Ganesh, closest to the blaring conches at the camp end nearest to the river, was making a beeline for it, Nandi, Veerbhadra and Parshuram in tow.

‘What is going on?’ screamed Veerbhadra, to make himself heard over the din.

‘Enemy ships are sailing up the Godavari,’ shouted Ganesh. ‘They have tripped our river warning system.’

‘What now?’ yelled Nandi.

‘To the outpost! We have devil boats!’

Nandi turned around and relayed out the order to the three hundred men who had already rallied around to face the unknown threat. The soldiers had been following close on the heels of the four men. They doubled back to the outpost, where the hundred Naga men were already pushing out their devil boats.

Meanwhile Vishwadyumna, at the end farthermost from the enemy threat, rapidly controlled his disbelief and started carrying out the standard drill set in place for such an eventuality. A red flame was lit, warning Panchavati in the distance.

Meanwhile, Bhagirath ran up to Vishwadyumna. ‘What are your river defences?’

Vishwadyumna glared angrily at Bhagirath, refusing to answer. He was sure the Nagas had been betrayed.

Bhagirath shook his head and ran to Parvateshwar, who was already gathering soldiers and deploying them in defensive formations along the river.

‘Any news?’ asked Parvateshwar.

‘He won’t talk, Parvateshwar,’ screamed Bhagirath. ‘My fears have come true. They have betrayed us. We walked straight into a trap!’

Parvateshwar clenched his fists, looking at the five hundred men arrayed behind him in battle formation. ‘Kill everything that emerges from the river!’

And then, the sky lit up, ablaze at a thousand points. Bhagirath looked up. ‘Lord Ram be merciful.’

A shower of fiery arrows flew high. They had obviously been fired from a distance, from the battleships racing up the Godavari.

‘Shields up!’ screamed Parvateshwar.

At the centre, Shiva and Kali had issued similar orders. Soldiers ducked under their shields, waiting for the onslaught of flaming arrows to stop. But scores of arrows had already found their targets. Setting clothes on fire and piercing through many bodies. Injuring large numbers and killing some unfortunate ones.

There was no respite. The curtain of arrows kept raining down in an almost continuous shower.

One arrow hit Ayurvati’s leg. She screamed in pain, folding her leg closer to her body, holding her shield nearer.

The sudden attack and its severity had forced most of Shiva’s camp to cower behind their shields. But real fighting was on at the river end of the campsite, within the Godavari itself.

‘Quickly!’ screamed Ganesh. If the downpour of arrows continued for a few more minutes, the entire camp would be destroyed. He had to move fast.

His soldiers, the Suryavanshis, Chandravanshis and the Nagas, were swimming hard, pushing the hundred small boats towards the five large ships rowing rapidly up the Godavari. The small boats, with dried firewood and a small flint inside, had been covered by a thick cloth. Once in range, the devil boats would be lit and rammed into the ships. Fire was the best way to destroy such large, wooden ships.

The ships were sailing up river rapidly, the flaming arrows still being continuously shot from their decks. Due to the manic speed of the vessels coming towards them, Ganesh’s soldiers didn’t have to swim too far to reach the enemy battle ships. The devil boats were already in place, aligned to ram into them.

‘Light them!’ screamed Ganesh.

Soldiers rapidly pulled the cloth off each boat and struck the flints. The boats were aflame almost instantaneously, before the assassins on any ship could react. Ganesh’s men pushed the boats into the sides of the ships.

‘Hold them in place!’ screamed Nandi. ‘The ships have to catch fire!’

The lookout assassins on the ships turned their bows onto their attackers in the water. A hailstorm of arrows started tearing into the brave soldiers in the river, maiming and killing many. The fire from the devil boats was also lapping Ganesh’s men, but they grimly kept swimming, pushing the boats onto the ships.

All five ships were aflame within moments, but the loss of life till they had caught fire made it seem like an eternity.

‘Back to the shore!’ screamed Ganesh.

He knew he had to form his line on the Godavari’s banks now. As fire spread through the ships, the assassins would jump over or into lifeboats and row up to the shores to resume battle.

Ganesh’s soldiers had barely made it to the riverbanks when they heard a deafening blast. They turned around in shock. The first ship of the enemy fleet had just blown up. Within a few moments, the other ships went up in gigantic explosions as well.

Ganesh turned to Parshuram, stunned. ‘Daivi astras!’

Parshuram nodded, shocked out of his wits. Only divine weapons could have led to such explosions. But how could anyone lay their hands on such weapons? And that too in such alarming quantities?

Ganesh rallied his men, counting the living. He had lost one hundred of the valiant four hundred who had charged behind him, mostly Nagas — the only ones who knew the drill. The Lord of the People gritted his teeth in anger and marched towards the camp to find Kali and Shiva.

‘You led us into a trap!’ a livid Parvateshwar screamed. He had lost twenty men in the hail of arrows.

The number of dead in the camp centre was significantly higher. Close to fifty soldiers had been killed. The highest casualties were of course at the end closest to the enemy warships. Three hundred soldiers had died there, including the hundred that were killed while attacking the enemy ships. Ayurvati, with a broken shaft buried in her thigh, was rushing around with her medics, trying to save as many as she could.

‘Nonsense!’ yelled Kali. ‘You betrayed us! Nobody has ever attacked us from the Godavari. Ever!’

‘Quiet!’ shouted Shiva. He turned to Veerbhadra, Parshuram, Nandi and Ganesh, who had just arrived. ‘What were those explosions, Parshuram?’

‘Daivi astras, My Lord,’ said Parshuram. ‘The five enemy ships were carrying them. The fires triggered the explosions.’

Shiva breathed deeply, staring into the distance.

‘My Lord,’ said Bhagirath. ‘Turn back now. More traps await us on the way and at Panchavati itself. There are only two Nagas here. Think of what a fifty thousand could do!’

Kali exploded. ‘This is your doing! Panchavati has never been attacked. You led your cohorts here. It was lucky that Ganesh led a fight back and decimated your troops. Otherwise we would all have been slaughtered.’

Sati touched Kali lightly. She wanted to point out that even Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi men fighting alongside Ganesh had been killed.

‘Enough!’ shouted Shiva. ‘Don’t any of you get what really happened?’

The Neelkanth turned towards Nandi and Kartik. ‘Take a hundred men and go down-river. See if there are any survivors from the enemy ships. I want to know who they were.’

Nandi and Kartik left immediately.

Shiva looked at the people around him, seething. ‘We were all betrayed. Whosoever was firing those arrows was not picking and choosing targets. They wanted us all dead.’

‘But how did they come up the Godavari?’ asked Kali.

Shiva glared at her. ‘How the hell should I know? Most people here didn’t even know this river wasn’t the Narmada!’