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  Agastya looked at the sky, folded his hands and said, “I hope so too.”

  As he looked at the sky, he saw a bird flying in the sky, and this time it was indeed a bird and no mutated birdman. Jivraj also glanced at the bird, “Its ‘Ambudhi’, we must be close to land.” Jivraj signalled his men to move the ships in the direction of the flying bird. After two hours of sailing, the scout again blew his conch shell while sitting on a Machan built near the topmast of the ship. Jivraj understood the signal, their destination has arrived. Soon, the island became visible to others as well. The island was huge and the shape did match that in the map. Jivraj boasted with attitude, “No mortal has travelled this far. This expedition is in itself an accomplishment. You wanted Rabocin! I give you Rabocin!”

  Chapter V

  The City Of Sun God

  The island was beautiful. It was lush green and dotted with sparkling waterfalls that could be seen from a distance meandering into the ocean. Jivraj looked for the right spot and then asked his men to anchor the ships. Small boats were soon dropped to ferry soldiers and the crew to the island. It took approximately four hours to unload the men and the goods. Once on land, Agastya commanded the whole unit. He looked around for a good sight for the camp. They finally came across a good location. It was a small but broad hill and had a small stream of fresh water dissecting it into two halves. Agastya thought it to be a perfect location and asked his men to start preparing the camp. The chosen warriors and the soldiers appeared stupefied to see land and walked on earth after twenty-one days. They fell on the lush green grass and drank fresh water from the stream. After quenching their thirst, the veteran soldiers of Mahaverna started preparing their camps.

  While Agastya managed the camp, he instructed ‘Manuastra’ to scout the island and look for the capital city along with forage sites and strategic locations for battle. He divided them into different units and assigned thirty soldiers to each. Nismibh, Tung, Oniata and Vinashki proceeded as per the instructions and started scavenging the island.

  Nismibh’s Encounter: Nismibh and his men went towards the west. The area was abundant in natural vegetation; there were a number of apple and gourd trees in the area. The strong man asked his troops to collect as many fruits and gourd as possible, while he surveyed the area by himself. He saw lots of animals in the area. For the first time in his life he saw langurs (a species of monkey, with white fur and black face) jumping on trees. He saw deers and boars which was a common sight from where he came from as well. As he rode further in, he was mesmerized with the sight of a pack of rhinoceros. They looked like mini elephants to him. He even tried to catch hold of them but couldn’t as the animals disappeared into the wilderness. He surveyed for some more time and then returned to his men. The food was collected and they rode back to the camps.

  Oniata’s Encounter: Oniata went towards the east and was the first to see manmade structures in the area. He came across a beautiful temple made up of white marble, in the shape of a pagoda. It was huge and was erected near a small stream. He rode towards the temple and climbed up the stairs along with his men. The stairs led to a golden gate, he pushed it so as to open it and was stunned at the look of the majestic site. A huge complex carved with beautiful gems, leading to a fifty feet tall statue of the Sun God greeted him. The statue was made of white platinum and gleamed majestically.

  He was so engrossed by the beauty that he almost forgot to notice human life inside. The priests looked petrified at the sight of intruders dressed in armour and holding swords in their hands inside the house of god. They thought of running out of the temple but they couldn’t as the moment Oniata came back to his senses he took out his sword and started slaughtering the priests. Oniata was ruthless and enjoyed killing. He personally killed seven out of the eight present in the temple. He spared the last in order to know the route to the main city. He tortured and threatened the last one and the priest gave him all the information he could.

  Oniata then followed the route and saw the fortress himself. The city looked beautiful with white marble on its outer walls. The white stone glittered in the sun and looked heavenly. Such embellishments on border walls had hitherto been unseen. Oniata was impressed by the kingdom. He created a map and noted the location route. Once he was through, he rode back to the camps with the priest as his captive.

  Tung’s Encounter: Tung went towards the south. The area had rocky hills and narrow passes. The rocky region stretched from south to west and merged with a forest. The rocky area was close to the south side of the fort and a fresh water river flowed through these passes inflowing to the fort. The area was ideal for strategic warfare and this is what Tung had in his mind. He asked his men to stand back in order to stay hidden from the men at the watch towers. He himself crawled towards the crests and identified areas ideal for bottleneck warfare and hammer strategy and created a map of the area. Once everything was noted, he and his men retuned.

  Vinashki’s Encounter: Vinashki came across lot of animals as well and she used her energy balls to capture them. She and her troop hunted and carried meat back to the camps.

  Concurrently, Agastya overlooked and ensured a quick creation of the camp. His men worked hard and created a twelve feet wooden wall surrounding the camp. A base was also created on the wooden wall at a height of nine feet which allowed archers to stand and fire in case of an attack. Wooden pikes were placed all around the wooden wall structure. The whole apparatus was set up on a hill and watch towers were erected inside the walls at all corners.

  Jivraj also joined the men in the camps; Agastya treated him well now and gave him a separate pavilion. The senator even asked the sailor to guide and help them on land as well and declared him the seventh member of the ‘Manuastra’. This change of behaviour confused Jivraj but he didn’t mind the honour bestowed on him.

  In the evening everyone returned and shared their experiences. The captured priest gave them a lot of information about the island and the natives.

  The Kingdom of Rabocin was founded by Samvedhan, who had built this city and its walls five hundred years ago. The people of this city were patrons of the Sun God and his human form ‘Yogishm’.

  The current ruler of the city was Prahast, a direct descendent of Samvedhan. The priest also told them that the city had a huge army and the might of their King rested in his two sons who had been blessed with invulnerability by the god himself. The priest further disclosed that the ‘Armour of Surya’ was protected by the Avatar of Surya and henceforth was impossible to acquire. The armour was kept inside a temple inside the fortified city. The temple was a holy site and was open only to the royalty and high-ranking priests. He also described the layout of the city. Once all the information was gathered he was offered food and water. He was spared but was held captive.

  Agastya knew that they could face a surprise or even a full- frontal attack, therefore he ordered his armed men to guard in shifts. He asked half of them to sleep and the other half to remain alert. He asked his men to sprinkle caltrops and spiked balls all around the hill. His team also laid down many deadfalls around the camp. The archers stood on the walls and scouts were stationed at different places to look out for the enemy.

  As the moon appeared in the sky, the ‘Manuastra’ went to their chambers to rest. Jairudh was still being attended to by the physicians; he was still in deep sleep. Vinashki constantly monitored his health and slept for a little while only.

  As the night passed and half the men sank into deep slumber, the scouts raised an alarm. Agastya rushed to a tall wooden outpost and saw hundreds of lights approaching the campsite. He asked one of his subordinates, ‘Malamb’ to go and check the source of the lights.

  Malamb rode towards the lights with fifty cavaliers and saw a royal palanquin carried by a few slaves; this was followed by many carts pulled by numerous slaves. Malamb immediately apprehended the slaves carrying the palanquin and ordered the person inside to come out. The person held his hands high and emerged out of the palanquin
and introduced himself.

  “I am the royal messenger of our mighty king, the patron of Surya, the mighty Prahast. I have come here to bring a message of love and peace from our king to our honoured guests. We honour you and hence the king would like to extend his friendship to you. We have got these fifty carts containing food and wine as a token of our friendship. We wish to know the reason for your arrival in the city. Are you the leader of your army?”

  Malamb said nothing, he ordered his men to go and check the carts thoroughly and they indeed contained food and wine. Malamb then looked at the messenger again and replied, “No I am not the leader, our leader is Agastya, come I’ll take you to him.”

  The messenger was immediately escorted to Agastya’s pavilion, inside which all the chosen warriors leaving Jairudh were present. Jivraj was also invited. The messenger was asked to be seated and was offered wine. Once settled, the messenger introduced himself and sang praises of his king.

  “I am Nector; I represent the kingdom of Rabocin and our almighty King Prahast, the undefeatable. The King who is favoured by the gods and has dragons and lions as his pets. The King, who is the care taker of the god’s very own weapons.

  We have been living on this island since the birth of this island, this is our land and we honour the courageous people who have come so far, up to the edge of the earth. You are our guests and we like to treat our guests well. The carts outside contain food and wine to please you and your soldiers. This is our King’s extension of friendship. We people believe in peace, we are against violence, I would also like to inform you that there is no one as deadly as the ‘Rabocins’ when it comes to battle. We are the best in the three worlds. Take the gifts, enjoy and tomorrow visit our King as friends and state the reason for your arrival.”

  The chosen warriors listened and asked the guards to escort the messenger to a tent, but under arrest. Once he left the premises, they began to discuss the matter. Jivraj was the first one to comment sarcastically, “Hmmmm… Now that is a mouth-watering offer.”

  “A pretty neat welcome, royal treatment,” added Oniata jokingly.

  “Right…too royal…but may be actually they don’t want to fight and if that is true, our job will be easier,” said Tung.

  “Or the King just wants to poison us! Let’s feed the ambassador of the King himself, lets experiment on him,” uttered Nismibh.

  “That may not be possible as it may spoil the chance of friendship if there is any, but yes the slaves can be used,” suggested Agastya.

  “Using slaves for experiments? It will be better to feed the crooked messenger,” said Vinashki.

  “So emotional for slaves?” commented Agastya.

  “Why harm the harmless?” replied Vinashki.

  “They are harmless because they are slaves, if they get an opportunity they will spare none, no one is harmless in the world, it is just that few get the opportunity and few do not,” elucidated Agastya. He then looked at Oniata and ordered him to choose slaves, “Choose ten slaves and feed them the food & wine brought by Nector. Watch for any suspicious behaviour once they consume food, observe them for at least 24 hours, post which we will take our decision.”

  As ordered, Oniata walked out of the pavilion. He chose ten slaves and forced them inside a tent. He then asked his guards to get some food and wine from the carts and place it in front of the slaves for consumption. The slaves were innocently happy with the royal treatment and they ate all the food and drank all the wine on the table.

  Oniata asked his men and the chief physician Aason to keep a vigil on the slaves, while he himself went back to his camp to rest for a while. Nothing happened during the first four hours, but things started to go wrong after that, the slaves drifted off to sleep but the sleep was a bit too tight. They never woke up again, the food was poisoned. Aason immediately called for Oniata who in turn rushed straight to Agastya.

  The moment Agastya received the information; he verified the news himself, confirmed the same from Aason and then proceeded to the meeting pavilion. He asked Malamb to call the members of ‘Manuastra’ and in less than fifteen minutes, the legendary warriors gathered inside the meeting camp. Once they were inside, Agastya declared, “The food was poisoned!”

  “I knew it, it seemed too easy. Let me crush his skull with my bare hands. He is there in his pavilion asking too many questions related to his arrest. Let me crush him,” roared Nismibh.

  “That you can do later, but first, we should take out all the information about Rabocin from him,” suggested Jivraj.

  “That seems fair,” roared back Nismibh, “You take the answers while I’ll crush him.”

  “Wait! Are we sure that the slaves brought by them are actually slaves? Let’s arrest them too,” recommended Vinashki.

  “Good thought, you and Oniata go and arrest the slaves, make sure they are not concealing anything, meanwhile we will meet the messenger and once I am finished with my work, Nismibh you can crush his skull,” said Agastya.

  “Sounds like a plan,” replied Nismibh.

  Soon, all the slaves were arrested. They were not assassins and were actually slaves and had no clue regarding any assassination attempt. They belonged to a smaller tribe of the region. The tribe was of no match against King Prahast and had been captured by his forces.

  Meanwhile, the messenger was tortured, though a tough nut to crack, he was beginning to break apart as Agastya and Nismibh were in no mood to show any mercy and finally after an hour of torture, the messenger started to speak.

  “The Kingdom of Rabocin is ruled by the mighty King Prahast, forefathers of whom have fought along with the gods, he rules the Kingdom along with his ten sons. However, the eldest two ‘Suryajeet’ and ‘Akashjeet’ hold the most prominent position; they also ride and control the mighty flying beasts, a gift by the God of Surya in order to protect the kingdom forever. The beasts can fly and are huge, fifty feet long, and cannot be killed by any mortal weapon….only divinely powered weapons can cause them harm. Their faces are like crocodiles and they have wings like an albatross. The army consists of around fifty thousand men and is the strongest in the island and the neighbouring areas as well.”

  “Which all weapons are used by the King’s army?” asked Agastya.

  “They have contingents which use different weapons, like wooden clubs, metallic swords and spears and other such weapons,” replied Nector.

  “Wooden Clubs? Why wooden Clubs? They are not that lethal,” probed Agastya.

  “The other tribes of the island are not that dangerous, they are of no threat to us. We attack them when we need slaves for sacrifices and wooden clubs are ideal for capturing them alive.”

  “What about bows & arrows?” enquired Agastya.

  Nector was badly tortured; he was cut at fifty different places causing him extreme pain and irritation. This was a way of torture invented by Taraksh himself; it was extremely painful and made the captive feel dizzy with constant blood loss which helped the interrogator to get his desired answers easily.

  “Please let me go, call the physician, I can’t take this anymore,” cried Nector as blood came running down from the cuts made on his forehead and filled his eyes with the same.

  “Answer us quickly and you will be treated, otherwise, I’ll order another set of cuts, be fast in your answers,” asserted Agastya. He then looked insanely into the eyes of Nector, which was full of blood and asked again, “What about bows and arrows?”

  “We do have a small regiment of archers. Suryajeet and Akashjeet are adept in archery. But, we prefer hand to hand battles so as to capture slaves and sacrifice them in the name of Surya,” answered Nector.

  “Does your army use armour and shields?” asked Agastya again.

  “Yes…both.”

  Agastya showed his armour and shield to Nector and demanded, “Touch it! Is it like this?”

  The messenger looked at the shield, touched it, “No this one is heavier, we wear a lighter armour which is made of thick leather, unlike you
rs which is all metal. Our shields are partly made of metal but they are not this heavy, they are light but effective.”

  “Do the brothers possess any specials weapons,” asked Agastya.

  “No just the flying beasts,” replied Nector.

  “What about horses, like the beasts we ride on.”

  “Taming animals and riding them is unknown to us, horses, like you call them, are strange to us and not found on the island.”

  “Your city is well fortified, did you people build it yourselves?” inquired Agastya.

  The questions felt endless to the tortured captive, he stopped vacillating and started replying to questions even before they were finished, he wanted it to end quickly.

  “No the beasts and fortress was a gift to us by the gods.”

  “What are the sources of water in your city,” investigated Agastya further.

  “The water comes from Anumay River.”

  “Is this the only source and where is this river?”

  “The river originates from the South West region of this island and is our primary source of fresh water, though we have storage tanks which can store water for many months,” replied the messenger.

  Nector begged to stop and cried for treatment but Agastya was in no mood to relent, he wanted all his answers and continued with his questions.

  “Have you been engaged in any kind of war lately?”

  “We have subjugated all the tribes of the neighbouring areas; ‘Suryajeet’ and ‘Akashjeet’ cannot be defeated by any mortal.”

  Agastya listened to him, paused for a few seconds and then looked at the messenger and asked the most important question, “Now tell me, where is the Armour of Surya?”

  The messenger hesitated but was in no position to bear any more pain, “It is inside a cave, sealed with a divine unbreakable lock. We have built a temple dedicated to Surya over the cave and it is frequented by the royals and the high priests, the Kingdom of Rabocin will never submit and will not give up the armour easily.”