Tantrics Of Old (54 page)

Gray seemed angry and sore about something. He was talking to Fayne in a low voice. Fayne watched Maya go towards Adri and looked back at Gray. Maya stopped a little distance away from him. Had he been expecting a hug? Adri hadn’t really been thinking about one, but he was surprised to find that he was inwardly—
disappointed
.

‘Adri,’ Maya said. ‘Thank you.’

Adri looked at her expressionlessly. ‘You were my responsibility,’ he spoke simply.

‘Yeah,’ she said, still smiling. ‘And I screwed up big time.’

‘You were stupid,’ Adri agreed. ‘But we’ve come a long way from there and a lot of things have happened. And right now, you’re okay and I guess that’s what’s important.’

Maya looked at the floor. ‘I would like you to know some things,’ she said.

‘You do not need to explain anything to me,’ Adri said.

‘No,’ Maya said, looking at him again. ‘There are some things you should know.’

Adri and Maya moved to another part of the roof and sat down.

‘What has she been through?’ Gray asked. ‘What made her change?’

‘You should understand, Gray, that your sister has seen something about Adri while she was in her coma. And
that
has made the
fatiya
want to stay on with him right now.’

‘But that means even you’ll stay on!’ Gray exclaimed. ‘And me,’ he added.

‘Correct,’ Fayne said.

‘I want to leave! I want to leave this place and these insecurities! I don’t care about anything—my camera is still lying in that bloody forest in my bag. I don’t even need that anymore. I want to go home; can’t Maya understand that? She should have had enough by now, of all people!’

‘If the Apocalypse does happen,
myrkho
—New Kolkata will not be spared. Nothing will be,’ Fayne said.

Gray looked at him with distaste. ‘Whose side are you on?’

‘I will of course, protect the
fatiya
until the charge is lifted from me,’ the assassin replied.

‘No, I didn’t mean that so literally, you idiot.’

‘I do not take very kindly to being insulted,’ Fayne said, sounding ruffled.

‘Sorry, sorry!’ Gray exclaimed nervously.

‘I am so sorry,’ Maya said as genuinely as she could sound.

‘You read my diaries?’ Adri asked again, not being able to believe what he was hearing.

‘I know it’s a really bad thing to do. I’m extremely sorry.’

Adri stared at Maya, all sorts of thoughts going through his head. Then he burst out laughing. Maya panicked, not knowing what to think as Adri laughed and laughed, and laughed some more. Maya tried to laugh along, but she couldn’t. Adri recovered, gasping for breath, and turned to her.

‘A student of Demonology from Jadavpur now knows more about me than my own father?’ he asked, laughing again. ‘I mean, I’ve tried to guard my past so well, and all the time I never thought someone could just waltz into my house with me and take my diaries to read.’

‘I know it’s not done,’ Maya said. ‘But I didn’t trust you at all back then.’

Adri stopped laughing. ‘So you trust me now?’

‘I know who you are,’ Maya said, looking down. ‘I admit I read the diaries by choice, but the visions, I did not have any choice but to watch them.’

‘Those visions you had, they are exactly what happened in my past,’ Adri said quietly. ‘You saw the world exactly as I saw it back then.’

‘You know why they happened?’ a surprised Maya asked.

‘Yes and no,’ Adri said. ‘The Dreamer’s Brew, which kept you alive all this while, had one ingredient which must be added secretly. It is a personal ingredient, and not one that is announced. A drop of blood; the one I added was mine.’

Maya stared.

‘If I had known you’d read my diaries, I wouldn’t have added my own blood, but I reasoned that it was the safest thing to do as you knew about me the least. Thus the dreams you would have would be minimal, the brew would mostly keep you in an endless sleep. I did not add Gray’s blood as there would be too many memories of his past, maybe things you wouldn’t not want to see, or he wouldn’t want you to. And yet this is debated; the Dreamer’s Brew is a mysterious concoction, and the effects of the blood have never been fully defined. I could never know what it would be that you would see, if at all. Guesses were all I had. But going by what you said—you must know a lot about me by now.’

‘An awful lot,’ Maya said. ‘I wish I could keep apologising, Adri.’

‘No, it’s good to see that you’re up. No more apologies. You’re going home now with your brother and your personal bodyguard.’

‘What?’ Maya cried out.

‘Listen to me before you start protesting,’ Adri said. ‘There are dangers ahead that you cannot possibly comprehend. After all I’ve done to save you I cannot risk you to danger again.’

‘Then you might as well have hired Fayne,’ Maya said. Her attitude had changed completely in seconds. A stubborn light shone in her eyes as she looked at Adri. ‘You had sworn to protect me, Adri, and you honoured that. And for that I thank you. But if you think I will abandon you after all you’ve done for me, you’re wrong.’

‘It’s not about
abandoning
. The Old City—you’re not supposed to be here.’

‘I don’t remember you saying that when you needed us to go with you for your own reasons,’ Maya said.

‘It’s true that I needed you to come along,’ Adri said. ‘But I never thought back then that the city was like this, like a ticking bomb ready to explode. I did not know that it had changed in its danger, or perhaps the years had made me forget. If I had known, I would have reconsidered.’

‘Then where are we supposed to go, Adri? Are we supposed to leave everything on your shoulders and go back to New Kolkata and wait for the Apocalypse to find out whether you survived the Horseman or not? I know who you are, Adri Sen. I have followed you around, I have watched you sleep, I have walked a thousand kilometres with you. Don’t you try and push yourself into a heroic self-sacrifice here. You deserve better than that.’

Adri stared at her.

‘You have more than one enemy, Adri,’ Maya said. ‘I’d say it’s about time you figured out who your allies are.’

In unconsciousness, Maya always had a sense of where she was going, where she was being taken. It was unlike being asleep or in a coma; this feeling was much more real, and it proved to be remarkably accurate as well. The only thing was that it all came to her immediately on her waking up—places they had travelled to, snatches of conversations around her, what she had smelled, and the taste of the liquid food they had poured down her throat. She took a while after waking up to assimilate everything; her mind hurt terribly still, but she was alive. Gray summed up what had happened while she had been gone, and the more she heard about what the Tantric had been up to, the more in awe and shock she went into, even after knowing that someone like Adri was perfectly capable of experiencing phenomena like he did.

The entire existence of Fayne was a shock to her as well—apart from having no clue as to who would pay for her protection, she was very uncomfortable with the idea of a bodyguard. Fayne became more alert about where she went ever since she woke up; Maya knew and resented that. She, however, made it clear to Gray that she was staying with Adri as he investigated things further. She was not going to be one to run away after all Adri had done; though Gray, somewhere within, knew that she was right, he was still disappointed. He had been thinking of home.

Maya got to know about Adri’s next objective, and without hesitation she decided to support him. No longer would she question Adri where he did not need to be questioned. No, what Adri needed was reassurance, and she would try and be there for him.

‘I’m going to kill Death,’ Adri said. ‘It isn’t going to be easy, and it definitely might have collateral damage. I want you to understand that and then think about this.’

Maya nodded. ‘I have already been told what your plans are,’ she said. ‘And I’ll come with you, even if I only stand and watch when you take on the Horseman. If he is threatening to bring in a new age of terror, then you’re right. There is no other way.’

‘And how do you propose to kill the Horseman?’ Gray asked. ‘Last I checked, the mad Tantric was going on about how they are not a foe you can beat.’

‘I repeat myself,’ Adri said. ‘If Death is not immortal, I will kill it. Kali talked about the cave of Pestilence beneath the Howrah Bridge. I think we should move.’

Everyone nodded, except Gray. They had packed supplies for a short duration on Natasha’s orders. They picked those up now and slung the bags across their shoulders as they left. Before they left, Adri took Natasha aside.

‘Nat,’ he said. ‘There is something I must tell you.’

Natasha smiled. ‘Don’t say something stupid, Sen.’

‘There was a guy in our Tantric batch, same year. His name was Aman.’

Natasha’s face scrunched up as she tried to remember. ‘Aman, Aman. I can’t really place him, sounds vaguely familiar. What about him?’

Adri looked at Natasha. ‘He was in love with you,’ he said.

‘What?’ Natasha cried in surprise.

‘He was, and then he died. A Demon got him. But his spirit could not move on because he was still attached to you.’

‘Good God,’ Natasha said. ‘I had no idea.’

‘I bound the spirit from telling you what he wanted to. And slowly, I helped him pass onto the next Plane. He’s long gone, but I wanted you to know. He was a good friend to me, once.’

Natasha could only nod softly, not knowing what to say.

‘Sorry to have to tell you this. But—’

‘Thanks for telling me,’ Natasha said, shaking her head. ‘And thank you for helping him move on.’

Adri nodded. ‘Thank you for everything. You helped me save a life, and I owe you.’

‘You owe a lot of people, Sen,’ Natasha said, a ghost of a smile on her lips. ‘Now get out of here.’

Adri smiled and lit a cigarette as he walked out. They walked down a couple of side alleys until they reached the main road and began to follow it towards the Bridge.

‘You want to quickly let the Wraith go? I mean his graveyard should be somewhere around here right?’ Gray said when they passed a lone coffin by the side of the road.

Adri was silent. They kept walking.

Maya looked at everything around her in a new light. She had seen a lot of these places in Adri’s memories, and now everything had changed, everything was deserted. They were the only ones on the road now, walking. The Devil Mask had escaped the night before, and if it had not found a host, it was probably dead. The presence of a Necrotic had a direct effect on the revenant; no longer fuelled by the creature, they were not visible like before. Adri only glimpsed the occasional revenant, dragging itself sadly down a random alley

The Bridge wasn’t far. They had a new objective now, and Maya was perhaps the only one whose resolve was freshest; even Adri was beginning to have doubts despite himself. But he could not give up and he knew that. Not without trying. As they reached the Bridge, Adri thought about his father and what could have possibly happened to Smith who’d been tracking him. There had been no news from Smith since they had last seen him, and Adri did not have a messenger dragonfly with him. He hoped Smith was all right, but the change in the city’s mood seemed to be an ill omen. Even the sun could not stay for long, as clouds began to gather, the sky darkening.