(Book 2) Hayden Mackay and The Tears of the Maiden

11. Holognome

They flew on the flying carpet Hardik, hundreds of miles away from Shashi's lair. Pruthvi heaved a huge relieved sigh and caught a frightened Leena in a calming hug, quietly reassuring her.

"It's okay," he said, "We are safe now."

She sighed shiveringly and leaned on him, trying to sit comfortably and said, "Oh my God Pruthvi, for an instant, I thought we were dead."

Hardik was flying high in a constant speed and didn't show any inclination to stop till they reached Paschimgarh. He was glad that Hardik was smart enough to act quickly in Shashi's lair otherwise things could have turned ugly in getting out of there if they were caught.

Sun had set and night fell instantaneously. It had stopped snowing and the moon peeked languidly now and then through the still present clouds. Hardik flew swiftly that Pruthvi wondered if it was indeed terrified as they were. He checked his watch and it was half past two in the morning. Leena lay quietly beside him, her eyes closed, her hands completely wrapped around her chest, curled within his arm.

It was too dark now to see anything clearly, but the thick forests suddenly shrank to form huge clearing, which confirmed Pruthvi's intuition that they were entering into kind of a community. Hardik did not reduce its speed but Pruthvi's heart leaped finding the carpet gliding towards one of the many two storey huts. Every hut in this place was either two or three storey one. Some of them were built upon the hills that were sitting in the middle of the village.

"Are we falling down?" Leena asked as she changed her position in her sleep.

"Leena," said Pruthvi "I think we are in Paschimgarh."

Leena quickly sat up in excitement. She looked around the place. Hardik took a turn, without slowing down, it flew towards one of the huts. Pruthvi took a deep breath as Hardik soared towards an opened window.  Pruthvi and Leena bent their heads low as they neared the window and then within a snap they were in. Hardik floated down and settled on the floor.

"Whoa, that was fun," said Leena as stood and stepped away from Hardik.

"Where are we?" said Pruthvi looking around the hut but in vain.

Leena walked around when Pruthvi folded the carpet into his fists

"Why did it choose this hut?" he asked looking at it.

"Because it's Quinn Dimuro's," Leena said, making Pruthvi's hair stand.

She was standing near the wall opposite to the window they just entered, looking at the picture that hung on it. Pruthvi instantly walked nearer to her. He took the picture off the wall and wiped the grime off with the edge of his palm. Observing carefully, at one corner of the picture engraved were the letter 'Q.D' on it.

Pruthvi and Leena glanced at each other uneasily; first shashi's cave and now this;  Pruthvi glanced at the carpet in his hand with dawning suspicion wondering if Hardik actually missed Quinn, but then he bit his lip and said to himself- It's just a nonliving thing, you idiot.                                  

"I wonder whether Shashi already visited here," he said still looking at the woman in picture. She was dressed decidedly in western attire which would have shocked most people in Paramarashtra. She stood leaning on a tree almost negligently her eyes and thoughts gazing far ahead; she wore an armless checkered halterneck top and skintight jeans with moderately slanted high heeled boots. Her waist level blonde hair hung in waves beneath the white stetson hat on her head. She must have been a shocking novelty and a taboo for the natives.

What in the world had a westerner been doing in Paramarashtra? How was she connected to anything? It was going to take a long time to make sense of this.