The Prodigy
The Prodigy
“Is this your final decision?” The old man asked his youngest son.
“Yes,” replied Bala curtly. He detested his father and his pusillanimous attitude towards life. All through his childhood, he had seen his father vacillating between doing the right thing to set things straight and doing the wrong thing to keep his family happy. By family, Bala always meant his eldest brother and his sister-in-law. Bala’s mother did not have the guts to challenge her husband for she had learned that her husband stayed meek when the world looked at him but in the privacy of his own home, her husband became a raging tyrant. She had suffered her fate silently and it had greatly encouraged her husband to ill-treat her so that a time had come when she was reduced to the status of mere furniture in the house. Even Bala, the one with the fiery spirit, did not ever speak on behalf of his mother. He never came to protect his mother from his father’s thrashing that still kept on going unabated.
“So then I will expect a full and final payment from you,” Puranmal’s voice became terse. Bala had decided to cut off his ties with his family. Two years back, he requested permission to work under the guild of gemstones but his father denied his request. The guild could never accept any candidate without approval from the parents or in the case of the child being an orphan from a legitimate legal guardian. Bala had always dreamt of working with beautiful gemstones and his dreams were shattered by his father’s obstinacy and his brother’s jealousy. Sumali had no dreams of his own. Even though he was two years older than Bali, he had no ambition of his own. His only desire was to keep his father happy. When he noticed Bala working extra hard towards his dreams, Sumali got into his head that he was better than Bala at crafting jewelry and he himself tried to get admission in the guild of gemstones but his candidature was rejected due to his unoriginal assignments. When Bala cleared the admission test, Sumali threw a fit in the house and prevailed upon his father to deny permission to Bala. That was the day when Bala fell out of love for his family and began to hate his father. Two years later, he became of legal age and did not need permission from anyone. He could no longer join the guild of gemstones but he applied for an apprenticeship in the workshop of Marjori who ruled the jewels market in the city of Prabjyot. The apprenticeship paid much lower than what Bala would have got if he were a guild member but he desperately wanted to showcase his skills to the management running Marjori and he accepted the unfair deal. He told his father that he would be leaving soon and then things got ugly. His father wanted Bala to work in the shop run by Sumali, for free of course, and Bala showed no willingness for the job. When Sumali learned about Bala leaving their home, he once again threw a fit. To keep him happy, Puranmal thought of creating a deterrent towards Bala’s departure.
“Money?” Bala asked incredulously. He could not believe how low his father was willing to sink to keep Sumali happy. “You want me to make a payment to you?”
“Oh yes,” Sumali chipped in. “Your quitting now will cost us dearly. We will have to hire someone and then pay him wages. All that expense should come from you.”
Bala’s face turned dark as he looked on at the two people who had created so much pain for him. He had never felt so angry ever before. His voice took on an undertone of evil. His father and his brother were oblivious to it but his sister-in-law got alarmed at Bala’s transformation.
“How much do you want?” Bala managed to whisper. Puranmal looked at Sumali who grinned and quoted the figure of 10000 coins. It was impossible for Bala to arrange that kind of money. His new employer would never pay that much to retain him. Sumali expected Bala to break down or to beg them to reconsider but Bala simply nodded and went out of the house. Sumali walked towards his living quarters with a light heart. He needed Bala to work under him for some years. By then he would be able to get some long-term accounts and then he would be set for his life. His father had already promised him the house. Once he got to the house, he was going to kick the freeloader brother of his out of his house and out of his life. For all that he cared, Bala could go and beg on the streets.
Bala walked aimlessly out in the streets for some time. He wanted to run away from the house but he knew that his brother would then complain to Marjori about his dues and then Marjori would have to kick him out. He kicked himself mentally. He should not have told Sumali anything. He should have just run away. His friend Shikhar ran away three years back. No one could trace him and everyone assumed that he died in some freak accident but then one-day news came that Shikhar was well and alive and doing quite well in some remote city. Soon Shikhar made peace with his family and returned to pay them all a visit. Bala wondered if he should have done a similar thing. He shook his head morosely. He disliked his mother but he knew that his sudden departure would break her heart and he did not want to cause her any further unhappiness.
The old man who slept in his head took this very opportunity to make himself heard. Bala used to fear the old man when he was a child. All the nightmares that little Bala had suffered in his childhood were due to the old man who seemed to live rent-free in his head. The old man would inevitably present himself when Bala would be fast asleep and then he would go on a harangue. It terrified little Bala so much so that for some nights he would try desperately to not close his head. The old man would always sit down and tell stories. Some of his stories were about his own childhood that he had spent in a beautiful village but most of his stories were about his work, of how he used to make beautiful jewelry, of how he found novel ways to use gemstones. Whenever he would speak of the gemstones, the old man’s face would take a serene expression. He loved to speak of how he used to craft jewels for rich men and women and how his most loyal client was the queen herself. Bala had asked his friends tentatively if they too had some old men or women living in their heads but they had laughed at him. No one else suffered like little Bala. Shikhar told him that a ghost must have taken abode in his body and that he needed to exorcise the old man's ghost. That led to an intense period of six months when little Bala tried everything he could think of to make the old man's ghost live his body. At long last, the old man sought Bala out in a dream and managed to hold the attention of the cowering child for some moments to inform him that he was not a ghost but just memories of a bygone time and that Bala should not fear him but accept him for he was to bring a great gift for the little kid. It made no sense to Bala but he began to tolerate the old man who tried his hardest to not intrude on Bala's memories and kept himself away but whenever Bala would work on a jewelry item, the old man would come out of his hiding place and he would guide Bala's hands. Initially, Bala resisted the old man's interference but over time he realized that the old man was a skilled artisan who wanted Bala to learn his skills. This was the gift that the old man was talking about. When people began to praise Bala’s steady hands and his eye for detail and the exquisite designs he was able to make without all the tools that a budding jeweler had, Bala worked harder to hone his craft and the old man in his head would encourage him more. Pretty soon, Bala's skills became the talk of the town. Everyone wanted him to join the guild but his father destroyed his dream. Now as Bala walked aimlessly around, the old man called out to him.
"Why not run away to Abitsar?"
Abitsar was the neighboring kingdom. It was the old man's pet idea. Whenever Bala would run into any problem, he would encourage Bala to drop everything and run away to Abitsar. The old man told him that he would guide Bala to meet some really influential people over there and that the guild of gemstones at Abitsar would gladly welcome him. Bala always developed cold feet for he did not have money to spare and he knew nobody in Abitsar. He had heard of many harrowing tales of how Tribhanga's spies were treated in Abitsar and he did not want to be branded as a spy.
"No," Bala muttered. "Not Abitsar."
"Oh for the sake of common sense," the old man muttered. "I keep telling you I will be able to help you over there. Just have some faith in me."
"You will make me a ghost too," Bala hissed. "That is what you want to do. Once I become a ghost, you will then catch me and make me your slave."
"Who gives you these absurd ideas?" The old man sighed. "Why would I make you my slave? I want you to become the best jeweler in the world. We have already lost so many years. By now, you should be working for the queen of Abitsar, and here you are walking in circles." For some moments the old man stayed silent. “Let us go meet your kind mother.”
“What will she do?” Bala protested.
“Not your own mother, doofus,” the old man cried out. “The kind and loving mother who shaped your future with her dexterous hands.”
Bala recalled how the old man kept talking about a kind woman who loved him so much when he was an infant. The old man did not know of all the details but he knew that many infants were being raised in a mansion and the kind mother took care of all the infants. The old man was in awe of the lady and spoke highly of her all the time. He had tried to share his own memory of the lady of the mansion but he always managed to blur the face of the lady. The only remarkable thing in the apparition was the way by which the lady kept half her face covered.
“No,” Bala shook his head. “Abitsar is a dangerous place. They would kill me there.”
Lost in his thoughts, Bala ran into a man near the temple. Suddenly jolted out of his reverie, Bala apologized profusely to the old man who kept staring at him with a hint of a smile.
“You are Bala, right?” The old man asked. Bala was taken aback. His brows immediately got furrowed as he took a good look at the old man’s face. For him, the old man was a stranger.
“Oh, we have never met,” Halim smiled. “But I have been hearing a lot of good things about you. I was actually going to call upon your house to meet you.”
“Who told you about me?” Bala felt innately suspicious about the old man. He did not know that Halim was the head of the spies working in foreign lands. He did not know that Halim was looking to recruit him. He also didn’t know that once Halim’s heart was set on someone, Halim’s will generally hold sway. Bala’s life was about to change drastically. Halim led Bala to a tavern where he got a corner booked for them. After some moments of awkward silence, Halim took out some baubles, threads, and a candle from his bag and put them in front of Bala.
“I have heard about your jewel-making skills,” Halim said not mentioning his contact at Marjori. “Show me what you can do with these baubles. Make at least three different designs.”
Halim drank ale as he watched the young genius at work. He was left impressed at the quality of the work and marveled at one of the designs.
“You are good,” Halim expressed his satisfaction. “I was not misled about you.”
Bala was tired but the praise from the old man made him glow with pride.
“My assignment for you is a bit different,” Halim cleared the table. “Think about it carefully. I want you to travel to Abitsar and work under a renowned jeweler over there. It is a proper job. I am going to give you some money for travel. My men will be there to help you at each step.”
Bala’s face became pallid. The old man in his head was delighted and hollered at him to accept the offer. When Halim enquired about his listless response to a great offer, Bala could not stop his tears. He sobbed bitterly as he told Halim about the unusual demand from his family. Halim listened to his tale patiently but then told him to not worry about it.
“For one, you will be working in Abitsar, not Tribhanga!” Halim explained. “Your family cannot do anything to hurt you there. Secondly, once you join us, you will be protected by powerful people. I will show you how powerful these people are.”
He took Bala along with him and paid a visit to the mayor of the city. When he sent his note to the mayor through the receptionist, the mayor ran out to welcome Halim. Bala could not believe that the sour expression of the mayor could change into a fawning one. Halim made the mayor get a drink for him and Bala and then with a gesture of his hand he dismissed the mayor from his own office. For some minutes he stood in the mayor’s office with Bala and let him soak it all.
“This is nothing,” Halim smiled. “The job at Abitsar will pay you well. If we feel that there is some problem, we will bring you back safely and then I will arrange a job for you at Marjori. You will be compensated handsomely for your work and the owners themselves would take interest in your work. Do you see our power now? Do you feel it? Once you join us, there is nothing in this world that we can’t get for you.”
Bala touched Halim’s feet and let him know that his loyalty lay with Halim from now onwards. Halim sent Bala to his house to do the necessary packing.
“Someone will come to your house tomorrow early morning,” Halim instructed his young ward. “He will take you across the border. Follow his instructions blindly. Do not question him. He is a reticent type. The silent type who gets the job done. Be ready. But remember this! There will be one more task that you need to do before you cross the border.”
Halim waited till Bala was out of the office before calling Mayor back in. He gave instructions at a furious pace and the mayor took notes diligently.
“It will be done,” the mayor announced when Halim finally fell silent.
“Make sure that it is done,” Halim nodded once and left the room. The mayor finally allowed himself to tremble. The mere presence of the head of the spies had that kind of effect on mortals. He went through the instructions once more and then destroyed the notes. It took him some hours but he ensured that each and every item on the list had been taken care of.
The next morning Bala got ready to finally leave his home. When he made his way to the front door of the house, Puranmal and Sumali gave him the stink eye but it had no effect on Bala.
“Before leaving,” Sumali had to rush to cut off Bala from striding out the door, “pay the amount discussed and agreed upon.”
Before Bala could react, there was a sharp knock on the door. Bala opened the door and saw three uniformed guards. The leader of the guards announced loudly that they had been sent by the mayor to seize the properties of Puranmal to pay towards the tax that his shop had ignored to pay. Despite Sumali’s insistence that all bills had been cleared, the guards grabbed all that they could lay their hands on and made a pile of the articles outside the house. The neighbors came out of their houses to see Puranmal getting humiliated publicly. They knew about Puranmal’s ill-treatment of his wife and they believed that his chicken had finally come home to roost.
Bala took that opportunity to make his way out unmolested. The guards did not stop him but a tall, lanky man intercepted him some steps away. He told Bala that he had been sent by Halim and then asked Bala to enter a horse carriage before asking the driver to rush ahead
They traveled at a madcap speed for about 20 miles before they reached a guest house right on the roadside. The man had not even introduced himself and it made the ride very uncomfortable for Bala. At the guest house, two men were waiting for them. The man accompanying Bala was hailed as Amresh and he left Bala alone to have a quick discussion with the two waiting men. Bala watched Amresh listen to the updates from the two men who handed him a package before leaving. Amresh approached Bala and led him to a secluded room.
“Open the package,” he ordered Bala. “You will find a bangle. It is very intricately designed so take a good look at it. I want you to memorize the design. You have to make a replica of the bangle. The alloy used to make it is not readily available. We are trying to procure it. Once we get it, you start working on it. Understand that your crafted bangle will be scrutinized aggressively by reputed judges. I will give you an hour to check out the bangle. Then it will be returned. Memorize the design or make a quick sketch. Remember that you should not miss any detail. Now get on with it.”
Amresh went away leaving Bala to focus on the bangle. He returned after an hour carrying with his drinks and food for Bala and found the teenager studying the design patterns carefully.
“Time is up,” Amresh announced peremptorily. “Any further delay would compromise the mission.”
Bala handed the bangle to Amresh with disappointment writ large on his face. Amresh felt bad for the kid. Even though Bala looked like an adult, he was just a teenager Amresh did not want to subject Bala to the difficult task but the order had come directly from Halim and Amresh had no say in it.
The bangle was quickly packed and Amresh rushed to the road to hand the package to the two men who waited near a horse carriage. The moment the two men boarded the carriage, the coachman spurred the horses to gallop. Bala looked on at the hurried departure and wondered about the urgency. The old man in his head assured him that the design on the bangle could be done easily.
“By when do you expect the alloy?” Bala asked Amresh when he returned to the room.
“You will start working from tomorrow itself,” Amresh watched as Bala gathered his stuff. “Once this job is done, I will take you to Abitsar where your job awaits your arrival.”
Their horse carriage rolled at an unhurried pace from the guest house. A few hours or ride brought them to a mansion where three men awaited their arrival. After a quick greeting, Bala was led to a room and asked to rest. The room had all the tools that he would need for crafting the bangle.
“The package is delayed a bit,” one of the men explained to Bala. “It will be here by tomorrow morning.”
Amresh asked Bala to get some rest.
“By when do you need the bangle?” Bala asked Amresh who replied laconically, "In three days!" Bala was scandalized. “But that’s too less!” His protests fell on deaf ears.
“By the evening of the third day we need the bangle,” Amresh said in a flat voice. “This is your test. You didn’t expect to land that job without taking a tough test, did you?”
Bala was not able to counter the argument. He slept fitfully that night, wondering what mess he had got himself involved in. The old man in his head assured him that they would find a way to make the bangle in three days. His assurances helped calm Bala. He thought about the guards hounding his father for tax and could not help but chuckle at his father's harassment. He knew that it was all done by Halim to enable him to get away from his dreadful family. Even if his father were to clear the dues, he would never be able to forget the humiliation of seeing his things piled on the street. Puranmal and Sumali had hurt him a lot. With the help of Halim, he had given them a blow that they would remember all their lives. What Bala did not know was that both Puranmal and Sumali had been detained on charges of tax evasion and had been lodged in prison pending their trial. This draconian measure was used only for those criminals who were thought to be a flight risk. No one knew why such harsh measures were used in a case of tax evasion but the order had come directly from the mayor’s office and no one dared challenge it. The trial of Puranmal and Sumali was conducted after about a week. By then the spirits of the cowardly men had been completely broken. The trumped-up charges were supported by falsified records and the two men were sentenced to prison for two years. Puranmal died after about six months but Sumali survived the prison sentence. When he returned to his devastated house, he found that his wife had remarried and moved on with her life. The fate of their mother could not be ascertained. No one knew that Halim ensured that the old woman was moved to another house where she lived comfortably believing that her youngest son was paying her bills. For Sumali, his dream of enjoying his life lay in tatters. He could not summon up the courage to commit suicide and decided to run away to some remote city where no one would be able to recognize him. Halim took care to not let Bala know about the fate of his family members.
When the shipment of the alloy reached the mansion early next morning, it was shifted to Bala’s room by Amresh himself who chose to stay in Bala’s room and watched Bala work. When it was time for Bala to rest, Amresh would gather everything and take it away. Bala understood that Amresh did not want even a remnant of the alloy to be either stolen or misplaced. It was imperative that no one should ever know about a bangle being crafted out of the strange alloy.
Bala had never worked with the material ever before. It was most definitely not gold but the alloy gave luster like that of gold. On a cursory glance, the alloy could very well pass off as gold. It revealed its true nature only when subjected to heat and cold tests. It was moreover very difficult to etch any design on the alloy. Bala was scared that he would fail the test but the old man in his head was delighted to work with the strange alloy for he had worked on the material before. Under the old man's guidance, Bala was able to make the appropriate design layout on the bangle. The entire bangle was then filled with whorls and spirals. Bala had made sketches when he had handled the original bangle but the order of the sketches got jumbled up panicking Bala but the old man in his head had somehow memorized the entire design. He spent an hour making Bala learn some mental tricks to improve short-term memory. With the old man's help, Bala was able to finish the bangle late afternoon on the third day. Amresh examined the bangle closely but could find no complaints. The bangle was then safely packed and sent on its way.
Amresh let Bala rest that night for he had seen how hard the newbie jeweler had worked to craft the bangle. The next morning he and Bala left Tribhanga kingdom and crossed the border late at night to enter Abitsar. The handler for Bala stood waiting for them. He and Amresh exchanged some code words to identify themselves and then Bala found himself being led by his new handler. Amresh returned to the mansion and awaited his new instructions. The only missive that had been sent for him during his travel stated that the bangle had passed its inspection.
Bala found the old man in his head to be euphoric on finally returning to Abitsar. When Bala tried to follow the old man’s directions, he kept running into dead ends. The old man had walked on the land of Abitsar a long time back but a lot of water had flowed under the bridge now and the old man’s memories were outdated. The realization made the old man sulk. He still helped Bala on his work items and ensured that the work done was always flawless. The jewelers who had hired Bala were left wonderstruck at the teena’er's skills. Then on the fourth day of his arrival, two guards came to the workshop to escort Bala to a mansion. The mere sight of the road leading up to the mansion made the old man sing in delight. This time around, his memories exactly matched the landscape. The time had changed but it had no effect on the mansion or the estate around it. In the mansion, the old man led Bala to a huge room.
“This is where you were being nursed,” the old man remarked. “This is where I saw you first.”
“So this is the home of the kind lady?” Bala asked him.
“You will soon meet her,” the old man replied.
The lady of the mansion descended to the meeting room after some time. She carried herself very gracefully. Bala noticed straight away that she kept one-half of her face hidden. When she stood in front of Bala, her presence overwhelmed him and he fell unconscious.
On the fifth day since his return, Amresh got an urgent missive to track Bala down and to bring him to Fahim’s house. Fahim was the head of the spies working in Tribhanga but he was assassinated by the chameleon. Halim and Bhootnath had killed the chameleon to avenge Fahim. Parnesh had succeeded Fahim as the head of internal spies but he chose to work from his own office. Fahim's house had been closed for all visitors and only those who were personally invited by Halim were allowed to enter Fahim's house. Amresh had been invited once before so he knew that some top-secret discussion was to be held but he could not understand why Bala was needed there. It was not really his business to second guess his master so he sent a message to Bala’s handler in Abitsar and made his way to the spot where he had handed Bala over. Soon he spotted two figures approaching him.
Bala seemed unhappy on being ordered to drop everything at Abitsar and to return back. He tried to question Amresh twice but got no reply to his question. The old man in his head kept screaming at him to ditch the spy and to head back to Abitsar but Bala had seen Halim's power first hand and he did not want to antagonize Halim. He thought about his short stay at Abitsar and was filled with regret. He constantly thought of the kind lady he had met some hours back. The lady of the mansion had asked him to address as his mother but Bala, though moved by her kindness, could not bring himself to do so. On their way back to Tribhanga, the old man warned him repeatedly to never mention the old lady to Halim.
When they reached Fahim's house, they found that the security around the house had been increased tenfold. Rasika, the head of female spies, met them at the door and escorted them to the meeting room. She used to report to Fahim earlier. When Parnesh took over, she found out that he did not really care for the female spies. It led her to appeal to Halim who was willing to finance her division. Parnesh was not happy with the arrangement because he believed that Halim was trying to usurp his power. The king had to intervene himself to bring peace to the bickering factions.
Apart from Halim, there were two more people in the room. Amresh was able to recognize Shakti who sat a little bit away from Halim. Shakti used to work under Fahim but his loyalty lay with Omar, the king’s cousin. Parnesh sacked him because he did not want Omar’s mole in his organization. Shakti appealed to Halim for a job and Halim acceded to his request. It made Rasika see red as she could never understand if it was a masterstroke by Halim or if it were a monumental blunder that would cost them dearly later.
The last guest turned out to be Jayesh, the queen's most trusted aide. He generally stayed in the palace and kept himself out of trouble. Not many people had set their sights on Jayesh who used to be an elite soldier before turning full time to administrative duties. All the time spent away from active duty had not yet diminished his appetite to keep himself battle-ready.
"Well, now that we are all here," Halim spoke softly, "let us start discussing business. I believe Amresh and Bala need to know the whole story too."
His pronouncement made Rasika uneasy. Shakti leaned forward in anticipation of getting more titbits that he could feed to his true master Omar. Fahim, the erstwhile head of internal spies, was always at odds with Omar. Fahim could not harm Omar for Omar was the king's cousin and his only friend. Omar, on the other hand, was fairly critical of Fahim but the king always overruled his criticism for the king knew that Fahim was a good administrator. When Fahim was assassinated, Omar made a pitch to replace Fahim but the king gave the job to Parnesh. Omar was left bitterly humiliated at the turn of the events. He was good enough to spend time with the king but not good enough to head any division.
"Some time back," Halim continued, "We ran into a bit of trouble. There was a bangle that was of supreme importance to us. Sadly we could not keep the original one so we needed an exact replica of it. The design etched on the bangle was quite complicated. Moreover, the alloy used was not found easily. We asked five jewelers to do the job for us. Bala was the sixth one to be hired. We set up a team of three judges to examine each submitted replica. The bangle that Bala made was the closest to the original bangle. In fact, one of the judges was of the opinion that he was looking at the original bangle and that instead of giving him a replica we had given him the original bangle to scrutinize. The other two judges were suitably impressed too. I was happy that we were able to discover a gem of a jeweler. Clever pun, right?" He guffawed but no one else joined in his laughter. "In any case," Halim continued, "Bala had to be brought back because we needed some answers. The level of skills that Bala displayed in making the bangle was extraordinary. Even accomplished jewelers with years of experience could not copy the design on the bangle properly but Bala with no training under his belt was able to do so within three days. Amresh kept an eye on Bala. Tell us, Amresh, about your findings."
Bala glanced at Amresh once to gauge his mood. Halim had turned deadly serious and the change in his mood affected everyone present in the room.
"His hands were steady," Amresh spoke as if he were reading a report, "I felt as if he was already familiar with the alloy. He knew straight away the temperature that was needed to melt the alloy. The complicated whorls presented no difficulties for him. In short, I never thought I was in the presence of a rookie jeweler."
"High praise, indeed!" Rasika said but her words did not encourage Bala. He was now terribly scared.
"So tell us, Bala," Halim's words seemed to drip with poison, "where did you learn those skills?"
Bala opened his mouth and then closed it. Too many thoughts crowded his head. He seemed to be in a tizzy. He could manage a feeble 'I don't know and then shut up.
"If we could have that one-eyed crow here," Halim said, "it would have been easier." The person being referred to as a one-eyed crow was Manishi, the genius inventor of Abitsar.
"What does she have to do with him?" Shakti asked loudly.
"Manishi was floundering with a question for a long time," Halim kept a sharp eye on Bala. "The question was a simple one. How to pass on skills to the succeeding generation? Suppose someone is really skilled at something. Perhaps he is good at some musical instrument. Or he is good at archery. Or he is good at experimentation. Or he is good at strategizing. Or he is good at making jewelry. These skills need time to learn. Moreover one has to spend years honing his craft. Suppose by the age of 40 years, a jeweler has perfected his craft but now as the years will pass by him he will lose control of his hands or his eyesight will begin to fail him. All that he had learned is going to be lost. What if there is a way to preserve those skills? What if some child is implanted with the memory of those skills and then as he grows us, he is nudged to take up the same craft. Would he be able to use those buried memories easily? Would he be able to build on top of them to perfect those skills? There are so many questions here and Manishi wanted to work on them. She spent years trying to find a way to implant memories in a kid. And you know what, the genius found a way to do so. I don't have all the information but I know that she experimented recklessly and caused many deaths but her efforts paid off. The infants who were able to withstand the pain of surgery were to be monitored closely to check the progress. Many infants died later on so that only a handful of test subjects could survive childhood. Manishi was incredibly protective of these kids. She loved them more than their mothers and grew fond of them. Then one day some of the parents returned and took their kids with them. Manishi used the might of the state to crack down on these dissenting parents and some of them escaped to Tribhanga to save themselves. Manishi was able to get about 15 kids back and she kept them heavily protected. When one of my spies told me about it, I was intrigued. It took me years to get the relevant information. By then some of the prodigies had already begun to show their prowess to the world. We were going to be defeated by a bunch of kids mentored by Manishi and we had no plans against them. We needed to learn more about these kids but we could not lay our hands on anyone of Manishi’s wards. Then I learned about the prodigies whose parents had escaped to Tribhanga. I requested Fahim’s help and even though he promised, he did not do much. Rasika has been working with me for some months now and her team was able to track two prodigies. One of them was Bala, a gifted jeweler. He applied to Marjori and one of her spies was able to see his submitted artwork. Realizing that she was looking at a master craftsman at work, she alerted us. I personally met Bala and was impressed by his work. I have already mentioned that the bangle that Bala crafted matched very closely to the original bangle. So now let us hear Bala out. Tell us, Bala, how did you manage to learn all these skills?”
Bala stumbled through his story. When he mentioned the old man in his head, he expected his audience to burst out in laughter but he found all of them to be suitably impressed. He told them everything but avoided mentioned the lady of the mansion who he now knew to be Manishi.
"Tell us about Manishi," Halim asked in a gentle tone but it was enough to make Bala break down. Over tears and stifled sobs, Bala told them about his meeting with Manishi who kept half of her face covered.
“Never knew she was ashamed of her dead eye,” Rasika exclaimed.
"She told me to work for her," Bala whispered. "She wanted me to make a new kind of jewels and she also told me that I will have to work with new materials." Bala then shut up.
"We must send him back," Jayesh leaned forward. "For the first time in the past 10 years, someone has been able to establish contact with her. Once he is allowed inside her laboratory, he can update us with her work." His words made Bala hopeful of seeing the kind lady again but Halim shook his head.
"No," Halim said. "He is too young to be sacrificed as a pawn."
"But then," Jayesh persisted. "Why did you send him to Abitsar for five days? Manisi is now aware that he is very much alive and doing remarkably well and she will try her hardest to get him back."
"I wanted her to be aware of this precious asset," Halim smiled. "She knows that he is from Tribhanga and she must suspect that I have been mentoring him. Keeping him there would have been a tragedy. She would have found out about my role in getting him smuggled and she would have killed him."
Bala could not believe that the kind lady could be so evil. He wondered if Halim was lying to him.
"So now what?" Rasika asked.
"I release him in Amresh's custody," Halim said. "Bala, my son, Manishi would try to contact you. She will send her men to chat with you, to get updates. Let them know that you are ready to work as their agent. I will keep on supplying information to you that you can pass over to them. Do not ever go outside alone. If someone insists on meeting you, ask them to meet you in a public place and let Amresh know about it."
Amresh patted Bala once to let him know that their session was over. When Bala got up, Halim slipped in a piece of paper in his hand.
"This is my present to Manishi," Halim smiled. "The paper, the ink, and my handwriting, every one of them is authentic. She will trust you now."
Bala pocketed the piece of paper and hurriedly got out of the room.
"What was on the paper?" Jayesh asked Halim.
"That Omar is the one who we suspect to be behind the attempt to kidnap our young prince," Halim dropped a bomb.
Shakti gasped loudly. Jayesh and Rasika were stunned. Jayesh was the first one to recover.
"All lies and misdirection, right?" Jayesh asked Halim who shook his head.
"No, it is true!" Halim's pronouncement made Shakti's face lose color.
"Why would we want them to know about it then?" Rasika could not stop herself.
"Because I believe they already know that," Halim's reply created a sensation in the room. “It will act as a confirmation for their doubts.”
"Jayesh, the reason why I called you to this meeting," Halim got up on his feet and everyone stood up, "is because I wanted you to know about people using the implanted memories. I believe you already know of someone in the palace who is, how to say it, showing split personalities?"
Jayesh did not reply. He knew that Halim was referring to the youngest prince.
“Think about it,” Halim asked Jayesh, “from the light of implanted memories. Manishi is the pioneer but she is not the only one to do so. Our people are also hard at work.”
"Who is it?" Shakti blurted. He was royally ignored by everyone.
"I know that you are the 'MACE'," Halim spoke softly. Jayesh gave a start. He thought about arguing about it but then decided not to do so. After all, Halim must have known about it from Fahim, the erstwhile head who was the first one to know about it.
"You helped escape the chief of the bandits from the so-called impregnable prison," Rasika said, "There is no use in denying it."
"I am not denying it," Jayesh said in an unwavering voice. He was not scared of them. "There is no proof," Jayesh shook his head. "But as I said, I am not here to profess my innocence. What do you want me to do?"
Halim gestured to Rasika who asked Shakti to step out of the room with her. Shakti was not too pleased for he wanted to know the secret deal that Halim was going to work out with Jayesh. He walked out of the room with heavy steps. Rasika closed the door behind her. Then she whistled gently. Bhootnath stepped out from behind the pillar. Shakti almost wet his pants on seeing the man with the iron jowl.
"Did you hear everything?" Rasika asked Bhootnath who nodded once.
Shakti had been under the impression that Bhootnath and Halim were not on good terms but when he heard about how Bhootnath and Halim hunted down the chameleon together, he began to have doubts about the information that came his way. The mere sight of the man with the iron jowl unnerved him.
"What do you think?" Rasika asked Bhootnath.
"I am going to return the kid to the one-eyed crow," Bhootnath spoke softly.
"But that is now what we agreed on..." Shakti's voice trailed off.
"Ah! Shakti!" Bhootnath put his arms around Shakti's shoulder who trembled badly. Rasika felt pity for the cowardly man.
"You are the man," Bhootnath whispered in Shakti's ears. "You will help me in stealing the boy from that bodyguard of his and you will take him to Abitsar."
"Who? Me?" Shakti's voice shook.
"Yes," Bhootnath dragged him along. "We need to hurry."
Rasika watched them leave and then returned to the room. Halim glanced sharply at her and she shrugged. That was all Halim needed to know that his plan has been a success. His plan was always to send Bala back to Manishi but he did not want Jayesh to be aware of it. Shortly thereafter, Jayesh agreed to Halim’s plan and promised to place all his resources at Halim's disposal. Later that evening, Halim got a report from Amresh about his failure in safeguarding Bala. Amresh stood no chance against Bhootnath so the end result was inevitable. The kid would be returned to Manishi with a present. It should be more than enough for her to begin trusting Bala. As for the kid, he would be happy being with a good mentor who would push him to become better at his craft. Halim was not concerned about Shakti. He knew that Bhootnath would take good care of him. It was necessary to get rid of Omar's mole from his organization but it was far more important to get Jayesh on his side. All his plans were coming together. He now looked forward to his second meeting with Jayesh.
When Bala was finally released near the jeweler's shop in Abitsar, he truly felt as if he had returned home. The old man in his head kept singing in delight but all his words were quaint and Bala could not understand his words but he whistled the tune under his breath to keep up with the old man. A passerby heard Bala whistle and remarked that it was a really old song that the kid was singing. The tune was so catchy that the passersby began to hum the song too. Over the course of that evening, many people were reminded of the achingly beautiful song. Bala reached Manishi's mansion and when he was finally brought in to meet her, he presented the piece of paper to her. Her brow arched as she looked at the crumpled paper.
"A present for you, Mother!"