?’

‘Look,’ Adri replied, his guilt keeping his anger in check. ‘Right now, all I’m doing is trying to save Maya. I’ve got to get that body here before they kill her. Does that make sense to you? Or do you still want to play the blame game until it’s too late?’

‘I know you’re hiding your agenda,’ Gray said after a few seconds. His voice was calmer now, threatening to break. ‘I know this is all about what
you
want. But now you listen and listen good to what
I
want. I want my sister safe and I want to get out of this godforsaken city. Do we understand each other?’

Adri nodded silently, getting back on his feet. His clothes were dusty, there was dirt on his face, sticking to the stubble; and with that came the realisation that he hadn’t shaved for a while now. His shoulder stung. The fall had hurt his wound. He cursed silently and started hobbling back.

Gray followed him, conflicted. He felt stabs of guilt for pushing Adri down—without the Tantric he would be lost—but it was also true that without the Tantric they wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place. Adri was selfish and secretive, and he had reasons of his own that had led them to this place of horror, not that he wanted to know what Adri’s reasons were. He just wanted Maya safe and he wanted to get back on the train. And he would make sure Adri got them back, no matter what.

‘How come they made a deal with you?’ Gray asked a few moments later. They were climbing up the basement steps once more.

‘They needed a Necromancer. They saw I’m one and took their chance. They didn’t harm Maya, she was bait; if none of us were Necromancers we’d have been dinner.’

‘What are they? These confounded Ancients?’

‘What do you think? Vampires of bone, held together by curses and spells. My weapons were useless, I hadn’t created any bullets to handle them. And there were well over ten to fifteen of them in the shadows.’

‘You saw them in the darkness?’

‘I heard them all around us. They can’t hide that noise they make when they move. Too many of them down there. One wrong move and they would’ve been on us; my gunshot almost made them pounce.’

‘Speaking of which, what the heck did you shoot Maya with? What is a
corruption
? And where are you going?’

Adri was on his way up the stairs past the ground floor. ‘I’ve got to get my bag,’ he said. ‘It’s still in the professor’s office.’ Gray nodded and followed.

‘About the corruption, it’s the only thing not letting the Ancients drink Maya’s blood. Thus, it’s keeping her alive, as well as killing her slowly, as it’s a corruption. It will not kill her as fast as the Ancients would have. We’ll deal with it once we get her back.’

‘I guess I owe you a thanks,’ Gray said slowly. ‘And an apology. I mean, Maya did go off on her own, right?’

They reached the floor and Adri, revolver in hand, headed towards Professor Sural’s office. ‘She did have an agenda of her own, yes. I don’t think she was prone to random curiosities,’ Adri said. They reached the office, and it was still empty. Adri picked up the black book he had cast away earlier, opened the correct page, and memorised the four names. It took him two readings to do it. Casting the book away, reminded again of its uselessness, Adri picked up his bag and wore it. Gray stood at the door, wondering about how best to apologise.

‘Save it,’ Adri said, crossing him and entering the corridor. ‘Long night ahead, and the journey isn’t really easy.’

Gray was slightly angered again, but he swallowed it and followed Adri, the Sadhu’s Shotgun in his hands.