The Chariot at Dusk

by Swati Teerdhala

  “I just wish I could control it. Understand it. If we go by what the physical evidence indicates, my mixed blood doesn’t just give me the ability to shift into a Himyad lion or a Samyad eagle but into any animal.”

  Kunal would’ve been terrified by the realization. Reha only seemed intrigued.

  “Or it could be because we’re approaching Mount Bangaar,” Kunal said. “It’s known to be the birthplace of magic and where the gods used to reside. It could be causing unknown changes in your body.”

  “Your powers haven’t changed.”

  “They have become a bit sharper,” Kunal admitted. “For example, I can sense there are two hares about half a league away from us, under the rock. It could be hitting you harder because you only just started controlling your shifts.”

  Reha peered up at the mountain peak looming above them. “Maybe it is the mountain. We are about to pass through the Golden Mist.”

  Kunal glanced up at the fading sky. Above, a few leagues ahead, a brilliant copper-and-gold haze perched upon the top of the mountain, beckoning at them. The Golden Mist. It was rumored to be the birthplace of the spirits, once the home of the gods. Many a story he had been told as a child had started in those hazy peaks.

  Reha continued on. “While it’s been an exciting few days, I’d like some semblance of control over my body.”

  Kunal sighed. “If it’s the mountain, it’ll get worse before it gets better. But we might find some answers in the temple.”

  “Sanapat Temple,” Reha said softly, her eyes lighting up. “I read about it as a child. Carved into the mountain itself.”

  It was the temple that the royals traveled to every year for the renewal ritual of the janma bond. It had been over a decade since the renewal had been performed correctly, with blood from both lines. With the Samyad queens gone and the blood ritual unfulfilled, the land had begun to die. Now, with Reha’s blood, they finally had both bloodlines they needed to renew the ritual and revive the land. To save everything.

  A flutter of hope, one he had been carrying close to him since Gwali, rose in his chest. This was it; this was why he had left everything behind. A chance.

  An image of dancing eyes and curls appeared, and he pushed it away. It was easier to not think of Esha’s reaction, to hope for the best. That she’d understand why they had left. Kunal hadn’t had much of a choice, but there was no way she’d know that.

  Reha cocked her head suddenly, and a half a second later, Kunal heard it too. He pulled the younger girl farther into the crevice. Whispers filtered through the air, and Kunal couldn’t be sure of the direction. A crunch of feet, one hundred paces away.

  “We have some friends,” Reha whispered.

  His heart thudded in his chest. “Three, by the sounds of it.”

  “Four,” she said.

  Her eyes widened. “More than four.”

  “We need to keep moving, then,” he said.

  Reha nodded, hefting her pack and securing her wool uttariya over her long-sleeved tunic. “Should we try to shift again?” she asked.

  She bit the side of her lip, looking out to where the sound had come from. It had been only a week since they had started traveling together, but he was beginning to grow fond of his cousin. She was ruthless and she was strong. He had promised her his help when he had left with her.

  “I don’t know,” Kunal admitted. “It would be the fastest way to the temple, but with your shifts the way they are. . . .”

  “Kunal, cousin dearest, if we heal the cursed janma bond, maybe I will stop shifting. But then again if we don’t shift now, we could get caught here by soldiers skilled enough to have followed us up here.” She paused and gave him a tired look. “In this situation, perhaps shifting is a bit of a necessary evil, don’t you think?”

  He frowned but gave in with a nod. “Fine, let’s do it. But be careful.”

  “Aren’t I always?” she shot back.

  It wasn’t the first time Kunal had heard that phrase. But the thought of it, and the woman who usually spoke it, made his heart constrict.

  Kunal closed his eyes and thought of his tether, the song of home—bronzed skin and bright eyes, curls that tickled his nose—and matched it with the animal song of his blood.

  And in seconds he was in the air, soaring behind Reha, up to the top of the Aifora Mountains.

  Esha didn’t think the dungeons were as bad as Alok said.

  They were quite comfortable compared to the cramped hole Esha had been tossed into at the citadel during her time there. The palace dungeons were far cleaner and larger. Even in prison, nobles were treated better than common traitors and conspirators. Still, it was a rather convenient area for her purposes now.

  Esha dragged her hands over the metal bars of the open cell in front of her. A cot, sunlight, and, at least, nothing too foul smelling. Back in the dungeons of the citadel, she had realized she had to escape if she ever wanted to be able to use her arm again. To this day, her right arm wasn’t as strong as her left after her torture. She’d certainly never forgotten that.

  The man she was looking for was near the end of the hall. When she arrived at the front of his cell, he jumped up.

  “Master Gugil?” she said quietly. “I thought I’d come visit you again, see if you might have changed your mind.”

  Gugil scrambled to his feet as much as he could. His right ankle was clamped to the ground and only let him come as far as the front of the cell. He still wore his clothes from the day before, now crumpled. Other than the dark circles under his eyes, Gugil looked fine. But perhaps a night hearing the moans of other cellmates, courtesy of Aahal, might have helped him to change his mind.

  He clasped and unclasped his hands.

  “My lady—I mean, Your Highness.”

  Normally, Esha would object to the honorific, but she wasn’t feeling very generous this morning.

  “I regret my words from yesterday.” The man cleared his throat. “I was, perhaps, a bit too hasty. I didn’t mean to give the impression that I wasn’t committed to our country’s safety. It was shock—just shock.”

  “At?”

  Gugil shifted uncomfortably, tripping over the chain. “I had been expecting . . . someone else.”

  Esha smiled, razor sharp. “I’m sure you were. Now tell me, Master Gugil, what information do you have?”

  He took in a breath, glancing nervously at her. “King Vardaan—a few of my men spotted him outside the Hara Desert, on the western border.”

  She gripped the metal bars. “Was he alone?”

  “No, he wasn’t.” The guildsman shifted his weight, looking uncomfortable. “The only reason my men recognized the former king was because of his shifting. There were sounds of a lion at night, unnatural sounds. A wounded animal, which is unusual for the Hara Desert. There are typically no lions in the surrounding hills, at least not for many miles. My men went to look around and one swore on his mother’s pyre that he saw the former king as he shifted back. Alongside ten or so armed men.”

  Esha took a sharp breath in. “Mercenaries, probably.”

  This was good news, the best news she’d had in days. She nodded at the man in front of her and motioned at one of the Blades to come over.

  “Thank you, Master Gugil,” she said. “Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “No,” he said, gulping.

  Only a night in a cell and he was already breaking easier than the sugar crust of her favorite mango custard. He’d never have lasted in the citadel.

  “If you hear anything else, you will come straight to the palace,” Esha said to the man. She played with the hilt of the sword at her waist, and his eyes darted to the flash of steel. “And if I find out that you’ve told anyone else, I can personally guarantee that you won’t live to see the next solstice, let alone the next full moon.”

  Her voice was softer than silk. “Am I clear?”

  Gugil bobbed his head up and down. Esha was about to turn and leave when the man spoke up again.
>
  “I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it, Your Highness. The tanners’ guild also had reports of another wild feline at night by the upper hills, near one of their outposts.”

  Esha was about to snap at the man that she had larger concerns than the fears of middle-aged men, when the guildsman’s words fully landed. She inhaled sharply.

  “Is something the matter, Your Highness?”

  Esha didn’t respond.

  “See that Guildsman Gugil is taken back to his guild,” she said to the Blade at her side. There was a relieved exhalation from the cell, but Esha was already halfway out the door.

  If this guildsman’s reports were true, they echoed those of a report she had skimmed last week. And two coincidences were no longer chance.

  Esha picked up her sari skirt with one hand, racing up the stairs to find the others.

  If she was right, and she hoped she was, they had a location.

  She knew where Harun was being held.

  Chapter 3

  A small puff of air floated in front of Kunal, moving in and out with his breath as he trudged up the steep incline that would take him and Reha to the top of Mount Bangaar. The royals normally took the carved-out road on the other side of the mountain, but it would be too dangerous and exposed for him and Reha.

  Reha’s powers had given out about half a mile ago, after they had shaken the group that was following them. Kunal had shifted and caught her in time, forced her to take rest. She still shivered by his side, fighting as he was to get to the top of the mountain. He wanted to wrap her up in his uttariya but any coddling would earn him a glare and a verbal bite from his cousin. He’d learned that pretty quickly.

  “Just a bit farther,” he said.

  “If you say that again, I will hurt you,” she said. Sweat beaded down her forehead even in the chill, and Kunal had the distinct feeling that she was hiding from him the full physical toll of her shifts.

  Kunal sighed. “I’m just trying to be encouraging.”

  “Well, go be encouraging elsewhere.”

  “What happened to the sunny Reha of before?”

  “She didn’t fall fifty feet and almost break her neck,” she said. Reha tugged her uttariya a bit tighter, her eyes skimming over the remaining cliff they had to walk. Her now-human feet were dirtied and banged up.

  “Let me shift and carry you up,” he said.

  “No,” she said immediately. “I have some dignity.”

  “Would you prefer your dignity over your body?”

  “Are you always this self-righteous?”

  Kunal quirked his mouth. “Yes, I think I am. At least, according to Alok and Esha.”

  Reha didn’t notice the way his smile fell. “Tell me more about them.”

  He would’ve protested, but she needed a distraction.

  “Alok—he’s my best friend—and I met when I first came to the Fort. He took a chance on me when everyone else avoided the general’s nephew, the new recruit. Laksh joined our group soon after,” he said.

  “Laksh?”

  “We’re not friends anymore.” Kunal didn’t say anything else, and they climbed up the craggy rock for another few seconds in silence.

  “Esha,” he finally said. “Ah, well, she’s a whole other story.”

  “So, you were the secret lover she kept sneaking notes to? You know how much trouble I went through to get those clothes for you for the Chinarath festival?” she said.

  Kunal sputtered, cold entering his mouth. “I’m not—we’re not lovers.”

  “You are a horrible liar, Kunal.”

  His shoulders dropped. “I’ve been told.”

  “She’ll be mad, won’t she?” Reha asked, her voice quieting. “That you left? Without any explanation?”

  Kunal’s heart thudded against his chest. He thought back to the notes they had sent each other, the fight they had, the words he had said when claiming he wasn’t and never wanted to be a Blade. The silence since.

  “I’d be lucky if she’s only mad. No, I think it will go deeper than that,” he said.

  “Deeper?”

  “I may have said some things. Some harsh things before the Winner’s Ball. I took them back and apologized, but it was our first fight. It was about you, or the idea of you, the lost princess. And now I’ve left with the lost princess, everyone’s last hope.”

  It was the first time he had admitted it. Given space to the feeling in the corner of his soul where he knew he had changed things between them with his decision.

  The rest of him refused to believe it.

  “But it’ll be fine,” he finished. “Mad or more than mad, I will fix it. I’ll win her back.”

  “Definitely lovers,” Reha said. She bumped into his shoulder and smiled at him. “For what it’s worth, it’s clear she liked you.”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “You don’t believe me?”

  “I believe you just fine. But it doesn’t help that you were lying to Esha the whole time.”

  “Everyone gets so upset over lies. They’re just a little bending of the truth,” Reha said. “Now, I didn’t harm her, did I? I actually liked Esha.”

  The last part came out quieter, but Kunal understood. Reha was also worried about their return.

  Kunal caught up with Reha and patted her arm. When she didn’t bite his hand off, he carefully put it around her and drew her in, despite the cold. “We’ll figure it out, cousin.”

  “Figure out what?” She peered up at him. “Is that the first time you’ve acknowledged our blood ties out loud?”

  Kunal ignored her. “We’ll figure out all of it.”

  Reha gave him a look as if he was being odder than a moon-touched trader, but Kunal also sensed her body relax.

  She was just a girl still. That’s why, more than anything, he had come here with her. Esha would have to understand that.

  Wouldn’t she?

  Reha straightened, pulling Kunal’s arm off. She cocked her head to the side, some of the color returning to her face. He heard it too.

  “Water,” she whispered. “An underground river.”

  They had arrived at the top of Mount Bangaar.

  Esha snuck into the Great Library from the secret side entrance she had discovered a few weeks earlier. The last thing she needed was someone watching her and questioning why she and a large number of Blades were going in and out of the Great Library every morning and evening. Especially with the number of Scales around, not to mention Laksh and Zhyani.

  She trusted Laksh as far as she could throw him, which wasn’t very far. Still, he had been by her side since the palace takeover and Harun’s capture, and even convinced Zhyani and the other Scales to back off and partner with them. If nothing else, Esha knew that her and Laksh’s interests were aligned, which meant that, for now, he could be trusted. And Zhyani followed wherever Laksh was these days.

  She also knew Laksh wanted something else from her: information on Arpiya. It was cute, in a way.

  But if she could say anything to her friend Arpiya, she would tell her to be careful with soldiers. Then again, just because things had turned out a mess for Esha didn’t mean Arpiya was doomed to the same fate.

  Arpiya had almost sobbed when Esha told her she had turned down being queen of Dharka, even though she had eventually said she understood Esha’s decision. That had been weeks ago, and Esha didn’t know if she felt the same way, or if Harun was even still open to her.

  She didn’t know what she wanted anymore.

  The rest of the team was already there, scattered around the room in their usual spots, a lively discussion already under way.

  Alok paced past Esha as Farhan tapped his mouth thoughtfully with a piece of chalk, leaving a white streak across his lips. Arpiya tugged the chalk away right before Farhan could accidentally eat it. Aahal’s long legs were draped across the seat of a chair as he took over the better part of the table in front of them.

  “The Hara Desert? We already combed through it,” Ar
piya said, shaking her head.

  “They spotted Vardaan near the desert,” Esha corrected as she walked in. “But we heard reports of these wild animals at nights near the hills as well, which can’t be a coincidence.”

  “Technically, they could be,” Farhan said.

  Aahal gave his twin an exasperated glance. “There is no such thing as a coincidence; isn’t that one of your lovely phrases?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “How about we don’t try to rain on the collective parade, brother?” Aahal said. “I’m willing to go check out any lead.”

  “We can’t have our best squads go out on a greedy guildsman’s word.” Arpiya looked mutinous at the thought.

  “We’re not going off on the word of anyone,” Esha said. “We’re going off a pattern.”

  She tugged out a sheath of parchments she had spent the morning collecting, reports and patrol movements. Esha swatted Aahal’s long arms off the table and spread out the papers. “These reports mentioned the same thing as the guildsman. And then look at these patrol movements. Troops were moved away from this garrison just days before the Winner’s Ball. Someone had secured the area.”

  “It still seems unlikely,” Farhan said. “And why would the Yavar keep Harun down here, on a border they don’t even control? Unless the Western Lands have decided to break their neutrality?”

  The front door of the warm room flew open and all four of them nearly jumped out of their seats, their hands going to some weapon at their hip or hidden in their waist sash.

  Laksh held his arms up as he entered the room. “You’re a jumpy bunch, aren’t you?”

  Zhyani followed in after, wound as tightly as a kite string. She wore a disapproving expression.

  Esha rolled her eyes and relaxed her stance. “I can’t imagine why we’d be that way.” She turned to the man entering behind Laksh. “Can you, Lord Mayank?”

  “No idea at all.” Mayank grinned back at her, his eyes crinkling. He glanced at the table. “Planning something, are we?”

  “We are,” Alok said, crossing his arms.

  Mayank hadn’t quite won over Alok, though Esha didn’t really know why. The others had no outward problem with him, and, in fact, Aahal looked up to him a bit. He had even started wearing his hair the same way as Mayank, echoing the current fashions of the Jansan court.