'You both have a measure of the spiritual.' The voice was patient. 'And you both have a measure of the physical.'
Bradan heard another voice speak. 'These two do not have enough of either to defeat the rakshasa. They need help.'
'Time is short,' a third voice said. 'The rakshasas are at the gate. We must close the great gate before it is too late.'
Bradan felt the new urgency around him. The Siddhars were worried about something. 'Tell me!' Bradan said. 'Tell me what we must do!'
The words came in a babbling rush, as if the Siddhars were too busy to explain correctly.
'Use the steel from the west bathed in the water from the north to defeat the evil from the south when the sun sets in the east.'
'What? What does that mean? The sun never sets in the east. The sun can never set in the east! Tell me!'
Bradan sat up with a jerk. He was on the slope of a hill with the sun hot on his face and birds chattering around him. Monkeys were playing in the copse of trees nearby. Chaturi sat at his left side, with Melcorka on his right. Nearby, Kosala lounged, sharpening his sword and singing a soft song.
'Where am I?' Bradan asked.
'You are safe.' Chaturi pushed him back down. 'You are safe, and Melcorka is safe. The world is in balance.'
'No,' Bradan said. 'There is still work to be done. We have to use the steel from the west bathed in the water from the north to defeat the evil from the south when the sun sets in the east.'
'Oh? What does that mean?' Melcorka was chewing on a piece of fruit, with juice dribbling down her chin. Although she had washed and her hair shone like varnished ebony, her face was gaunt, there were dark shadows around her eyes, and her frame was skeletal thin.
'I hoped it might mean something to Chaturi.' Bradan faced Melcorka. 'Are you back, Mel?'
'I am back.' Melcorka finished her fruit and started on another. She glanced down at herself. 'I am a walking skeleton, with so little strength that I can hardly walk, let alone lift Defender, but I am back.'
'The way you have eaten since the Siddhas balanced the world,' Chaturi said, 'it won't be long until you are as fat as a pig.'
Bradan struggled to sit up. His gaze did not stray from Melcorka's face. 'I was a little concerned.'
Chaturi gave a barking laugh. 'He worried about you constantly, Melcorka. He bullied and harassed us into taking care of you every waking minute and dreamed about you when he was asleep.'
Bradan filled the awkward silence with an attempt at humour. 'I needed her sword.'
'Now, about this woman you were seeing when I was gone…' Melcorka inched closer, still chewing. 'Tell me about her.'
'I had little choice in the matter,' Bradan said. 'And she was a rakshasa, not a woman.'
'So you say,' Melcorka said. 'I will speak to her later, rakshasa, woman or whatever she pretends to be.' She touched his arm. 'Chaturi told me what you have done.' She said no more. Both knew that there was no need for either of them to say more. Words did not matter.
'How did it feel, Mel? When you were gone?'
Melcorka considered. 'I am not sure,' she said. 'At first, in the immediate aftermath of the curse, it didn't feel like anything. I knew I was not quite myself, yet without anything definite. I felt very aggressive, as if I wished to fight everybody and everything. After that, I seemed to float away. I could see you and hear you. I knew what you were saying and doing, without being able to respond. I knew what I wanted to say.' She shrugged. 'I just could not say the words.'
'You should have wasted away and died weeks ago,' Chaturi said. 'That sort of curse kills slowly and terribly. After this length of time, even the Siddhars should not have been able to get you back. You are a strong woman.'
Kosala stepped up. 'She is a warrior. I have never seen any woman fight as she did. I would be proud to have a woman like you, Melcorka.'
'Thank you, Kosala,' Melcorka touched his arm. 'Coming from a noted champion such as you, these words mean a lot.'
Bradan sat further up. 'I thought I might never get you back.'
'If it had been anybody else except you, Brad, I might have stayed in that place forever, not quite alive and not quite dead. I won't forget what you did.'
'So you forgive me the other woman, then?'
Melcorka laughed. 'I did not say that. I have to think what to do to you.' She touched the hilt of Defender. 'I have business to finish with this Dhraji, rakshasa, demon, witch or rani. I have red words to say to her with a tongue of steel. Now,' Melcorka looked up, 'I need more food.'
They ate beside a copse of trees on the side of the sacred mountain, with the air warm and the high green slopes of the Ghats spreading before them. 'I'm glad you've found your appetite,' Bradan said, grinning as he watched Melcorka eat everything that was put before her.
'Are you going to finish that?' She pointed to a slice of fish that Bradan had been saving for last. 'No? Then it must be for me.' Smiling, she lifted it. 'I need to keep my strength up.'
'As Chaturi said, you'll soon be as fat as a pig,' Bradan told her. 'It's good to have you back, Mel.'
'You'll soon have all of me back.' Melcorka slapped her stomach and grinned. 'Not a human twig!'
'If you two love-birds can stop cooing,' Chaturi said, 'we can talk about something more serious than the shape of Melcorka's belly.'
'Maybe more serious,' Bradan said, 'but not as interesting.'
'We were a fraction too late,' Chaturi said. 'We succeeded in getting the nine Siddhars together, but not before at least one more rakshasa entered
