Love Across Borders Read Online Free Page B

scouted the land earlier, and in the stillness of the desert,
the tracks of their journey into the Kutchee Rann were clearly
visible.
    Hungry, thirsty and hot, they slowly followed
the tracks with a new sense of peace and complicity settling
between them. The box held precious secrets—knowledge that had been
buried for so long, but could surely help them build a new
country.
    “Can you imagine working together, living
together, like they said in the Treaty?”
    “We worked together last night, Jahaan. If we
hadn’t, we may have been much worse for the wear this morning.”
    “Hmmm. Let’s hope the elders see it the same
way.”
    Aryan agreed. He had been surprised at how much
they had in common. He had been brought up to believe that the
Druks were their mortal enemy. Before this wild night, he would
have been too afraid to be alone with her, sure she would slit his
throat at the slightest provocation.

    ***

    It took the young couple a whole day to return
to the camp. Darkness had fallen, and Jahaan was letting the horse
make essential decisions about the way back. They had travelled in
comfortable camaraderie, but had begun to droop with fatigue as the
landscape finally changed from barren desert to rocks, mountains
and sparse trees.
    From the distance, the couple heard raised
voices, and an eerie tension gripped their bodies. A soft glow of
light indicated that they were close a few stone throws away from
the camp; too far to hear voices, surely? Jahaan felt Aryan grip
her tightly as she spurred the horse onwards.
    They reached the bluff above the shared
campgrounds just as the sound of gunfire filled the air. Shocked,
Jahaan pulled up the horse, and twisted to look up at Aryan. His
face was taut, and he was looking straight ahead. He lifted his arm
and pointed. A few meters ahead of them, half way down the steep
slopes of the valley, several men were wrestling on a narrow crag.
Each tribe had stationed lookouts along the valley wall, but the
men seemed to have forgotten their posts.
    Climbing off the horse, Aryan crept towards the
edge of the cliff and looked down into the valley. He felt Jahaan
crawl up next to him. The box lay between them.
    In the canyon below, the campgrounds resembled a
wasteland. Bodies were strewn across the canyon floor, and dust
swirled where men still fought. The peace talks were clearly
over—in less than a day, the hopes and efforts of six long months
of preparation lay in ashes. Despair gripped the two youngsters
watching from the cliff, but they were helplessly stuck on their
perch. Neither of them had the will to join the fight and it never
occurred to them to turn on each other.
    “We should be down there,” Jahaan whispered,
reluctantly. “My father…”
    “Mine, too.” He looked uncertain. “Should
we?”
    She was silent for a moment, then she shook her
head, sadly. “Look at that frenzy—they’re killing each other based
on the color of their clothes. No one is going to stop and listen
to us if we try and reason with them. We’ll have to wait it
out.”
    It took hours for the dust to settle. In the
light of yet another early dawn, Aryan and Jahaan watched as random
figures scattered in all directions. Leaving behind a trail of
bodies, the survivors had turned their backs on hopes of any
lasting peace. The death toll of this particular day would not be
forgotten. For all they knew, that toll included their parents and
loved ones.
    Putting her hand on the box, Jahaan looked up at
the sky. Rays of pale peach light cut through the dark blue of the
heavens. It carried the promise of a beautiful new day.
    She turned her emerald eyes to Aryan. “I
wonder.” His hand came up to touch hers in mute understanding.
“What stupid comment crushed the Kutch Treaty so completely, so
devastatingly, that a century later, we’re still at war?”

    ∞

 
    ABOUT SHUCHI KALRA
     
    Writing has been Shuchi’s passion for as
long as she can remember, although she adopted it as a