The sky was a golden red. Like the royal Sarayuhan sword after a battle. Gold and red were the Sarayuhan colors of victory. Sahasra remembered the sculptures and the royal sword in the palace war room. The sword was untouched since the death of her grandfather in the battle with Mahishmathi. His sword was returned to Sarayuha along with his headless body before she was even born. Sahasra had admired the sword and wanted to touch it but her mother would always say that only a king could wield the golden sword of Sarayuha.

Kshitij looked at the horizon and then at Saara who was standing at the edge of the ship. She was a sight to behold. The dying sunlight fell on Sahasra and it made him feel as though there was a hallow around her. It had been a week since they had left Sarayuha and now they were at the open sea. Wind was weak and they had to often use manual power to increase the speed of the ship. Kshitij was lost in thoughts when Sahasra found him staring at her intensively. Sahasra was taken aback by his expression but she realized that he was thinking about something but she didn’t want to lose an opportunity to tease him.

Sahasra: What are you looking at Kshitij?

Kshitij came back to his senses.

Kshitij: The wind, I mean the sunset. His face reddened due to embarrassment and Sahasra laughed out loud. Kshitij was confused but then he gave a shy smile. How can a woman look this beautiful even when she was not trying to be? Sahasra was a tough warrior and Kshitij had met many woman warriors in his journeys before but there was something soft about Sahasra which was new to him. Sahasra got down from the edge of the ship and she looked at the waves. The ripples created in the water by the ship made it look like pearls and gold thrown on aquamarine and it looked breathtakingly beautiful. She watched the waves and the dolphins jumping on the sides of the ship and laughed in excitement. She was traveling by sea for the first time. It was a beautiful feeling and she couldn’t explain it like you experience something for the first time but you feel that it was always so beautiful and you had always experienced and enjoyed it before. Sahasra had always felt connected to the sea. She sat in the Temple of Heles for hours and listened to the waves. There was a calling, to the place where she belonged and it often confused her why she felt that way when she was in the temple as though she was of another land, of a distant place above the mountains.

*****

It was night and the wind was good so the sails were fully raised. The crew of the ship took rest trusting the wind and the ocean. Sahasra was polishing her sword fighting skills when she found Kshitij lying on the ship looking at the sky. It amused her. Sahasra kept her sword in the scabbard and walked towards Kshitij.

Sahasra: What are you doing?

Kshitij: Watching the night sky. Come on, you lie down here too.

Kshitij suddenly got up and pulled Sahasra down and she was surprised and pulled her hand back. Sahasra was not used to people touching her without permission. Kshitij realized that he had made a mistake and apologized. He looked like an innocent child and Sahasra smiled and messed up his hair. Then she lied down on the floor of the ship next to him. Kshitij couldn’t comprehend what Sahasra was thinking or doing. One moment she pulled her hand away and looked angry enough to kill and the next moment she was laughing and messing up his hair and lying next to him. No matter whatever she did, it only made him like her more.

Sahasra lied next to Kshitij and for a moment she felt awkward and then she saw the sky above and she was stunned. It was so beautiful. It was the most beautiful sight she had ever beheld. Sky from the sea seemed a million times beautiful than from the land. Sahasra was in awe of it and she opened and closed her mouth and Kshitij looked at her and laughed. Sahasra suddenly realized what she had done and cupped her mouth with both her hands and smiled shyly. Sahasra was astonished by her own actions. She seemed to herself as a shy girl when she never was one and never kept her head low in front of anyone. Kshitij’s presence was doing something to her and she knew it but she chose to ignore it. Kshitij raised his hand and pointed it to the sky.

Kshitij: Sailors are the worshippers of the seas and the stars. We follow the constellations and trust the sea waves and voyage to the unknown. It is very important to make sure that a sailor know the stars and they are mapped in his heart. Sahasra only nodded taking in the beauty that she was beholding and for a moment she forgot who she was and why she was voyaging, what she wanted and what she was supposed to do. Sahasra forgot everything and just watched the sky that had spread beyond her eyes to the distance of infinity and her eyes widened. Kshitij felt a new wonder watching the sky with Sahasra. He used to watch it every day of his life but that night was different and he smiled and slowly moved his fingers towards Sahasra’s hand and almost touched it. It was then they heard the warning horn sounding from above. The watcher over the poll has noticed something in the sea. The crew was alerted and all were looking to the west.

Kshitij and Sahasra got up and ran towards the west side of the ship. Kshitij saw a small ship approaching them. He was never afraid of pirate ships but today he was as Saara was with them. He wanted to protect her at any cost. He held Sahasra’s hand tightly. Sahasra was taken aback with his gesture and she looked at their hands and then his face. Kshitij’s face was expressionless.

Kshitij: Pirates are coming towards our ship. Get ready. It is going to be a blood bath tonight.

Sahasra took her sword out from her scabbard.

Kshitij: What are you doing? You are not the crew of this ship. You get down and hide among the cargo and I will call you when it is over. You are not needed here until then.

Sahasra was burning with anger. She was a warrior and her duty was in the battle field. No one had the right to tell her to hide in a fight.

Sahasra: I am a warrior and I want to fight.

Kshitij: I don’t care who you are and what you want. This is my ship and I am asking you to retreat and hide among the cargo. I don’t want my passenger getting hurt. Go inside.

Kshitij was scared and angry and opened the door and let her in and Sahasra had no other choice than to hide inside the ship till the captain called her out.

Kshitij was ready for the battle. The ship that was approaching them was a small one and it was a scavenger ship. It normally carries only a few people and Kshitij had no idea why it was coming towards a ship like theirs which was bigger and had more number of people. Kshitij was ready for the battle when he found something that ran a chill to his spine. It was not a scavenger ship but the ship of one of the notorious sea pirates Nharga. The flag that was raised on its sail was a black shark on a red background. Kshitij trembled. Kshitij had only encountered him once before when he was with his father. He had come in a small ship but had enough people to destroy the biggest of ships. The men he had were cruel and could fight ten people at the same time. Nharga and his people had killed his father and most of the old crew and destroyed the ship. Kshitij was left thinking that he was dead. When Kshitij was rescued by another merchant ship he was heavily wounded and his ship was mostly burned. It took him almost a year to recover from his injuries and to fix the ship and sail again to the deadly seas.

Kshitij remembered the night he had lost his father and he could feel his heart beating faster. Today he was going down with his ship and the crew but what worried him the most was what they would do to Saara. Kshitij was ready with the sword as was his crew. They slashed down the pirates one by one as they entered but some of the pirates climbed the sail of their ship and jumped to the sail of Kshitij’s ship with ease and then down on the crew. They slashed the crew and killed a few but they spared most. They were not here for killing people and stealing the cargo but for capturing the crew to take to their island. Kshitij was scared more. The pirates had all of the crew on their sword point and two of them went near the door and tried to pull it up and Kshitij’s heart stopped for a moment and he tried to get out of the grip of a pirate who had him under his sword. Nharga who was standing near the wheel of the ship bend his head to the side. He was fascinated by Kshitij’s reaction. Nharga has ruled the seas since the last twenty years. He was a nightmare to every ship that passed the Sarayuhan seas. He had killed, looted, burned and raped. But last few days he was in a search for people. They needed slaves. It was good to get money for those he simply cut down for the beauty of it. He enjoyed blood on his sword. The smell of burned bodies gave him unmeasurable pleasure.

Nharga signed his men to stop and he watched Kshitij’s face and saw him breathing the air of peace and he smiled. He knew something important was inside the ship and he walked towards the door. He pulled the door up and went inside followed by two of his men.

Sahasra was listening to war cry above and kept herself from running out and fighting. She was never someone who would run away from a battle but her duty to her nation and her purpose for visiting Mahishmathi was more important than her call for fight. She needed to stay alive. Sahasra was lost in thoughts when she heard the door pulled up and she hoped it was Kshitij but she didn’t move. If it was him, he would call her name but it was someone else. Sahasra cupped her mouth and stayed silent. She was shocked and taken aback when someone caught her hair and pulled her up. She tried to get out of the grip but the man was too strong and Sahasra tried to take her sword but another person had already taken it from her scabbard. The person who caught her dragged her by her hair and pulled her up to the surface of the ship. Sahasra looked around and she breathed peace when she saw Kshitij alive. She looked at him and he was helpless and she saw angry tears in his eyes seeing her state. Sahasra gave him a faint smile.

One of Nharga’s men brought a torch and showed the light towards Sahasra. Nharga looked at her with the light of the burning fire and was bewitched by her beauty. She was nothing like anything he had ever seen before. He had travelled the nine seas and never found anything that looked as precious as she was. A true angel, a fairy or a goddess covered in warrior clothes. He knew that he would give anything for her. He would even fight the pirate kingdom for this beauty. Nharga pulled her close and smelled her and he could already imagine her by his side in all the nights to come.

Nharga: In all my travels, in all the lands I have been I have never seen a beauty like this. She is as beautiful as the Kuntala river in the mountains. I claim her for me. I don’t want anything else from this loot. Everything else is yours my men. All the men and the cargo and the ship.

Saying this he smiled showing his stained teeth at Sahasra. Sahasra looked at Kshitij and she knew that he was preparing to do something that would end up putting his life at risk. Nharga laughed softly looking at Sahasra and she only smiled back at him and everyone was surprised. Sahasra slightly touched her elbow and a small knife came out of it and with the speed of the lightning she raised her elbow to Nharga’s neck and pierced it and moved it left to right. Blood spilled all over her hair and her face. She quickly took the sword from his hand and slashed him down and she cut down three of the pirates who were standing next to her. A moment of surprise and fear in the pirates was all that was necessary for Kshitij and his men to grab the swords of the pirates and cut them down. One by one they were killed and the rest jumped to their ship and escaped the scene.

The elbow knife was an ancient war technique of the guardians. They wore a knife on their hands and only when touched on a jewel attached to the scabbard would it come out. It was the last technique that a guardian would use to escape if caught. Sahasra sat down on Nharga’s lifeless body and looked at Kshitij and his men who were looking at her in shock and awe. She had killed the black shark of the seas, the terror of night and that too alone. Kshitij walked close to her and bend his knee and sat down.

Kshitij: Who are you?

Sahasra looked up at his eyes which were filled with concern, respect and awe and said.

Sahasra: A warrior.

Amrutha