The docks of the port had been completely cleared out, with no sign of commerce or any other activity. From the vantage point of her ship deck, Sati could see the walls of Devagiri in the distance. She remembered that there were those who lovingly called the city Tripura, in honour of its three platforms named after Gold, Silver and Bronze. But the name had never really caught on. The citizens of Devagiri couldn’t imagine tampering with the name that Lord Ram himself had given it.

With a loud thud, the gangway plank was lowered onto the dock.

Sati signalled to Nandi and whispered, ‘Let’s go.’

As she began leading her men out, a Meluhan protocol officer walked up to her, a broad smile plastered on his face. The Meluhan noticed Sati’s disfigured left cheek, but wisely refrained from commenting on it. ‘My Lady, it’s an honour to meet you once again.’

‘It’s a pleasure to be back in my city, Major. And in better circumstances this time.’

The Meluhan acknowledged the reference with a solemn nod.

‘I hope you will succeed in negotiating a lasting peace, My Lady,’ said the Meluhan. ‘You can’t imagine how distressed we Meluhans are that our country is at war with our living God.’

‘With Lord Ram’s blessing, the war will end. And we shall have lasting peace.’

The Meluhan joined his hands together and looked up at the sky. ‘With Lord Ram’s blessing.’

Sati stepped out of the port area to find a large circular building that had been quickly constructed for the proceedings of the peace conference. One of the rules laid down for a peace conference was that it couldn’t take place within the host city itself. The current venue was at a healthy distance from the city walls, almost adjacent to the port. The peace conference building had been constructed on a large rectangular base of standard Meluhan bricks, almost a metre high. Tall wooden columns had been hammered into holes on top of this base. The columns served as the skeleton for the structure. Smaller bamboo sticks had been tied together and stretched across these poles, creating an enclosed circular wooden building that was surprisingly strong despite no mortar having been used in its construction.

Sati looked up at the high ceiling as soon as she entered the structure and spoke loudly to check the acoustics. ‘Good construction.’

The sound did not reverberate. Sati smiled. Meluhan engineers had not lost their talent.