Page 57 of The Legend of Meneka
“I think it is similar to what we did with the halahala,” I say softly. “A kind of combination of certain magics.”
“I think so too,” Kaushika agrees, though I know he understandscombinationas the power of his magic and mine, when I mean itto be Amaravati’s golden power and the wild prana in me. “I have been thinking about how you assisted me with the halahala,” he says. “I have questioned it, even looked into ancient texts, trying to understand—but all I know is that it was power braided in a rare manner. Still, it has told me another thing.”
I tilt my head at him, noticing the serious look in his eyes. “What is that?”
“It is past time for me to show you something you have been owed ever since the incident with the halahala,” he replies. “Past time I shared a truth about myself.”
I move closer to him. “Kaushika,” I whisper, my heart racing. “I must share a truth with you too.”
“Allow me first,” he says, and a ghost of a smile flashes across his features.
I want to insist that mine is more important. That what I say might change things. Here it is, finally, the truth I have been wanting to tell him for so long—of who I really am.
But still holding me, Kaushika closes his eyes, and a chant emerges from his lips. I have heard it before, and the hairs on the back of my neck rise. In front of us, air ripples as though a stone has been thrown into water. It parts, and a summer breeze drifts toward us.
My eyes widen.
All thoughts of sharing my true identity flee my mind in the face of what I see.
This is the meadow.Hismeadow.
Kaushika removes his hand from my waist but holds it out to me in offering. Wonderingly, I take it.
We step through together.
CHAPTER 21
The meadow assaults me at once, powerful, potent, mortal.
It stretches for miles around us, tall grass glinting like gold. The buzz of insects and bees fills my ears. Hills rise in the distance, blue and shadowy, and somewhere a stream clinks. Dawn breaks over the horizon, and though I remember that Rambha will return soon to the pond to seek my report, I am hypnotized by this meadow. It spreads as far as I can see, mountains growing in the distance. Kaushika created this? It is a kingdom worthy of a god.
The beauty is exquisite, yet somehow I cannot fully appreciate it. Dread begins to writhe beneath my skin almost as soon as we enter. Something is telling me to look behind the veil of this beauty, as though to unmask a terrible truth. As though all of this is anillusion. I try to take a deep breath, but my chest feels hollow despite the sweetness of the air. My tether to heaven flails, panicked, trying to escape back through the portal we came. I am disconnected from the City of Immortals here, and I cannot understand why. No matter where I have gone, no matter my missions, Amaravati has lived in my heart. Even exile cannot do this, for as long as Amaravati exists,Ido, and—
My eyes widen in understanding.Crime against nature, Agastya said of this meadow.An abomination, Vashishta declared.
It is because we are no longer within the three realms. This is no mere kingdom. Kaushika has built another realm, one that does not acknowledge Amaravati. One where nothing of my home exists. My own power shifts, waves crashing in a sea storm, a beast unleashed, uncertain, afraid. The rays of the sun still shine in this place. Doesthat mean Lord Surya himself has been replicated? Could Kaushika make another Indra with his power if he wished to?
Suddenly I cannot see past my horror into the beauty of this place. I clutch Kaushika’s hand in terror. He presses my fingers in comfort.
We stop walking and the portal glints behind us, still accessible. I want to run to it, to leave this place, but I hold steady against my better judgment. Golden grass surrounds us, brushing my bare knees, making my skin crawl now that I know how alien it is. Kaushika turns me toward him, his hands pressed to my shoulders. He has been watching my reaction. He knows I understand.
“What is this place?” I whisper.
“The meadow where I sent the halahala,” he replies. “It was my only choice, to send it to this realm, removed as this place is from the three lokas. Otherwise, it would have poisoned all of creation eventually. Yet the action came at a terrible cost. Look, the halahala spreads here even now. We cannot linger too long.”
My gaze follows where he points. In the far distance, clouds gather, dark and mirrorlike, bubbles rising from them like a volcano about to erupt. They swirl in the air, and I understand that those are no ordinary storm clouds. That is halahala, trapped here but attempting to escape as is its nature.
Is it because of the halahala that I feel such wrongness? I find it hard to think, still too shaken by my missing tether to Amaravati, but this alone tells me the halahala, although horrifying, is not the reason for my disquiet. This place is a violationdespiteit. Halahala is a disastrous poison, but it is natural, created of prakriti. This place is not.
I turn to Kaushika, unable to speak. His jaw tightens as he regards the cloud of poison, and he squeezes my hand almost painfully as though not realizing what he is doing.
“Everything I tried has failed,” he says, anger lacing his voice.“Once I sent the halahala here, I followed immediately, trying to capture it within a mountain, within the trees, even within the consecrated amulets I keep in the meadow.” His eyes shine with repressed rage. “The halahala escaped all my attempts to trap it—weak as I was. The best I could do was allow it to pollute the skies while keeping the earth free. Now it roils and churns, descecrating this realm inch by inch. I made this place to be a haven, and Indra has ruined it even without knowing of it, because of his attack. That is another one of his crimes he will have to pay for.”
“Kaushika,” I say softly. “Please—please listen to me. Indra could not have done this. He is not allowed to, by his accord with Shiva. There are stories of this in my kingdom.”
But Kaushika only shakes his head, and his hand grips mine. His eyes rove over the meadow, and his face grows serious, a line creasing between his brows. The darkness bubbles again, the halahala sparking its venom through this realm.
“Stories are not enough proof, Meneka,” he says quietly. “The very fact that the poison was trapped in the bracelet Kalyani wore tells me it was no ordinary creature who designed this snare. Only someone as powerful as the lord of heaven could do this. It is how Iknowthat Indra is to blame. I have thought about it ceaselessly since that day. His actions almost killed Kalyani—and he nearly killed the people I gathered here too. One reason I hurried here from the hermitage after the poisoning was to evacuate them. Until I can get rid of the halahala, this realm is not safe, and those who are loyal to me and need sanctuary cannot return.”
