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Posted on: Oct 16, '08

The Zhai 4

The long winding road, parallel to the National Highway looked like a black python with its mouth wide open at the horizon, waiting for them. Each of them felt different emotions within themselves and no one had any idea about the disaster that they’ll be unleashing.

It looked like a never ending ride. They felt an excitement surging and despair creeping in. Their brains advised them to turn back but their greedy hearts said otherwise.

After four hours of travel from Pondicherry, they reached a particularly dark spot of the road where there were patches of thorny plants on both the sides. They hid their two wheelers near a particularly thick patch. The Iron Gate was too small and too ordinary to protect the ages old palace. Maybe the gate was built atleast 25 years ago, because there was a Godrej lock hanging. They knew they could not jump over the gate or smash the lock. But they found out another way. The pillar holding the gate was so “strong” that one mighty heave of the five men was able to demolish it.

It was clear that the place was not in use for years. There were thorny bushes in what might’ve been a beautiful garden for the personal use of the members of the harem. As they walked through the bushes towards the ruins they noticed the absence of the noises of the insects of the night. Despair and hopelessness were hanging in the air. Arjun looked up at the night sky. He could see no moon or the stars. It was just a plain black surface. He thought of the scary Dementors that J always talked about, from her favourite Harry Potter series. She used to say that all warmth and light would diminish in a Dementor’s presence. But though there was no moon, he could clearly pick his path through the thorns. And he noticed the ‘palace’ giving out a fluorescent light.

Soon they were at the foot of ruined stone staircase leading into the ancient building. The landing was a sort of pretty big hall with enormous (literally) pillars supporting the broken ceiling. They walked across towards the other end of the landing; they had no idea where they were going. No map of any sort but they walked on as if they’d been living there for ages. There were too many corridors branching away from the path they were taking and too many doors. The walk seemed to take ages but abruptly they halted in front of a magnificent door that they felt like being stopped by a door that suddenly sprung up out of thin air.

Not betraying the majesty of the door was the inside which seemed to be ‘as big as the Nandanam hockey ground’, as Yuvi later put it to Diya. They climbed another staircase which led to another door. The door opened into a room that was a smaller version of the hall that they saw downstairs just now. There was only one way leading out from this room, apart from the one they entered. The next room turned out to be a small one built; it seemed, solely for the purpose of viewing the beauty of the rails of the winding staircase from the landing above. They climbed down the stair case. The descent was a long one and half way through neither the landing above nor the one below were visible and the darkness almost tricked them into believing that they were in another world altogether.

After crossing rooms after large rooms they entered one that looked like an extra large Royal court. They have finally reached the place!

They could almost hear all their hearts banging against their ribs.
Munna was the first of the dumbstruck friends to make a move.
‘So, is this the place where we’ll find the…err…treasure?’ he said eying the black spot in the centre of the hall.

Everyone was looking at it and felt that something sinister was ‘living’ there.

J looked around. She knew that she was not a part of a fantasy flick and except while reading the Harry Potter books she’s never imagined herself to be in fantasia. So she knew that she had not much time for more description about the place. She took the hammer she had brought with her and started tapping around the black spot.

Before they knew what happened, they were out in the midst of the thorn bushes. All they remembered were an ash screen and a big box full of precious gems as in a movie.

Tags: emerald, mystery

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