The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter XVII: The First Power

Kali put his sword back in and walked towards the pirate leader and looked him straight in the eye.

“Put the gun away,” he grunted at him.

The captain took a huge gulp down his throat and put his pistol away. The Princess looked at him with admiring eyes, perhaps he was the bravest man she had ever met.

“Now get out of the way or I’ll rip your head off!” he threatened him.

“Oh? You are just four people and we are twenty, you think you can beat us?” replied the captain.

His men rallied behind him and the captain pointed the gun at him. Kali grew impatient and before the captain could say anything else, he slapped him so hard on his left cheek that he immediately fell on the ground. His men stood there with disbelief and then they looked at Kali and took a few steps back. The captain lay on the ground for a few seconds until he regained consciousness and lifted himself up.

“Oh, my molar,” he cried spitting out the broken tooth on his palm.

Kali grabbed him by his collar.

“You filthy wannabe pirates, you can’t kill a man, you have never killed, you are lowlifes, gutless, spineless and greedy, I shall teach you a lesson,” he said taking out his dagger.

“That’s enough Kali, let him go, he won’t trouble us anymore, will you now?” said the Princess looking at the captain who shook his head in agreement and Kali finally let him go.

The captain felt like he was just handed his life back, he saw death in Kali’s eyes and even though he was embarrassed in front of his men, he saw an opportunity-

“Excuse me dear madam, uh, Sirs, hehe, I apologize for my behaviour but could you please tell me who you are and what you are doing here?” he said politely bowing down to them.

“Mind your business fool, take your men and scatter,” replied Kali.

“Wait, Kali, why should we tell you anything, you have just tried to kill us,” said Meena interrupting Kali.

“Well, I’m terribly sorry for that, I thought you were some fat, rich merchant that we could rob, oh! How silly of me! My name’s Raza, I’m the leader of this gang and whatever it is you are looking for here, I can help, eh, with a fee of course but I know every inch of this land, I was born here,” said the captain.

“Not interested, move along pirate!” said the Princess and turned to walk away.

“Oh! Please madam, I can really help you, there are lot of dangerous elements in this city, please madam, take this as my form of apology, let me come with you, I promise, I won’t cause you trouble,” begged Raza.

“Princess! Just get it over with, he says he knows this land, he might be of some use after all and we don’t have much time on our hands,” suggested Carey walking up to the Princess.

“All right but you come alone and if you try to trick us in anyway, I shall let him deal with you,” said the Princess pointing towards Kali.

Raza kneeled and thanked the Princess and immediately instructed his men to go back to the river and wait for his signal. His men did as they were told; Raza took his pistol and joined the team.

The city was just waking up, when the five of them entered through the river bank and onto its streets.

“Eh, if you don’t mind me asking madam, where are we going?” asked Raza.

“We are looking for this place, here-“she replied showing him the map.

“The mountains?”

“Yes, the mountains, the one with some kind of a cave,”

Raza paused for a moment as a chill ran down his spine.

“What? You seemed scared, can you take us to this place? If not, then turn back now, there’s still time,” said the Princess looking at him questioningly.

“Oh! Yes Madam, I know this place, I went there once, don’t worry I’ll take you there but may I ask what are you looking for in there and why is this foreigner with you?” he asked.

“You ask too many question! Take us there and you will be fairly rewarded, or else leave!” replied the Princess.

Raza immediately led them into the city hoping that whatever this strange group was looking for, must be very valuable, who else thinks of visiting such a scary place?

“Once I lay my hands on the treasure, I shall signal my men and steal it from them, yes, how clever I am,” Raza said to himself.

Carey was following the others, with a leather bag swinging on his shoulders, the streets were starting to get busy and he began to look around, admiring the architecture of the city. Slowly he began to feel a strange sensation in his body. It began with a humming sound in his ears and the deeper they got into the city, the sicker he began to feel. A mixed feeling of nausea and disorientation began to slow him down until he slowly collapsed and fell down on the street. The Princess and the others hurried to help him but Carey wasn’t sick, there was nothing physically or mentally wrong with him, something much stranger was going on. He was unconscious but he felt that his soul was slowly escaping his body. A moment later he saw that he was floating above his physical body, it was as if he was in some sort of a spiritual realm. Things looked entirely different now, he could see the others trying to wake him up from above, sprinkling water on his face. He tried to call them but they didn’t hear his voice, it was useless, he thought he was hallucinating but as he began to observe his surroundings, he realized that there were other apparitions floating around him- there were spirits of people and even animals, which were simply floating around aimlessly in the air. He couldn’t make heads or tails of anything but he desperately wanted to get back to his body…

Out of nowhere, a flaming ball of fire came rushing towards him and penetrated his spiritual chest. He began to feel an immense amount of burn and pain but the feeling soon subsided and then, everything went black. It seemed that he was back in his body. When he finally opened his eyes, he could still feel the burning sensation on his chest but as he looked at his friends he began to see strange colours hovering around each of them. He rubbed his eyes and everything turned back to normal. A few minutes later Carey felt fine and rejuvenated and asked them to continue the journey but every now and then as he would look at the people around him, he could see strange colours floating around their body, he would shake his head and it would go back to normal again. He was beginning to realize that there was something going on that was beyond his understanding, maybe it was the supernatural or maybe he doubted that after years of tiresome studies, his brain was finally melting down- he might be going mad he thought. Little did he realize that what he was seeing was the aura of all human beings around him and now he had the power to perceive the energies of every living creature in the world! It showed him whether any person had a negative or a positive vibe, it was like seeing the character of a person without having to talk to them. It was a gift he had received, the moment he entered the city but it would remain a mystery how and why he was bestowed this gift…

“Are you all right Mr. Carey?” asked the Princess out of concern.

“Yes, yes, I’m quite fine, thank you,” he replied.

“Are you sure? You were having one of your episodes again, you were muttering Sanskrit shlokas while you were unconscious, holy phrases that even I couldn’t understand,” remarked the Princess.

“Huh? What do you mean?” he asked but the Princess had already walked on.

Everyone in the group was puzzled at Carey’s peculiar behavior; Ram Babu was sure that it was the work of some evil witch and his master needed a purification ritual. Princess Meena thought that Carey had some sort of mental ailment and it was getting worst. Kali, however, thought that it was some kind of white man sickness and he sought to keep fair distance from the! foreigner. Raza didn’t care, he was a scheming, conniving pirate and his eyes were only on the prize.