Recap:

Jeyasinghan, having murdered Pasupati, crowns himself king, but his reign is plagued by paranoia and fear of retribution from Srikrishna and Anirudhdhan. He attempts to assassinate the young princes during a hunt, but they are saved by the sacrifice of Sivappi. Srikrishna and Anirudhdhan find refuge with Priest Ratna Manjunatha, where they meet the loyal Panbalan, who reveals his allegiance to Parvata Vardini and joins their cause to overthrow Jeyasinghan. A plan is hatched to create chaos within the palace.

Chapter 24/26: X Marks the End

Part 2/2 of the novella ‘The cursed keris of Taravati’

Anirudhdhan entered the palace from the front, accompanied by Panbalan. Srikrishna entered from the back. All three had their faces covered with black cloth as they rushed towards Jeyasinghan’s bedroom, where the commotion was escalating.

“Enough is enough!” Jeyasinghan roared. “I will drag the old hag queen by her hair and cut off her head in public, the pros*itute!” he yelled and gritted his teeth as if they will break into pieces, raising his sword towards a supporter of Parvata Vardini. Suddenly, Srikrishna kicked him from behind, dislodging the sword from his grasp.

“You will pay for your slanderous words, you unlawful uncle,” Srikrishna declared, his eyes blazing with fury.

“You? So, all these are designed by that witch her group, is it. Do you still think you are the king. The kingdom is mine. You are just transit. You won’t see another sunrise, young man.” Jeyasinghan spun around to face him. As the fight erupted, Anirudhdhan joined Srikrishna. The conflict intensified, and as supporters of Parvata Vardini flooded into the palace, Jeyasinghan was forced into a retreat. He eventually leaped down the stairs, seized a horse, and fled towards the forest.

***

“Come, come… this is the way… come, come…”

Jeyasinghan heard a voice as he rushed away on horseback. “Whose that?” he asked.

“Go at once… The forest is good. The forest is divine. The forest is lonely… come, join our world,” the voice continued to echo.

“I say, whose that?” he shouted. His voice sounded rough and strained.

With a scary laugh like the cry of an owl, Sivappi appeared in the air, her sarong smudged to air, her grey hair flowing wildly, seemingly obscuring the rain-covered forest behind her.

“Goodwill or evil, it will follow you. No matter how fast you go,” the old woman laughed in a thunderous voice.

***

As Srikrishna pursued him, Panbalan called out to Anirudhdhan, “Prince!” Upon seeing him, he threw the keris towards Anirudhdhan. Anirudhdhan caught it in one hand and tossed it to Srikrishna, who was now also in pursuit. The three of them chased Jeyasinghan into the same forest where he had plotted to kill the princes during hunting. Jeyasinghan had a head start, but the other three had already spotted him in the distance. The horse’s progress was soon impeded as they reached the paddy fields bordering the forest.

Crossing the muddy paddy fields with their sandy bunds proved difficult. Jeyasinghan stumbled and fell into the mud. As he scrambled to his feet and rushed towards the trees, the other three caught up.

“You are not supposed to do this to me! I am of your father’s generation, your elder!” Jeyasinghan pleaded desperately.

“Did you ever consider that when you plotted to stab my father on his back, dear uncle? Rajmata is of your mother’s generation, isn’t she? Did you think about that, when your people abused her? After all the wrong you’ve done, what made you believe I’d show you mercy? ” Srikrishna retorted.

“Did you ever think about it, when you planned to assassinate us during our hunting trip?” Anirudhdhan added, as they surrounded Jeyasinghan.

The moonlight illuminated the muddy field, making their grim task starkly visible. The cry of a lone fox echoed from the forest, soon joined by the howls of others. with a reddish eyes, At the edge of the rainforest on Mount Ranadhira’s slope, two hyenas appeared, their eyes gleaming red in the darkness.

“Prince!” Panbalan called out.

Srikrishna turned towards him.

“Chest!” Panbalan urged, gesturing. He wanted to steer the princes away from the cowardly act of backstabbing that had defined Narobha and Jeyasinghan’s past.

As Jeyasinghan frantically tried to draw his dagger, a unified “Heyyyyy….” echoed through the moonlit darkness. In that instant Srikrishna plunged the keris deep into Jeyasinghan’s chest. He forcefully penetrated Jeyasinghan’s torso, while Anirudhdhan held him firmly in place. Jeyasinghan’s choked cry startled the distant hyenas. Gasping for air from punctured lungs, his life finally sputtered out with a gurgling ‘khrrr… khrrr.‘

Suddenly, Narobha’s spectral form appeared in the sky as a flash of lightning, his voice booming like thunder, “Hey Maran Saththan, isn’t that enough? Please release my children from your vengeance…” The lightning illuminated the entire forest as bright as day, revealing Jeyasinghan’s terrified face to all three of them. Maran Saththan manifested on the other side as a long streak of lightning that struck a nearby tree, followed by a thunderous pronouncement: “Om.”

—

Mindmap (click to zoom):

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Note:

• This fiction is a retelling of a mythology.
• Images generated with ImageFx of Google Gemini.
• Awkward sentences are removed by AI for a smoother reading experience.