Wolves and Men

She didn’t know how long she had danced for but the music sadly ended and her heart thudded against her chest in happy rhythm. She took a few moments to calm her body and her breathing before she turned and met the gentlemen and her mother.

The gentleman held his gloves and cane in one hand. He extended his other hand to her and bowed deeply. She took it gently and bowed as well. This was a common occurrence for them. The gentleman then reached behind him and placed in her hands an ornate box of deep silver with inlaid jewels that sparkled in the soft light of the dance hall. The gentleman bowed deeply to her mother and left the dance hall quietly.

Ansuya was deeply confused and a little distressed. She had never been given a gift before by anyone other than her mother and a few friends, and then only on Holiday. She turned the box slowly in her hands and looked up at her mother questioningly.

The elder woman smiled down at her. “You have pleased me and Sarkar Rajiv. He has been here to see you many times and your dancing has been different every time. I am so proud of you. This is a gift, my sundar lurki, one that you should keep close to you. Not all gifts will be as ornate or special. This one should be very special to you.”

She was deeply troubled by this. “Why, mother? I don’t understand.” She shook her head, confused. “Why is this one special? Am I to expect more from Sarkar Rajiv?”

“No, Sarkar Rajiv will be traveling back to Dehli on the first train tomorrow. But I can promise you there will be other gifts. Being my daughter you have an advantage. You’ve noticed this since you were young. But that advantage will be tested regularly now. You will make a name for yourself, Ansuya. In the coming months you will spend less time with me. And if all goes well my sundar lurki you will be joining Bali Jai in Delhi to start your new life. You have a good future, if you are careful and if you use the prudence that you have been taught. I will be here, but no longer as your mother. Now you must see me as your matron and elder.” She knelt down on her knees and hugged her weary, confused daughter tightly. “I am so proud of you sundar lurki, and I hope that you never forget that. Everything I have done is so you can live better than even I have been able to provide for you. You will look to yourself now, and you will be loved by many.”

The elder woman stood up. “But that is for tomorrow. Tonight, I will be the parent that some of the nearby British children have and allow you to spend my purse as you see fit.” She said this with a broad radiant smile. “Tonight, I send my praises to Shiva that my daughter is now a woman, a woman worthy of her name and station.”

Ansuya let her mother lead her back into the depths of the dance hall and allowed herself to be bathed by her, something that she hadn’t done since she was almost too young to remember. As water splashed over her weary shoulders, she glanced over at the ornate silver box that now sat upon the dresser top, the first of many…

The weeks went by and true to her mother’s word she did travel, though not to Delhi, at least not by any direct route. She came to realize exactly what her mother had meant when she had told her she would be loved by many. She was well taken care of, but as her mother had said, she was seeing less and less of her. The people from her youth were left behind and her days and nights were spent catering to larger and larger and audiences. She was dancing in grand theatres and singing in parks. The throng of people at her feet showered her with flowers and love. She was beginning to understand just how high a price and how strong the demand was for the young and graceful Ansuya Das.

* * * * *

She awoke suddenly in the pit of the dark basement. There was a moment of panic as she thought about a long-forgotten appointment that she was in danger of being tardy for. Then she breathed in the stink of the stale air of this place and calmed her mind, forcing the half-remembered dream from her consciousness.

She went through the repetitions of her mental exercises. This was all she could do but her long hours of disciplined study had ingrained in her the need for order and routine. She kept her mind as sharp as she could. Twelve times twelve is One hundred forty-four. The Pythagorean Theorem was discovered by Pythagoras of Samos and tells the law of isosceles triangles; A squared plus B squared equals C squared. Schrodinger’s Cat is a mental exercise of theoretical physics which tells of a being in a flux state where they exist in both life and death, and only when they are observed does the cat fully enter into one state of existence over the other. Planets travel in an irregular ellipse around the star of our solar system, Sol.

The drug was heavy in her system. These exercises were the only thing keeping her mind tethered to reality. She had begun these exercises immediately upon capture. It was probably the only thing that kept her cognizant during Kenneth’s more sadistic mental puzzles and traps. It was because of that, that she had been able to see through Kenneth’s dream world in the mirror. There were some details that he missed, and could never know. If she had let her mind become clouded from his drug, she may have missed them and succumbed.

When she reached the end of her exercises she took a deep breath, and tried not to gag on the horrid smells around her. Sometimes she wished she had been reborn a Healer, but her gifts gave her the advantage here. She set to work on her own trap. She didn’t know what the actual effects of what she was doing would be. She had been working slowing and tediously over the long months she had been down here. The work was slow. She was reminded of a few of the stories that she used to read when she had been younger. The stories of men thrown into deep prisons who swore to escape and began slowly digging their way out through the bowels of the earth below the prison. How they measured their progress in handfuls of dirt, and their calendars were months and years long to see fruition of their plans till they could escape the deep prisons where they had been cast, forgotten by their kin and associates.