Burden of Bushido: Emerald Treasure of the Thuggee Assassins (part 1)

[BigMcLargehuge]

1

Senajit peered out of the new moon darkness at the small groups of pilgrims spread out around the bonfire. He knew better than to sleep on Pilgrimage Road during the darkest of nights of the month. The tales of The Thuggee were not mere stories told to frighten unruly children, but sinister men who strangled and robbed unwary pilgrims to please the goddess Kali. Even though the British hung four thousand Thuggee, imprisoned thousands more, and drove them from all but the darkest recesses of the countryside, their legacy had not died.

Senajit had robbed them earlier that day.

He scrambled up the low hill to the base of a great mango tree and dug a deep and narrow hole into which he placed the fist-sized emerald, wrapped in sheepskin and tied with a length of silver chain, before covering the hole with the soft earth.

Senajit then strung his remaining meager valuables, a single gold chain and a small purse of rupees, around his waist beneath the folds of his white shirt before slipping back down the hillside to side of Pilgrimage Road.

He stayed in the shadows on the periphery of the bonfire and lay back. He struggled to remain alert to every sound in the deep forest that protected Srisailam Temple. But, the relentless heat of the coming Monsoon season sapped his strength more than the long walk from his village outside Pondicherri. Senajit's eyes soon fluttered and the sound of distant prayers faded into ghostly echoes.

He awoke breathless; a garrote twisted tight around his neck and strange, cold hands tearing through his clothes.

Senajit struggled for a second then slumped dead.