Tantrics Of Old (48 page)

They were on a cliff, overlooking a valley below. Trish was standing and Adri was crouching. He was younger, with short hair and an energetic angry young man look to him; Trish was a pretty girl who dressed like a tomboy. Her hair was cut short and she wore jeans and a sleeveless tee, along with mountain boots, everything black, like Adri. Both of them were dirty, and their clothes were weathered. Adri held a rifle in his hands, a long slender weapon that Maya hadn’t seen before. Trish was weaponless other than her Sorcerer gauntlets, which glinted in the early morning sun. Their supplies were in a duffel bag lying among the rocks behind them.

‘Is that a moor?’ Trish asked, squinting.

Adri was squinting as well. The sun was unusually sharp for the mountains.

‘Might just be. It would be the most obvious place for it to go right now,’ he said.

‘Try and sense it,’ Trish said.

Adri closed his eyes and there was silence, other than the occasional gust of wind whistling past. A mountain bird cried out and he opened his eyes.

‘No good,’ Adri said. ‘It’s either really good at this hiding business, or it’s too far away for me to catch.’

‘You’re not good enough,’ Trish snapped. ‘You should work more on your meditation, Adri.’

‘Bull,’ Adri said. ‘The Demon is hiding itself with something. Its vibes are totally cut off, which is impossible.’

‘I thought the creature was animalistic. But an animalistic Demon wouldn’t know how to use artefacts.’

‘Warrior or mage, then. I have a feeling it’s a powerful one.’

‘Why is it hiding, then?’

‘Why do you think? It wants to survive.’

Trish paused for a moment, thinking. ‘Let’s get after it, then. If it’s dangerous, the sooner it’s put down, the better.’

Adri nodded and got up. Slinging his rifle over his shoulder and picking up his bag, he followed Trish as she led the way down. Maya followed them.

‘You know, Trish,’ Adri spoke up suddenly, breaking a silence that had built up for the last three hours. ‘I don’t agree with what you said back there.’

‘What did I say?’

‘The
putting down
Demons bit. They aren’t animals to be put down. They’re quite sharp, actually. And many of them are incredibly cultured and well-read.’

Trish laughed. ‘Look who’s talking,’ she said. ‘A Demon-killer working for the government. All you and me have done for assignments in the past months is put down Demons.’

‘I know what we do and I know what must be done to protect the people,’ Adri said, irritated. ‘Don’t put words in my mouth. It’s the
attitude
I have a problem with. We should treat them with more respect, Demons.’

‘I think
your
attitude needs change, Adri,’ Trish said seriously. ‘Tell me what an animalistic Demon is, if not a predator of everything it sees. And take this Demon, for example. You saw the eaten bodies down at the last village. Would you call that
cultured
?’

‘I think it looks at everything in a different way. Chickens would look at me in the same way, I guess, if I was summoned into a world full of chicken.’

‘Lame logic, Adri. And what are you, a Demon lawyer?’

‘Argh. You could
try
to look at it from their point of view.’

Trish laughed. ‘All I see is a couple of extremely deadly chickens hunting me down.’

Adri had to laugh too, shaking his head. ‘You’re impossible.’

‘Let’s just hunt this bastard down, Adri.’

That was easier said than done. They entered the moor in another hour and began tracking the Demon, Maya behind them. The Demon did not leave many tracks, and Adri had to work hard to find anything. The ground was hard, making it pretty impossible to find any kind of footprint. When night came, the duo did not rest or camp, continuing, instead, to try and track their prey.

Adri finally ended up tracking it using the flower method, something Maya understood because she had studied it. Some Demons had an affinity for flowers, a strange kind of attraction. For some Demons it was a weakness, even. Flowers were not something the Demons would find on their Plane, across the River—but it was never confirmed what it was about the flowers that attracted the Demons. MYTH had run tests using smell, shape, and colour, but nothing had been proven. The tests were still running.

Adri picked up a small white petal and observed it in the moonlight.

‘Okay, he’s a flowerboy. I saw this back near the foothills where it had eaten the herd of cows,’ he said.

‘Just have to find the flowers, then,’ Trish said, looking around.

It took them well into the night to track the area where the flowers grew. It was deep in the moor, across a long, dry landscape with huge rocks overlooking it, a dry valley of sorts. They could see bushes with the white flowers strewn across the valley, growing sparsely and mostly under hanging rocks.

‘He’ll be around here,’ Adri said softly, looking at the entire stretch of dead land. ‘Too many of these flowers here, he’ll be naturally attracted here if he has entered the moor.’

‘This place screams SETUP to me,’ Trish said. ‘Can you sense the Demon?’

‘Nothing,’ Adri said. ‘But I’m telling you, this one’s different. It’s hiding its magic somehow.’

Maya looked at the duo standing in the moonlight before the eerie stretch in front, and she felt a chill go up her spine. This was not something she was used to. She knew she could not be seen or harmed in her current state, and yet she was afraid of the moor ahead of her.

‘Okay, so how do we do this?’ Adri asked.

‘I’ll go in, you cover me,’ Trish said.

Adri pulled back the safety catch and nodded. Holding the rifle, he clambered off to a high rock without a second’s delay. Within the minute, he was sitting on the edge of the rock, legs hanging, rifle ready.

‘Try not to shoot me,’ Trish said softly, and started making her way down the slope, reaching the dry floor of the valley after a while. She did not look up even once to check on Adri. In all probability, the Demon’s eyes were on her now.

Maya did not know where to be; she felt scared of going down to the patch with Trish despite herself. She decided to follow her from above, walking alongside her and watching everything.

There were too many hanging rocks that cast shadows along Trish’s path. She conjured fireballs and started throwing them under the rocks as she went, giving each place a brief glance before moving on. Maya glanced at Adri and saw that he was in a direct line of sight. Trish walked on, lighting shadows up.

Things happened. Fast. One of the rocks moved, suddenly, unforming itself into a living thing, and lunged at Trish with a huge arm. Trish jumped back and threw her arms forward—electricity leapt from her gauntlets, crackling and fizzling and lighting up the darkness. The Demon, unperturbed by the electricity, continued moving forward towards Trish with speed. She rolled away just as a huge hand made of stone came crashing down with a sound like thunder, raising dust. Maya looked at Adri to see what he was doing—the Tantric was changing bullets and reloading the rifle slowly, a cigarette in his mouth.

She stared back at the fight and saw Trish throwing fireballs at the Demon, and for the first time she could see it well. It was a nightmarish thing, and the loud cries that emanated from it were the same. It was a
Hush
, a Demon born of stone. She had read about them—they came in many shapes and sizes and for the first time she could see one; it looked like a bunch of stones put together to form something remotely humanoid. It was much larger than Trish, about fifteen feet in height, though it stayed hunched. Maya could not make out its eyes, though she well understood that the large gash on the face was actually the mouth. It had long, extended arms and legs, and several long rock fingers at the end of each arm. It even had a tail of linked stone that beat around angrily as it tried to catch Trish. The Demon wasn’t slow by any means, but Trish was always faster as she dodged and tried different fire and electricity spells to bring the Demon down. Nothing seemed to stop it, but only infuriated it further. Its cries echoed down the entire moor as it fought the Sorceress.

Trish hit it with a blue wave of what Maya assumed was raw sound. It knocked the Demon back for a second. Frustrated, she took a second to look up at Adri—a second which the Demon borrowed to hit Trish with a solid hand of stone. The blow was a horizontal swing, and Trish went flying into a nearby boulder like a rag doll. Maya yelled in shock, and Adri fired. The gunshot was still echoing seconds later; the Demon stood at full height, looking around, confused. Then it collapsed to the ground, raising a lot of dust and making the very earth shake under Maya’s feet.

Adri slung the rifle back over his shoulder and made his way down to the stretch, still smoking the cigarette. He silently walked to where Trish lay, and this time, Maya followed him. She hoped Trish was okay. When Adri reached Trish, he checked her pulse first. Then he sighed with what Maya hoped was relief, and walked over to the Demon and inspected it closely. Adri swept aside the white flowers that were on its rocky body, clamped in mud, he swept away the grass and the dust—he seemed to be looking for something. He found it after a bit of searching; it was a ring as large as a human bracelet on one of its fingers. A ring with runes inscribed on it. Maya could understand nothing, except for the shape of a moon among the runes.

Adri unslung his rifle and turned around. He began to laugh. ‘All right, just who are you fooling? This is pathetic,’ he said. The laugh was not genuine. It was under pressure, maybe even a little nervous. For a shocked second Maya thought he was addressing her, but no, he was looking elsewhere and all around. There was no reply, only the silence of the moor.

‘The Hush liked flowers,’ Adri said. ‘It was a simple being, not capable of hiding beyond its natural ability to pose as a rock. It would not wear an artefact of the moon to hide its magical vibes. You must be following me, you must be here. Show yourself!’

There was nothing for a while, and Maya did not expect a reply to come. But it did, and it was a mere whisper in the wind.

‘That was a damn good shot, Adri Sen.’

Adri lifted the rifle to his eye, peering all over the horizon, seeing nothing.

‘Who are you?’ he shouted, without lowering his weapon.

‘Lose the rifle, Adri,’ another voice whispered. ‘We are unarmed, and will not harm you.’

‘Well, you shouldn’t be scared of this weapon if you mean me no harm, isn’t it?’ Adri shouted.

‘We will reveal ourselves in good faith,’ yet another voice spoke.

Adri said nothing. And then suddenly, the first figure appeared out of nowhere. Then another. Then another. They kept appearing around Adri, at varying distances; and after the fifth one appeared, Adri lowered his weapon. He was outgunned anyway. When they finished, there were twelve of them around Adri.

Adri looked at them. They were just silhouettes, dark and shadowy, with a hint of a flicker, a slight tremble to them. Their shapes indicated there were both men and women, but Adri could see nothing but black in them. When they spoke, it was still in the same whisper.

‘We planted the artefact on the Demon, Adri. We wanted it to catch MYTH’s eye. We wanted you to be sent here.’

‘Why?’ Adri asked, as Maya listened, spellbound.

‘Because we could not possibly tell you what we are here to tell you back in the Old City, in the halls of the government. No, we had to draw you away from MYTH. For what you are about to know is not for the ears of everyone.’

‘But who are you? And how do you know me?’

‘You may have heard of us in stories and legends, Adri. We are called the Eclipse Guard.’

‘The Eclipse Guard? The Soul Hunters who went missing from the banks of the Ganga?’ Adri asked in amazement.

‘Yes, though the truth in those stories is only a grain’s worth. We know you because you were a friend to us, Adri.’

‘A friend—to
you
?’

‘We understand your confusion, so let us elaborate. You see, there are many secrets this world has to keep—many secrets that have been kept secrets to stop myriad machinations that would break the foundation of what these secrets stand for in the first place. Hence secret societies, hence secret text. You are, unknowingly, a part of what is a well-kept secret, Adri Sen. And now you are of age, and you will know what you are to know.’

Adri slung the rifle back over his shoulder and lit another cigarette. He looked up to find everyone quiet. ‘Oh, I’m listening,’ he said quickly, and they began talking again, nodding amongst themselves.

‘In every hundred spirits, one is allowed to return to this Plane and take birth once more, starting the circle of life once again,’ they whispered. ‘In every twenty billion spirits that are allowed to come back, one is allowed access to the memories of the past life he or she has led. It is a gift, and a unique one. We call those
Raishth
, the Reborn.’

Adri stubbed out the cigarette with a stupefied expression. ‘That—would explain a lot,’ he muttered.

‘We are glad that it does.’

‘Who was I—in my past life?’ Adri asked.

‘That is something all of us have to find out for ourselves, Adri. It is not difficult. Ask the right questions and visit the right places, and you will know who you were. The few visions that you have had which you cannot explain are all from your deep past.’

‘I guessed as much right now. They were not just visions, then.’

‘They are memories, Adri. The power of your past shall always wait within you, waiting to be unleashed. You will always learn things much quicker and more intuitively if they are things you have already learnt well in your last life—and all the memories of your last life shall come flooding back to you as you live out this one. With each memory of the last life that you unlock, you will only grow stronger—and mentally, you will always be older, no matter what your current age resembles. The experience of an entire life lived out shall always back you up, and this past existence shall forever watch over you.’

‘Thank you,’ Adri said. ‘This changes everything. It explains a lot of my doubts. I know I was a Tantric in my past life. Of that I am certain.’