The Raag of Rta
2 primary works 3 total works planned
Book 1
SOME BALLADS ARE INKED IN BLOOD.
Bled dry by violent confrontations with the Magadhan Empire, the Mathuran Republic simmers on the brink of oblivion. The Republic’s Leaders, Krishna and Satyabhama, have put their plans in motion within and beyond its blood-soaked borders, to protect it from annihilation. But they will soon discover that neither gold nor alliances last forever.
They are, however, not the only players in this game.
Mati, Pirate-Princess of Kalinga, must mend her ways if she is to be a good wife. But old habits die hard, especially when one habitually uses murder to settle scores. Karna, the gifted son of a lowborn charioteer, hopes to bury his brutal past, but finds that life is not generous in offering second chances. The crippled hero-turned-torturer Shakuni struggles in the maze of daggers, that is politics, leaving little time for him to plot the revenge he craves.
Alongside a cast of sinister queens, naive kings, pious assassins and predatory priests, these dubious heroes will converge where the Son of Darkness is prophesied to rise and break the World, even as forgotten Gods prepare to play their hand.
Book 2
As the royal houses of SONS OF DARKNESS intrigued, manoeuvred and finally met in open battle with devastating consequences, far more sinister deeds were unfolding just over the Eastern horizon. DANCE OF SHADOWS is that story.
A fragile armistice may hold in the West, but everyone knows it cannot last. In the Tree Cities of the East, a Conclave of Peace has assembled to secure the future of the realm. But the delegates -- deaf swordswomen and exiled snakelings, spoilt heroes and lovesick princes, immortal assassins and their apprentices -- will find no sun to light their path.
After all, the season of peace is the finest time to plant the seeds of war.
For the Son of Darkness rises, boiling over with a wrath that all the oracles in the world cannot hope to stop. After all, seeing the future is one thing, changing it is quite another.
But who is to say that there isn't a way?
In his dark re-imagining of ancient India, Mohanty dangles a vibrant cast of dubious heroes from the threads of fate: ancient foes awake, bitter enemies reconcile, old friends swear to destroy each other. The Sun is setting on the age of humanity, and shadows are gathering to dance...