Pointing at Shiva, the Mithra continued. ‘Behold this man. He may not be a Vayuputra. But he does bear the blue throat. He may not be a Parihan, but he fights like one, with honour and integrity. We may not have recognised him, but the Vasudevs consider him the Neelkanth. He may not have lived amongst us, but he respects and idolises Lord Rudra as much as we do. Above all, he is fighting for Lord Rudra’s cause.’

The Vayuputras listened with rapt attention.

‘Yes, he is not a Vayuputra, and yet he is one of us. I am supporting him in his battle against Evil. And so shall you.’

Many amongst the Vayuputras were swayed by the Mithra’s words. Those who weren’t, were nevertheless aware that it was within the Mithra’s legal rights to choose whom to support within India. So, while their reasons to do so may have differed, all the Vayuputras fell in line with the Mithra’s decision.

Shiva and Gopal received a large crate the following evening. An entire Parihan cavalry platoon had been arranged to transport this incredibly heavy trunk safely back to the sea. Never having seen the material of the Pashupatiastra, Shiva assumed from the size of the trunk that they were carrying a huge quantity; probably enough to threaten an entire city. He was therefore amazed by Gopal’s clarification that they were carrying only a handful of the Pashupatiastra material.

‘Are you serious?’

‘Yes, Lord Neelkanth,’ said Gopal. ‘Just a handful is enough to destroy entire cities. The trunk has massive insulation, made of lead and wet clay, besides the leaves of imported bilva trees. Together, these will protect us from exposure to the Pashupatiastra radiation.’

‘By the Holy Lake,’ said Shiva. ‘The more I learn about the daivi astras, the more I’m convinced that they are the weapons of the demons.’

‘They are, my friend. That’s why Lord Rudra called them evil and banned their use. That is also why we will not use the Pashupatiastra. We’ll only threaten to use it. But to make it a credible threat to the Meluhans, we will actually have to set up the weapon outside Devagiri.’

‘Do you know how to do that?’

‘No, I don’t. Most of the Vayuputras are not privy to that knowledge either; only a select few are authorised to be in the know. There is a combination of engineering construction, mantras and other preparations that we would have to follow in order to set up this weapon. We would have to do this properly so as to convey a credible threat to Lord Bhrigu, since he does know how the Pashupatiastra is prepared for use. Lord Mithra and his people will commence our training from tomorrow morning.’

Parvateshwar moved his attention away from those sitting with him and cast a look outside the window of the Karachapa governor’s residence. They were on the dwitiya or second platform of the city, and from this height, Parvateshwar had a clear view of the Western Sea, which stretched far into the horizon.

‘The sea is the only way we have,’ said Parvateshwar.

Bhrigu and Dilipa turned towards Parvateshwar. Dilipa’s Ayodhyan army had finally arrived in Meluha, many months after the Battle of Devagiri. They had sailed on to Karachapa to join Parvateshwar’s Suryavanshi forces.

‘But General, isn’t that the entire idea behind coming to Karachapa?’ asked Dilipa. ‘To attack Lothal by sea? What’s new about that idea?’

‘I’m not talking about attacking the city, Your Highness.’

While there were now four hundred thousand troops based in Karachapa under the command of Parvateshwar, he knew that it was not really enough to defeat a well-entrenched force of two hundred and fifty thousand in the well-designed citadel of Lothal. And despite all attempts at provocation, Sati had resolutely refused to step out of Lothal, thus giving Parvateshwar no opportunity to bring his numerical superiority into play in an open battlefield. The war had, for all practical purposes, ground to a stalemate.

‘Please explain, General,’ said Bhrigu, hoping the Meluhan army chief had come up with some brilliant idea to end the stalemate. ‘What is your plan?’

‘I think we should send forth a fleet towards the Narmada River, making sure that these ships are visible.’

Dilipa frowned. ‘Have your spies discovered the route that Lord Shiva took?’

The Meluhans were aware that Shiva and Gopal had sailed to the Narmada, but they had lost track of them thereafter. They assumed that the duo may have used the Narmada route to steal into Panchavati or Ujjain. To what purpose, was still a mystery to the Meluhans.

‘No,’ answered Parvateshwar.

‘Then what’s the point of making our ships sail out in that direction? The Neelkanth’s scouts and spies will surely get to know that our ships are sailing to the Narmada. We’ll lose the element of surprise.’

‘That is precisely what I want,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘We don’t want to hide.’

‘By the great Lord Brahma!’ exclaimed an impressed Bhrigu. ‘General Parvateshwar, have you discovered the Narmada route to Panchavati?’

‘No, My Lord.’

‘Then I don’t understand... Oh right...’ Bhrigu stopped mid-sentence as he finally understood what Parvateshwar had in mind.

‘I’m not aware of the Narmada route to Panchavati,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘But the Lord Neelkanth’s army doesn’t know that I don’t know. They may assume that we have discovered this precious route and that the Lord’s life is in danger. Furthermore, the Nagas are a substantial segment of the warriors in that army. Will they keep quiet in the face of an imminent danger to their capital Panchavati, the city established by their Goddess Bhoomidevi?’

‘They will be forced to sail out of Lothal,’ said Dilipa.

‘Exactly,’ said Parvateshwar. ‘Since our contingent will be approximately fifty ships, they will have to match our numbers. We will make our ships wait in ambush in a lagoon far beyond the Narmada delta.’

‘And once they’ve begun sailing up the Narmada, we’ll charge in from behind and attack them,’ said Dilipa.

‘No,’ said Parvateshwar.

‘No?’ asked a surprised Dilipa.

‘No, Your Highness. I intend to send out a crack team of commandos in advance, to the Narmada. They will wait for the Naga ships to race upriver, till they have travelled a considerable distance away from the sea. Naval movements in a river are constricted, no matter how large the river. Their fleet will be sailing close to each other. Our commandos will have devil boats with firewood and flints ready for our enemies. Our task will be to take out the first as well as last line of ships simultaneously.’

‘Brilliant. They will lose their fleet, their soldiers will be adrift. Then our own fleet can charge in from the hidden lagoon and cut their soldiers down.’

‘No, Your Highness,’ said Parvateshwar, thinking he wouldn’t have needed to explain all this to someone with the strategic brilliance of Shiva. ‘Our fleet is not going to engage in battle at all. It’s only a decoy. Our main attack will be carried out by the commandos. If the first and last line of the enemy ships are set on fire, there’s a pretty good chance that all the ships in between too will eventually catch fire.’

‘But won’t that take too long?’ asked Bhrigu. ‘Many of their soldiers would be able to abandon ship and escape onto land.’