Chapter 39

Chapter Eight Seven: Noise in the Night

He was restless and his sleep was disturbed. He bit his pillow and growled painfully.

A vision appeared in his mind.

He was lying naked on the cold forest floor. Gasping, he tried to raise himself up and stand. All the while, his mind raged and his tongue burned and he felt himself losing hold of his sanity. He managed to stand on his feet with the help of a cold tree trunk beside him. He pressed his sweaty palms upon the hard bark of tree and pushed with all his force, trying to get the wildness within him to stop tearing at his mind.

No, no, stop it……..He was tired. Tired to even remain standing and he knew he would fall. Pressing himself against the tree, he leaned his back against it.

Something moved and the leaves on the forest floor rustled. He looked up and squinted through his tears of pain.

"Who……who is it?" he managed to breathe out the words. He wasn't even sure if it had been him who had said it. But the lack of fear in his voice was enough to assure him that it had been him who had spoken.

Something dark moved before him and he waited. It moved into the place where the moonlight fell through the space between the closely growing trees.

He recognised the figure and ancient wrath rose in him despite his overpowering pain, "You!"

The figure did not move.

"This is all your fault!" he said, "I order you to stop it."

The figure stood where it was.

"Chotey, NO!!!" A sad voice from his memory screamed and he bowled over and fell upon the ground.

"Stop it, please," he gasped for breath and he looked at the sky. There were no stars.

"Please," he moaned as his mind buckled and he began losing consciousness.

The figure moved towards him and came to stand where he could see.

It leaned forward until its face was close to his pale sweating visage. "Please," he said again.

"There is still more left to learn," said the cold voice of the woman in the hood and then he felt his mind explode and he was no more.

Breaking in a sweat, he leapt off the bed. His trembling hands grappled at the drawer beside him and pulled at its knob. It slid open and his hand scrambled through its inside looking for his belt. It was not to be found.

Growling desperately, he pulled the drawer out and its contents fell upon the floor. In the dark, on his knees, his hands moved about the cold floor trying to find it. But there was no sign of the belt.

He lost himself. He was no longer there.

He stood up and found the door knob. Pulling it opening, he bounded down the dark stairs. At the last stair, he returned and fought. He leaned against the railing of the stairs trying to hold himself while fighting within. No, I cannot harm. I cannot…….

Out! He told himself, Out with you! And he forced his overpowering self to take the heavy remaining steps towards the central doors. His hands that were wet with sweat slipped on the door handle and he groaned helplessly, still fighting the war within himself. But in the second try, he had pulled one door open. Without giving a last glance to the shadowed rooms he had left unharmed, he raced into the cold night, the door shutting gently behind him, protecting the ones within.

Kushi jerked awake. She heard the hasty hurdling of feet down the stairs. She had often heard these noises in the night and she always wondered what these were. In the beginning two weeks, she was extremely scared. It never came every day. Just twice or thrice a week. But by the third week, she was accustomed to it and could find sleep sooner than how she had spend sleepless nights in the first week. And now she was in her fifth week's stay at the Castle.

Tonight, as she lay in her bedding in her little room, she heard it again and instead of the feet heading for the kitchen, she heard them race for the living room. Was that the sound of the central doors opening? She sat up in the dark. She lit her candle with the matches which she always kept beside her in the night. The moonlight from Lady Lavanya's room was comforting enough to drive away her fears of the dark but she still made it a habit to keep these articles beside her bed for when need should arise she should not find herself helpless and scared.

"Might it be a thief?" she wondered as she lit the candle, "Who would run down the stairs and through the central doors in the middle of the night unless it was someone who was not wanting to stay within? And the only person who would not want to stay within would be an outsider-a thief, right?"

She picked up her candle and made for the door, gathering as much courage as she could. She had to find out who it was for this was a routine occurrence and she could no longer be immune to its existence. Lady Lavanya was sound asleep, for it was late in the night. Kushi made extreme effort to be noiseless and stepping into the outside hall, she shut the door gently behind her.

She looked into the vast darkness before her. There was no sign of anyone. She moved on tip-toe, widely alert and breathing heavily from anticipation.

Holding the candle, she inspected the foot of the stairs and then cast the light upwards to show her the top of the stairs. Only silent unmoving shadows remained. Her candle played mischievously with the breeze from the open overhead windows and often made her heart leap with sudden panic by making shadows move with its tiny flickering flame's illumination.

"Silly candle," she muttered to calm herself, "Messing with one's poor head."

And then she braved herself to make for the central doors. On reaching the doors, she took a moment to listen to any possible sounds from the other side of the door. But she remembered that the doors were too thick to penetrate any sounds within. So she had no other choice but to quench her abrasive curiosity by opening them.

With the candle held tight in one hand, and the other hand on the door handle, she prayed a quick plea of protection to her Mother Goddess and pulled the door handle. Wild cold wind from the outside rushed at her, her long hair blowing and her candle snuffed easily.

She gasped on seeing her extinguished candle, but she stood rooted there, afraid to move for the world around her had suddenly plunged into a dreadful darkness. The only light, surviving, came from outside where the moonlight cast eerie shadows where the trees and bushes were in the garden.

She couldn't find the strength to take another step, neither forward nor backward, so she stood there fighting the cold and trying to stop her teeth from chattering. She winced and leaned against the open door, affected by the force of the wind. It was good that her hair was open for its length and thickness felt like a warm blanket to her though the wind waved around it from enclosing her.

Her night grown was a pathetic product of her misery. All her night gowns were thin white material that was so thin that wearing one revealed the wearer's outline when standing in the light. Though it had long sleeves and the hem of its skirt reached up to her toes, the material gave her no warmth and with the wind blowing wildly at her, it was so cold that it even felt as though she was without clothes on!

I have to move inside…….I cannot take the wind anymore, she realised, her arms hugging her tight to provide warmth to her tender heart, violently beating within from cold panic. That was when she noticed it. Blood drops on the footsteps.

A stifled yelp escaped her mouth and she tumbled backwards with the shock of what she had seen but she bit on her tongue immediately. She was certain no one had heard her. She rolled onto her knees and crouched on all fours, intending to turn away from the door and head for the warmth and safety of her room. But first she had to find the candle.

"Candles are terribly costly and I cannot have one waste away just because it slipped in the darkness and I was afraid to find it," she muttered to herself, between her chattering teeth, and her shivering hands searched the cold floor near the door. Just as she found the candle and merrily picked it up with her trembling cold fingers, a shadow loomed above her, darkening the light falling through the doorway.

Panicked Kushi looked up and her breath caught in her throat.

Lord Arnav stood before her at the door, shirtless and looking taller. He was sweating terribly on his forehead and along the muscles of his chest and arms. For a moment she thought he had seen her and was going to pounce on her defenceless form.

But to her surprise, he leaned against the doorframe and groaned. Worried, Kushi forgot all about their enmity and tried to stand up. But before she could manage to get on her feet, he had leaned forward and fallen upon her, bringing her to resume her spot on the floor, this time with her back pressed against the cold floor, and his heavy body weighing upon her.

"No! Move off!" She demanded into his heavy shoulder and tried pushing him away. With great efforts, she managed to push him off her chest and he fell limply onto the floor, his back hitting with a heavy sound.

She froze. She had been able to push him off easily because he hadn't fought back. Why was he not-?

He groaned and Kushi crouched before him, "Lord Arnav?"

He did not respond. Kushi frowned, was this some trick of his?

Then she saw the blood on his chest. Gasping, she ran her hands on his chest to see where it was coming from. But she realised the source was not his chest. She looked at his unconscious face, had he killed something? Was the blood someone else's?

Fear numbed her mind from further thinking. However, she didn't know why, but seeing him in this unconscious, helpless form, she felt a great wave of concern for him. If there is something I can do…..

He groaned again and rolled over his side, his face turned towards her.

"Lord Arnav?" she called him, "Lord Arnav? Can you hear me?"

He moaned, as though in pain, and one cold hand reached out for her, hearing her voice even though his tired eyes were closed. She didn't know what to do but she found her own hand reach out to him. Their hands touched and she felt a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach. She realised then that his hands were wet and when she squinted to see what it was, she recognised fearfully that it was blood. Oh no! So it is true: he killed something! And then a new thought came to her mind: Could he have been attacked and he tried fighting it off? She didn't know what it was but, for the moment, she was anxious about why he was not the man she was familiar with: the strong, alert, angry one...

He was too tired that he could not even grasp her hand and it slipped from touching her fingers. Before it hit the floor, Kushi clutched his hand and held his wrist between both her hands. She began rubbing on his hand trying to warm it.

"Lord Arnav?" Kushi asked, and tears fell from her eyes, she didn't know why, "Lord Arnav, are you hurt? Can you hear me?"

"Kushi?" he moaned weakly.

"Yes," she said, smiling through her tears, relieved, "You are alright. You are in your Castle."

"Kushi," he said again and then he pressed the hand she was rubbing on one hand of hers.

"What is it, my lord?" she said and she paused. It was the first time she had addressed him 'my lord' and it felt strange in her mouth. She had heard others call him by it and there was respect when they said it. And she addressed Lord Akash by that title and it had only sounded ordinary. But when she addressed him 'my lord' there was a tinge of sad possession in her voice and she did not like it one bit. So she decided never to call him by that address.

She leaned towards him, "What is it, sire?"

He didn't say anything. Instead, he moved. He slid on his chest towards where she sat on the floor and he laid his head on her lap and exhaled wearily.

She let go of his hand and stared at the man sleeping like a child on her lap. A tear fell from her eye. She couldn't believe this was not a dream. Her arrogant enemy suddenly a helpless child wanting to rest his head on her lap and find a peace from his raging mind………

Kushi didn't want to but her hand moved of its own accord. It moved towards his head and she ran her fingers through his hair. His hair felt more heavenly than she had imagined it would be through her fingers……...she smiled. And then she felt sleep and fear overcome her and her head weighed. She leaned forward and lay her head on the side of his head and was soon asleep, the wind playing about them, now more gentler and quieter than it had been a few minutes before.

Watching them in the moonlight of the doorway, Lady Anjali stood in the shadow near the foot of the stairs and a tear slipped from her eye. Her heart felt more lighter and she smiled. Chotey, my wish you made at the fountain is finally being fulfilled.

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