Valli said, ‘You are all brave with these sleepy birds. If you encounter anyone with a knife in hand, you’d run away’. That silenced Ponnan for a while.
They reached the back of the palace. He asked, “Valli, do you want to go inside to see the palace, or just focus on the task at hand?”
“Just follow me”, said Ponnan and led her eastwards.
This temple is already familiar to us. The small, beautiful temple was adjoining the palace at the eastern end. There were three entrances into the temple. The first was the main entrance, from the palace. There was an entrance from the garden to fetch flowers and Kaveri water for prayers. The third entrance was an opening on the outer wall of the fort. It was for the priest to access the temple directly from outside.
Ponnan unlocked the door to the second entrance. He entered the temple, with Valli behind him. They saw the statues in the dimming light of the lamp, and stood mesmerized for a while. Despite the lack of maintenance and regular prayers, the statues looked lifelike. Ponnan came out of their spell first. He said, “Valli, let’s move along. We don’t have time to linger”. He went to Lord Vishnu’s shrine and picked up a long, handsome box with carvings from the foot of the statue.
“Valli, this box has the priceless treasures of the Chozha clan. It is a good thing that Narasimha Pallavan has not seen this. If he had, this would have gone to Kanchi by now”, said Ponnan as he walked out of the temple.
Valli said, “Dear me! The lamp went out!”
“It’s not a problem now. It’s a good thing it lasted until we got what we came here for. How do we get back now? It is hard to navigate the garden without light. Let’s try the eastern entrance”, said Ponnan and walked fast towards the eastern gate on the wall. As they neared the entrance, they were startled to hear voices on the other side. They could hear the conversation with some effort.
“You are standing guard with a drawn sword. All upon the words of Marappa Bhupathi! I don’t believe that a thief would dare enter the palace!”
“Marappa Bhupathi swears that he saw the thief enter. How can I ignore that?”
“Is this the only way for the thief to escape? Or is there another exit?”
“A thief would not dare exit via the main entrance. If not this exit, his only option would be the garden wall exit. But would lead him right into the waters of Kaveri. Before that… ”
“Hey, look at all those men carrying torches”
“It looks like Marappan is returning with his men!”
Ponnan was rattled. His imagination ran wild. He pictured Marappan catching him and producing him at the Emperor’s court. In his mind, the Emperor asked, ‘You acted all honest, but are you just a thief!?”.
He got hold of Valli’s hand and started running towards the north. They ran headlong into plants, and even trees. They still resumed their run until they reached the door of the northern entrance. They stopped to listen for noises. There were none. They opened the door gently and came out. They climbed down the banks into the river, and discovered to their dismay that the boat was gone. They could see lights at a distance and hear men approaching.
They stood paralyzed with fear for a while. Ponnan said, “Valli, the boat may have floated away and settled along the shore somewhere to the east. Let’s go!”.
They ran east for a while along with the banks of the river. They could see men with torches approach through the road from the south. They could hear someone exclaim, ‘There they are, trying to escape!”.
Ponnan and Valli resumed their run. They soon discovered that their boat was tied to a tree root. They were surprised but did not have time to wonder how it had happened.
The group of men with torches had approached the banks of Kaveri by then. Ponnan realized that he was about to be caught with the box. At that time, a figure appeared from behind the tree.
Valli realized that it was the sage, and exclaimed, “Your holiness!”
The sage said “Hush! Ponna, there is no time to talk. Give me that box. I will safeguard it and return it to you. You don’t want to be caught with this in your possession!”.
Valli urged, “Yes, give it to him!”
Ponnan lifted the box with some hesitation and handed it to the sage.
The sage said, “Valli, once you saved me from an encounter with Marappan. In return, I am saving you from the same man!”. In a few moments, he had vanished.
Ponnan untied the boat, helped Valli onto the boat, and boarded it. Marapan’s men ran towards them.
Click here for the audiobook version
Parthban Kanavu: The Tamil version of the novel is in the public domain. Copyright for the translation is reserved by the translator..
Art by Sujatha, unless otherwise credited.
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