Chapter 8 - The Reborn

Kanchi woke up suddenly, feeling disoriented, lost and scared. She thought she had heard her mother call out her name. There was the distinct pang imagining the abuse her mother would have had to endure for keeping the secret. Her small body ached as did her soul and she now yearned to be with her mother. who would have run her fingers through Kanchi's hair and sang to her in her sweet voice, as she always did when she had fallen ill. It had such a calming and therapeutic effect on her always. Kanchi worried that her mother would have broken out into a frenzy since she had gone missing for a while now and surely her father had also put a lookout for her, latter out of fear of losing his precious five tolas. She instantly felt the blood surge through her veins as she remembered how her ungrateful brother had just walked off leaving her to writhe in pain, stealing her dagger without the slightest care in the world when she had been wounded trying to protect him. She so desperately wanted to teach him a lesson and she wanted her dagger back at any cost.

Presently, Sambhu Asan and Makaran came into the room and closed the doors. Any other girl would have felt threatened to be alone in the company of two grown men in a closed room, but not Kanchi, not just because she knew to defend herself but more importantly she trusted them. In the few years, she had started to train under them, they had taken special care of her and the other girls, they were treated with respect and love. They had also made Kanchi the subject of attention, though intrigued she never questioned them for being chosen over others. Though the duo never shied away from reprimanding her for her mistakes, they had displayed immense faith in her abilities. The daily combat training they put her through was gruelling but they would not let her give up. Every strike to her body made her alert of the next one, increased her agility and awareness of her surroundings, her potential enemies. The training sessions were always followed by deep meditation that helped heal her body and strengthen her soul. In Sambhu Asan she saw a spiritual guide while in Makaran she saw not just a martial art master but a father figure who cared for her and the other girls. After a day’s hard work, he would usually treat them to a few snacks made by his wife using the berries they foraged from the forest. It may have not filled their stomachs but it did fill their hearts with love and gratitude for Makaran and his family.

Now, as Sambhu Asan stood before her, she sprang to her feet. She was surprised to see that she had healed and already regained her energy though she was feeling worn out just a while ago. The bruises had all disappeared. Perhaps Sambhu Asan had fed her one of his magical potions from his apothecary. Sambhu Asan wasn’t too surprised to see the girl quickly back on her feet, it was as if she had just woken up after a long sleep. He had always sensed that the girl had special gifts and this ability to heal quickly seemed to be again a sign of why he believed she was the One.

“Kanchi, we have come to speak to you about a grievous matter. You may not understand a lot of it now," he paused briefly and continued, ”You need to know that the time has come for you to leave Madera.”

"I…I.. don’t understand, where am I going to? Is mother coming? Are you coming with me? Where will I go?," Kanchi had so many questions

"Kanchi, my dear, I'm afraid you will be making this journey all by yourself. We will be sending you through a secret tunnel into the other end of the forest. Someone will meet you there and take you to your destination. Your aide is on the way but you may have to live it out a few days on your own as this journey has come up much earlier than planned."

"But why?" asked Kanchi in utter bafflement.

Sambu Asan took a deep breath and began to explain "My dear, we are all born to serve a purpose and yours is not just special but a much important one. To understand this, I need you to tell you about Madera’s unfortunate past."

"For ages now, Madera has treated its poor, especially its women with utter cruelty. It wasn’t always so. Madera was once the land of the great Queen Manjulika. A fair and powerful queen who had treated her subjects with respect, kindness and fairness. The land flourished under her rule. However, she never realized how her own king had been envious of her powers, he wanted to be the one on the throne and he wanted to be the only one people hailed. The queen had the utmost respect for her husband and having realized her husband’s insecurities and deep desire to be the ruler, she denounced her position and gave him the solitary power to rule the kingdom. She believed her husband would be just as fair, just as kind. However, he was not a saintly soul like the queen, the devil resided in him and in his deeds. He instantly abolished all the trading laws set by the queen and levied huge taxes on the farmers. He wanted the subjects to feel inferior and always at his mercy. He called in the village priest and had him write the sacred text which made the woman powerless in front of a man. The king, who had fathered a transgender child, wanted to ensure that the child never be ostracized and hence was laid down the text to place him in a position of power. Perhaps that was the only kind and fair thing he did, albeit to protect his child.

He called a meeting of the menfolk of Madera, offered them liquor and women and talked to them at lengths why the sacred text was precious and the code had to be followed, how it would make the men more powerful than their women. In spite of having enjoyed the respect and kindness of the Queen until then, the men’s conscience was easily bought by the pleasures offered. They hailed the code and the king, they began to treat their women and female progenies with disrespect and cruelty. Women who opposed were hanged to death from the banyan tree along with their girls. Men who opposed were castrated and thrown into the forest. The men did not care about the taxes levied as they felt it was the price for protecting their honour.

The queen could not handle the amount of cruelty her subjects had begun to suffer. She barged furiously into one of the village meetings and firmly expressed her discontent and demanded the throne be given back to her so that peace could be restored. The king who headed the committee, got up and raised the sacred text to his people, and bellowed

“The Queen expresses her desire to sit on the throne and rule. She questions the code as she feels she a woman is superior to us men. She opposes the happiness you men enjoy now, the peace and respect you receive because your women folk know their place. Isn’t it highly unfortunate then that your king not enjoy the same peace and respect?”

“Yes” they echoed in reply

“The sacred code is same for all, be it the King or his faithful subjects. I therefore hereby hail the code of punishment for the usurper, which states that anyone who tries to overthrow the king shall be burnt alive on the stake by his subjects” he proclaimed

The pronouncement was followed by cheers from the crowd while the Queen stared at her husband in disbelief. What had she done? What a grievous mistake!

Together the men tied her to the stake and set it on fire. Not once did the Queen scream out as the treacherous fire burnt her flesh and eventually devoured her. The young son of the king was heartbroken at the sight of his mother burning on the stake and ran away into the deadly deep forest. A few days later the tribals brought back what remained of the body of the child after having been mangled by the wild beasts.

A few years later the king fell ill to a strange disease that had begun to eat up his body slowly. Having no other direct descendants, he called upon his cousins of the Nambi clan to rule Madera. As soon as they had claimed the throne, the Nambis disposed of the king in the forest to rot and die. They too like the king upheld the code as it felt beneficial to them.

Since I was the only transgender in Madera and the code upheld my kind, I was asked to educate myself on scriptures and science and of course be an expert on the code. I was thoroughly aware of the history and knew Madera was in the wrong hands. The code had to be abolished and since I couldn’t express my discontent without the risk of getting punished, I decided to immerse myself in books and go on quests to distant lands in search of answers that would help save Madera. 

One of these journeys took me far east, where I came upon a group of gypsies. I was enthralled by the beauty of their women and even more by their free spirit. A gypsy by the name Yahya was a wizard of sorts, she could enter into the realm of the roaming spirits and Gods who would then speak through her. I was, of course, a man of science and therefore sceptical to say the least. I decided to test her. I asked her to call upon the spirit of Queen Manjulika, she agreed for the reward of a few silver coins. She built a fire and chanted spells as she threw twigs, bones and potions into it. Soon she broke into a euphoric frenzy and her body began to rock back and forth repeatedly. All of a sudden she shuddered and turned still, her brown eyes turned blue, and she began to speak in the voice of the dead queen, 

“I know you. You are the transgender Sambhu, the only one that remains in Madera after my son. Why have you beckoned me? What is it that you want?” she asked in an agitated tone

“I want a way to save Madera, to bring it back to its glory, where the women and the poor will be treated like how they were during your rule. I fear evil has taken upon the minds of all the men in Madera” I pleaded

“Sambhu, you have a good heart and a pure soul, I can sense that. I see the pain of the women of Madera and I promise you I will return. As a roaming soul that has yet to pay for her sins of a poor choice that put a lot of people in misery, I am not ready to come back yet. However, when I do, you will know because there will be a sign to show you I am different from the other girls. And when you know you have to guide me to the east of the Herat river. There lies the answer” and as soon the premonition was uttered, Yahya’s body went into the same spell before she fainted briefly. 

I decided to follow the Queen's instructions and head to the east of the Herat river. I needed to know what to expect as I made my journey to this unknown destination and so I enquired to the gypsy if she knew anything about the river and its surroundings.

“No one has ever crossed the Herat river, my brother” she replied almost taken aback by the mention of its name. 

“The river is filled with alligators and poisonous snakes and crossing it would mean a battle between life and death. They say even if you get past the alligators and snakes, you just cannot get past the river monster. Go back home, brother” warned Yahya in all sincerity.

Perhaps she was right but I was still curious. The alligators or snakes did not scare me, I had a good metal staff fitted with a sharp edge that could pierce and kill a rhino and the snake stone that could take out the venom from any snake bite. Now, the river monster, that was a myth for sure, I thought. Without the slightest fear or doubt in my mind, I headed towards the Herat river. 

As I reached its bank I saw hundreds of alligators sprawled across the river’s large rocks, while large snakes swam back and forth across the river. It was as if they were guarding the east from intruders and upon sensing a stranger in the vicinity, the snakes slithered onto the rocks next to the alligators and hissed loudly. The alligators slowly advanced towards the edge of the bank. All of a sudden the snakes began to spring and fly, one after the other, towards me. I drew out my staff as I struck them away mid-air before they could land on my body. I doused the tips with a burning potion meant to produce blisters on the enemy during an attack and continued to strike the snakes flying at me. The potion began to take effect on the snakes and they swam back into the water to get rid of the burning pain. The rest of the snakes retreated perhaps having seen the pain their friends had endured. Now the alligators were advancing towards me at lightning speed. The first one that reached me I drove my staff into its skull and it wriggled and died. The rest seemed to have been frightened by this gruesome kill for they quickly began to retreat into the river, so I imagined for all of a sudden I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise up and a cold shiver ran up and down my spine. Someone or something huge was standing behind me and had probably scared the river animals. I began to tremble as I turned to face this new enemy and as I raised my eyes to the mountain of a monster before me, I turned pale. It was not anything like one had ever seen. The monster had long tentacles coming out from his face, burning red eyes and long sharp teeth that were as big as an elephant’s tusks and I stared in utter disgust as it picked up the crocodiles and snakes from the river and chomped on them like peanuts. It then strode across the river, crushing a few alligators and snakes under its feet while others swam away to safety, and upon reaching the opposite bank it turned around and looked at me. It then let out a banshee-like scream and signalled to me with its tentacles to follow him. It did not matter if I followed or not for if it wanted me dead now or later, there was no way I was going to prevent that from happening. I followed the monster as I prayed to all the Gods I knew. I chose to keep a safe distance from the monster simply because it still dragged a few half-dead snakes under its feet. After walking miles, I was worn out but I had to carry on since the giant had no plans to stop and I certainly did not want to socialize with the horrid thing. Finally, we came across a fort and I heard the ear ripping scream once again. It was a signal to the guards inside to lower the gates. As the gates slowly lowered, the monster looked down at me and all of a sudden picked me up with his slimy long tentacles and as he brought me closer to his face he opened his mouth and I thought he was going to bite my head off and perhaps offer it as a serving to whoever lived in the fort. Instead, he bit off a snake that had climbed onto my travel sac and had sneaked out to strike me. He lowered me down as he chewed on his supper and walked back into the forest before I could offer my thanks. 

Inside the fort, I was greeted by guardsmen whose faces were covered with a shemagh. They did not speak
but instead led me into their lord’s room. And there I finally came upon the answer I had been looking for, the lord who too covered the face with a shemagh but would now unveil it to speak to me, the lord of the Igara castle, the ruler of the east, Queen Marza and her veiled soldiers.

“Welcome brother, I hope Zubaar did not scare you, he’s not really the monster he comes across as. He is here to guard us really, from the intruders, especially the Warsts, whom we overthrew through our sheer bravery and strength,” she said in a pleasant yet authoritative tone.

“How did you overthrow them, your highness?” I asked in utmost admiration and curiosity, forgetting to even explain who I was and why I had made this long arduous journey

“The Warsts, the unscrupulous cavemen who plundered the provinces of the east, had raped our women and killed our male subjects rampantly and burnt down our villages. They beheaded all the men and burnt them up in a pile while their women were made to watch. Most women standing here today have lost their husbands and children to their cruelty and unfortunately have also borne the children of the Warsts. However, the children born out of the unholy union are also taken away by the Warsts men and never seen again. For long they underestimated our tolerance and hatred and our willingness to live. The once huge library became the makeshift kitchen after the illiterate Warsts burnt all the books and we were put to work all day to feed them. It was there we came across an old relic which taught the ancient war form of Buriki, the relic had had fortunately survived the fire and it became our guide, our source of inspiration and strength. We built arms out of the kitchen knife blades, meat cleavers and carved wood to make stakes. Each day we toiled hard and trained hard to perfect our moves as explained and illustrated in the relic. We knew we still did not have the numbers in soldiers or weapons and we had to use guile to trap a few Warsts to steal their weapons. We began to entrap the men using sexual favours, and while they lay on the bed naked we would slit their throats. We made sure to pick the unimportant ones first, the ones who wouldn’t be noticed, and then burn his remains in the kitchen. We would then steal his weapons and add to our armoury. We waited patiently before each killing and bought ourselves time, weapons, and more women soldiers. Finally on the day of the full moon, when the Warsts had their grand feast we marched out adorning our shemaghs and our daggers and cut them down one by one.”

“And the river monster?” I asked still amazed by the bravery of the veiled soldiers and the Queen.

“Zubaar is the amalgamation of all our lost children from the Warsts. He rose from the deep river on the day of the full moon after months of prayer to the Azura God. The children that were born from us had been fed to the alligators at the Heret river and Azura gave us back one strong son to replace them, he with the power of one hundred sons but a frightening appearance owing to the evil Warstseed” replied Queen Marza.

"I am sorry your highness, I have forgotten my manners. I am Sambhua Asan all the way from the other side of the world, here seeking your guidance and wisdom"

“I know why you are here brother. The oracle had forecast the arrival of a noble visitor from the west who fights the same battles we do. However, the Oracle also had hinted that it’s still too soon but I promise you this I will help you when the time comes. Meanwhile, I will send you a messenger twelve fortnights from now and you are to inform her when you have found the One. Without the One this battle cannot be won, for it would mean the end of womanhood and sanity everywhere. Until then we shall send you more relics on the Buriki and armoury so you may train your aides and build your secret army. You will wait for the One and send her to Igara, the war will be led from the east and your army within will ensure that the enemies at home be entrapped from all sides. Adieu, my brother, my veiled soldiers will ensure you have a good night’s sleep in the best rooms of the castle, you will be fed well and sent off with enough water and food that will last your entire journey back home.”

Needless to say Zubaar, the river monster awaited outside the gates as I exited the next day and ensured my safe journey across the river. When I reached home after a long journey, I was filled with hope but I was also anxious for the arrival of the One. Years went by searching for any sign of the new one, I visited homes as soon as I heard the birth of a girl child and would expect to see some miracle or even a symbol on the child’s body which indicated that she was the One. A similar journey brought me to your home, Kanchi, thirteen years ago and once again I was disappointed to see there was no obvious miracle or sign for me. Perhaps it was fate for that day just as I was outside the gates I heard your mother let out a cry and reprimand your brother while you wailed loudly. I quickly made my way back into your home and saw the bottom of your little feet bleed profusely. Your brother Kesu had poked the bottom of your feet with a very sharp twig several times and there were so many wounds. I took you to the infirmary at the village immediately so that I could treat your wounds. Meanwhile, you had gradually stopped wailing and slept off, I thought perhaps from the weariness that had taken over. At the infirmary, I laid you down on a mat and took out a clean cloth to clean the wounds with warm water. As I cleaned the blood I began to notice that there were no wounds to treat. They had somehow healed on their own. There was not even a scar on your little feet and you woke up smiling. I felt my heart skip a beat, but I needed to be sure, I wiped a bit of turmeric on your hand and with my knife made a cut on it. Blood oozed out for a few seconds as you let out a brief cry and stopped and my jaws dropped as I watched the wound bind itself and make your skin whole again without leaving the slightest scar. I had found the One. My dear Kanchi, you are the One, you are the reincarnation of Queen Manjulika.

I have been preparing you for this day, ensure you trained on all relics and you have mastered the Buriki. Its time for you to go to Igara, where Queen Marzawill will guide you further. Its time to follow your destiny."

It was all too much to be taken in one fine day for Kanchi but she felt like she had already heard this story before. Perhaps the soul of Manjulika had finally woken up inside her. She felt the pain, the suffering and the anger, all of it but also fear.

"SambhuAsan, why do I feel afraid then?" she asked

"You are afraid because you haven’t started believing in it yet. You need the self-doubt to go away" he answered

Kanchi drew in a deep breath as she prepared her mind to be strong, she could do it she told herself.

Though not entirely convinced, she asked

“When do I have to leave?”

“Tonight” replied Sambhu Asan

“Can I see my mother one last time before I leave” she asked

SambhuAsan suddenly became morose, he had been putting off the news for a while but the girl needed to know.

“Kanchi, I am afraid there is some bad news. Kalyani... she is no more” he said despondently.

"Mother, my mother, Oh God! No! What happened to her, please tell me it's not true!" cried Kanchi as she sank to the floor.

Makaran’s wife came forward to comfort the heartbroken Kanchi but she was inconsolable

"We do not know dear. She was stabbed by someone, they say it was a thief" said Sambhu Asan

"I want to see her, please," pleaded Kanchi amidst her sobs

"Kanchi, your father has sent people to look out for you as he has learnt about your coming of age. He will not let you go if he gets his hands on you" reasoned SambhuAsan

"Please, let me see her from afar, I will disguise myself, please SambhuAsan, please help me" she appealed yet again

Sambhu Asan thought hard for a resolution to help the girl see her mother one last time. Yes, there was a way.