The Black God's War (7 page)

“There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you.”

Rao swallowed and nodded.

Without warning, a blinding light poured through the enormous windows overlooking the fertile lands of Pawelon. A wave of heat flushed through the room. Rao jumped out of the bed and pulled up his long pants. He ran to the window and stared down at the rows of crowded streets surrounding the palace.

Narayani covered herself with the sheet and sat up. “
What
was that?”

“The storied solar flash. It means … their Haizzem is the leader of their army. He’s their Dux Spiritus now.”

“I thought he was too young?”

“Exactly. I’m only a year older than him.” Rao’s head moved from side to side as he collected his thoughts. “They—they’re not doing what they were supposed to.”

“You said the Haizzem wasn’t going to fight until he’s older.”

“That’s always been their history. They’ve abandoned their tradition.” Rao rubbed his forehead. “This changes everything.”

“Then maybe peace is coming. Maybe he doesn’t want to fight.”

Rao turned his eyes to her again. “There’s no chance of that. Retreat isn’t a word in the dogs’ vocabulary.”

Narayani threw off the sheet covering her body. “Come back. I’m not done with you.”

“Narayani, I’m sorry. I have to talk”—someone knocked upon the heavy door—“to Aayu.”

“Rao … Narayani … stop kissing and let me in.”

The worst possible time for my cousin to show up
, she thought.

“Hold on there,
bhai
,” Rao answered his great friend.

Narayani whispered, “Tell him to go away.”

“I have to talk to him. Please get dressed.”

“I’ve been waiting all day for you, Rao.”

“Please. I need to do this.”

After giving Rao an annoyed look, Narayani stood up and wrapped herself in her favorite silk sari, the one she wore the first time she met Rao and danced with him at the palace’s Navariti festival. Green with yellow patterns, it exposed her navel and one shoulder and fit tightly around her breasts. But she knew she had nothing more to offer Rao. She wasn’t going to be able to change his mind. No matter what she said or did, she knew he was going to leave her.

Chapter 7: Trojan Gods

RAO MANAGED TO SMILE, in spite of the sun’s ominous portent, when two hundred and fifty fleshy pounds of Aayu entered his chamber wearing a skintight saffron sage’s uniform.

Aayu’s face still somehow showed his usual mirth. “What on Gallea is going on?”

“This changes everything,” Rao said.

“We’re definitely going now,” Aayu said.

“What?” Narayani’s voice raised an octave and then came back down. “Rao, be rational.”

“Narayani, if their Haizzem defeats our army, it will be the end of everything we love. They’ll burn this city. They’ll definitely kill me, and they’d take you and—”

Narayani froze Rao with her glare. “Then let’s go somewhere else and wait until things calm down.”

Rao reached out to hold her. He knew she wouldn’t understand.

Aayu threw up his hands. “Cousin, there won’t be anything to come back to if we don’t go. The army’s going to need our help.”

Narayani broke free of Rao’s arms and snapped her head at Aayu. “What are you going to do? Meditate with the soldiers? Neither of you know anything about combat. I’d be more useful to the army than either of you. I’ve done actual healing work.”

Aayu smiled at Rao with raised eyebrows, and Rao overcame the urge to grin. Narayani, like nearly all Pawelon women, knew very little about what sages actually did. “My love, he’s right. Aayu and I have abilities we can use to help our warriors.”

Aayu sat in the chair in front of Rao’s desk and leaned back. “Cousin, listen to me. Rao completed his training with one of the best assessments in our history. They’re going to need our help.”

“Why? You’ve always said there are a lot of sages at the citadel.”

Rao reached out his hand to her. “I wish I could explain, but you know I can’t.”

Narayani crossed her arms.

Rao extended both of his hands, but she refused him. “My father and your father will be glad to have Aayu and me when they see what we can do to help them.”

Aayu laughed. “Are you serious?”

Rao’s cheeks tightened as he smiled. Granted, his father, the very rajah of Pawelon, would probably need some time to warm up to their presence. Rao’s father had forbidden him from joining the war. And General Indrajit, who was Narayani’s father and Aayu’s uncle, made a stern impression on Narayani and Aayu when they were children.

“Why are you joking?” Narayani asked. “We’re talking about your lives. Rao, what about everything we want to create? The arts programs? The meditation center? The projects for the poor?”

“Those things will have to wait.” Rao lowered his hands to his sides.

“You expect me to wait here all by myself?”

“No, Cousin,” Aayu said, “we decided you should pick up a long spear and fight. Doesn’t that sound good? Come right along.”

“I can’t wait here. I hardly know anyone in this city. You can’t go, Rao. I swear it here and now. This is my
sankalpa
: I will not be separated from you.”

Rao stared at Aayu, but his bhai also had no answer to her solemn resolve.

Narayani pointed her index finger forcefully as she talked. “And
if
you’re going, I’m coming with you.”

“No, that’s not possible,” Rao said. “It wouldn’t be safe.”

“But I can help. Don’t they need healers? If you’re ever hurt, I can help you.”

“Cousin, you’re insane. No. I promised your father I’d watch out for you. That means you’re staying in this palace, where you’ll be safe.”

“You’re not in charge of me. If you go, you can either take me or I’m going to follow you.” Narayani let out her frustration with a scream. She grabbed a pillow off the bed and threw it against a wall.

Rao found Aayu sticking out his tongue at him.

I really wish this was funny
. “If I could convince you we’re going to be safe, would you agree to stay here?”

Narayani sat on the bed. Her eyes darted between the two of them. “Probably not. You can try.”

Rao sat beside her and held one of her hands. Her long eyelashes brought out the sparkle in her brown eyes, even when she was angry. “Promise me, my love. Please.”

“Only if you can absolutely convince me.”

Rao looked over at his even darker-skinned friend. “I want to tell her about our abilities.”

With an inflection both joking and serious, Aayu said, “Oh. Really?”

Rao shrugged his shoulders. “Do you have a better idea?”

Aayu scrunched his lips to one side of his face.

“I’m sure everyone tells their wives anyway,” Rao said.

Aayu’s round belly shook as he nodded. “I still wouldn’t do it, though.”

“Are you two done keeping secrets from me? It’s rude.”

Rao looked in Narayani’s eyes again. “Could you promise to keep everything I tell you a secret?”

“You sure about this, bhai?” Aayu asked.

“I solemnly promise that I will not tell a soul,” Narayani said.

Rao looked down at the intricate dark patterns on his sheets.
I may regret this, but
s
omehow this decision
feels right
. “Aayu, feel free to interrupt me at any point.”

“I think I can manage that.”

Rao let out a deep breath. “Early in our training, each of us is tasked with mastering a state of awareness, something unique. This is called your
sadhana
, and our gurus choose this focus for us early on. The hope is that someday you can teach other sages how to achieve your
sadhana
, too. Later, we develop a secondary
sadhana
.”

Rao took both of Narayani’s hands in his own. “Aayu’s
sadhana
allows him to become transparent to the physical senses. When he focuses his mind with the aid of certain mantras that came to him after years of meditation, his consciousness changes enough so that no one can see, hear, touch, smell, or—”

“Don’t say it, bhai.”

“Or taste him.”

“Disgusting,” Narayani said.

“Forget that part. Since he and I have always been partners, I know something about his
sadhana
. I’m not as good at it as he is, but I can do it. He can make others invisible too, and sometimes I have been able to do that, as well.”

“Hopefully I can do this for a lot of people someday, like an entire army,” Aayu said. “I’ve already taught some of our gurus how to do it on their own. It’s really not that difficult.”

“Then let me see you use your ability now,” Narayani said.

Aayu stood and closed his eyes. One breath later, his physical form vanished. Narayani jumped off the bed and ran to where Aayu had been standing. She waved her arms around, finding nothing. “Amazing!”

“We haven’t figured out yet how to influence the physical world while in this state—we call it
shunyata
. Right now he’s aware of us much like he was before, but he can’t
do
anything to us.” Rao leaned back against the large pillows and the wall. “Occasionally other people can see through our
shunyata
. We believe this has something to do with the other person’s state of mind and their own spiritual awareness. Some of our teachers can see us in
shunyata
if they reach a deep enough state of meditation.”

“Then that’s a problem.” Narayani kept walking around the room, swinging her arms around and looking for Aayu. “Can you do this as often as you want to?”

“For the most part, but it requires concentration initially. It also requires a certain amount of
ojas
, subtle energy that can only be gained through spiritual practices.”

Rao cleared his throat as he thought about how to explain more. “The mind is the master of the physical world. The physical isn’t observed by the mind—it’s actually dependent on the mind. It’s more correct to say that the physical world is also mind. Remove or transform the mind, and the physical world has no independent existence. When you know the truth about reality, you don’t have to fear anything in the physical world. As sages, we are trained in this understanding, and we use this awareness to protect ourselves.”

“But if Aayu’s
sadhana
doesn’t work on everyone, what if their Haizzem can see through it?” She was still looking carefully for Aayu.

Rao stood and followed her around his chamber. “These aren’t our only powers. Like most sages, we also learn things that allow us to support our soldiers or to fight when needed.”

“Rao’s
sadhana
is really strange.” Aayu appeared on the bed, lying on his side with one hand propping up his head, looking up at the ceiling.

Narayani walked over to her cousin and pinched his full cheeks.

“It’s really me,” he said.

Rao pulled over the chair from his desk and sat down, leaning forward. “With enough training and awareness, it’s possible to attune ourselves to vastly different worlds and travel between them. Our bodies condition us to believe we are finite beings that exist in only one time and place. But other planes intersect our own world at all times. Distance is an illusion, and we can move between different vibrational states of being because at the heart of everything is a single, unified consciousness. My
sadhana
has been to contemplate the interconnectedness of all things. Because of this, I can travel to other planes of consciousness.”

Narayani stared with her mouth open. Her body shook as she chuckled. “This is a lot to take in, Rao.”

“I understand. You’re right.”

“He can do more than he’s saying, too.” Aayu lay flat on the bed, his hands beneath his head, staring at the ceiling.

“But that should give you an idea. Aayu can also use my
sadhana
. We can do more, plus we each have a secondary
sadhana
. Aayu can make a person appear exactly as someone else, while he takes on their appearance. Mine is more philosophical. It’s about instantly enforcing the principle of karma.”

“I know that one,” she said with a proud grin. “It means the fruits of actions return to their sender.”

“Right. These abilities will allow us to protect ourselves and fight for Pawelon. Remember, their entire religion and its magic is based on mythology. None of it is real, unless we allow ourselves to believe it is.”

“Narayani, Rao is very humble but the things he can do—he’s gone so far beyond what our gurus ever expected. They say he’s the most naturally talented sage they’ve ever trained. He’s worked hard at his
sadhana
, too. Once Rao gains your father’s trust, I promise you, he’ll be able to defeat their Haizzem all on his own.”

Rao focused on his breathing to keep his mind off Aayu’s praise.