Chapter 14

The chapter starts with Anand taking off his coat and wrapping around Nisha since she cant go on. Suddenly Nisha starts talking in a voice that's not hers telling Anand to give her the conch. Anand resists but she pins him to the ground. Suddenly Surabhanu is there in the form of a snake. He reveals that he planted himself in Nisha's mind when they first met and now he is taking control of her. Surabhanu tells Nisha to knock Anand unconscious so she picks up a boulder and prepares to attack him. Suddenly out of nowhere Rajah comes flying out and attacks Surabhanu. In the following battle Anand realizes that Rajah is actually a mongoose and Surabhanu reveals that the mongoose is actually Abhaydatta. Surabhanu bests Abhaydatta and throws him again a cliff wall. Nisha enraged by this is able to break free of Surabhanu's power and throws the boulder at him instead of Anand. Surabhanu then transforms himself into a black cloud like mist and demands that Anand give him the conch. Anand eventually accepts defeat and thinks "I did everything i could. And still I failed you." Hearing his thought the conch tells Anand to stand up and take it out of its pouch. Anand does and a blast of sound comes out of it throwing Anand to the ground and making Surabhanu disappear.

I really liked this chapters action because there has not been much throughout the book. But i wonder what exactly happened to Surabhanu is he gone for good or is he just banished to a small part of the world? I think that Anand will manage to get the conch to the healers and be accepted into the brotherhood.