The Kumaramatyas exchanged puzzled glances after the story ends. Po Nagar, who was convinced she has lost all of her families, sat grimly and muttered something; perhaps prayers, or curses, or both. Sitting in the right side of the Maharaja, Sokei-An began to lean his body toward the Maharaja and whispered something.
“If you have a counsel, you speak it aloud, priest!” Srindravarman scolded him.
“My lord, I only—“
“What are you trying to say to Maharaja? That our army lacked of faith? That they didn’t pray enough?”
“Buddha said ‘There has to be evil so that good can prove its purity above it’,” Sokei-An replied gently, “Srivijaya, as a kingdom under righteous gods, has chosen to be the good that will destroy those evil infidels. This defeat is a stepping stone to an undoubted triumph. The gods are sending a message.”
Srindravarman rose from his seat. “Thousands of our people died! Did they die so your gods can send a message, priest? What an impractical gods?! Can’t they just send a letter?”
‘Your gods’, Amretasari noticed. He should be more mindful of his choice of words.
“Our gods don’t work that way, my lord,” said the priest with a sly smile.
“This defeat is our responsibilities,” Maharaja Sumatrabhumi interrupted impatiently, “I need counsels, not a talk about whether the gods can send a letter.”
“Srivijaya should surrender to the Mongol Empire,” said Po Nagar in a sullen voice.
Amretasari could not resist her urge to support Po Nagar’s assertion. “I agree. From what we’ve learned of what happened to Indrapura, we can tell that The Mongol Empire is not invading our Kedatuans. It was a threat. They are telling us of what they capable of doing if we don’t surrender. The Mongols have defeated so many kingdoms they learned various battle arts. We cannot defeat them with our current military power.”
“Soon, they will do the same thing to Khmer, Chaiya. And then, to Palembang.” Po Nagar added.
Heads turned to the Maharaja, which instead glances toward the Senapati and said, “What do you think Senapati Narendra?”
“They are right. The Mongols are too strong. We need to surrender,” the Senapati answered, “Besides men, we have lost many sambaus. To launch another attack, we need to build sambaus, which will take a long time. We may have lost all of our Kedatuans to the enemy by then.”
The Maharaja frowned. The burden he was carrying made him ten years older. Even the priest seemed younger than Maharaja Sumatrabhumi at the moment. For hundreds of year, many kings of many kingdoms bent their knee to the Maharaja of Srivijaya; today Sumatrabhumi was advised to do otherwise. Though necessary, it must have been very hard to decide to surrender.
But the Maharaja said instead, “There is another way.”
(Continued to Chapter 9)
(previous chapter)
