Tantrics Of Old (22 page)

Gray looked at Adri. The young Tantric seemed preoccupied with his own thoughts, and looking at him, Gray understood for the first time that thing Maya had mentioned. That something about Adri, something which she couldn’t understand, that he felt
different
somehow. Gray felt it too right now, only Maya wasn’t around for him to tell. He felt alone, he felt cold. He didn’t really know the Tantric and had been brash with him sometime back; Adri had sort of withdrawn since then, and even though Gray knew it was valid, his reaction as well as Adri’s withdrawal, he still felt alienated and lonely. The surroundings were partly responsible.

They were resting in what had once been a children’s playground. Broken swings, abandoned see-saws, a picture of desolation. There would be no children found here; Gray hadn’t seen a single child in the Old City as of yet, and this place served as a stark reminder to the same. Old Kolkata had many ghosts, and among them was rumoured to be a mother searching for her children, long gone. She was said to wear white, and held a lamp as she walked through broken buildings and dark places, softly calling out their names. Gray had been told of this as a child, and it made him sad even then; when they had entered this place of the children who once were, Gray found that mellow sorrow once more.

Adri had cleared some space and made a fire in the centre using the same spirit, and was now heating some canned food on it. Everything around them was pitch black, and the tall dark buildings surrounding the playground gave it an even more ominous feel. Gray’s stomach gave a low growl as he looked at the food, they hadn’t eaten since leaving the Gunsmith’s house earlier in the day. Turning his face away, he looked around some more to get his mind off the food. The desolation depressed him. Adri had already told him this wasn’t a residential area any more. In fact, from now on, he had said, and all the way to the Lake of Fire, they were only going to find lesser and lesser residential areas. And closer to the dangerous areas, the people lived together in huddled and guarded colonies called Settlements. They would soon be encountering these, Adri had warned. Gray had heard about the Settlements of Old Kolkata, and he had also heard that most of them were quick and brutal with outsiders—they trusted no one.

Gray looked up at the night sky, and thought he saw something move on one of the neighbouring roofs. He peered into the darkness. Nothing. He mentioned it to Adri, who in turn looked long and hard, but saw nothing. Nevertheless, Adri kept one of his revolvers ready, and Gray cradled the Sadhu’s Shotgun in his lap, his fingers running along the weapon’s surface repeatedly. The fire burned as their food got heated. They ate soon. It was vegetarian food, canned, but to a hungry Gray it was heavenly.

A dog. Strutting into the playground. Attracted by the smell of food. It stood at a distance, watching them, eyes glittering in the firelight.

‘Is that just a dog?’ Gray asked.

Adri had already seen it. ‘Yes.’

Gray whistled to it and the dog promptly trotted over, wolfing down the scraps Gray offered. It was the first living thing they had come across in a long time that belonged to a normal place, to a Kolkata that once was. The sight of Gray feeding the dog fascinated Adri; it reminded him of things he had long forgotten, of things he cherished. Gray was an animal lover, and he wasn’t to know what he had sparked off, but Adri revelled in nostalgia for a blissfully long time before he realised they needed to get moving. Embarrassingly enough, it was Gray who roused him from his near stupor; he got up and packed everything back into his backpack hastily. The bag was heavy, Adri realised as he wore it once more. It would have been easier to not be a Tantric. He would have been able to enter Settlements and buy necessary supplies. Yes, not being a Tantric would really have made his life so much easier. Adri shook his head and lit a cigarette as they moved out of the playground. The dog followed them.

‘The dog’s coming with us. Not a problem, is it?’ Gray asked.

‘Hardly. If it has survived for this long, it’s probably used to smelling danger a long way off. I would call it useful.’

They walked on. Gray wanted to move faster, worried that they weren’t covering enough ground. It took Adri most of his patience trying to convince him of the need to move slowly. ‘It’s night. There are things out here,’ Adri said, impatience creeping into his voice. ‘We have to move slowly, that way we can stay alive, and get to Park Street and back.’

The fireball was no longer with them. Adri had it put itself out for fear of detection. They walked for a long time, and the dog followed them to a certain point, beyond which it just stood watching them go, wagging its tail. They walked on through a labyrinth of crashed cars and bent street lamps—a part of the road where everything seemed chaotic and devastated even in the quiet of the sparse moonlight.

‘What happened here?’ Gray asked in a whisper.

‘A massacre,’ Adri replied.

They were weaving their way through a tangle of parked cars, when all of a sudden something blocked out the moon. For a second there was darkness, then the shadow passed, gigantic and black as it flew over their heads. Gray’s eyes shot up as he saw the edge of something disappear over the edge of the tallest building. He did not ask any questions then; whatever that creature of the night was, it was completely soundless, and that scared him. He stole after Adri as fast as he could, casting nervous glances behind.

It was surreal, and for a time Gray tried to forget it all—all the pain, all the anxiety, all the weight of responsibility tugging at him. He followed Adri mechanically, and they were nearing the end of the road when he heard voices that brought him back to the present. Adri slowly came to a stop and sat down on the road against a crashed car, signalling him to do the same. The voices were very coarse, harsh and deep, accompanied by grunts and heavy breathing. Not too far away. Whoever it was, they were only a little ahead of them. Adri silently raised a finger to his lips, and it was probably all in his imagination, but Gray thought Adri’s face seemed to be a little drained of colour. In any case, he looked extremely nervous; more than Gray had ever seen him be. Not a good sign.

Adri was opening both his revolvers as quietly as he could, changing ammunition. The voices were conversing in the Old Tongue. Gray didn’t fully understand it, all but snatches—
blood, blade, chop
. It did not sound optimistic to him; he clutched the shotgun tightly to his chest. Then he saw them, reflected in the side mirror of the car in front of him. Two of them, walking slowly.

Humanoid. Mostly. About ten to eleven feet in height. In the moonlight one could see they were wearing armour and clothing, all black, gleaming. They were heavy, hulking, hard-bodied; they moved slowly, with weight in every footstep. Though he couldn’t see much in the small mirror, Gray saw the one thing that confirmed what they were: the horns. Both of them had a pair each—long, curving, rising high above their heads, and then cutting a wicked arc right back down, coal black in the white light of a pale moon. A chill went up Gray’s spine.
Demons
.

He saw Adri’s lips move in what he thought was a prayer—Adri was actually performing a small and immediate incantation, but Gray didn’t know that—and to see a Tantric pray scared him even more; all Necromancers were atheists.

Adri ignored Gray’s shudders and reaching into his bag, did some frantic groping before withdrawing a couple of vials. He felt the weight of the pentacle against his neck.
I have a lot more to do. I cannot let this be the end
.

The Demons walked slowly, their steps heavy, their weapons sheathed. No MYTH troops had been seen in this area of late, but there had been sightings of an unknown creature that they needed to keep a watch over, according to the Commander’s orders. But it was their third night of patrol and they hadn’t noticed anything so far. Seemed like another peaceful night.

‘Then he crushed him with one foot. One! That’s all it took,’ one of them spoke loudly. ‘He split open like a ripe pumpkin, the dog. Demon-killer,
ha
!’

The other one was smoking an enormous cigar. It nodded viciously, breathing out smoke.

‘Hraathar always had a temper problem with the Tantrics. Never really worked for them. Everyone thought him useless until he killed that Demon-killer. He was a dangerous one, he was. He made me think before I went to war, and that’s something, that is.’

‘They were nothing but trouble, they were,’ the first one agreed. ‘Give me some of that cigar.’

The second one handed it over and the first one took a long drag. ‘Bloody human Plane. I got such a cold, I can barely taste this thing.’

‘Plane got its advantages, Garth,’ the second Demon said. ‘I support the decision to stay here. Compare this to where we come from, eh?’ It began to laugh, and so did the Demon named Garth, until the second one stopped all of a sudden. It sniffed the air. Twice, thrice. Then it turned its head in the direction of the open street they had just crossed.

‘What is it?’ Garth asked, puffing on the cigar.

‘Humans,’ the Demon replied, baring its fangs in a grin. Hideous. It sniffed again. ‘No wait—there’s more. There’s something else.’ It sniffed again. ‘Two humans and a half-breed, I think. Can’t say what, I’m not so sure.’

‘I’m hungry,’ Garth said. ‘But I can’t smell shit.’ The other one laughed in response.

Adri peered over the hood of the car and then sat back down, looking at Gray very seriously. ‘Okay, look. I’m going to make this very clear,’ he whispered. ‘We cannot possibly take on both the Demons right now, not in this light. However, they will smell us any second now and we can’t help that.’

‘So what do we do?’ Gray asked.

‘I will try and take them down one at a time. You have to keep one busy so that they don’t attack me together.’

‘
What?
I have to
what
?’

Adri lit a cigarette. ‘Distract! Talk to it, shoot at it a couple of times. Basically run from it, but keep taunting it. They’re warrior Demons, they’re slow. Keep your distance and you should be fine. Oh, and if they throw something just dodge it. Jump out of the way, they can be pretty nasty at times.’

‘Can’t we run away?’

‘No chance, they’re almost always hungry and they’ll track us down. In other words, it was too late the moment we saw them—they were too close to not have smelt us already. And I don’t think we have the luxury of time anymore—they’re coming!’

Adri shoved his bag aside and stood up straight, a revolver in each hand and a lit cigarette in his mouth.

‘Ah, maggot!’ one of the Demons roared. Its voice was hoarse and cracked, yet it radiated with power, with might beyond human or animal. Both the Demons changed course and made a beeline towards Adri.

Adri chose the one on the right, the one without the cigar. He lifted his guns and fired two rounds together. Holy water infused with the essence of tulsi and the ashes of holy men stirred in it for greater effect—one extremely strong holy bullet. Both the bullets hit the Demon’s head and stopped it in its tracks. It roared in agony, clutching its head. The other Demon paused as well to see what his partner had been hit with. He found out the next instant as Adri plugged him with two rounds as well.

As both the Demons bellowed and howled, Gray got a good, clear look at them, and he watched them in awe. They were gigantic, one of them over eleven feet tall. Their skin was a dark, muddy brown and it reminded him of elephant skin with all its wrinkles and cracks, but it seemed hardier, like rock. Their faces were a bit warped; they had started out with human features, but somewhere in the middle someone had decided to play around and expand the eyebrows, make the nose almost disappear but for a slit-like breathing hole, and shrink the eyes deep into the face where they glittered like marbles. They had hair though, facial hair as well; the one called Garth was bald with a huge beard, and the other one had long dark hair, which it had tied in a ponytail. Their ears were sharp and pointed, and they had tails—Garth’s was short and unimpressive, whereas the other one’s was thick and large like a crocodile’s. Their torsos were much bigger than their lower abdomens, though their feet were strong and muscular and supported them well, but it didn’t look like they could run. Their horns, however, remained the most majestic thing about them, bloodthirsty as they were.