Grandfather's Legacy
Part 5

The snake on the King's spear stretched out towards me for a moment. I caught a glimpse of something red glimmering on its head as it spoke. "Hear me, foreigner," it said. "My name is Samadarshi, and the words I speak are true. I tell you now of the fate of the King's son, and of the one who put this fate upon him. Woe to the one responsible! For the King has sworn by his right arm that such a one will not leave his presence alive."

I glanced at the King for a moment, but his expression was neutral. Then Samadarshi resumed speaking.

"Many, many years ago," the banded snake said, "Kauravya, the son of King Sankhapala, set out to travel to a faraway country and claim for himself a bride. Though he traveled with the retinue of a Prince, his companions' presence weighed heavy upon him, and when night fell he slipped away to make his prayers alone. No one among the Nagas heard anything of the Prince Kauravya for many summers after, but the place where the Prince was last seen stank of magic."

Given that I was facing a forty-foot-long cobra, a half-snake, half-man specimen of Indian royalty, and an otherwise normal snake who spoke flawless English, I thought the comment about magic was a little rich. Then again, stranger things happen in Oz.

"It happened, one night, that a dream came to Ulupi, daughter of the king," the snake continued. The taller of the two princesses bowed her head. "She dreamed of her brother Kauravya, who spoke to her as one who calls from afar, and this is what he said to her:

"'I beg of you, my sister, heed my words. My time is brief, and our father the king must know what has befallen. I am trapped beyond the reach of all our people's power, through the actions of men.'"

There was an angry muttering quality to the hiss from the crowd, but it didn't go any further than that.

"Kauravya said, 'Hear me, o Ulupi! On the day I set out to find my bride, a man who fancied himself a hero met a man who called himself an ascetic. It was a meeting of men only, and would have gone unnoticed, but the ascetic knew of our people. He offered the hero his aid in a mighty deed: the theft of a Naga's ruby.'"

Here he dipped his head towards me, and I saw that I had been right. In the center of his head, where I would have assumed there to be nothing but scales, he somehow wore a tiny ruby. The story stopped as he hissed, "To take the gem from the brow of a living Naga is no mean thing, Preston. It is through these gems that we call upon many powers. We may pass unseen among men if we choose, or call the rains, or bestow children on those we favour- or withhold them from those who have angered us. Even the words which I speak to you now are made acceptable to your ears by virtue of the stone."

He seemed to want a response; I nodded, and he went on. "Kauravya was mighty among our people, but he was only one, and the men who sought to take from him his ruby were mighty after their own fashion. He spoke of this to Ulupi, and of the spells the ascetic had used to trap him. Trapped he was, O foreigner! For they had taken his stone from him, and bound him about with many spells, so that he must surely do whatever he who held the ruby commanded of him.

"'Where then may your ruby be found?' asked the daughter of Sankhapala, but Kauravya the prince only shook his head. 'O my sister,' said the prince, 'I have passed beyond the lands of our people, and beyond all reach of our kind. The gem was stolen from the hero even as he had stolen it from me. It has passed over many lands and many waters, and I have passed with it, though it was never my wish to do so.'

"The princess asked then, 'How is it you speak to me?'. And her brother said: 'He who holds the stone now is a man of great learning. He speaks the tongue of the people of Rajmahal, and other places besides; he knows of the ascetic's spells. He has bought the gem, and keeps it now among his treasures, so that I must give prosperity to his business and abundance to his wife and children. He has set on the gem another charm, so that he may order me as he likes even from afar. It is this charm, O my sister, which gives my words strength to reach you now- for I have a little power left, and for this time only I have wrested the charm from his control.'

"In that moment the prince Kauravya stretched forth his hand and touched his sister's forehead. 'Thus may my captor be known,' said he; 'this is the smell of him, and this the look of him. He dwells in a land I have only heard named as Scotland. And though he does not speak or write his name where I may hear, I have heard his servants call him by the name of Preston.'"

We were in India, and it was September, but I don't believe I've ever had such a cold feeling creep over me as I did at the banded snake's words.

"Sankhapala's son said no more than that," said Samadarshi very quietly. "When he spoke the name of his captor, the charm slipped his grasp. Ulupi woke then, and brought her brother's message to her father and his ministers. It is in this way that we know of the prince's fate." He uncoiled some of his length from the spear, rearing up his head, and his tongue flickered for a few moments. "The scent of you is very like that which the Prince conveyed to his sister, and though your garb is different, the look of you is much the same as well. And you have already given us your name, which is the same as his. . ."

"So tell us," the Naga King broke in. His expression was carefully neutral, but the thickest man alive could have seen the pain and the anger in his eyes. "Tell us, now that you have heard Sankhapala's words: are you the man my son spoke of?"

I wanted to tell him something. I don't know what. Something that would at least have done some kind of good, or given him some kind of news- but if I said anything like that, it would have been a lie. "No, your Majesty," I answered. "I'm sorry."

The King was silent. The other Nagas were probably watching, too, but-well, they didn't matter. Harsh, I know, but they didn't. King Sankhapala was the only one who mattered.

He looked at me for a long time, his head held high and his jaw grimly set. He might have been a marble statue for all the movement he showed. There wasn't anything I could do but return his gaze- I'd given him the truth already. I didn't have anything else to give.

Without warning, the Naga King threw down his spear- and I do mean down: it landed in front of me, the haft crosswise to my feet. "So it is," the King said through gritted teeth, Samadarshi wrapping himself around one forearm. "It seems I must believe you."

I let out a breath- hadn't known I'd been holding it. "Thank you, your Majesty-"

One of his hands came up in a sharply truncated gesture. "Do not thank me! I have done nothing. There is no lie in you, Preston. That is all." He turned towards his daughters, and I couldn't see his face any more. But there was a line to his shoulders that I knew much too well. Men don't take it well when their only chance for revenge slips through their fingers.

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