(Book 6) Hayden Mackay and The Third-Eye of the Pancharatna

34. For Better or Worse

I swallowed. The whole notion of Shashi shifting had been badgering me ever since Pruthvi and Tyrell brought the body to me. But my hands were tied. I had to take the risk of delaying the cremation for a couple of hours in the name of at least clearing Yodhin Ojha's name, if not saving him from his weird twist of fate. "I doubt Shashi will do that," I said. "We've known him far too long to know that he loathes the idea of losing a part of his precious magic. Isn't that one of the factors that come with contracting Aatmavyuha? Besides, if he wanted to shift, he would have already done it the day Zarina spilled the beans. But just to be on the safe side, Pruthvi is replacing the tomb with the one they found at the Clan of Pradhans, and Nazira's fabricating it to make it look similar."

She batted her eyes and frowned, thinking. "So I guess... it's okay, right?"

I smiled. "I understand that we've hit this bug known as a time crunch. But I would never do anything without considering all aspects. Have faith and trust me."

"Yes, your Majesty."

A few more moments passed. Tick Tock! A few more stressful and nerve-racking moments...

"You're relying on Yuvan way too much," Celina then said, impatience clear in her voice. "He is just a kid, you know. He could be wrong and misinterpret everything he heard. Still, it wouldn't be his fault."

"About Minsiter leaving for a business deal this afternoon? Well, it wasn't Yuvan who informed me."

Celina gaped. "Who else then?"

I gave a playful nudge on her arm and smiled. "The less you know the better, Celina."

"Again? Come on, we're supposed to be best friends. You cannot keep stonewalling us this way."

"And we can be better best friends from the very moment Shashi dies," I said, staring at the main entrance gate and noticing the movement of the lock-bolt. "Shhh...he's coming! Tread carefully. We cannot let this opportunity go."

"Right on."

The wrought iron gates opened onto a gravel driveway that wound up to the vastness of the palace's premise. The front yard came into full vision and it seemed it had been destroyed and suffered from extreme weather events. The trees were broken off at the trunks and stacked together as a pile of debris. Leaves and branches were strewn out all over the grassy garden. Hard manual work was going on, with the labor force busily reconstructing the burned portions of the palace. It was evident that the creatures had attacked the palace recently. Not to mention the rain and snow had pounded and yammered the entire premise.

A few knights in their purple robes marched out providing space for the familiar omnibus to pass through. Once out, the horses picked up the pace in swinging stride. Tyrell drew a step forward, readying himself when the vigilance of the knights slackened off a bit as they began closing the gate. That was our cue.

"Go! Go! Go!" I hedged, and Celina and I scuttled out from the bushes to get started.

Everything had to happen at a blistering speed, even before the Chief Minister got to this realization of what kind of adversity was befalling him. That was the plan anyway.

Running at full throttle, I let out a tremendous fire, slight smoke materialized when my fire met the rain. The horses stopped dead at the spot and neighed in terror. They reared up on their hind legs, stumbling and shaking the posh cart reined to them.

Celina bolted towards the cart, her hand encircled with the Formation in the shape of a massive knife-like edged spear. She pelted the cart with it. The glass window smashed and broke down to pieces. She scooped inside the broken window, pulled out the dwarfed Chief Minister by his collar, and hurled him down on the ground, her face contorted in a furtive grimace of pain and unease.