Tantrics Of Old (51 page)

‘You can’t kill the host already in the Mask!’ Natasha hissed.

‘I should not have let you come along,’ Adri complained.

Women are an eternal pain in the behind
, the Wraith said.

They were creeping along side alleys, trying to not attract any kind of attention. The moon was high in the night sky, and everything was more visible than usual as the moonlight washed down on them. The group consisted of the four of them and Natasha. And she was having a problem with the first part of the plan—the one that involved killing the host already in the Devil Mask.

‘If you know a way to extract the host without killing him, then do it for this host as well,’ Natasha argued.

‘That will kill the Devil Mask and we won’t be able to heal Maya,’ Adri said.

‘So one life is not as important as the other?’

‘I owe Maya. I do not know anything about who is currently being used by the Mask as a host, and I am not responsible for his or her death. Your team would’ve killed the host either way in order to kill the Mask, so what are you complaining about?’

‘Do not try and twist my words, Sen. I—’ Natasha tripped over a raised footpath. Adri instinctively caught her, and she regained her footing. The hand Adri had used to catch her, however, was the scaly one.

‘Thanks. Err, your hand felt weird,’ she said, raising Adri’s hand to the moonlight. She reacted with a gasp that Adri was expecting.

‘What is this? All this while I thought you were wearing a glove!’

‘It’s all right. It’s just a little
temporary
issue,’ Adri said. The growth had spread. The scales had perfectly and uniformly covered Adri’s right hand, and were now slowly growing towards his elbow. They were black and polished, and felt extremely tough, like armour. It felt a bit different, but his hand felt stronger. It was a feeling he would have liked if he had been in control.

‘Temporary? I’ve never seen this before!’ she said.

‘Can both of you keep it down?’ Gray hissed, looking about nervously. He had the Sadhu’s Shotgun in his hands, his violin case slung across his side.

‘We will discuss my, err,
condition
later,’ Adri said. ‘If it is to be discussed at all.’

‘What
have
you been up to, Sen?’ Natasha said, shaking her head.

The Settlement where the Devil Mask was lurking soon came into view. Revenant stumbled around the entrance; everything else appeared to be quiet. The outer wall of the Settlement was a mixture of bricks and cement and steel and everything else that could be put together to keep intruders out. A crude, desperate attempt at defence, and they skirted around the perimeter till they found an entry. It didn’t take long to get in; they removed some tires and furniture as quietly as they could and entered the Settlement. The place reeked of death; blood splattered almost everywhere. The streets within were mostly empty, though a few revenant silhouettes were visible in the moonlight.

‘Where is it?’ Gray whispered.

‘Ssshh!’ Adri said.

Fayne fell into the rear as he was carrying Maya. Adri took up the lead, holding a Commando sidearm that he did not like at all—a semi-automatic shooter pistol that held about fourteen holy rounds. Natasha was right behind him, and then Gray and then Fayne. Adri led them through shadows of empty houses. They were as silent as possible; Adri wanted to spot the creature before it spotted them. They cut across a small garden and then through the backyard of another abandoned home. A few revenant bumped into them, and Fayne took care of them with a well-aimed dagger, silent. They reached the central square of the Settlement; the creature was there, in the very centre of the square.

Adri drew the others back as soon as the beast came into sight; slowly, after a moment, they peeked from behind a wall. The Devil Mask was big; that was the first thought Gray had as someone who had never seen one before. It was constructed out of dead tissue, so its muscles and tendons were visible, twisting and turning with incredible intricacy around dead bone to form four long and powerful-looking limbs. Each limb was made out of hundreds of bones bound together with dead muscle to form huge legs and arms, though it rested on all fours. Its midsection was large and round, with bones knit into its exterior like a rib cage. Its head was clearly visible; a muscle mass that was the neck had an odd kind of bulge at the end—where there was a wooden mask of a
rakshas
, with bulging eyes and horns and teeth all carved into the woodwork. It was about twelve feet tall, looming over all other beings in the area.

‘Bastard!’ Natasha hissed.

‘What’s it doing?’ Gray asked, fascinated, horrified.

Good question, Adri thought. The Mask was busy doing something. Its limbs moved occasionally and its muscles swirled in wavelike motions. A tentacle suddenly erupted from its back and then disappeared within its mass.

‘Not meaning to be a smart-mouth here,’ Natasha whispered, ‘but it is actually
distracted
right now.’

‘Too bad we’re not here to extract Maya,’ Adri said.

‘But if you can figure out what it’s doing, then we can get Maya out while it’s busy like this,’ Gray said. ‘Instead of having to depend on your stupid violin plan.’

Adri looked at the creature with doubt. ‘Fayne, any clue?’ he asked.

‘I don’t know what it is up to,’ the assassin replied. ‘But I suggest you take the shot right now. It won’t get simpler than this.’

Adri unslung the high-powered rifle from his back. He didn’t have his bullet alchemy kit with him anymore, but he had still managed to modify some bullets for this weapon. It was already loaded, and Adri did not need to check. He clicked the scope into place and silently moved off to the next house for a better line of sight, the others staying where they were.

Adri settled comfortably in the darkness of the house’s front porch. Raising the rifle, he took aim and observed the creature tensely. He wished he could smoke, but the smell would alarm it immediately. He was very curious about what it was doing—he had never seen or heard of a Devil Mask being distracted—that could essentially be the key to saving Maya, but he also needed to take the shot and kill the present host. And he would not get the leisure of making the shot if the creature was provoked. The setting was perfect.

Adri aimed carefully at the creature’s belly, its carrying cage, where the host stayed once the Mask enveloped him or her. The ribs around the carrying cage would deflect the bullet easily; he needed to put the bullet in between the ribs, where the stomach flesh was. And the shot needed to be fatal for the host. If the host was merely wounded, the Devil Mask would merely heal him or her in some time. Adri was almost ready to make the shot when the full weight of what he was doing hit him. Sure, everyone was okay with it for now. But he was about to kill an innocent being imprisoned inside the Mask for his own purposes, and however well he had justified it to himself up until this moment, now that the shot was lined up, Adri realised he could not pull the trigger. He cursed silently.

‘Why isn’t he firing?’ Gray hissed.

‘He’s a damn good shot,’ Natasha whispered back. ‘He’ll take his time, but he won’t miss.’

‘Are you kidding me?’ Gray asked. ‘This guy uses a couple of revolvers just to prove bullets are free!’

‘If he wants to hit a target, he hits it,’ Natasha said simply. ‘He had many strategies earlier when I used to know him. For example, he used to think that a bullet that missed instilled more fear in its target than one that hit. There was a time when he used to consciously fire off rounds not aimed at his enemies before he would take the killing shot.’

‘That sounds—very weird.’

‘Adri was always like that.’

‘That also sounded sadistic.’

‘I think Adri was more into experimenting with the whole thing. He was always
so
confused about his beliefs.’

Adri was beginning to sweat. There was no backup plan for this, no other way. He didn’t need his conscience coming in at a time like this.

What are you waiting for, fool? Fire!
the Wraith urged.

‘Shut up, damn you,’ he mumbled.

The Devil Mask trembled suddenly. Its face was looking down. All of a sudden it trembled again and released a black tarlike substance on the ground from a gash in its neck.

‘Don’t tell me the bloody thing is dying!’ Adri muttered, but he knew the symptoms, having seen Devil Masks die before.

Fayne tapped his shoulder, giving Adri the shock of his life.

‘Don’t do that!’ he yelped. ‘When did you get here?’

‘Apologies,’ Fayne said. ‘But did you see it release darkblood? It is dying.’

‘But why is it dying?’ Adri asked Fayne, and then answered it himself, his eyebrows expanding. ‘Oh hell! Fayne, get Maya. Now! The host inside the Mask is already dead.’

Fayne moved off soundlessly and Adri followed him back to where the others were.

‘Well?’ Gray and Natasha asked.

‘The host is already dead,’ Adri said urgently. ‘We just have to give Maya to the creature and get the hell out of here.’

‘A pity we cannot just watch it die,’ Natasha said.

‘You will watch it die, but not now,’ Adri said, and then turned to Fayne. ‘Fayne, how far can you throw Maya?’

‘Throw?’ Gray squeaked. ‘You want to break her neck or what? No one’s
throwing
my sister anywhere!’

Fayne cricked his muscular neck. ‘I can make her reach the Mask,’ he said.

‘Excellent. Let’s do this, then,’ Adri said.

‘Hey, you can’t ignore me!’ Gray hissed. ‘Have you gone nuts, throwing Maya at the Devil Mask?’

‘She’s going to be the next damn
host
, Gray,’ Adri said. ‘Get a grip on yourself.’

Fayne climbed to the roof of the house beneath which they were hiding. He held Maya by her ankle with one hand and by her shoulder with the other, like the world’s weirdest javelin. Then, with brief aim, he shouted loudly, and threw Maya through the air. The shout immediately attracted the Mask’s attention—it whipped its neck in their direction and immediately, three tentacles from its body caught Maya in mid-air, lowering her, bringing her to itself. Fayne leapt off the roof and out of sight; they saw the Mask check for him as it looked towards the roof again and again. Then it turned Maya round and round with its tentacles, inspecting her.

‘That looks—so
wrong,’
Gray whispered.

Then its belly opened up horizontally, bone ribs sliding aside. It was a sudden move; mucus-like fluids and slime dripped heavily from within as a lifeless body dropped from inside to the ground. The tentacles moved Maya towards the open belly, and white cilia from within started wrapping themselves around Maya as she was accepted as the Devil Mask’s new host.

‘Excellent,’ Adri breathed, slinging the rifle across his shoulder and getting up cautiously. ‘Time to leave, guys.’

Gray was still staring at the Mask, horrified. ‘Are you
sure
that’s safe?’

‘The corruption was about to kick into Maya once more,’ Adri said, grabbing Gray’s shoulder and pulling him away. ‘I’d say it was one hell of a good time for this to happen, never mind safe.’

‘What? It’s not safe?’ Gray exclaimed, finally looking away and following Adri.

‘It’s never been done before, Gray!’ Adri snapped.

They stole out of the Settlement.

‘How long is this going to take?’ Natasha said as they walked back. ‘This process, I mean.’

‘Are you both deaf ?’ Adri remarked. ‘I don’t do this on a daily basis! I don’t know how fast the Devil Mask can heal.’

‘So when are we coming back?’ Gray asked.

‘We’ll see the Mask tomorrow night. If it’s doing fine, then, in all probability, Maya will have healed by then,’ Adri said.

‘I hate this,’ Gray said.

‘It was distracted because it was dying. The host had already been killed,’ Adri said. ‘It will not be distracted again. We will have to use the violin.’

It took them about twenty minutes to get back to the temporary camp at Mullikbazar, but Fayne sensed something as soon as they got near the building.

‘Stop,’ the assassin said softly. ‘There are others.’

Adri closed his eyes for a brief second. ‘I can sense a major magical vibe,’ he said.