The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter XXIX : Kali's Origin

The Princess looked curiously at Carey who took a seat next to her and wiped his face. He looked pale and scared to death- never had he seen such an ominous apparition in his life. He kept telling himself that it was nothing more than his delusion but he knew it was not true.

“Princess! I have to tell you something,” he said looking into her eyes.

Within the next fifteen minutes he began to explain how he was not only getting visions but he could also see strange auras around people. He told her about the out of body experience and how he saw the spirit realm. The Princess listened to him attentively and realized that whoever he had just met was no ordinary person- he must be someone evil. She told him that he might be attaining super human abilities as he was getting closer to the pieces and suggested that it might be somehow possible that he must have had those powers in his previous life. She also suggested that it was very likely that his sponsors might not have been totally honest with him- after all nobody chases the myth of the Lost Kingdom just for the sake of archaeology.

Carey wasn’t surprised but instead he felt burdened with a huge responsibility. It somehow felt like it was his duty to put the Orb back together, there were many forces at play here who wanted the Orb for themselves and all for their own selfish needs. But the power of the Orb was too much for any one person to hold. He felt conflicted inside for trying to find out about this mysterious place, what if he failed in his mission and the secrets of the place fell into the wrong hands. But he would soon realize that the only way to protect the secret of the place was to locate it and find out the truth until he could come up with an idea to keep it concealed from the world- somehow fate has brought him miles across to this ancient land to meet with his true self…

Suddenly the train came to a screeching halt and almost got derailed. The passengers fell out of their seats and there was chaos everywhere. Carey almost fell on the Princess rather awkwardly almost kissing her on the lips. She immediately shoved his head aside and pushed him off uncomfortably. He apologised but she had already left the cabin to investigate what was happening. Kali followed her to ensure her safety. It did not took her long to find out the cause- she peeped out of the open door and saw a large boulder of rock on the tracks ahead, obstructing the way. She knew this was bad, someone was looking for them and judging by the size of the rock, there must have been at least twenty of them.

“This is the work of my people!” remarked Kali.

“Yes, it would seem so, those scoundrels! I mean- no offense,” she replied.

“It is fine Princess, I suggest you and your friends take advantage of the chaos and escape, I know what they are going to do next- search the entire train until they find you and remove anyone who comes in the way, I will stay here and distract them or die trying, Your highness,” he said bowing to her.

“It is not necessary, we should escape together. I don’t want you to die in the hands of these idiots, you have been a great help to us, I would like it to continue,” she replied and gestured him to follow.

Kali felt a warm rush of blood flow through his spine to his head, it was a strange feeling, was this love? Nevertheless, the team of daring explorers, took the first chance they got to get out of the train and jumped off in to the bushes and towards the mountains. It was a risky affair- there was a short gun battle between the guards and the thugs but they couldn’t match the sheer numbers and the brutality of the thugs. They silenced the guards and searched the train for Kali and his friends but they were long gone. But something else happened that changed the whole scenario. Out of nowhere from the last compartment of the train came fifty highly armed guards with modern rifles and Gatling guns. They decimated the group of thugs one by one mercilessly and even the ones that tried to take off were shot by snipers or blown off by hand grenades. The government had already placed a contingent of well-trained guards on the train as they were already anticipating such an attack. This was the plan of none other than John Cunningham, who had ordered such heavy infantry on every train that had foreign dignitaries on it. They were ordered to shoot without prejudice; no survivors or captives. Kali and the others saw the entire m******e from the hill top and he did not know how to react. But the Princess was enraged at the brutality of the army. This was no way to treat criminals or serving justice. This was pure g******e- even the ones that were begging for their lives were shot in the face along with a local man who was merely a worker. The evil men laughed at the mistake and kicked the corpses to check if anyone was still alive. Her heart fell heavy and a shed of tear fell down her cheek, but there was nothing she could do.

“Come Princess, we have to leave, we are almost there,” said Carey, putting his hand on her shoulder.

She wiped her tears and followed Carey swearing in her heart that someday she would take revenge for this incident- they had no right to act with such brutality, even though they were criminals, there was a law of the land- this was the law of the jungle!

The evening sky was turning red like it was painted with the blood of those massacred. Carey stood on some high ground and looked at the beautiful valley and consulted his map. The path ahead held more surprises…

About thirty years ago, Kali came to the Thugs as an orphan. He never knew his parents and was raised by an old man who later died when he was three years old. The Elder Chief saw something in his eyes and picked him up from a village. They took him to their camp in the jungle and they had just started their band of outfits as they found the foreigners intrusive and the kings and rulers untrustworthy. Their sole objective was to scare the foreigners away from their land while establishing control over the royalty. They wanted a fair and equal society where the people wouldn’t starve to death and the poor wouldn’t be crushed under the soles of the rich. It was a noble objective that the Elder Chief had when he started this rogue operation. Every now and then, they would sneak in to the bushes and ambush any wealthy merchant that would pass that way- they would tie them up while they loot their belongings but if they tried to resist then they would be killed instantly.

Their prime weapon was deception where a member of their team would deceive the victim into passing through a particular area where the others prepared for an ambush. During the starting days, they choked their victims with nooses while creeping up on them from behind. Trickery and earning the trust of their victims helped them gain a quick notorious reputation. Hence they got the name “Thuggees”- coming from the Hindi word- ‘Thug’, meaning-deceiver. They liked to call themselves rogues and rebels, fighting for justice for their land but everything was not so black and white. Soon their numbers grew and many men and women joined them. They camped in the depths of the jungles and trained in secret and familiarised themselves with modern weapons. This is when they started to raid the foreigners and their cargos.

Before the British became the sole ruler of the entire continent, there were other prospectors who came to this land as businessmen and merchants, like the Portuguese, Spanish, French and even the Dutch. Everyone wanted a piece of this ‘Golden Bird’ called Hindostan or India. Tensions began to rise and the infighting and wars spread throughout the country. The Thugs took this golden opportunity to raid and build their outfit and soon their numbers grew significantly and they spread their branches throughout the country.

Kali grew up to be a devoted follower and student of the Elder Chief. He grew up from a scared and innocent child to the most dangerous Thug in the land. The Chief trained him hard and taught him every skill from deception to martial arts. He was infamous for being merciless and ruthless. Such was their code that every wealthy merchant had took a contingent of paid guards to escort them through the jungles. Thugs were not allowed to hurt women and children or any diseased person and they would perform ritual sacrifices for their Goddess every weekend to show their devotion. Most of the time the sacrifices would be of some animal but they would not hesitate to behead a human too if he was found to be guilty of a heinous crime against them…

Nobody knew this but Kali saw the Princess once at the local bazaar in Calcutta and was infatuated with her ever since. He would often pretend to be a street hawker and sell fruits on days that the Princess would visit. He would wrap a scarf around his face and disguise himself as a poor man and stare at her as she visited the local people in her kingdom. She was kind and smart and was beautiful beyond words. He never had the courage to speak to her but always loved her from a distance. He never expected to meet and talk to the Princess under the present circumstances. All he knew was that he was supposed to end a foreigner who was stealing local antiques. But after spending so many days with them, he saw that the foreigner was after something much more different and he had no intention of stealing anything. He chose to betray his clan when the Elder Chief raised his sword at the Princess. He broke his loyalty with his brethren for the sake of love. Even though he had no strife against the foreigner- Carey, he was starting to grow jealous at how close he was getting with the Princess. But on the other hand, his inferiority complex prevented him from talking about the feelings.

But there was another shocking fact that they were not aware of. The Thugs were after the location of the Lost Kingdom too. The Elder chief was keeping an eye on Carey since he had set foot in the country. He knew that Carey was not like the other foreigners. First he doubted him to be a thief and a smuggler, who was after the lost cultural heritage of the land. But from his spies, he learnt that Carey was researching ancient scrolls and scripts looking for something called the Kalachakra map. The Elder Chief was intrigued and observed Carey’s actions and followed him to Benaras but when he came to know about Kali’s betrayal, he was infuriated and blamed the Princess for luring him with her beauty. The Chief had always hated the privileged and the royals. He eventually lost track of Kali and the foreigner but he had many friends all over the country, which is why, he asked for the help of the Hard Chief…

Things were about to get more dangerous for Carey and his group, for dangerous people were after them. Not just Thugs but even people from the government- the governor, John Cunningham. It was his idea after all to put the army on the trains to tackle with the Thug problem but secretly, he wanted to locate the whereabouts of Carey and find out about his mission.