The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter XXXVI: The truth about her

Carey groaned and looked at her.

“This is not the time now Princess,”

“What are you hiding from me?”

“Nothing, it’s just,”

“It’s not nothing, you know something, don’t you, why won’t you tell me?”

“All right, fine, I know about your past life!”

“What?!”



“Yes, it’s not just me who’s reincarnated, it’s you too, in fact, we used to know each other back then, um- intimately,”

“What? And how do you know that?”

“Because I’ve seen it in my visions, the details of which I’m not willing to divulge,”

“Tell me more,”

“Well, Princess, you used to be a warrior in the Lost Kingdom of Shamballa and I a humble scholar and a priest, we lived there- in peace and harmony, until- the enemy attacked and you went away to fight, while I went to protect the Orb, that was the last time we saw each other,”

“Good God! Unbelievable- were we married?”

“What? Pfft! No, we used to be good acquaintances, nothing more,” he replied trying to hide the truth.

“Huh! Maybe we were too busy keeping the peace in the kingdom, makes sense!”

“And I know why your arrow glowed with energy when you fired it, Princess,”

“What do you mean?”

“I think the closer we get to the pieces of the Orb, the more powerful we become, it is destined Princess, don’t you see? You and I were destined to find the Orb together and whenever any dangers befalls upon us, the Orb helps us by granting us magical powers,”

“You mean I had magical powers in my past life?”

“Yes and more, I think the Orb is waiting for us to be found and we were meant to find it together, nothing will be able to stop us Princess, I- a foreigner in this ancient land, have found sanctuary here, I have found my purpose, all my life I was stumbling in the dark, and now I see the light,” he said holding her hand.

She fell into a deep train of thought. All this time she was thinking that she was on a mission of personal vengeance and retribution. She was supposed to find the secret of Shamballa to protect her kingdom. But fate had different plans for her. She was still in shock at the fact that she too was a part of an elaborate plan that God has set up for her. A warrior with magical abilities, reincarnated to find the lost kingdom? This was too much for her to take, her reality was being shattered, and her mind was shaken. She got up and walked away into the darkness to catch a breath of fresh air… Carey looked at her with hope as she walked away into the darkness. He realized that it was too much for anyone to take- to tell them that everything that they had been working for in their lives, was nothing but a preparation and their petty personal issues were miniscule in front of the grand plan that destiny has prepared.

Meanwhile, everyone was closing in on their location at once- the Hard Chief had a general idea of their whereabouts from his spies, so he sent Ashanti alone to look for them. The Dutchman was also travelling in a luxury carriage towards the hills, he had found out through some unknown ways that Carey was passing through the mountains. He was waiting for Carey to either finish his mission or to give up and return home, so that in either of the situations he could end him and complete his objective. He knew that he would try to get out of the valley soon and the only way out was the new train station in the city, and all he had to do was to wait for him to pop out. Raza’s men were not far behind, for days they had been toiling through the jungles following the trail and patiently waiting for the smoke signal that Raza would supposed to send.

The group was not ready for any of this. They were tired and exhausted and wanted some rest. Even Kali laid down on the hard ground and dozed off. Carey was anxious and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t sleep. Ram and Raza slept close to the fire, they had no worries- like sheep who were guarded. The Princess watched the moon shining brightly on the western sky and thought about her life. She felt homesick and somewhere the child inside her wanted the warm embrace of her father- he was everything to her. She never knew her mom and all her life she trained to become the perfect queen and never stopped to think about herself as an individual- it was always for the throne and the country… All her abilities and skills felt like a lie- she already had them inside her when she was born. It felt like she never had free will in her life, everything was planned, written and sealed by destiny…

Out there in the darkness, Ashanti got down from her horse and stared at the vastness of the jungle. She lifted her black hood and took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She muttered some strange words and waved her hand towards the ground. The ground began to crack and out of the earth, emerged two giant monsters- about five feet high, made of rocks and clay- they were golems- mindless and merciless. Their eyes lit purple and they groaned and awaited her command.

“Ah! My favourite minions, go find them, and finish them,” she said and grinned.

The minions leapt out into the forest fiercely, destroying everything on their path. Nobody knew how Ashanti became the fiercest assassin at such a young age- nobody knew about her dark powers and that gave her an edge over her enemies.