Nala stepped into the Saptarishis Council Chamber without once raising her eyes. The hall was in a cave, yet it was white, like she had walked into the mouth of the moon. Half the furniture seemed made of ice. The floor was uneven, rocky white, the ceiling crystalline white. It disappeared into a white sky which seemed impossible considering they were underground. Yet, despite all the whiteness, Nala sensed a darkness in the room. One thing was clear, if the place was designed to inspire fear, it did a bloody good job.

Seven chairs were placed in a semi-circle on a raised platform. The Saptarishis sat on the chairs, sombre in their white robes, silent behind their carved, aspected masks. At Meru, Nala had been taught that each New God represented one aspect of the One God. The Saptarishis considered themselves the vehicles, the prophets, through whom the Gods gave guidance. So they were aspected as vahanas of each God, represented by an animal. Though varied, the masks were singularly horrific. The Saptarishis’ true expressions lay hidden behind the caricatured, unmalleable expressions of the fearsome masks: Fish, Tortoise, Boar, Lion, Dwarf, Peacock and Human.

This is straight out of Caani’s horror stories. Nala had the nagging feeling she had entered the interrogation chamber of hell. The fact that the white walls, and even the chairs, were carved with reliefs of manticores, drakons and screaming people, did little to calm her mind. A cold sweat ran down her back as she saw glittering eyes peering at her from behind the frozen masks. Even worse was the shadowcat, a black beast with golden stripes, who sat baring its teeth beside Sapth Human’s chair. Its eyes were pinpoints of gold set in back, and there was something wrong with its distended and oddly long claws.

One of the ancient priests, Sapth Fish, spoke in a drone through the snout of his fish mask, ‘Is the list done, Acharya?’

There was a moment of silence, then Parshuram said, ‘Three names more. Why have I been asked to come?’

Sapth Lion laughed without mirth. ‘You have been summoned, not asked.’

Strangely, the second voice sounded exactly like the first to Nala’s ear.

‘Just another mystery of our language,’ a calmer voice, although identical again, called out. It was Sapth Boar who spoke. ‘But why the delay, Acharya?’

‘Ran out of coin.’

A laugh. ‘You would have us believe the richest man in the realm ran out of coin?’ Sapth Dwarf asked.

Richest? Nala cast a sideways glance at the old tigerskins her Master wore, and seriously doubted if the Saptarishis meant ‘richest’ in the conventional sense.