The War of the Grail (37 page)

‘That is strange. The Great Yantra must be a different sort of yantra. It’s not like the others, is it?’

‘It is
very
different from the others, in that case.’

Jack shrugged. ‘I don’t know any more about it than what I’ve told you. But I’m sure I’m right about all this. Jhala said it himself. He admitted the necklace is the Great Yantra. And he also admitted that the yantra’s power is to break the law of karma.’

‘What about this last time you used the yantra, then? Just a few hours ago?’

‘What about it?’

‘Did you break the law of karma then?’

‘I don’t think so. But then, I haven’t memorised any other yantras to try. If I knew any more, I’d try the Great Yantra right now. But it’ll take me months to learn a new yantra.’

Sonali’s eyes moistened. ‘So, the Great Yantra won’t be much help to us after all. You’re the only one who can use it at the moment, and you don’t know any other yantras anyway.’

Jack swallowed. He’d considered this as well. He stared up at the heavy clouds. ‘Looks that way. And yet …’

‘What?’

‘There must be more to this. Two things still seem strange to me. For one thing, when I used the Great Yantra beside the Folly brook I felt this sort of lightness.’

‘Lightness?’

‘It’s hard to explain. I felt a weight being lifted off me. Just for a moment. That happened at the same time as I managed to use a new power. I reckon that must be from using the Great Yantra.’

‘What about the other times you used the yantra?’

‘Those were all in difficult situations. I was dying or under attack. I might have felt the lightness, but I wouldn’t have noticed it. There was too much else going on.’ He paused for a moment. ‘When I tried the Great Yantra earlier today, I didn’t feel lighter. I was sitting quietly. I should have noticed it. But there was nothing.’

‘I don’t understand what this means.’

‘I’m not sure either. It just seems strange. As though there is still something missing. Something I’m not understanding yet.’

‘You think there’s more to using the Great Yantra?’

‘Could be.’ He scratched the back of his neck. ‘I don’t know.’

‘What was the second thing? You said there were two things that were strange.’

He rubbed his face. He was struggling to understand everything he’d learnt and to make sense of the many ideas coursing through his head. If Kanvar were still alive, he might have been able to offer some guidance. But the Sikh was gone. They had cremated him earlier, as was apparently the Sikh custom.

Jack and Sonali would have to make sense of it all without any other help.

‘The second thing,’ Jack said slowly, ‘is that I can’t see how breaking the law of karma could have helped Oswin and Galahad. All it means is that you can learn a new yantra if you’ve been blocked. How would Oswin and Galahad know any other yantras? Also, the Grail was always some sort of weapon in the stories. Or at least, something so powerful it could save the land at a time of danger. Breaking the law of karma is a powerful ability, but it wouldn’t save a whole country straight away, would it?’

‘No. It doesn’t fit with the stories.’

‘That’s what I think. That’s why I reckon there’s more to this.’ He paused. He was struggling to explain himself. So much of this was far beyond anything he’d ever come across before. ‘Jhala said something earlier that’s stuck with me. He said the Great Yantra “purifies”. What do you think of that?’

Sonali shook her head. ‘I have no idea. Purifies? It could mean many things.’

Jack nodded. ‘But that’s the word Jhala used. That exact word and not another. I reckon there’s something extra we’re missing. Some piece of a puzzle.’

Sonali stared glumly into the distance. ‘I don’t see how we’ll solve the puzzle. We don’t have much time.’

Far away, a gun clapped. Moments later, a round shot shrieked past over the fortress. Several further booms followed and a shell split open near the north wall, showering flame and metal over the ruins.

‘It’s started again,’ Jack said. ‘We’d better get inside.’

He walked across the grass with Sonali. Just as he entered the palace, she took his arm.

‘One thing,’ she said. ‘If breaking the law of karma really is the Great Yantra’s power, that means you’re not so special after all, doesn’t it? Anyone could do it.’

He smiled wryly. ‘I always said I was just an old soldier. I was right, after all.’

The missiles crunched over and over again on the roof of the ruined palace and the dust spilt down in endless streams. Jack sat huddled with the other villagers, Elizabeth to his left and Saleem to his right. With the bombardment worsening by the minute, none of them dared leave the building. The cracks in the ceiling groaned, but the stone slabs held firm.

Mark ducked into the room at one point and beckoned to Jack. ‘Can I have a word, Master?’

Jack climbed to his feet and followed Mark into an alcove that was now serving as a storeroom.

Mark motioned to the barrels and sacks lined up against the wall. ‘This is all we have left. Just a few days’ food at this rate.’ He patted one of the barrels. ‘And only this of water, I’m afraid.’

Jack rubbed his chin. ‘We’ll have to ask around the fortress when we get a chance. Someone should help us.’

‘I checked with Constable Ward’s men. Everyone’s running low. They’ve hardly even got enough water at the hospital.’

Jack paused. The fortress must have originally had a reservoir of some sort, but he’d seen no sign of one now. ‘Right. We’ll have to ration it out, in that case. A tankard of water a day for everyone, and half a bowl of pottage for each meal.’

Mark’s face dropped. ‘That will be difficult.’

‘Aye. But we don’t have a choice.’

A fireball thumped into the roof. The alcove shuddered and Mark flinched. Jack heard the flames snarl across the stonework overhead.

‘Look,’ Jack continued, ‘we don’t know how long we’re going to be up here. We’ll have to be careful what we drink and eat. The more we eke out our supplies, the longer we’ll be able to survive.’

Mark nodded grimly. ‘Yes, Master.’

The missiles rained down on the fortress for almost twenty-four hours. Then, as night fell on the second day, they suddenly stopped. Jack and the others crawled out of their shelter and set about helping the wounded. The buildings had withered even further beneath the onslaught. The piles of rubble stood higher, and the places to find cover were dwindling. Fires still burned and a pall of smoke hung across the ruins.

After more than an hour had passed and the guns were still silent, Jack strode over to the east side of the fortress to investigate. Soon, the vast outer wall loomed ahead of him. It appeared to have survived the bombardment well. He spotted a few gouges in the battlements where round shot had struck, but Jhala’s batteries were still too far away to do any serious damage to the stonework.

At the foot of the wall, Jack found a mangled gun lying on a heap of stones. The piece was bent almost in half and the smashed remains of the carriage lay scattered about nearby. A ball must have hit the gun and knocked it off the ramparts.

He climbed a set of stairs and found the gunners resting beside their weapons. Some slouched beneath blankets, while others lay asleep on mats placed between pyramids of shot and tin cases of bullets, known as grape or canister. The artillerymen had somehow kept the guns firing throughout the past twenty-four hours, and the enemy’s bombardment would have been even worse without them.

Jack noticed a gunner leaning against the parapet and staring out at the hills through a spyglass. The distant slopes and ridges were dark, but they were speckled with tiny lights.

Jack walked across to the gunner. ‘What’s going on out there?’

The gunner grunted and handed over the glass. ‘Take a look.’

Jack scoured the hills. For the most part, all he could see were shadows. Here and there, he came across glowing lanterns. The yellowish lights illuminated earthworks, gabions and lines of serpent-headed muzzles protruding from embrasures.

He lowered the glass. ‘Why do you reckon they’ve stopped firing?’

The gunner shrugged. ‘Getting some rest maybe. We’re doing the same. Not a good idea for us to fire all our shot at them, unless they send a few back our way.’

Jack understood. The rebels would only have a limited supply of ammunition and would have to rely on reusing the balls fired into the fortress.

He leant against the parapet and gazed into the darkness. What was Jhala planning? What would he try next?

Jack stared at the great arc of shimmering campfires surrounding the hill. Off to the north-east, the camp of the European Army covered the plains in a glittering shawl.

Then his eyes strayed for a moment to the rocky hillside immediately below him. Large parts of it consisted of impassable bluffs, while the rest was smothered in scree and boulders.

He was about to lift his gaze again, when he stopped. Something wasn’t right, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. He’d been up on the wall many times over the past few days and had glanced at this scarp several times. It formed a key part of the natural defences surrounding the fortress.

But now it looked different somehow. What was it? The shadows seemed thicker and the hillside’s contours smoother. The rocks in some places appeared blurred, despite being picked out by moonlight.

He lifted the glass, adjusted the draw tube and studied the slope more carefully. He could make out the crevices and cliffs and jagged boulders. And then he stopped, froze for a second. The thick shadow smearing one part of the incline was shifting slightly, inching higher and higher.

What the hell was causing that?

He shivered, despite the fact that it wasn’t cold. Something wasn’t right about that shadow.

He peered through the glass, focusing all his attention and his unnaturally good eyesight on the shifting darkness.

And then he saw it. Just for a moment. A figure creeping up the hill.

He blinked, rubbed his eyes and stared again. Now he could no longer see the shape.

‘What is it?’ the gunner asked.

‘Not sure,’ Jack replied.

He continued searching the shadow, trying to bore into it with his eyes. Then he spied another figure, followed by a third. He glimpsed them for only a moment before the darkness absorbed them once again. But he couldn’t have imagined it.

People were sneaking up the incline. He was sure of it. But they were somehow remaining invisible.

And then he realised what was happening.

The figures were being hidden by a power – something like Kanvar’s Night power. Only this was covering a much larger area.

He shoved the spyglass back into the gunner’s hand and pointed down the scarp. ‘The enemy are coming. They’re climbing up over there.’

The gunner frowned, raised the glass and surveyed the slope. ‘Can’t see anything.’

‘Look closely. You see movement?’

‘Nothing.’ The gunner lowered the glass and looked askance at Jack. ‘Reckon you’d better go get some sleep.’

‘Listen. I can see something. I swear it. I’m an old army scout. I know what I’m talking about. I’m going to get help. You need to get word to Constable Ward right now and tell him we’re under attack. Tell him to send the criers out. We need everyone over here to defend this wall right now.’

The gunner widened his eyes and spluttered.

‘Do it!’ Jack snapped. ‘Quickly!’

Jack dashed down the stairway and paused for a moment at the bottom to make sure the gunner had done as he was told. He was relieved to see the man scurrying along the ramparts, heading towards the gatehouse.

Jack then bolted into the fortress and ran towards the Folly Brook camp. Here and there, he spotted scraps of shell casing, along with spent round shot that hadn’t yet been collected. Any corpses had been cleared away earlier and taken to the communal pit on the north side of the fortress.

Panting heavily, he arrived at the camp and found most of the villagers congregated about a cluster of fires.

He swallowed, caught his breath and shouted, ‘Get your muskets and come to the east wall! We’re under attack!’

The villagers sprang into action. Within seconds, they were crowding about him with their weapons. There were several women amongst the group, including Elizabeth, who held the firearm Jack had given her the week before.