“Had a nice rest, Princess?” asked Makhadeva solicitously.
Chandra nodded.
Today, he was a mass of bees hovering in the breeze, roughly in the shape of a man. He had explained earlier that he thought she would feel better seeing a humanoid creature.
Chandra didn’t understand why he was being so caring. He couldn’t speak about Veer without disgust creeping into his voice, even though it was difficult at times to ascertain, since it was unlike any human voice she had ever heard.
And yet he was never impolite to her, even though Chandra tried many ways to get him to reveal how to break Veer’s curse, making herself obnoxious on purpose, hoping he would get angry and inadvertently reveal something. But the supernatural being had an endless patience when it came to dealing with her. It was beyond puzzling.
“Would you like a tour of this place?” he asked as the bee swarm floated through an open entryway.
She followed him, more out of curiosity than anything else. There was no way she could’ve seen this place before, and yet a weird sense of déjà vu plagued her.
Moss coated the finer details of the carved interiors, obscuring whatever stories they depicted. Creepers were draped in thick ropes, big as her wrist, like barricades across doorways. Dew hung heavy in the air, despite the midmorning.
Pale orchids, bright red flame of the forests, and the profuse deep blue ofneelaflowers competed with the bright colors of the butterflies that flitted about. She tensed when one of them landed on her bare arm. It had the wickedly sharp blades of a praying mantis.
“Fear not. Nothing in this forest will harm you, Princess. Nothing will want to, apart from your husband,” said the yaksha. “And this way was the solar hall…”
Makhadeva walked ahead.
Chandra stopped abruptly in the middle of climbing the broad staircase. The steps were of a height that was slightly uncomfortable to climb. It must have been built for beings at least ten feet tall.
A tarnished mirror hung on the wall, abutting the staircase. Chandra did a double take. A wan woman with untidy hair stared back at her. Herself.
But that wasn’t what caught her interest. A second ago, another face glanced out of that mirror at her.
It had been her reflection, without a doubt. The same sloe eyes, straight nose, and oval face. But in that image her skin had gone a hue so dark that it was almost a poison blue. Two small tusks had protruded past her red lips. A towering crown made of gold adorned her dark hair and her dress was of the richest ruby silk.
She had looked like arakshasi! A female demon.
“Princess? Is anything the matter? You fell behind.” Makhadeva peered back at her from the top.
“No. Yes. I thought I saw something,” she said, her nose an inch from the surface of the mirror, tilting her face to see if she would see anything different.
“Oh. Careful about the mirrors around this place.” His voice echoed down to her as he continued ahead. “They’ll show you things you are better off not knowing—past lives and future selves if you’re unwary when gazing into them.”
The sun was high in the clear blue sky, not a cloud in sight, shining through gaps in the ceiling. At the top of the staircase was a narrow balcony, with half its railing absent. The back of the balcony was formed by a wall, sturdy looking despitethe big patches where the mortar had fallen off, revealing the underlying bricks. She caught up to the yaksha just as the last of his bees disappeared into the wall.
“Hey.” Chandra ran up to the wall and patted it. It was solid. “I can’t pass through walls, you know.” Minutes ticked past and Chandra began to think the yaksha had abandoned her, then she heard a muffled voice.
“The wall is an illusion, Princess. Try to think so and you’ll find you can move through them.”
Extremely skeptical, Chandra put her hand on it again. To her amazement, her hand went through. She stepped past the wall and emerged into another hall, ringed by a slightly wider balcony than before. The ceiling of this hall was completely open to the sky but the rest of it seemed a little more preserved than the other.
Moisture had seeped into the walls, and they had giant cracks where the root of a young sapling forced the rocks to give way. The tattered remains of fabrics hung from the balconies, their once bright colors faded with time.
Like everything, it had been built on a giant scale of ten-foot creatures. A huge wall dominated one end of the hall. Faint, faded outlines of a mural were visible on the flat surface. She made out traces of a battle scene in full swing. Two mountains puffing smoke loomed in the background.
“The Battle of the Devas and Danavas,” said Makhadeva, as he came to stand beside her.
“What?”
“The mural,” he said, nodding toward the wall. “It is one of their many battles. That mountain you see is the Meru, said to be the bane of the Danava race.” He was pointing towards the volcano depicted in purple and orange.
“And the other mountain?” she asked.
“Sumeru,” he said, the bees’ buzzing made the word sound low and deep.
