They all looked at Chandra. She felt their stares like needle pricks.
“Do you know anything about this, Princess?” Veer put to words what everyone seemed to be thinking.
“If I knew, I would’ve told you long before.” Defensiveness made her words sharp and short. “I don’t know. And I am speaking the truth.”
“We trust you, Princess,” said Veer quietly. “Just wanted to know if maybe you remembered something, that’s all.”
Chandra shook her head. Her brain felt woozy and stupid. Maybe the lack of proper sunlight was finally getting to her. It had rained straight for three days now and showed no signs of quitting. She had to restrict her practice to the cave interior and missed feeling the sun on her face.
But if she was being honest, Veer’s words from before disturbed her greatly and she found herself unable to concentrate on anything. More so, because she had been wondering if what he had said held a grain of truth.
“Well, that’s unfortunate,” said Veer, and rolled up the parchment sheet. “Looks like we have to keep doing the same as the last few days…”
Chandra gazed after him in confusion. It sounded like he gave up on the idea of something behind the bas-reliefs rather quickly.
A huge rumble rocked the cave where Chandra and Girish were stationed. She ducked automatically, holding hands above her head, but when nothing happened for a few seconds, she cautiously raised her head. The ceiling appeared intact.
“Are you all right, Girish?” she called to her bodyguard.
“I am fine, Princess,” said Girish, already looking around, coughing slightly. “Where did the sound come from? What is happening?”
Chandra hurried toward the bas-reliefs. As she neared them, she heard the unmistakable sound of metal striking rock. Suspicion formed like a dark cloud in her mind. She burst through the chamber to see Billadev swing his pickax at the bas-reliefs.
“Stop! What are you doing? You are going to disfigure them,” she cried.
Veer caught her easily in his arms when she tried to run past him. “Sorry, Princess, it has to be done.”
“Let me go,” she said through clenched teeth, struggling to free herself. His arm was a steel band across her waist. He trapped her flailing wrist in a firm grip when she swung back at him. “You have no right,” she spat.
More rock crumbled as Shota joined the action in bringing the wall down.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked desperately, trying to make sense of this appalling damage.
“The answer has to be behind these sculptures,” said Veer.
“You don’t know that for sure!” She watched in horrified fascination as Billadev embedded the point of the pickax right where King Amarendra’s statue was.
A vein of fault spread up from his strike, cleaving the giant statue in half. King Amarendra was split in two, one half of his face carried the distinctive half moon mark. And then the wholestatue crumbled. Dust clouded the air, making it opaque and thick. When it cleared, they saw the perfect arch of a doorway.
The disfigured face of the king rolled to a stop at her feet. “Now we know for sure,” said Veer, as he slackened his grip. She wrenched herself out of his hold and glared at him, too angry to speak—her throat thick with tears.
“You,” her voice trembled with disillusionment, “are despicable.”
Chapter 12: An Illuminating Walk in the Dark
Chandra raised the torch to look at a cluster of what appeared to be scratch marks high up on the ceiling. She shuddered when she realized they were colorless insects that scrambled away as soon as she shined a light at them.
She had no problem with a forest animal or two; she had roamed the woods that surrounded Amaravathi most of her life, but these animals were too alien looking and creepy. It didn’t help that she had always been squeamish around insects, ever since her childhood, when a caterpillar had crawled into her ear when asleep, needing her mother to pour oil to make it come out.
“Find what you are looking for, Princess?” came a whisper at her temple, making her jump. She nearly bumped her head on the low ceiling. Embers fell out onto the floor of the cave passage, sizzling to death on the damp stone. The flame wobbled as she turned it toward the voice.
She shrieked when she saw the unearthly eyes glowing out of a man’s head.
The torch dropped to the floor, fizzing out, extinguishing all light.
“Relax, it’s only me,” Veer’s disembodied voice did little to calm the gallop of her heart. Not in the least, because his eyes still glowed eerily in the dark.
“Did you have to scare me like that?” Her words came out like a croak past her dry lips.
