Page 47 of Twisted Sins

Uma stepped out with her, and they walked away from the seer’s tent.

“I was shocked by your wedding night,” Uma said softly.

“Why?”

“Although Kabali clan warriors are known to be fierce, they are also worshippers of goddess Shakti. Unless their wives accept them as their husbands, they do not consummate the marriage. You were drugged during your wedding and must have given your acceptance, which was why Rudra consummated the marriage.”

Nandini’s heart thudded in shock. She had been drugged during the wedding ceremony, but the drug had worn off when she was kept in the demon’s tent. She recalled the demon’s command for her to accept him as her husband. But she had fought him.

He repeated the same command each night, and she continued to fight him.

She now knew why the demon hadn’t taken her forcibly even though he held her captive in his tent.

The demon wanted her acceptance first.

Her heart thudded at the implications.

“Where exactly is the holy land?” Nandini asked.

Uma looked surprised. “It is in the middle of the Singoor desert, around the Singoor temple. For the Kabali region, it begins from the top of the mountains.”

***

The sun began to set, and darkness slowly took over the sky. Nandini was still outside the tent with the clan people in the encampment.

Although the clan women no longer sent her hostile glances, they weren’t friendly either. They merely tolerated her presence as she was their clan head’s wife and allowed her to join them as they sat on the ground around a fire.

They sang songs that were beautiful to listen. Uma translated a few, which mostly meant the women were waiting for their warrior husbands to return victoriously from the desert sand.

She suppressed a shudder as she recalled how the demon held the head of an attacker as a sign of victory. The Kabali clan was brutal, and yet their tradition and songs were beautiful.

And as though the songs summoned the men, the sound of horses and birds filled the air while the Kabali men rode back into the encampment.

Nandini’s heart thudded seeing the demon as he got down from his horse and handed the reins to someone waiting by the stables. The rest of the horsemen did the same.

She braced herself as she expected the demon to come near the fire and get angry seeing her outside the tent. But he and his men went elsewhere. She watched as they disappeared between the hills.

They stayed there for several minutes and reappeared with wet, dripping hair. She realized they had taken a bath in a pond, washing off the sand and sweat from their day in the desert.

They would also wash off blood.

A shudder passed through her as she watched as the demon and his men went towards the goddess statue. They prayed briefly before coming towards the fire. While the rest of the Kabali men applied only the horizontal lines on their foreheads, their leader smeared his face with ash kept in front of the goddess. The seer stood next to the goddess statue and spoke something. The demon listened to the old woman and nodded. He then bowed his head in reverence in front of the seer before walking towards the fire.

What did the seer tell him?

Her heart thudded as he came towards the fire. His grey eyes fell on her, but he didn’t stop or get angry. He sat right across her on the opposite side of the fire. A large plate of food was served to him first and then to the rest of the men around the fire. She watched as he picked up a big piece of meat by the bone and began eating.

A plate was handed to her as well. Dragging her eyes away from the demon, she looked down to see thick rotis served with vegetables. There wasn’t any meat.

Her heart leaped. Uma or Rumi must have figured out that she didn’t eat most of her meals because of the red meat.

She ate chicken and eggs occasionally, and also sea food, but the texture of red meat made her nauseous. Her brothers ate red meat and her mom cooked meat dishes often since their childhood. The smell or the sight had never bothered her before. But the first three days at the Kabali encampment had made her sensitive due to the traumatic circumstances.

Her senses were once again readjusting to the smell and sight as watching the demon eat his food didn’t bother her. The fluttering in her stomach was due to anxiousness rather than nausea or disgust.

Dragging her eyes away from her demon husband, she looked around the rest of the Kabali clan as they ate around the fire. She heard laughter as the Kabali men pulled their wives onto their laps while they ate and drank the fermented drink. She was shocked to see the normally stern Rumi laughing happily from her husband’s lap. Uma blushed shyly while her husband, who appeared twice as big compared to Uma, handfed her food.

Nandini looked down at her plate, feeling like an intruder among the Kabali clan people.

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