The Chronicles of Shamballa

Chapter XVI: Black Mountain Renegades

It was not until six in the morning that Carey opened his eyes and saw the sun shining brightly on his face. The clouds were gone and he could hear the singing of the morning birds all around him. He yawned and rubbed his eyes and saw the Princess holding Kali’s hand. He rubbed his eyes again in disbelief- she was attending to the cut on his hand that he had previously incurred when he grabbed the Elder Thugs sword from behind. It was a brave act nonetheless but Carey couldn’t help but get jealous when he saw the Princess attending to his wound? He was new to this romance thing and he presumed that she felt the same way.

“Oh! Mr. Carey, you are awake! We have made some Chai, come, sit with us!” she smiled at him.

“Good Morning your highness!” remarked Carey dusting his clothes.

“Oh! Please you can call me Meena, my royalty means nothing here,” she replied.

“What are you doing?” he asked curiously.

“Oh! This? I am tying some medicine on his hand lest it becomes infected! Here- it’s done,” she said and the Thug bowed to her and went to his place at the edge of the boat.

“You are quiet the doctor, madam!” he remarked playfully taking the Chai off Ram Babu’s hands.

“I always wanted to be a doctor, Mr. Carey, I have heard that there’s a big school for medicine in Britain, I was hoping to study medicine over there someday,” she said, her eye full of hope.

“Well, that’s quite a progressive thought,” he replied sipping the tea while she looked at him with questioning eyes.

“I mean, women in Britain, do not necessarily wish to become a doctor or a scientist,” he replied.

“Why not? What’s wrong with it?” she asked.

“Well, women over there, generally think of managing the household chores and tending to their husbands you see,” he replied.

“Ugh! In my kingdom, we have brave women warriors and soldiers, who are as fierce as men, they taught me the ancient martial arts, we also have great women scholars and teachers in our schools too, I don’t understand what’s wrong with the women folk in your country!” she replied naively.

Carey almost burst out into laughter at her child-like innocence- she could be fierce like the Royal Bengal tiger and sometimes she was innocent like a five year old, always curious and asking questions. He was intrigued by her duality and the more he came to know her, the more he started to like her.

“I’ll tell you what Princess Meena, once we are done with this expedition, I will take you to the Royal Academy of Medical sciences in London where you can study to become a doctor,” he replied.

“Yes, thank you Mr. Carey, I’ll go and check our location,” she cheerfully replied, tapping his shoulder and went off to the other end of the boat.

Carey looked at Ram Babu curiously, the man was burning a small fire in a make shift fireplace on a wooden boat upon which he was boiling water and serving tea. Next he was preparing a frying pan to cook some fish! Carey couldn’t help but wonder about the ability of this gentle and kind old man. He looked at the shores on both sides, on his right almost ten kilometres away, was some kind of settlement which he assumed was a village and to his left were vast forests. Their solitary boat was sailed through the muddy waters of the river. Minutes later, he learnt from the Princess that they had crossed Benaras six hours ago and were about to enter the state of Behar- the district of Champaran was twenty kilometres away to the north. Then he told her about his findings and how he cracked the code of the map earlier. The Princess was thrilled to hear this and thanked him for his contribution. Everything was going well, two hours later, they would reach Champaran and then they would continue on their journey to the mountain with the cave…

*Boom*

Carey heard a loud bang at the distance followed by a sweeping sound. He stood up with the cup in his hand and looked towards the southern sky. A huge flaming ball of sorts was approaching from above.

“Cannon- Cannonball!” he cried pointing towards the sky.

Kali quickly turned the boat around and ordered Ram Babu to row with his full strength while he rowed on the other. Carey threw his cup away and went looking for the Princess, she was trying to move the sail the other way in order to change the direction. Five seconds later, the flaming cannon ball fell six feet away from them into the river, splashing huge waves of water on them, barely missing them. The boat rocked dangerously but came to a standstill moments later. Everyone on the boat looked at the horizon and there on the distance was approaching a huge boat that was almost the size of a ship. It was painted black with a huge skull and two swords drawn underneath. There were many men on it, all cheering and yelling with their swords in their hands.

“Bloody Pirates!” whispered Meena watching them with rage in her eyes.

“Kali, keep rowing, don’t stop at any cost!” she ordered and Kali did as he was told.

“But they have cannons and- and they are gaining on us,” argued Carey.

“Look ahead Mr. Carey, the shore- we are almost there, we are helpless and outnumbered on the river, once we reach the shore, we can manage to escape,” she replied.

“Yes- but,”

“Stop it and pick up an oar, we need to reach the shore as quickly as we can,” she ordered and then she climbed on top of the shed and stood on it with her sword in one hand.

Carey was amazed at her courage and did as he was asked. Their boat slowly started to gain speed but the Pirate ship was gaining on them slowly and steadily.

“Come on! Move, faster, faster… we are almost there,” she ordered and the three men rowed as fast as humanly possible.

High upon the mast of the Pirate ship, stood the leader of the pirate gang- a short and sly looking man who dressed like a medieval Englishman. He had a lighter complexion than his crew and a fake eye patch on his left eye. He wore a powdered wig and held a smoking pipe on one hand and a walking stick on the other. His clothes were dirty and his hair was unkempt but he always had an air of confidence about him that helped him to lead his group of twenty of the filthiest and dumbest pirates on the subcontinent. He stroked his tiny moustache and grinned through his rotten teeth as he shouted orders to reload the cannon. His men however were imbeciles- they almost dropped the cannon ball into the water and it took them forever to get the cannon ready. One of them accidently spilled a bucket of water on the cannon and got the firing wick wet. This started a quarrel between them and soon they were on each other’s throats. They were like a bunch of ravaging hyenas fighting over their prey. The captain however was unaware of what was going on with his crew but when he realized that the cannon wasn’t fired yet, he took of his fake eye patch and looked down. He fired his pistol into the air- his men immediately calmed down. Then he ordered them to take the ship towards the shore…

Kali led the boat ashore and everybody jumped into the muddy banks and rushed towards the embankments. Carey was panting hard from exhaustion but he managed to Carey his belongings with Ram Babu helping him. Unfortunately, the pirate ship would soon follow behind. Some of the idiotic men jumped right before they could reach the shore and fell head first into the water. Luckily they survived and followed the rest of the gang with the captain leading them. Carey and the others were two hundred meters away, soon they would find their way into the town and the pirates won’t be able to find them. Bang! Went a gun and the bullet hit the rocks ahead of them. The captain fired at Carey and barely missed his leg.

“Stop right there!” he ordered in his native tongue.

They stopped running and turned around. The pirates were standing on the shore with their swords and weapons, ready to attack. The Princess drew her sword and so did Kali but the captain was not bothered, he had a pistol in his hand, which even though took two minutes to be reloaded and filled with gunpowder, was still a deadlier weapon than the sword. The four of them stood on the banks of the river, anticipating the worst. Then the captain approached them with his men. Carey observed that the man had a certain tenderness and gaiety about his walk, he seemed ridiculously happy about something and the way he dressed was quite odd too. He was obviously not an Englishman but a rather stupid native trying to impose as on.The captain stood a few feet away from them and looked at them carefully with one eye.

“Who the hell are you?” asked the Princess, ready to strike him.

“We are Rebels from the Black Mountain, we are your doom, now hand over your belongings or face our wrath!” he replied pointing his pistol at her, the rest of his men raising their swords at them.