KRISHNA CORIOLIS#1: Slayer of Kamsa Read Online Free PDF Page A

the heads of their cattle were pointed towards Andhaka territory, so it was obvious they intended to cross over. He had slaughtered the cowherds and their cows, down to the last suckling calf and mother of both species. Their blood had spattered on his face, obscuring his vision, and it had taken considerable scrubbing to remove the stubborn spatters. Damned enemy blood. Burnt like acid too.
    But no amount of blinking and rubbing his eyes made this particular sight vanish or change.
    His spear stayed there, hanging inches from Vasudeva’s chest, its deadly barbed tip pointed precisely at the point where the breastbone met the ribcage, that soft yielding spot in the centre where the spear would have punched through with minimal resistance, bursting through the heart and emerging out of the rear of the Sura’s body.
    It had stalled midway, suspended by no visible means. It wasn’t floating exactly, for it did not so much as move an inch, merely hung as if embedded in some solid object.
    But I heard it strike! It hit bone and flesh and cartilage with that typical wet crunching sound they always make at this distance and force.
    Then again, he was so accustomed to hearing that sound that it was possible that he had simply remembered it from previous occasions. The outburst that exploded from the onlookers the instant he flung the spear had drowned out everything else, after all.
    He strode towards the Sura chief-king, people stepping back or moving away, wide-eyed, to give him a wide berth.
    He saw a man beside Vasudeva stand his ground staunchly, along with several others he recognized as the Suras’ clan-brothers and allied chieftains. They stared fiercely at Kamsa with the look he had seen sooften before. He saw fists clench empty air, muscles tighten, jaws lock, and knew that they were prepared to take him on with their bare hands if need be. They did not worry him; he could take them on single- handedly even if Haddi-Hathi was not there to back him up, which he was.
    Kamsa stared at the spear. He walked around it; examined it from all angles. He could not fathom how the trick had been pulled off. The spear simply stood there, embedded solidly in ... in thin air!
    He grasped the spear to dislodge it from its position. He felt a shock as it refused to budge.  
    He yanked down upon it, hard.
    Nothing.
    He pulled it to the left, then to the right, thenpushed it upwards. His biceps and powerful shoulder muscles bulged, and he knew that were this a lever he was exerting all this force upon, he could have moved a boulder weighing a ton with this much effort.
    Yet the spear just stayed there, as immobile as an iron rod welded into solid rock.
    This was impossible!
    He looked at Vasudeva. The Sura chief-king’s face was hard, ready for anything, yet not cruel and mocking as Kamsa had expected. Not the gloating glee that a triumphant enemy ought to have displayed at such a moment.
    ‘HOW!’ Kamsa screamed. ‘BY WHAT SORCERY DID YOU DO THIS?’
    Vasudeva looked at him for a moment with eyes that seemed almost cow-like to Kamsa’s raging senses. The kettledrums played out their mad rhythm, pounding his brain with unending waves of agony.
    Then, to the sound of a shocked Aaah from the watchingassemblage,Vasudevareachedoutandtook hold of the spear, which came free of its invisible hold as easily as if he had picked it up from a wall-stand. Several spectators clasped their palms together and criedout‘Sadhu!Sadhu!’inreverentialtones–forwhat had happened was no less than a miracle.
    And to Kamsa’s continued disbelief and amazement, the Sura chief-king held out the spear upon raised palms, the action of a man surrendering rather than opposing.
    ‘It was no tI,’Vasudeva said quietly,‘but the great Lord Vishnu who did this. For it is clear that he desires our people to be at peace. Accept this as proof of his grace and a sign of his protection over all those who work to achieve shanti upon