“That was a compliment, Veer,” she said, when he remained silent.
Veer’s felt his mouth tilt into a wry smile. The distance seemed to disappear, although they didn’t move physically closer. He cleared his throat, embarrassed at her compliment. “I suppose I owe you an apology for my earlier words. By the temple pond,” he clarified when she looked at him, a question in her eyes. “You really are the sort of person to help if someone is in need. I’m sorry I implied there is a selfishness in your actions.”
Chandra was giving him a strange look, her earlier smile gone, replaced by a pinched expression. If he didn’t know better, he would call that look guilty. “I— Veer there is something I need to say,” she began. “I’m not…I’m not as selfless as you think I am. You were right. I have lied. Hidden things. About the past.”
She stilled when he placed a finger at her lips, silencing her halting speech.
“Now’s not the time, Princess. We need to leave as soon as possible. The reason I dragged you away is because I wanted to see if you could figure out where we need to go from here.”
He took her hand and placed the cold key piece into her palm. She looked partly disappointed and partly relieved he had called a halt to whatever she was about to say.
But truth be told, Veer was no longer as interested in knowing all the details of their past as he was at the start of this quest. All he wanted now was a clean slate and a chance to startover again. He was willing to forgive her past wrongs. And he hoped she would be willing to give their marriage a chance.
He took out the lotus key from the inside pocket of his shirt, then Chandra wet the precious key piece with her blood.
The lotus flared with blue light as the key piece attached itself to the design. Chandra’s face was ghostly pale in the reflected blue light, the minor cuts and dark patches of soot standing sharply in relief.
“It looks like a forest,” she said slowly, staring at the image inside the lotus. “But which forest do you think this is? There is no defining or distinguishing characteristic that I can see.”
“If I had to pick one forest to hide a precious trinket, what would I choose…?” Veer trailed off as a thought popped into his head.
“Dandakaranya,” they said together.
Part 6
DANDAKARANYA
Chapter 32: The Magical Forest
The clash of steel on steel rang through the small forest clearing.
“I just heard and came as fast as I could. Did I miss anything?” Billadev said, out of breath as he wedged himself between Shota and a soldier of Rajgarh, who had accompanied them on the journey. A group of onlookers had formed. They had abandoned their own practice to watch the match between Veer and Chandra.
Only a handful of loyal soldiers of Rajgarh remained after learning they would be venturing into the Dandakaranya.
It seemed even the hardy and daredevil bandits of the Borderlands, who were game for stealing from a holy city, had a few qualms about stepping into the notorious forest.
“Did you find anything, Billadev?” asked Shota.
“What?” said a distracted Billadev. The soldier gave him an unsubtle nudge. “Oh…from the jaunt up the tree, you mean? Nope, nothing. Nothing but acres and acres of forest.” He cast a snide glance at the figure of a man sitting near the fire and lowered his voice. “Are you sure you believe the words of thatbhang-addled addict?”
The man was smoking from a chillumpipe, muttering to himself occasionally, his clothes tattered and dusty, the nosepoking out was mostly obscured by a bushy beard and shaggy hair.
“He’s the only one who professed some knowledge of the magical part of the forest. Everyone else has denied any knowledge of it,” said Shota.
They had been searching for the mythical forest of Dandakaranya for close to a month now.
The Saptavarsha had a large forest belt called the Tapovan at its center, nearly dividing the subcontinent into two, except for a narrow road that cut across the forest, allowing for travel.
But the Dandakaranya, which literally meant the forest of punishments, was only a small magical part of the Tapovan. There were many myths that surrounded this forest, whose mere name evoked fear from men and beasts alike. It was said that no one who stepped foot in it ever came back alive. Or sane.
No one knew of the Dandakaranya’s exact location or how to search for it. Partly because, it was said, that its borders were fluid, shifting and ever-changing. But so great was the mystery and the stories that surrounded it, that it became a legend in itself, its name more broadly known and sometimes adapted to refer to the whole of the forest. While in fact, the Dandakaranya was only a small magical part of the large tropical rainforest of the Tapovan.
“Yes, but the instructions ‘keep to the center and the forest will find you’ seem too vague,” said Billadev, frowning.
One of the many myths, told to them by a tribe they had stayed with a few moons ago, was that the magical forest originated as the final abode of demons who fled from the wrath of the gods. Some of the demons were still rumored to be living there in hiding.
A number of tribal communities had made the Tapovan their home and knew everything to actively avoid running intothe magical part of the Dandakaranya, but no one professed any knowledge of how to find it.
