The Archer at Dawn

by Swati Teerdhala

  This was how they’d get down below. But once they got there, they’d be swarmed with soldiers, which is why they needed to wait for Arpiya’s signal.

  While they had planned their movements around the patrol schedules to avoid any soldiers, this sort of quiet made the hair rise on Kunal’s arms. They’d barely needed to dodge any soldiers.

  Kunal looked out the large window at the top of the circular staircase, at the twinkling lights of the palace and beyond.

  Were they missing something?

  Esha didn’t believe in coincidences. Dharmdev and his followers had known that they had chosen tonight.

  Esha looked back and forth, most of the Senaps posted outside having gone in at the first shout. She dashed across the hallway and slipped into another corridor that gave her a better vantage point over the hall and the chaos beyond.

  They had till the end of the night to get Reha out and to take Vardaan into custody. It was the only way they’d be able to see their coup through.

  She rushed forward to the walkway the squad would come through, which led to the throne room and beyond. A booming noise went off.

  Moon Lord.

  Her eyes darted to the left, to the tall, looming outline of the citadel, and then to the eastern entrance where Mayank had brought his men. The men who would be streaming into the eastern gate right now, toward the main hall—and directly into a trap.

  They needed to know what they were getting into. Kunal and the team could handle themselves from here.

  Esha sprinted through the hallways toward Lord Mayank’s rooms.

  Kunal signaled for the others to follow him, and they crept down a level on the staircase, peeping into the adjacent hallway. He stepped gingerly into the hallway, one he hadn’t scouted before due to strict patrols.

  But something was setting him on edge, an unease he couldn’t place. Alok and Bhandu stopped behind him.

  “What’s wrong?” Alok said.

  “Something feels off,” Kunal answered.

  They surveyed the whole hallway, checking the nearby corridors.

  Nothing.

  Perhaps he was being paranoid. They’d planned this thoroughly, from the routes they were taking here to the distraction and the exit plan. And so far, everything was going—

  Kunal’s eyes darted to the door they had passed.

  A fresh streak of red was smeared against the bottom. He pushed it open. The mangled body of a soldier slumped against a nearby wall, with two more beside him.

  “Three soldiers down,” Alok said in a strangled voice.

  “That we’ve found,” Bhandu said, leaning down to check the pulse of one of them.

  Kunal grunted. “We’re not alone,” he said, giving voice to the thoughts churning in his head. Someone else was in the citadel.

  Friend or foe?

  And then a deep boom cracked through the stillness of the night, rushing in from the direction of the palace.

  Kunal ran to the nearest window and narrowed in his sharpened eyesight, trying to see what he could. The sky was dark, only the lights of the Great Hall twinkling—exactly as they had planned it.

  Kunal cursed.

  His first instinct was to run over, see if Esha was all right. But he knew that if something was going wrong there, it was even more important for him to be here and find Reha.

  “What in the Moon Lord’s bleeding—” Bhandu stopped suddenly and cocked a hand to his ear.

  A faint cooing, a few low shouts, and the smell of smoke.

  Arpiya’s signal.

  “We have to move,” Kunal said. “We’re not the only ones here. Get to the lower levels before they do. Quickly, while Arpiya’s fire is still a distraction.”

  Alok and Bhandu nodded, and they hurried out of the room. Kunal turned back toward the deceased soldiers and said a quick prayer for their souls.

  Lord Mayank’s room was mostly dark, except for a lone candle highlighting a turbaned figure hunched over the desk.

  “Thanks to the Moon Lord,” Esha said, breathing heavy. “Mayank, you’re not safe here. We need to go—”

  The figure shifted in the dancing shadows, and Esha realized her mistake.

  It was two figures near the desk, Mayank limp on the ground and his attacker hunched over the desk, with a knife in hand. His attacker turned, removing a foot from Mayank’s chest, and Esha froze.

  The betrayal hit her like a crumbling wall, shocking and then burying her.

  Even with the turban, Esha would recognize her. A round face and bright eyes stared up at her.

  Aditi.

  It had to be a mistake.

  But there she was.

  Her lady’s maid was standing over the lord, with a vicious grin on her face and a knife still in her hand as if she had been born to hold it.

  Mayank took the moment of distraction to lunge at Aditi, knocking her down, her turban falling off and long hair spilling around her. A knife clattered to the floor where she had been.

  “She’s got a mean arm,” he said, drawing in a raspy breath. He was panting, holding a hand to his arm and wincing as he tried to stand.

  “Aditi?” Esha said.

  “Lady Esha,” she said. Her voice was the same, still calm and slightly good-humored, but with a slight edge to it now.

  “Why are you here?” Esha got no response. “Why are you here with a knife, and trying to murder Lord Mayank?”

  “Not murder. Capture,” she said nonchalantly. “We need him.”

  “We?” Esha racked her brain before the realization slammed into her. How had she not seen it? “Are you one of the Scales?”

  “You could say that.”

  She had trusted Aditi.

  And she was a Scale. No wonder they hadn’t wanted their help. They’d already found a way to use the Blades—through her.

  “I saw your friends and the wall of bodies they made in the hall. How can you work with them?” Esha said, trying to understand. This wasn’t the girl she had come to know over the past few weeks.

  “Work with them?” Aditi said. “I expected better of you, Esha. Or should I say, Viper? You of all people should know that looks can be deceiving.”

  Aditi stepped into the light, and Esha saw that the girl was wearing a glittering pin. Two scales tilted to the right, the sigil of the Lord of Justice.

  Lord of Justice.

  Aditi was Dharmdev.

  “You’ve figured it out now, haven’t you?” She shrugged. “It’s always the same look of disbelief.”

  Esha’s vision darkened. “You’ve been lying to me. This whole time.”

  That stopped Aditi. “I regret that. You’ve been kind and generous, more than I expected. I almost feel bad.” Her voice was flippant, but Esha caught the way she shifted her stance. “We could use someone like you, Esha.”

  She paused for a second, searching for something in Esha’s face. “Esha, I know who your parents’ killer is.”

  Esha’s heartbeat stuttered.

  “My—you lie. I’ve been searching for the past two weeks and they’ve evaded my grasp.”

  “It doesn’t do me any good to lie,” the girl said, shrugging. Despite the nonchalant gesture, her face was keen, focused in on Esha’s reaction. “Your parents’ killer isn’t gone, Esha. He’s in the palace. Right now.”

  “I don’t believe you,” she said. She couldn’t trust Aditi—Dharmdev.

  “Give me Mayank. The Scales already have the palace. No need for you to die too.”

  Esha hesitated.

  “Esha, I was there when you woke up from your nightmare. I know your pain. I have my own ghosts and nights that haunt me. You owe nothing to this noble,” she said, spitting out the last word.

  Esha tightened her jaw, fighting against the tide of emotions in her chest. This was about more than her own pain or her past. She was building a future for them all, one with Reha safe and Vardaan gone.

  And to do that she’d have to sacrifice her revenge, the one thing that had kept he
r warm for all these years. But for the first time, it wasn’t the only thing that fueled her.

  Hope.

  She had hope that things would be different. That they could make things different, and this was the first step.

  “No deal,” Esha said, her voice growing steadier. “You tricked me, lied to me, framed me, and now you think you can manipulate me. The Scales only have the hall, not the palace—yet.”

  There were a few more surprises the Blades had in store. Harun’s backup troops would come in handy now.

  “Your pyre. I warned you.”

  Esha braced herself for an attack, shielding Lord Mayank with her body, but none came. Instead, the young woman gave her one last lingering look before throwing her rope out the window. Esha hadn’t missed how her eyes had flown to her weapon for a second. But she hadn’t moved to unleash it.

  Aditi had decided not to attack Esha, to spare her life.

  Esha didn’t think twice. She ran for the window, lunging to grab ahold of her.

  But Dharmdev had already disappeared into the pitch black of the night.

  Chapter 36

  Kunal crept along the dimly lit corridors of the staircase. Alok’s breathing was heavy behind him.

  A low fire of fear and worry simmered in Kunal’s belly. Nothing was going the way it was supposed to. He had known something was off from the beginning.

  And now they’d found three soldiers dead and an explosion had gone off near the palace. Was Esha all right? Lord Mayank would be there with his men, as would Harun. He hoped it would be enough.

  He kept his sword at chest level as they wound down the staircase. Shouts of fire and the stench of burning wood were beginning to float down from the top. Right now it was chaos outside, but in a few minutes they’d enact protocol and order would be restored.

  They needed to be down in the lower levels by then.

  Kunal reached one of the windows on the first-floor landing and took a moment to look outside, keeping an eye out for Arpiya. She was nowhere in sight, but multiple fires were alight in the courtyard and in the rooms of the inner ring and outer wall.

  He focused in for a quick listen, trying to see if any of the soldiers knew what was happening at the palace. One ran into view, yelling about a breach at the palace.

  A squad of soldiers broke off, thrusting buckets of water at nearby soldiers. They sprinted away.

  All Kunal had been able to hear beneath the crackle of fire with his sharpened hearing was two words.

  Dharmdev’s Scales.

  Laksh’s words came back to him.

  What happens next is on you.

  Kunal cursed, filling in Alok and Bhandu.

  “There’s nothing you can do for her now,” Alok said softly. “Except to get Reha out. We have to make sure that even if they take the palace, they won’t have her.”

  Kunal nodded, pushing aside his worries. Esha could take care of herself. He was here to rescue Reha, the one chance they had to save his land, his home.

  “Cat eyes?” Bhandu was down near the door to the lower levels, his hand resting on the knob. “We need to move.”

  The throne room was swathed in darkness except for the dim glow from a lone torch on the wall.

  Esha had sprinted there after sequestering Mayank away, showing him another entrance in and out for him and his men. Their reinforcements should be arriving soon to present a real challenge to the Scales presence. The Scales may have had the element of surprise, but Mayank’s and Harun’s additional troops would have the strength.

  Esha waited for Vardaan.

  She stepped deeper into the shadows as voices drifted in from the far corner of the room. Three figures rushed into the room: one Senap, a disheveled adviser, and Vardaan. The adviser ran to light a few of the other torches, but King Vardaan held out a hand.

  “Don’t,” he said. “We need to stay as covered as possible.”

  A rush of adrenaline flooded Esha as she crouched to the ground, pulling out her whips and getting into position.

  He wouldn’t leave in one piece.

  “Your Highness, we need to get you out of here. The palace is not safe,” the Senap said, looking around with a nervous air.

  “No, we need to wait. They said they’d be here. I need to finish this.”

  Esha peered closer at the king, trying to make sense of his words.

  “I must insist—”

  “Stand down, soldier,” the king said, his voice firm. He moved away from the Senap, taking two steps that brought him inches closer to Esha.

  She palmed her whips, adjusted her grip.

  The Senap strode forward, trying to block the king from the windows. Esha looked around, determining what she could use. She needed to take out the Senap first—the adviser she wasn’t worried about.

  She was calculating her next move when King Vardaan stilled.

  Moon Lord’s fists. He could hear her.

  Time to move.

  A huge chandelier hung above the Senap, and Esha acted by instinct, lashing out her whip to wrap around it. She tugged, once, twice, and it loosened. The Senap barely had a chance to look up before it came tumbling down to crash. Esha took advantage of the distraction to run up behind Vardaan and wrap her whip around his throat.

  He roared, and she could feel his body readying for a shift. She dug her ring into his neck, the blue sapphire’s terrible effect working immediately. He dropped to his knees, releasing a growl that sounded barely human.

  His eyes flashed at her as he took in who she was. “Lady Esha? I knew there was something off about you.”

  “Viper, Your Highness,” she spat out.

  His eyes bulged, the veins in his neck looking more prominent. “You’ve been a cursed nuisance.”

  “I could say the same about you.”

  Esha kept the whip secure around his neck, fishing out the sapphire-encrusted cords she had bought to tie his hands, trussing him up.

  “And what is your plan? Kill me in my own throne room?” he asked, coughing.

  “Your throne room? Don’t you mean the throne you stole?”

  “How nice it must be to have such a simple way of looking at things,” he said, the disdain in his voice clear despite the blood pooling at the corners of his lips. Esha dug her ring in more, anger coursing through her.

  “If you keep doing that, he’ll die.”

  Esha spun around to see Laksh striding across the room, two Scales in fox masks trailing behind him. There was a faint hint of purple at his temples, hidden under his curling hair. The poison hadn’t escaped him after all, though he had survived.

  “Is that a problem?” she spat out. But she did release her hand from Vardaan’s neck, Kunal’s words echoing in her mind. Somehow, Esha couldn’t shake what he had said.

  End the cycle.

  “You don’t want to start a civil war, do you?”

  Esha hesitated. She had already decided she wouldn’t kill him, not when the country deserved a fair trial. But she didn’t need to tell Laksh that.

  “Are the Scales really asking me that? After all you’ve done to lead us to one? Framing me for killing General Hotha, storming the palace, and killing nobility.”

  The king let out a throaty laugh. “My suspicions ended up being true.”

  “We saw an opportunity and took it, Viper,” Laksh said, circling around her. “I told Kunal that whatever happened next was on him. If he had done what I had told him— Where is Kunal, by the way?”

  Esha started, checking herself before she lost her grip on the cords.

  “Kunal? You’ve been in contact with Kunal?”

  Laksh gave her a wide smile. “Oh, there’s so much you don’t know, Viper. Your soldier turned rebel isn’t who you think he is.”

  His eyes flickered to the king, who was struggling against his bonds, blue tendrils bulging at the sides of his temple every time he moved.

  Vardaan gave a throaty laugh. “So much potential and so much bickering. What might have happene
d if your two sides worked together?”

  “Shut up,” Esha growled, yanking at the cords. “You thought you had played us all with the fake Reha, gaining power so you could rule forever.”

  But Vardaan didn’t struggle anymore. In fact, he had gone stock-still, looking at the corner of the room. “You fools. Did you really think that? I’ve been protecting her.”

  “Protecting? If you really think we’re going to believe—”

  Vardaan held up a hand to silence Esha.

  His breath hitched. “They’re here.”

  Chapter 37

  They opened the door to the lower level, a blast of cool air hitting them from the vents. The dungeons were kept ice-cold below. Kunal moved forward, holding up five fingers.

  Five soldiers all together.

  Kunal went right, and Alok and Bhandu went left. Kunal’s fist was in the soldier’s throat before he even saw it coming, an elbow in the exposed side of his torso under the armor, and an uppercut thrown to his face.

  The soldier slumped, and Kunal caught him, letting him down gently toward the floor. He crept up behind another soldier and lunged, grabbing him with a chokehold. This one had a knife on him. Kunal ducked out of the way as the soldier’s arm flew wildly, thrusting his fist into the soldier’s mouth as he tried to scream.

  The knife clattered loudly as it fell to the ground, but Kunal could already hear the sounds of fighting to his left. Whoever would be alerted was already aware.

  The soldier finally went limp and Kunal eased him down. Two more infantry soldiers ran into the hall. Kunal took them down with four hits from his sword pommel.

  Over to his left, Alok and Bhandu were pulling the soldiers up against the wall, tying them up. It had been Kunal’s request to not kill them.

  Kunal could hear footsteps, still three levels above but gaining quickly. He rushed to the door they had identified as Reha’s, tugging at the lock. The night sky poured through the windows, reminding Kunal of the time they had already lost.

  Esha and the others should be waiting on the other side, if the explosion hadn’t changed everything. Kunal took a deep breath. He had to go on as if the plan were the same, which meant there was no time to lose.