The Transposed Heads

Two men, one swapped head, and a wife who must judge.

A young woman's husband and brother lose their heads before the Goddess, and when she is granted a boon to restore them, her trembling hands set each head on the wrong body. Two men rise alive, each half husband and half brother. Which one is her husband? You judge first, then the king does.

The Burning Ground

The corpse was back in its tree, turning slowly in the still air, exactly as before. Vikramaditya did not sigh and did not curse. He climbed, cut it loose, bound it tight, and swung it onto his shoulder, and set off again across the cold ash. The Vetala settled in behind his ear like a traveller glad of company on a long road, and began a new tale.

The Two Heads

In a town beside a river lived a young woman named Madanasundari. She loved two men, and there was no quarrel in her heart between them: one was her husband, and one was her younger brother. On a festival morning the three of them climbed a hill to a temple of the Goddess.

While Madanasundari rested in the courtyard, her husband went in alone to bow before the image. What moved him next no one could ever explain. Perhaps a rush of devotion, perhaps a vow he had made and half forgotten. He took up the sword that lay at the altar and offered the Goddess his own head.

When he did not come out, the brother went in to look for him. He found his sister's husband dead before the Goddess, the sword still bright beside him. Grief seized him, and with it a cold fear: that the world would say he had killed his own sister's husband and come away alone with her. He took up the same sword and laid his head down beside the other.

At last Madanasundari came in. She saw the two men she loved most in the world lying there, and she could not bear to live in the world without them. She made a rope of her garment and turned to a beam.