t was late afternoon by then. They returned to the palace, ritually purified themselves and got Hasin some further healing attention from the swami, leaving him feeling much better. After getting a bit to eat they departed again, this time for their meeting with the Thing Under the Blanket.
    The whispering chant was going on again, or still.
    "I have come in good faith," Ashram announced.
    The blanket moved aside; in the starlight he could make out the figure of the most decrepit crone imaginable. She could not have been more than three feet tall, bent almost double. Her body was covered in sores, her face deeply lined. "Good evening."
    "Good evening."
    "Honored is my household that such great heroes should come to see a little old woman like myself. You've gotten yourselves in over your heads, haven't you? And you, thief, you look much better than you did this afternoon."
    "Your eyes are very keen," Ashram noted.
    "My eyes see many things, despite my age."
    "You said you had things that you could tell us, that we needed to know?"
    "We can help each other. We have an opponent in common, the rajah of Urim. Like me, the rajah is a sorcerer, a Tantric. He pretends to be a good vaisya, but he is not. We are rivals, he and I. I have fought him on many planes, and many realms of existence. I understand that the rajah of Amirdata has also had his problems with the rajah of Urim lately. Do you know why he wants the princess?"
    "I can assume that you will say it is not to cement political alliances and to devout lifelong love? I thought you would chuckle hideously like that," he added, nodding.
    "You don't know, because it's nothing a good Hindu should know, but we Tantrics have other things, many other things that can be done with a royal virgin. Many rites that can be performed, rare rites that lead to increasing power. The rajah has enchanted Prince Dingiri, indeed he tried to enchant the rajah himself, but certain other forces are preventing it. I'm not sure why. But I don't want him to get away with this. So you must fight him. Now, he will stop at nothing to get the princess. The safest place for the princess is where you were this afternoon."
    "At the bottom of a pit?" Ashram and Hasin said in astonished unison.
    "No," she snapped. "In the city of the lotus scepter. The lotus scepter has very strong magic on it. No evil can go near it. As long as the princess is in the city, she will be safe."
    "That's not entirely true," Hari noted. "There is evil there."
    "Your standards are too high," she replied dryly. "She will be safe from the rajah in the city."
    "Can the scepter be moved?" Ashram asked.
    "If you can defeat its guardian. If the princess is in the city, the scepter's protection will be over her, there is no need to risk your neck that way. Many men have tried to take on the guardian," she informed them with a little chuckle. "You saw their bones. Indeed, you almost became part of the bones."
    Ashram let that go. "We have heard that two butas attacked people out by the cremation grounds. Do you know anything about this?"
    "I use them sometimes, but those were not ones of mine," she claimed. "Ever since the bolt disappeared they have been running rampant."
    "Where is the bolt?"
    "I don't know. I was hoping you could tell me that."
    "So if I understand your request properly," Ashram said after a moment of rumination, "we should trust you, a self-acknowledged servant of evil, when you say that we should take the princess from her current place of relative safety and bring her through the woods into the middle of a Buddhist city with a minimal amount of guards, so that one of the people who's been an ally of this community forever, who you are claiming is actually an evil Tantric sorcerer, won't be able to get access to her."
    "Quite. That's all I'll say." She drew the blanket over herself once more.
    "Evidence would be nice!"
    "I've given you what I know. Use it as you like." She resumed her chanting.
    They backed away.
    "That was interesting," Hasin opined. "I'm not particularly inclined to trust her advice. Did I mention the giant snake I thought I heard in the city? This was before I went wandering off and discovered pits."
    "The guards said that there weren't any big snakes in the city...."
    "Well, there was something slithering around near that house."
    "And you said you saw evil there?" he asked Hari.
    "Yes. Fast-moving evil."
    "Probably not the giant snake, then," Hasin said thoughtfully. "Do we want to go look at the cremation grounds by moonlight?"
    "I'm wondering whether or not it's worth our while," the hermit said.
    "I don't know, we could see if something tries to eat us. This hasn't been an exciting enough day."
    "Um," Hari said.
    "Or we could go look around the city again.... Whatever's there might be more active and findable."
    "Did you manage to find anything about the bolt?" Hari asked. "When you went to the temple today?"
    Ashram recounted their findings, such as they were, and the theories they had, such as those were, and the difficulties involved in touching the bolt if one were of impure intentions. He wanted to take a look at the cremation grounds. "I think if we go there and at least look around, it would be worth our while, even if we just turn and run away from the things. If we can see them massing... you said that there was some sort of dark, foul magic there; it would probably be easier for us to get a handle on what it is if we can see them."
    "I've got a handle on what a fair amount of it is," the paladin replied laconically.
    "What would that be?"
    "We were just parlaying with it."
    "You think that she's responsible for that? Could well be. Let's go check it out, then."
    They went cautiously. No one was there; the Untouchables were off in their huts. They heard nothing. Ashram summoned Ghal from the forest; the tiger curled around him like a nervous kitten, which did not reassure.
    There, something moving in the brush. The three of them braced for attack; a horde of monkeys burst out of the brush and saluted Hari, who responded in kind. The monkeys vanished back the way they had come. No one seemed to be conducting any dark rituals out there at the moment, at any rate, so they returned to the palace for a meal and the day's news.
    The war elephants were being washed in the courtyard. The ambassadors were present at the feast, and tongues were leashed accordingly. Mahabhodipani was also there.
    "Ho, confused friend!" Ashram greeted him.
    "It comes to me the longer I travel with him," Hari mused, "that much like any other muscle, the social impulse needs to be exercised. If you spend too much time in the woods with no company other than tigers and snakes, it begins to atrophy."
    Paying this no mind, the hermit said, "You had been asking us about the abandoned town? Would you like to see it?"
    "Very much so! What's there?"
    "Stuff," Hasin shrugged, having no idea who this man was.
    "There is writing on the walls, we went out there today. It was not anything we could read, we thought that perhaps you could."
    "Yes, I would very much like to see this."
    "Also, do you know anything about... Buddhist enchantments that would cause strange things? You were saying before that all you did was meditate towards enlightenment."
    "There are certain stories about such things. What did you have in mind?" he asked.
    "If we're going to be wandering through old Buddhist cities, it would be wise for us to know as much as we can. Please, speak," Ashram invited.
    "There are relics of the Buddha, things that could fight evil. These are usually kept in stupas." He described a structure much like the one they had seen. "You said it was in Devanagari letters, but you couldn't read it? But you can read Sanskrit? Probably Pali, then."
    "And you can read Pali?"
    "Yes. I have a fair grasp of it. I learned back in Borodabur, what there was left of it."
    "Then the gods did have a reason for you to be here."
    "Ah, the bodhisattvas do appear to have done so."
    Dinner continued. The heir informed the three that there was going to be a council tomorrow. "If you could all come—including I suppose your sudra."
    At the council, Akshe made the announcement, "This is what we shall do. I have decided to accept the proposal of the maharajah. The ambassadors will leave tomorrow. Regarding our strategy, we are going to play defensively. The princess will be hidden in Bharhut. We will attempt to catch their elephants at least in traps along the river. I am hoping that we can count on you being on our side," he looked at the holy visitors.
    "If you are attacked," Ashram stated calmly.
    "We don't intend to tell the rajah of Urim this; we will let his deadline expire, and then the fighting will start. That will let the ambassadors get a couple of days head start."
    "The ambassadors are leaving now?"
    "Tomorrow morning."
    "That will give you three days before the fighting should begin."
    "Yes."
    "If things were to change during those three days?"
    "Change how?"
    "The bolt were to be found, or someone should die."
    He looked a bit alarmed by that. "Someone should die? If the bolt was found, yes, that would change the situation... do you have anyone in mind, to die?"
    "No, I'm merely saying. If the unforeseen should occur, is there a secondary plan?"
    "It would depend on what occurred."
    "Just so long as your hearts are not permanently wedded to the idea of war."
    Some of the lords did look pretty well wedded, and these temperate words did not please them, but the rajah remained less than enthusiastic about war with his neighbor, and seemed inclined to hear the hermit.
    The next morning, preparations were underway, elephants being washed and men mustered. By the river, pits were dug. Ashram cast his spell to see if the bolt was anywhere in the palace or temple; it was not. The ambassadors mounted their elegantly outfitted elephants and went on their way with many promises; they would return in several weeks, with the maharajah's army.
    As the three went about their own preparations, Hasin noticed Ashram muttering to himself and asked about it.
    "I'm trying to find ways to get past that stupid Buddha."
    "It ignored you when you were a monkey."
    The hermit stared at him. "Stop being brilliant. It pesters me."
    "Not like it happens all the time...."
    "I have a theory on a way to completely discombobulate everyone else's plans."
    "Kidnap the princess?" Hasin suggested.
    "No... hey, that's not bad. If stuff within the general radius of the scepter of the lotus is protected against all evil—"'
    "If."
    "I can think of no reason why it wouldn't be; everything seems to be pointing in that direction."
    "I'm not entirely certain precisely what a Buddhist would define as evil," Hari put in thoughtfully.
    "There is evil within the city," Hasin pointed out.
    Ashram was undaunted. "But if we could get this thing, and bring it to Amirdata, first off we would on our way walk past the old Tantric woman's house just to watch her go Œyaaa!' and then bring it to Amirdata, then there would be no reason to bring the princess to the middle of godforsaken nowhere to have her be protected by the spell. We could pretend to spirit her off and be keeping her somewhere else, but we would have the magical protections there. It's worth thinking about." There was agreement to that. "And I wonder what would happen to the old lady if we were to hit her with the lotus scepter...."     

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