'If Dhraji had intended to kill Bradan, she would have torn him apart in front of me.' Melcorka ignored Kulothunga's advances. 'She is holding him prisoner for some reason of her own.'
Kulothunga stroked his moustache, saying nothing.
Why? Melcorka asked herself. Why would Dhraji hold Bradan prisoner? There was only one answer she could think of, and that gave her both hope and despair. Dhraji was genuinely attracted to Bradan. The thought was hideous. Yet that attraction might keep Bradan alive.
'I have to destroy Dhraji,' Melcorka said.
'No mortal weapon can kill a demon.' Kulothunga touched his sword. 'I am the only man who has ever been victorious over a rakshasa.'
Melcorka allowed herself a small smile. 'If a man can do it, I can do it,' she said, although she did not feel the confidence she hoped to portray. On her three previous encounters with the rakshasa, she had failed to kill it. Why should the next attempt be any different?
Bearnas' words came to her again: '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 had that meant? The sun never set in the east. That was against nature.
Melcorka shook her head. Until she worked out the riddle, she could not defeat the rakshasa. The longer she took to solve the enigma, the more chance there was that Dhraji would kill Bradan in some hideous way, or use him for some other unimaginable purpose.
'Excuse me.' Melcorka left the quarterdeck. She needed space to walk and think. Pacing the deck, back and forward, while the walls of Kollchi wavered under the heat and seabirds screamed around the fleet, Melcorka ran the words through her head a hundred times, always with the same result.
Nothing.
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.
The riddle seemed unsolvable. Melcorka teased it apart, seeking possible meanings. Evil from the south may mean the rakshasas. Steel from the west could refer to Defender. The other references made no sense at all. She became aware of Kosala watching over her only when he detached himself from his position beside the mainmast.
'You'll wear yourself out, Melcorka. You've been walking for hours.'
Melcorka saw that the sun was dipping in the west, silhouetting the Chola ships against a glorious purple-orange sky.
'Thank you, Kosala. Maybe I had better get some sleep now. Tomorrow could be a busy day.'
Kosala touched her forearm. 'It will be, Melcorka. Rajaraja plans to soften the city with a bombardment before he attacks.'
'My day will be busy whatever Rajaraja decides to do,' Melcorka said.
'You intend to rescue Bradan,' Kosala said. 'I will come with you.'
'No, Kosala.' Melcorka gave a small smile. 'There is nobody I would rather have at my side, but this I must do alone.'
'Why?' Kosala asked.
'Because I do not expect to survive.'
Chapter Twenty-One
Waiting until the darkest hour of the night, Melcorka slipped over the ship's rail and swam toward Kollchi. From now onwards, she was alone. The fate of the Chola Empire and the war against Thiruzha was no longer her concern. Only one thing mattered: rescuing Bradan.
The battered vessels of the Thiruzha fleet sat beneath the walls of Kollchi with a few nervous seamen left as guards. Melcorka strode from ship to ship, ignoring the shouted challenges, until she found Catriona.
'Who are you?' a startled guard asked. Melcorka killed him with a swift thrust to the throat and pushed his body into the sea. She stepped onto the deck of Catriona.
'Hello, old friend,' Melcorka looked around, recalling old memories. 'You won't be lying here for much longer. You deserve a better fate than to rot beside a bunch of pirates.'
Dipping into the cabin, Melcorka opened her sea chest. Every object was redolent of her shared history with Bradan. Smiling, she removed her hooded cloak. Her foot skiffed something on the ground; she looked down and lifted up Bradan's rowan-wood stick.
'You've travelled a long way. We'll get you home.' On an impulse, Melcorka tied the staff to Defender's scabbard. It was cumbersome, yet for some reason, she knew she should take it.
Pulling on her cloak, Melcorka adjusted the shoulder to ensure that the thick wool concealed the hilt of Defender. 'That will have to do.' She patted Catriona's gunwale. 'We're not neglecting you,' she said. 'Either we'll come back for you, or you'll find a worthy owner in Jasweer.'
Morning sunlight glared from the east, heating up the long walls of Kollchi and glinting from the helmets and spear-points of the defenders. Every hour, the catapults on the decks of the Chola thirisdais unleashed rocks that either hammered at the city walls, or arced over the battlements to crash on the streets inside. Melcorka waited for the next bombardment to start and then began to scale the walls. It was natural for men to take shelter when great rocks were hurtling through the air at them, so she was not disturbed. The possibility of being struck by a missile on such a long target as the walls of Kollchi was too remote to concern her.
As Melcorka had expected, not a single man looked up to challenge her as she slipped over the battlements and down the inside of the walls. Camouflaged by her cloak and hood, Melcorka ignored both the sheltering warriors and the occasional falling rock as she made her way to the palace.
The Kollchi catapults were also busy, loading and firing as they sought to reduce the Chola fleet, with slaves carrying the rocks to the great machines and the engineers firing them. Melcorka contemplated attacking one or two of the catapults to reduce the effectiveness of the defence, but decided that such an action would compromise her presence without seriously reducing the Kollchi defences. Once she had discovered what had happened to
