Chapter One - Richard Lewis

He says in a quieter voice to the women, "We will give you a chance to nyumpat,
to repent. You will be given cremations."
"Enough," Dharma says and without warning plucks an ironwood stave from one
of his men and delivers a vicious blow to the back of Desak's head. She crumples on her
face and does not move.
"I beg you, nyumpat," Mantera pleads with the other women.
A skinny woman spits at him, "Kill me like you've killed her, and may karma
judge your soul."
This time Dharma presses the ironwood into Mantera's hand. "Kill her, my lord,"
he says. "Prove to us that you deserve to be our prince, that your palace is loyal."
Mantera glances up at the sky and out to sea, the stave loose in his hand. He takes
a deep breath, tightens his grip, and swings as hard as he can. The woman crumples and
moan once and then is still.
Dharma takes a machete and with several hacks chops off Desak's head. He holds
up the gruesome object by its bloody hair and cries, "Behold Ludhe Srikandi!"
A blood vessel pulsed in Arini's forehead, the bone under the thin skin looking as
fragile as eggshell. Her face and eyes were taut.
"So Mantera did kill them," Tina said.
Arini cut her eyes to Tina without moving her head. "He wants to marry me."
Tina thought that nothing more would astound her, but this took her breath away.
She couldn't speak.
"He doesn't care what his family think or anyone thinks. He says he should
married me fifty years ago." Her lips stretched in a smile. "Marrying at our age!"
Tina found her voice. "Arini! You're not thinking of it, are you?"
"His family have always hated me. His oldest son, especially. That little glossy
frog of a boy, the one who always bullied Nol. He thinks I'm after revenge and the family
money."
"Mantera is a murderer, Arini. That cane he carries... my God!"
"I make no excuses for what he did. He makes no excuses for himself. He carries
that cane to remind him. He made a vow. He will be judged by karma. He has accepted
that."
"What about justice?"
Arini's jaws flexed. "Such a primitive justice you have. An eye for an eye.. You
see the hand cut off and the adulterer stoned and you walk away feeling self-righteous
and good about yourself."
"That's not—"
"I have lived a revolution, Tina. Mantera is good and decent man. I won't marry
him, not because of what he did, but because of all the trouble it will cause." The shell of
her headache cracked and pain seared across her face. "I didn't save them. I couldn't even
save Parwati's daughters. And Catra, my silly stupid husband, nobody could save him."
"Mantera betrayed him," Tina said. "Mantera told the Red Berets about his letter."
"Is that what Dharma said?"
"Dharma was very certain."
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