Karna & Arjun - The Union of Brothers

14. An Eternal Alliance

Suyodhan was instantly aware that the best option would be to swim up to the surface as soon as possible. He started moving upwards but felt more resistance with every stroke. He could also feel a consistent drop in temperature of the water. The challenges continued as he started feeling the lumps of ice around him and the panic in his mind translated into desperate limb movements. Soon he was struggling to move by even an inch. Within moments, both his movements and his visibility were reduced to minimum by the thick sheets of ice around him. He was running out of oxygen and his vision was fading into darkness.

He then noticed a marble sized ball of red light approaching him. His eyes were startled to see multiple flashes of red light around him. He noticed that the ice cover around him had started to melt. While the flames were getting dissolved in the blues, his arm was caught by a hand that felt like a layer of gravels. He was then pulled up to the surface of water. He spat out some water the moment his head came out of the water.

"I hope you are fine, your friend needs you," Karna said before Suyodhan could even react to his presence.

He saw Susharma covered with blood lying on a raft along with another boy who was trying to cover the wounds on his arms with coconut leaves. Looking at his unconscious friend, Suyodhan was absolutely appalled.

"Let's keep moving, we got no time for discussion," Karna said as he placed his hand on Suyodhan's shoulder.

On Karna's signal, Suyodhan followed him to hold the rope on the right front end of the raft while Karna held the rope on the left front end. The third boy placed both his hands on the the center of the back side of the raft. The three boys started swimming in sync and the raft reached the beach in no time.

Suyodhan was surprised to see a white stallion welcoming them on the beach.

"I will take Susharma with me. I recommend you and Salvasen to start walking towards the west. There's a town there, I know somebody who can help him," Karna said as he jumped on the horse, tied Susharma to his chest and started riding towards the west.

"Who was it?" Suyodhan asked Salvasen after few minutes of walking. Salvasen looked malnourished in comparison to Suyodhan but had a strong structure for an ectomorph.

"Who? That was Karna, he .."

"I know Karna. Who attacked my friend?" his voice intensified.

"I don't know. I saw shadow like figures firing red glowing arrows at Susharma from the sky. Coincidentally Karna was around and that's when I called out to him for help. He immediately pulled the raft that was tied to his horse and we sailed towards your friend. The figures disappeared as soon as they noticed Karna approaching them. It seemed like your friend's attention was divided. In fact he pointed downwards before going unconscious," Salvasen explained the entire situation.

The thought that Susharma was expending a part of his energy to protect Suyodhan filled him with guilt. At the same time he couldn't help notice the huge strides Karna had made in the last few years in terms of skill and strength.

They kept on walking for about an hour, transitioning from the beach, to the woods and finally to a city. Suyodhan had never seen any city like that in the entire Aryavart. There were wooden structures with intricate carvings. They were taller than the houses in Aryavarta. The buildings were well organised like the rice fields in villages. One of the structures reminded him of a few temples in the ice capped mountains of Aryavarta. It had a square base with a triangular roof. The roof was made with long rolls of wood. The edges of the roofs had carvings of beasts that were unknown to him. They looked like serpents with spikes on skin, a couple of limbs and a long face with fangs. Each wall of the building had two weapons aligned in a cross position. Few weapons like the sword and the axe seemed familiar while the rest were new to him.

As a warrior he was interested in having a closer look at the weapons and his wish was immediately granted as he found his throat at the end of a slightly curved sword held by a warrior in a black metal armor with interlocking pieces covering his entire body, while his face was camouflaged by a helmet with a wiser grill to enable his vision.