Other than the kamandalu, Aman found a small sword hanging from his waist. A loincloth wrapped as a dhoti was the only garment on his body. His wavy hair, which had been unbrushed for a year, looked heavily sprinkled with snowflakes.

The Mahayatra has begun, Aman thought as Aarti continued complaining, something about how the Eka was leading them east, towards the Mountain Pishachus.

‘Enough, Aarti! Wait!’ Aman snapped at her. If his suspicions were accurate, all their hard work had been undone. But how?

He had to talk to Idhika. The last thing he remembered was going to bed the night before the Sabha and Samiti. The Madhu at the bottom of the lake? The Mahayatra was supposed to be cancelled! Nothing else after that could be prodded into his memory. He quickened his pace and kept going until he passed an irritable Payal and Dhara. Overtaking them, he soon fell in stride with Yuvan and the Eka.

‘Idhika!’

‘Yes, Aman?’ she said and kept marching.

‘What happened?’ he barked.

‘We’ll find Madhu in the east,’ she said.

‘STOP!’

She didn’t. ‘We cannot, no matter how much your legs hurt. Remember what Acharya Ashwini said: we must always be on the move.’

‘But you already found the Madhu!’ Aman jumped in front of her.

She froze. ‘Madhu . . .’ Her face drained of colour as if she’d seen a ghost. ‘I did, didn’t I?’ Her hands hid her face, and she fell where she had stood. After what felt like an eternity but was in reality no more than a couple of seconds, she writhed about in the shin-deep snow, looking at the tall peaks all around her and the Souls trailing in her wake.

‘What are you talking . . .’ Yuvan said.

‘What happened . . .?’ Aman asked. ‘What happened to the plan, Idhika?’

‘Sanaka . . . how?’ Idhika was stumped. A heavy burden seemed to overshadow her once again as she panicked and examined her ankle.

Aman cursed himself for thinking things would actually work out. But before the extent of the situation dawned on him, Idhika had broken into tears. It was very unlike her. In fact, it was not expected at all of the Eka, who was tasked with leading the Mahayatra. But as Idhika sat in the snow, holding her ankle, she pointed sombrely at a sting mark. ‘Lal bicchu,’ she whispered to Aman, not caring for the presence of Yuvan, but well before Aarti, Payal and Dhara reached them. ‘Check your ankle,’ she asked him.

‘Your legs couldn’t have given up so early, Eka. On your feet!’ Aarti ordered.

‘Idhika!’ Prithvi arrived only a second later from behind, having also recovered from the effects of the lal bicchu. ‘We’ve been cheated. I don’t know how but the wretched Sanaka has deceived us all! Let’s just return and tell everyone of his mutiny. None of us needs to take on this impossible task!’

‘What is going on?’ Aarti grabbed the hilt of her sword. Yuvan and Savitri too stepped up. Jagrav didn’t. He sat down and looked like he was done with walking for life.