Pruthvi sat on the floor resting his back on one of the huge trunks in the room. Apart from rescuing his cousin, by relation whom he liked to call his sister Nazira Khan and keeping Leena safe, he now had the responsibility of proving to the whole of Paramarashtra, that his father was no coward.
Leena knelt beside him and held his face in her hands. "It's going to be alright," she said, keeping her voice as assuring as she can, "We will be okay, understand. Worrying will get us nowhere."
"Yeah, you are right," he said trying to smile, "Are you done talking with Celina? Are they fine?"
She nodded. "They are still on their way to Rawat."
He sighed and looked away. He still wasn't able to look into those brown eyes of hers filled with concern. He knew she was gazing at him when she slowly took his hand and clutched into hers.
"What's bothering you Pruthvi?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly.
"I just don't know how I'm going to clear my father's name," he said, surprised finding his own voice so low.
"Tell you what," she said, squeezing his hand, "We stick with our mission of finding your sister. She is the only prime witness. She can prove that your father was innocent."
Pruthvi looked up at her sideways, his heart filling with hope. "Do you think she is aware of the truth?"
"Yes, I do. You are a very good son Pruthvi, you surely will restore your father's honor. I have faith in you."
Her absolute faith in him touched him. Her support was everything that he needed the most. He finally looked back at her finding her smiling brightly at him. He drew her closer to him slowly. Watching eyes dropping at his lips, Pruthvi bent over and they came together in a rush of passion, their lips fused driven by the need to be close to the one they love in this time of uncertainty.
After the much needed blissful moment, they broke apart. Slightly panting and caressing their foreheads, they smiled at one another, their hands still tightly clutched upon. Blushing and slightly embarrassed, Leena then placed her head upon his shoulder.
"Pruthvi, why do you think Hardik brought us here?" she whispered.
Shutting his eyes and placing his cheek against the softness of her hair, he said "Seriously, I don't know Leena. But I really wish it has a mouth to speak."
Leena snickered gently and said, "Where do we go now? We still haven't found your sister yet."
"That's the problem. I don't know if we can trust Hardik anymore."
Leena looked up at him, frowning and said, "Why not? He didn't harm us in any way."
"It didn't?" he said, raising his eyebrows, "What about visiting Shashi's lair? We were only lucky he wasn't there at the moment."
"Yeah but..."
"What if it takes to some place more dangerous?" he said, "What if it straightly hand us over to Shashi?"
Hardik suddenly jerked and settled back silently. Pruthvi then remembered it doing the same at the lair when he was thinking constantly about finding the Holognome.
"Pruthvi listen to me," said Leena holding his chin and forcibly pulling him to look at her, "Hardik might have acted suspiciously, but think, whichever place he took us to, has been always benefitting."
Leena statement forced him to change his opinion. In Shashi's lair they had learnt about the existence of Holognome. And the next stop was the Holognome; but Hardik taking them to these places must only mean that it was listening to them and acting upon it. Was it a whim or how trustworthy was it? Was it acting on the orders of someone else?
"Pruthvi you are over thinking it," Leena said, "If Hardik wanted to betray us, he would have left us in Shashi's lair."
"When did it become a He?"
"When he saved us in Shashi's lair"
Pruthvi scoffed.
"I wish I could talk to this Quinn person," he said, "I just want to be sure about her creation."
"I have a better idea. Didn't Ira inform Hayden that your sister might be located in Paschimgarh? So why don't we get a good look around the place without using Hardik for a while? In that way, we don't have to fear him making decisions for us."
"Hmm," he said nodding, "We should do that."
He laid a soft kiss on her cheek and stood, helping Leena up, and holding Hardik in his other hand. Quietly they walked down the stairs and searched for the door to walk out of the house. Leena opened the cracked wooden door, which creaked loudly, raising the dust particles into the air. Sun was shining bright, but there was no change in the temperature. They stepped outside staying closer, in an unknown place.
They took a random path. A snow filled street with huge huts on either side. The village radiated an aura of peace and serenity unlike the terror filled silence of Dakshinpur. Though few people were about doing odd jobs around their houses cleaning their yard, trimming trees, few stood chatting, and some were watching them walking by.
"I like this village," commented Leena watching a couple of children running around chasing a squirrel, which to the dismay of the children found refuge in tree hole.
Pruthvi didn't know where to start searching for his sister. Was she living in seclusion? Or was she living in the village to blend with the crowd? He knew then, wherever she was, it was not going to be easy locating her by simply traversing the streets. They had to talk to the locals. But, who should they ask? Whom to trust?
Suddenly, just like a storm after a mere silence, they heard a gong somewhere, and all the activity ceased. An old man came running towards them, shouting, "THEY ARE COMING! EVERYBODY GET INSIDE!"
Everyone did what was asked of the old man, panicked and dropping whatever they were doing. The children, so happy few minutes ago were terrorized. The tranquility of the village was lost and soon everyone had disappeared into their huts. They could hear the doors being barred and bolted inside.
Pruthvi and Leena glanced a nervous look at each other, unable to understand what the matter was. Terror filled Pruthvi, as he heard baying of hounds. He followed the sound and he could now see them running towards them, a pack of twenty hounds.
"Run Leena!" he shouted as he turned to face them.
"Pruthvi" Leena screeched with horror, "we have been ambushed."
For once Pruthvi didn't quite understand what Leena meant. He followed her gaze and looked behind to find another pack had cutoff their escape route. They were surrounded.
"Earthquake formation!" He cried out instantly, but the snow was yet too thick for his command to be successful. Even though few of the hounds tumbled and fell aside, many hounds behind the fallen ones weren't even faltering and continued charging forming a tight ring around them. Both of them shook with fear as the hounds growled and bared their teeth, saliva dripped off their mouths.
Pruthvi knew that they had no way out except up. He didn't want to use Hardik just then, for he did not trust it yet. Leena was trembling, he could feel her body shaking with fear, as her fingers clutched his shoulders tightly.
For all their posturing, the dogs stayed motionless not leaving their position in the ring as if waiting for something, or precisely someone. Few of the hounds moved to let a dog from behind to walk forward, this hound was no ordinary dog, for its eyes gleamed with intelligence and it smirked, yes the expression on a human would be a smirk.
The very hound stopped few feet away from Pruthvi. His breath caught in his throat what he watched the hound started changing its shape into a fully grown man. The transformation was grotesque. The flesh on the hound stretched, and ran like fluid, the bones popped, vertebral alignment changed, as the fore and hind legs became hands and legs, and the hair shed as the hound howled in pain, which ended as an agonizing roar of a human.
Leena screamed again and as the man turned to face them, she took no time realize who the person was.
"Shourya!" she whispered. She quickly averted her eyes from the man. Shourya snickered at her action, which made her straighten her spine and face him keeping her eyes fixed to his face.
"Psychenokenisis, isn't it?" said Leena.
Pruthvi was too tensed to appreciate or even acknowledge her knowledge about Kinetic magic. Without replying to her he said "How did you knowing we are here? Aren't you are supposed to be in Rawat?"
"I can be anywhere I want," Shourya said, furiously, "Although I hear from my friends that two of you have been visiting Shashi's lair?
Looking behind Pruthvi, Shourya shook his head. Pruthvi followed his gaze and slightly turned back to see, few more well built man, wearing similar costume as Shourya standing with a vicious smile on their face. They were all shape shifters.
"What do you want Shourya?" Pruthvi asked.
"You know very well about my sudden appearance, don't you?" he said, "May be I should have abducted both of you when I had the chance beside the lake of your academy."
"Whatever gave you the idea that I was going with you? Don't tell me you're that stupid," said Leena with a smile hiding her fear.
"Leena Sawant," he said , "You have no idea of your own abilities. It's better for you to come with me rather than...."
"Oh, really! Now I must trust you so that you may gift wrap me for Shashi? How poorly you must think of me." she asked.
Her dare stunned even Pruthvi.
"Comalica Virus," he said, ignoring her say, "It has got everything to do with you."
Pruthvi furrowed his brow. He remembered his conversation with Hayden couple of hours ago, that Shashi is waiting for the arrival of Leena.
"Please try to sell this to someone else," he said. "You can't expect us to trust you when you are the one working for Shashi."
"I work for Shashi, yes," Shourya said, "I even know he is waiting for you nearby the Uilani Hill with your sister, try taking her from him if you can, if you are man enough."
God, how he wished that he could stomp on Shourya's smug face. Another trap, another vicious plan. As he met Shourya's eyes, all he could see in it were pity, understanding and worse of all hope. As he looked on Shourya winked. What the hell was he playing at?
"Are you..."
"Shashi might be so proud of me when I take you to him. He must be already preparing for the ritual."
"What ritual?"
"It is a ritual to acquire immense power; to become omnipotent."
Shourya for a tight lipped person was giving away too much information. He really couldn't read him, so he got ready to use his stone. They had already stayed here too much and it was time to go.
"Shourya, enough chat with the rats," said one of the men standing behind them, "Let's take her to Shashi, before Fire of Vengeance arrives at the hill."
Pruthvi and Leena instinctively turned to assess their opponents, to see if there were any holes in their formation which they might exploit.
"Wait, Deva," Shourya said, lifting his hand, "We need to keep her safe before she meets Hayden Mackay in the Uilani hill to save the people from the cure."
Pruthvi's mind reeled. He looked at Leena sideways, who was in turn having her eyes wide opened and filled with moisture.
"Not anymore Shourya," said Deva, "I cannot wait to get the reward from Shashi."
Deva, ignoring Shourya, leaped towards the two of them. Pruthvi's impulse acted upon and he commanded his stone.
"Fissure Formation!"
The ground rumbled again and Deva faltered aside. Many others charged but Pruthvi knew his power wasn't enough to win against the whole lot.
"Hardik!" he shouted, unable to find a way to deal with them. He threw the roll into the air letting it to stiffen up.
Hardik zoomed up as soon as Pruthvi asked it to and settled before him.
"Aaargh!" cried Leena, in his haste he had forgotten to keep her safe. A hound had a grip on her legs. Pruthvi kicked the hound, sending it flying few feet away, but the hound had not relented on the bite, so as it fell, it took a mouth full of Leena's flesh. Pruthvi quickly dragged up a fading Leena on to Hardik and they swept up speedily as high as Hardik could. Pruthvi looked down at the baying hounds with hatred.
Leena was bleeding and she was in pain. Pruthvi found himself inefficient in matters of first aid. He cursed himself for not taking Hardik in the beginning. Had they chosen to fly on Hardik none of this would have happened. He tore off the lower half of his shirt and tied it tightly over the wound, trying to stop the blood flow. She was bleeding and the chill air on the carpet didn't help her either. She started shivering severely. Not knowing what to do, Pruthvi embraced her tightly to keep her warm.
"Hardik, stop somewhere safe. Some place where we can rest without fear," commanded Pruthvi.
Hardik had crossed quite a distance now and were travelling across a mountain range. It took them to a small crevice where they could stretch their legs. After settling in, Pruthvi then used Hardik as cover and checked on Leena's wound.
"I am sorry! Very sorry!" he kept on repeating as she groaned in pain. He used her hand kerchief to bind her leg. It was helping her stop the bleeding but Pruthvi doubted if the ghastly gash would stop giving her anymore pain.
"We need to go back to doctor," he said, his eyes filling watching her in pain, "You wound looks so bad..."
"No," she said, firmly, "I'll be fine. We have more important things to do."
"This is important."
"Pruthvi, I said I am fine."
He looked away from her, desperately trying to think of an alternative. He didn't understand what he was supposed to do. Go back to doctor and mend her or to listen to the enemy and go to the hill they had been informed about.
Leena cupped his face with her hands, "Let's go to the hill Shourya hinted about. I think we have rested enough."
"Are you sure?" he asked, "because I don't think..."
"Pruthvi," she interrupted, "This hill could be far enough and I can still rest till we reach there. But I seriously think we shouldn't waste more time here."
Pruthvi swallowed and unwillingly unrolled Hardik before they sat on it.
"Hardik take us to Uilani Hill," said Leena suddenly before he could even make a proper decision. Hardik rose, now flying towards the south.
Leena lay back again closing her eyes. A drop of tear glittered on her cheek. Pruthvi took her hand and lay down next to her.
The sky was cloudy and few rumbles of thunder enacted. Pruthvi wished not to rain right now for it would only cause more trouble to the love of his life.
"So, your sister is waiting for you at the hill, isn't she?" she said, a while later.
"I don't know if we can trust Shourya or not," he said looking at the sky, holding her hand tight, "I don't know why he is playing double agent game with us."
"You said Shourya saved your life."
He wiped her falling tears. "I am not about to trust him this time. May be Hayden was right, he does everything for his own good."
She smiled faintly. "Why do you think he would hurt me?"
"Because you are the one he needs the most. He said you are linked with Comalica Virus."
"Yeah about that," she said slowly, "May be it has to do something with my stone."
He frowned. "What do you mean?"
She blinked letting another big tear to fall. "Pruthvi, you remember what Dhananjay told us, that one of Chandrika's children invented the cure for the virus?"
His eyes instantly fell over the blue stone stung on her chain, shimmering over her neck.
"Yes, but he also mentioned it was just a rumor."
"Or maybe not."
"Are you trying to say, Leena, that there is a cure out there? And you are literally linked with it?"
"Yes," she said with an edge in her tone, "And Shourya and Shashi are the only ones who already know about the cure and that it has to do something with me possessing the stone. Shashi is trying to get to me this time and that's why he could have passed the virus to lure me. Pruthvi, I think I know why I am related with the virus."
Pruthvi looked at her, not know what she'll say next.
"The child of Chandrika, the one who possessed the Aquamarine, was the inventor of the cure."
-x-