The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter VII: Royal Blood

Six hours later, Carey woke up to find that the compartment was all but empty, most of the people had left. He yawned and saw Ram Babu chatting with an old guy. The train had stopped in some station before continuing another six hours of journey to Benaras. Ram immediately went out to get some chai and snacks for them. As Carey looked out the window, he saw that it was a small station named Barackpore but it was still a busy pace- people were getting in and out of the train and the hawkers came up to the window to sell spicy nuts and other snacks. Carey stared out towards the setting sun at the distance- it was 4.30 in the evening. Suddenly his eyes fixated upon someone dressed in dark clothing with a black shawl around their face. He or she was staring at him from the platform. Carey looked closer and for around thirty seconds they both stared at each other and then it hit him-

“My God! It is her, the thief!” he remarked and got out of his seat.

As he was about to exit the train, he bumped into Ram Babu on the way, who was coming in with some hot chai cups and snacks in a plate.

“What? Get out of my way, she’s here!” he remarked.

But there was too much crowd at the entrance and before he could set a foot outside, the train began to start moving again. Carey was disappointed and went back to his seat and drank his chai.

“What was it Sahib? Who did you see?” asked Ram Babu.

“Ah! Never mind,” replied Carey.

Few hours later, the sun began to set and there was darkness all around. This time, the train was more crowded than before and the heat was getting unbearable. But somehow Carey managed to settle down and think about what was about to come. Why did he see the thief on the platform? Was she following him? What did she want from him? Does she know about his mission? But that was nearly impossible? Nobody in Calcutta knew about this, except for the Nawab. All these thoughts, kept Carey awake till midnight. They would arrive in Benaras in another hour or so.

Under the dim lights of the compartment, Carey took out his notebook, where he had scribbled down all the details of his research. He was going over his notes when suddenly, the train came to a screeching halt, like someone had suddenly pulled the brakes. The train swayed a little bit and there was a lot of commotion coming from the compartments ahead, the ones that were filled with foreigners. Carey tried peeking out through the window bars when suddenly a flaming fire torch went right by his face. He was startled and looked outside again, a man clad in a black dress was running outside with a torch in his hand and then, two more came, chanting strange slogans. And there were gunshots and people yelling and screaming. Everyone in his compartment started to scream and yell too. Ram Babu went up to Carey and asked him to lay low.

“Thuggies Sahib, Thuggies! They are looking for foreigners,” he said.

“But why do they hate the foreigners so much?” asked Carey but he realized that it was a stupid question to ask.

Then one of the Thugs came yelling towards their compartment. Carey understood Hindi and he was not ready for what was coming-

“We are not here to harm the poor people of our country, we only want the rich and the bloody foreigners, if anyone tries to hide them, we won’t spare their lives!” said the man.

Everyone in their compartment looked at Carey. It was easier for them to give him up rather than risk their own lives. But Ram Babu clasped his hands together and begged them not to inform the thugs. One young man from the crowd said something to Ram Babu and he relayed the message to Carey.

“Sahib, we must get out of here now, these Thugs won’t leave you alive, and they have already taken the other foreigners hostages and killed the guards, we must go now, I will carry the bags, come Sahib, come!”

Both of them jumped out of the compartment into the wilderness with two bags in both of their hands. Carey was simply following Ram Babu, he had no idea where he was going. They kept running until they couldn’t anymore. Carey stopped for a moment and began panting hard. He turned around and saw the hijacked train and the thugs pulling out the foreigners out of the train one by one. He could hear them begging for their lives. He wanted to save them somehow but there was only so much he could do. Ram Babu kept urging him to keep moving.

“Where are we going? There’s nothing but forests ahead,” asked Carey.

“We cross this forest and there’s a village, I have a friend there, we have to get away as far as possible Sir, they will come looking for us,” he replied.

Carey didn’t like the idea of venturing out into the forests at night but what choice did he have- it was either that or the thugs! He figured that he had better chance of surviving in the forest than on the train and so he struggled through the dark and dense foliage with the heavy luggage in his hands. After a few minutes both of them stopped to catch their breath.

“Ah! I can’t we got to rest, I can’t go on anymore,” remarked Carey sitting down.

Ram Babu agreed and he too sat down. Carey looked around him, it was a creepy place- they were somewhere in the middle of the forest, cold and tired and alone in the dark.

“Sahib, I’ll get a fire started,” said Ram Babu and went to collect twigs and dead tree branches.

Minutes later, both of them sat around the small fire tired and exhausted.

“We can’t stay here much longer, it’s not safe Ram,” remarked Carey.

“Yes sir, but the village is more than an hour from here, and it is not good to travel in the dark, bad spirits will come Sir!” replied Ram.

“Oh! Come on man, Spirits? I’m worried about them thuggies, what if they find us, we should keep moving,” Carey suggested.

They kept arguing and suggesting but the exhaustion got the better of them. The fire was too cosy to leave and soon they fell into a deep slumber…

Hours later, Carey woke up to the whining and begging of Ram Babu. He rubbed his eyes and saw the same dark figure standing over Ram Babu with a sharp blade in hand.

“What? Ram- You- thief! What is this? What do you want?” Carey remarked.

“Sahib, help me Sahib, he is going to kill me,” begged Ram.

“Let go off of him you scoundrel, take whatever you want- here- we have a bag of gold, take it- take it all-“said Carey throwing the bag of gold coins at the thief.

“Mind your language, Mr. Carey, I’m neither a thief nor a scoundrel and I’m not here for the gold,” replied the thief in perfect English, removing the dark cloth from his face.

Carey was awestruck at what he saw. By the faint glow of the firelight, stood a beautiful brown woman, dressed in black, her long dark hair flowing down her shoulders, her beautiful brown eyes glowing in the light- Carey recognised the face-

“Princess?!You- what-“Carey stuttered.

“Sahib?” remarked Ram Babu surprisingly.

“You- you are the princess- th- the- Nawab’s daughter, Princess Meena, what- what’s all this, why are you following us?” asked Carey, still trying to process what he was seeing.

“I’m not following you, I want to know about the map, I want to know what you know,” replied the Princess, graciously putting her sword back in her sheath.

“What do you mean? Your father hired us to find-“replied Carey.

“My father is imprisoned- his kingdom has been overtaken by the governor- and it is all because of you- my father thought that you could find the secret to immortality and trusted a white man-and now because of you, the governor has charged my father with kidnapping a govt. official and is under house arrest-you- you bring bad luck! Now tell me what you know about the map or I will hurt you so bad that you will wish that you were never born-“said the Princess.

“All right- hey- calm down now- I didn’t do anything- it was your father- ugh!” replied Carey but the Princess choked his throat with one hand and pinned him against a tree.

“Don’t waste my time- tell me everything- I need to save my kingdom and rescue my father-“she said.

“Okay-please-please- unhand me- I’ll tell-you-“replied Carey.

The Princess let go off of him and Carey caught his breath. It was a dramatic turn of events, he was still trying to wrap his head around the fact that the thief was indeed the princess, he already knew that it was a woman, but a Princess? What could go so wrong that a royal princess was driven to steal and threaten? Carey always knew that the governor- John Cunningham was a crook and a liar-but how did he come to know about him meeting the Nawab? Does he know about the deal too? He sat down on a piece of log and looked at the princess while Ram Babu sat beside the fire, trying to reignite it. Princess Meena stood in front of the fire, with her arms crossed, looking at Carey, patiently waiting for answers. He was not sure where to begin…