The Chozha army base looked sleepy. There were two gate guards at the gate and the group could see two more at the top turrets. There was no sign of any activity except for the guards who took slow patrols down by the gate and up on the ramparts. Even the lit fires looked as if they hadn’t been fed for a while.

They had chosen the right time to attack. In a few naazhigai the sky would begin to lighten. It was the hour that even the most alert would find it difficult to keep awake. The group stayed hidden in the shadows and watched. The leader gave instructions to his men using hand signals and the two of them who had received those instructions nodded and ran in a crouch in the shadows towards a part of the stone wall that ran around the army camp.

The camp was not situated in any village but at a strategic location from where the troops could be dispatched either north or west. There was a road that led from Natraazhi to the camp from the west and a similar road that led off from the camp on the north. Since it was a road used by civilians, the road was left shaded with trees that were not cut down as they had been on the northern side. And now these trees afforded the shade and dark that the attackers used to their complete advantage.

The two men who had run off after receiving instructions, proceeded to the far side of the wall and watched for a few moments to see that the patrolling guards did not extend their walk till that end of the wall. They didn’t. The men dipped their hands in a pouch that was hanging from a belt on their waist and rubbed whatever it was they had in it on their palms. They did this a few more times and tested their palms on the stone surface of the walls. When they were satisfied, they took their swords and bit them between their teeth and started climbing the stone wall using whatever tiny grooves and crevices they could find, the substance rubbed on their hands acting like a sticky paste to give them a non-slippery grip. They reached the top quite quickly and disappeared from sight as they descended on the other side of the wall.

The leader watched anxiously from his position as the two men vanished from his sight on the inner side of the wall. It was his plan to not attack outright from the outside but to get inside the perimeter ramparts using stealth and open the gates from the inside so that he and his men could get in. Attacking a Chozha army base from outside their base wall was suicide, he knew. If he wanted to inflict damage and achieve his mission which was the destruction of that army camp paving the way for his larger army to enter and attack the Chozhas, then he would have to take his men inside and attack them from within the camp, preferably while they were still sleeping. It looked like he might succeed in his plan and effort that night.

Once his men disappeared on the other side of the wall, the leader shifted his attention to the gate that was being guarded. There was a small gate set in the huge gate and it was on this that his eyes were focused. As he looked on intently, he thought he saw a slight movement in the small door. The small door opened slowly, surprising the guards who were guarding it from the outside. As they went towards it to investigate, his men opened the door wider and attacked them with their hands and covered their mouths, preventing them from shouting and raising the alarm.

That was enough for the leader to raise his arm and signal his men to attack. The attackers ran silently, and entered the camp through the small gate and into the army compound. It opened out into a square courtyard that was perhaps used for training. All one hundred and twenty three of them entered the compound within a few moments and piled into the courtyard. They stood there and looked around, trying to get their bearings and trying to see where the barracks were for the sleeping soldiers.

The sound of a latch being bolted made them all turn around and look at the gate through which they had come. The two soldiers who had been guarding the gate outside now stood inside it, with two other soldiers wearing the clothes of the two men who had climbed the wall and gotten inside. The small gate through which they had entered was now bolted, cutting off their only means of escape. A sharp whistle from somewhere high above was the signal that lit a hundred torches all around the compound, illuminating the two men who had climbed the wall lying dead by the side of the wall and the shocked group of men who found themselves caught in a well-laid and well-executed trap. The ramparts of the camp wall were lined with Chozha soldiers with drawn bows and arrows, ready to rain down on command. The attackers had no chance of even reaching for their weapon because they knew that if even one of them moved a single muscle, all of them would die the next instant, pierced by a thousand arrows.

“Who is your leader?” thundered a voice of the camp commander from the turret.

The leader stepped forward.

“Do you have anything to say before you die?” the commander asked.

“How did you know we were coming?” the leader asked, genuinely puzzled.

“Take five steps forward from your group”, ordered the commander. The leader did. He took the steps, knowing the fate of his men behind him as the sound of arrows being released from the bows above confirmed the utter loss his mission had become.  The commander signaled his men to tie the leader and bring him up to the turret. As he trudged up the steps, the leader had only one thought ringing through his head. When he reached the turret he saw that the commander was standing facing the way they had come in, the road from Natraazhi. The leader automatically turned to face the same way and saw the fire from the guard tower of Natraazhi burning brightly and vigorously.

The leader’s face creased in an uncomprehending frown. A thousand thoughts raced across his mind. ‘How could the fire burn?’ ‘How did he not smell the smoke?’ ‘How did he not see the glow in the sky?’

“Who lit the fire?” he asked, unable to contain the one question that kept reverberating in his head.

“What do you mean who lit the fire?” asked the commander.

“Who lit the fire in Natraazhi?” repeated the leader. “We killed everyone”, he said.

“What do you mean you killed everyone?” the commander asked, looking at the leader and back at the fire.

“We killed everyone, man, woman and child”, the leader answered. “So, who lit the fire?”

The commander looked at him silently. “Everyone?” he asked. “Men, women and children?”

“Yes, everyone. The one-legged guard and the little girl at the tower, and every man, woman and child in Natraazhi as they slept”.

“Then this is for each one of them”, said the commander and brought his sword down on the man, giving him a more honorable death than he deserved.

The soldiers who had heard the man say that they had killed everyone in Natraazhi, turned and looked at the fire of the guard tower along with their commander, with the one exact question ringing in all their minds.

‘Who lit the fire?’