by Andrea Ring
Manoj bows his head. “Is that really how you feel? I know how you are together. I’ve seen the way you look at him.”
“I was ready to spend my life with someone else just days ago,” I say. “Doing my duty and helping the kingdom and saving my family from Shiva’s wrath…all of that is one thing. But we just met and now I should choose to marry someone else — no, become that someone’s consort — because my heart tells me so? My heart doesn’t work that way.”
“The entire situation is still politically charged,” he says. “There are valid reasons to keep ties with the prince.”
“Is that what Kai’s thinking?” I ask.
Manoj shakes his head. “Kai is not thinking. He’s feeling.”
I rub my throbbing temples.
“And I’ve kept you up too late,” he says, rising. “I’ll let you get some sleep.”
“Thank you for coming to see me,” I say. “I haven’t had someone call on me in, oh, eight cycles.”
Manoj pulls me to my feet and gives me a sweet kiss on my scarred cheek. “Then I will repeat the gesture every day until you make up for lost time.”
***
I barely close my eyes before I feel a ripple in the air and open them. Shiva is standing over me.
I stifle a scream. “What are you doing here?” I push him out of my way and sit up.
“Is that any way to greet an all-powerful god who once saved your life?”
“It’s the way I treat anyone who manipulates and plays with people’s lives,” I say. “I’m going to die. Why should I give a second thought to how I treat you?”
Shiva scratches the back of his neck. “What’s got you in this foul mood?”
“Seriously?” I shriek. “You’re going to stand there and act like I should be happy to see you?”
“You’re marrying a prince because of me,” he says.
“But I love Maja! Maja is the one I wanted to marry! I didn’t even know the prince, and since you think you know me so well, you should have realized that aspiring to the throne is something that has never crossed my mind.”
“Maja is dead to you,” he says. “You haven’t come to terms with that yet, have you?”
“Of course I have,” I grumble. “But I still love him. My whole life feels like a betrayal to him.”
“He gave you his blessing,” Shiva reminds me. “He wants you to be happy.”
“My happiness is unimportant to the circumstances,” I say. “I can’t be happy knowing I could be poisoned at any moment.”
“Would you like me to give you the date, then? Would that make you happy?”
My head jerks up. “You can tell me the date?”
“Well, it’s more like a window than an actual date. Not everything has been decided.”
I nod. “Like my marriage to Kai.”
Shiva waves a hand in the air. “Bride or consort, it matters not. If you are with the prince at the right moment, you will take the hit.”
“And if he marries another and is with her instead, she will be the one to die?”
He nods.
“Why does anyone have to die? Tell me who the assassin is, and we will have him arrested.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?” I say.
“I just can’t.”
“Can you give me a hint?”
Shiva tilts his head. “It is a man. Or a woman.”
“Great,” I say. “I can rule out the royal horses.”
Shiva nods, totally missing the joke.
“Is this person young or old?”
“All people are young to me,” he says.
“Is this person under forty?”
“Most probably I have no idea.”
“Is this person in the palace now?”
“The compounds, yes.”
Gods. I got an actual answer out of him.
“Does Kai know this person?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“Does Kai like this person?”
“Sometimes.”
“Is it Mita?”
“Who is Mita?”
“Do I know this person?”
Shiva turns away from me. “I think that’s all I can say for now.”
“Then why did you come, Shiva? Why are you playing games with me? What do you stand to gain in all this?”
He turns back to me. “It’s not like that.”
“Then what is it like?”
“My loyalties are divided,” he says. “All I can say is that I’m trying to do the right thing.”
“But why did you come here, tonight?”
Shiva sighs. “Kai is a bit of a mess. This whole thing should play out correctly whether you’re his bride or his mistress, but I need his head right. I can’t have him flitting about in love and despair and keep both of you safe. He must have his wits about him, do you understand?”
“Not really,” I say stubbornly. “Speak plainly. What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to let go of the guilt.”
“You want me to fall in love with him,” I say.
“Would it be such a horrible thing?”
“Why?” I say. “Tell me why.”
He takes a deep breath. “I think you’ll only save his life if you love him.”
My heart jumps into my throat, but I swallow it. “That’s not a great argument. If I fall in love, then I’ll die.”
“No,” Shiva says. “If you don’t love him, you’ll both die.”
LIV. MAJA
Nili has called for me now, twice, and I force myself not to go to her. She’s not in danger — not the mortal kind, anyway — and I refuse to meddle. I need to let her have a life.
And I need to release her from my heart now, sooner rather than later. I am immortal, and Nili’s life is finite, even if I save her from the poison. If I spent a lifetime with her, how much worse would I feel when she died? I remember Kerani and how I felt then, and I barely knew her. Nili I know inside and out. No, I won’t go through that again.
I stalk the halls of a noble mansion in Bhutan. It’s my twelfth such visit to a similar place, and I’m looking for magic, trying to sense its presence. But these halls are like all the others, empty and lifeless. The nobles here have been effectively duped about their own powers.
I teleport myself to the stables. For my own peace of mind, I need to check every possible building to see if magic is hiding.
I hover above the stalls, reaching out with my own magic, and the answering zing up my spine almost spins me to the ground.
Magic! There’s magic here.
I make myself invisible and lower myself to the dusty floor in the central corridor. I cock my head, searching for the source of the power.
I hear a young girl giggle.
I look up into the loft. Two people are rolling in the hay, having quite a good time.
“Tell me you won’t see him again,” the man says. “You don’t need anyone but me.”
The girl giggles again. “Naag, there is no one else. I told you I’ve never been with anyone but you.”
“Then why was this so easy?” he asks. “You haven’t bled. A virgin always bleeds.”
“I’ve ridden horses all my life,” she says. “Perhaps I rode them a bit too hard. Ow! What did you just do?”
A bolt of magic explodes from the loft.
“Nothing, I’m sorry, I got carried away. Forget I said anything. I believe you, my sweet.”
“You do? Oh, Naag.”
Then more, um, noises, and I reach out and grab a bit of the magic. I move to one of the stalls, hunkering down in the hay to wait until the lovers are finished.
I put a bit of the magic to my tongue. It bites me. It’s bitter and sickly and tastes of rotten flesh and seeping wounds.
This Naag just poisoned his lover.
It’s not exactly poison, though, more of a sickness. He made her ill. Why would he do that?
An hour later I’m still waiting. I’ll give Naag one th
ing — he has stamina.
LV. THE KING
“Nilaruna is perfect,” I say to Shiva, handing him a goblet of wine. “You’ve chosen well.”
Shiva nods and sips.
“It’s a shame, really,” I say. “She and Kai are a good match.”
“Indeed.”
“So you’ve set Maja free,” I say. “Is he bitter, or he is still willing to help us?”
“He’s bitter with me,” Shiva says, twirling his goblet in his hand. “A promise I carelessly made to a plowman turned into three hundred cycles of exile for him. Still, he’s immortal. No one’s tricked me into that before. He could be a little bit grateful.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “He’s still immortal? Even after you released him from the spell?”
“He’s a god now,” Shiva says. “Three hundred cycles of worship and a god ye shall be, although he tricked me into giving it to him early. Better let the priests know, and have a few shrines set up around the palace. It doesn’t do to ignore a god.”
“A new god,” I say. “And I lived to see it! So Maja won’t be running off to join the enemy.”
“No,” Shiva says, draining his glass. “Maja is here to stay. He’s righteous, Jagir, in a good way. He’ll do right by the kingdom. I don’t know if that serves your purposes or not, but that’s the way it is.”
“Understood,” I say. “What about Nilaruna? Will he interfere?”
“Of course,” Shiva says. “He loves her. Will he have the power to save her? I can’t say.”
I drain my own glass and refill both. “I don’t know what I want anymore. Meeting Nilaruna…it has changed things for me.”
“I’ve told you for cycles that untouchables deserve much more,” Shiva says. “That your treatment of them would be your undoing.”
I wave a hand in the air. “My undoing is this bloody problem in my brain. My undoing was Silvia’s accident. Why, Shiva? Why would you save Nilaruna and not Silvia?”
“I did save Silvia,” he says. “Her purpose was just different than Nilaruna’s.”
I slosh wine on my tunic. “What do you mean, you saved Silvia?”
“Do you really believe she fell off that horse by accident?”
“You didn’t!” I roar.
Shiva smiles. “Of course I didn’t. Someone deliberately spooked her horse. But I protected her from the person who was intent on finishing her off.”
“Who?” I say. Shiva stays silent. “Who!”
“Who do you think most wanted her dead?”
“No one!” I shout. “She was so gentle, so kind. There’s no one who would wish her ill.”
Shiva puts his wine down and stands. “I always thought you were intelligent,” he says. “Perhaps I was wrong.”
LVI. PRINCE KAI
I punch my pillow and shift and wiggle, but, damn the gods, there’s no way I’m going to sleep.
I must have lost my mind. I just asked the woman I love to be my mistress!
Why didn’t she yell? Why didn’t she express some indignation? Nili still doesn’t know her worth, and my proposal surely didn’t help with that.
But it’s the only way. The only way to keep her safe and by my side. I cannot lose her. And I certainly cannot be responsible if something does happen to her — I’d never recover.
I’d…
A tentative knock on my door awakens me. Apparently I was able to fall asleep.
“Yes?”
“It’s me, Nili,” she says through the door.
I bolt up and throw on a robe. I open the door.
“Did I wake you?” she says.
“I’m not sure,” I say, leading her to a chair. “I was in that strange place between waking and dreams.”
“I love that,” she says. “When you realize something you’re really hearing has found its way into a dream? Such an odd thing, the mind.”
“It is,” I agree, taking a chair beside her. “Did you sleep well?”
“Not particularly,” she confesses. “But that’s not why I’m here. I’d like to get out of the palace and mingle with the untouchables. Do you think that’s possible?”
“Possible, but not very safe. Maybe if you had an escort, but I don’t who I would trust that would be unrecognizable to the common people.”
“I was hoping,” she says, “that you could go with me. Maybe wear a disguise?”
Nili twists her hands in her lap, a nervous habit, I’ve observed. It must be important to her that I go.
“I think I can do that,” I say. “It’s not even light out yet. Shall we go in a few hours?”
“Now is the best time,” she says. “The untouchables move around freely before dawn. After that, we’ll have to hunt for them.”
I stand and call for my servants.
***
I wake Manoj and Faaris and tell them of our plan. They agree to follow us at a discreet distance, just in case.
Nili and I head down past the docks to a mini village of sorts. Of course, we’re still in the capital, but this place is a world all its own.
Shanties and lean-tos line the road. Most don’t even have walls, and some have cloth roofs. Dirt floors would be a luxury — most of the people are standing in mud. In their own homes.
Fire pits blaze. Many of the people are boiling water or drying clothes, a few are cooking beans or rice. Without warning, Nili approaches an old woman stirring a pot of porridge.
“Dear mother,” she says, “may I trouble you for a bite?”
The woman smiles, and her mouth is almost empty, a few rotten teeth hanging on for dear life. She scoops two ladles of porridge into wooden bowls and hands them to us.
“You are more than generous,” I say, preparing to pull out a coin to pay her, but Nili puts a hand on my arm.
“Do your teeth ache, mother?” Nili says.
“Whose don’t?” she says with a cackle.
“I have bit of skill,” Nili says, “with healing. May I help you?”
The old woman nods and opens her mouth.
Nili rummages in the folds of her cloak and pulls out some leaves. She carefully places them on the woman’s tongue. “Chew these. They will take away the infection. Do not swallow them. Throw them away after they lose their taste.”
The woman nods and starts to gum the leaves.
“Then chew these in two hours. They will take away your pain. Again, do not swallow.” The woman takes the leaves and stows them in her skirts.
I have no spoon, so I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. I watch Nili tip the bowl to her mouth and slurp the porridge. I should have thought of that. I take a sip, and while it’s a bit bland, it’s filling.
We finish, and Nili hands the woman our bowls. She’s still chewing. Nili reaches for her hand in a universal gesture of thanks, but the woman shakes her head fiercely. Nili drops her hand and nods instead. I follow her back to the road.
Why wouldn’t the woman shake her hand?
“Do you have an orphanage nearby?” Nili asks as we stroll through the shanties.
“Up near the temple,” I say. “Would you like to visit?”
“Maybe in a few days,” she says. “I saw you about to pay that woman. No one here has coin. You have to try to blend in.”
“Sorry about that,” I say. “It’s habit.”
Nili holds up a hand. “Wait. Quiet, for just a moment.”
She continues to walk, but she’s listening hard. I don’t hear anything except muffled whispers, pots banging, and the occasional dog barking.
She stops at three people gathered around a fire. A young man is whimpering, and two other men are arguing.
Nili approaches slowly. “May I help?” she asks.
“Not unless you’re the king’s personal healer,” the oldest says. He grabs a jar of oil. “Now hold still, Yogesh.”
“Wait!” Nili says, rushing forward. She falls to her knees next to them. “What are you doing?”
“I’m putting oil on the burn,” he sa
ys. “Now move out of the way!”
Nili swipes the oil from his hand. “You will not! Oil will keep the heat in. Trust me. I have some experience with this.”
She holds out her scarred hand. All the men look closely.
“That’s a right wicked burn you got there,” the youngest one says.
“And it didn’t help when my mother rubbed butter on it,” she says, diving into the folds of her cloak. “I smelled like a bun, and my burns took twice as long to heal as they should have. Here. I have an ointment.”
She opens a jar and smears some of the pink ointment on her fingers. She turns to the whimpering man. “Your name is Yogesh?”
He’s about eighteen, thin, and grubby. He’s holding his right arm close to his chest.
He nods.
“May I see?” she asks.
He holds out his arm. It’s not blackened, but the skin is raw and angry looking, seeping clear liquid. Nili holds his arm by the elbow so as not to touch the wounds.
“I need strips of cloth, boiled up clean.”
Nobody moves.
“Now!” she says. “Yogesh is in pain.”
“You,” I say, pointing at the old man, “get a pot of water. And you, stoke up the fire. I’ll get the cloth.”
Nili looks at me. I cannot tell her expression through the veil, but it feels like she’s smiling.
I throw my cloak aside and strip off my rough-spun tunic. I tear it in half, and then tear the halves into strips.
Nili is murmuring to Yogesh, trying to calm him.
We finally get the cloth boiled, and Nili wrings it out. She takes one and carefully dabs at the wound. Yogesh howls.
“I know, I know,” Nili whispers. “Tell me, do you have a girlfriend?”
Yogesh grits his teeth as Nili works. “A girlfriend?”
“I bet you do,” she says. “A handsome young man like you. I bet she’s pretty, too.”
“She has breasts like—” and the old man hits Yogesh upside the head. I chuckle.
“Have some manners!” the old man says.
Yogesh grins. “Like Parvati,” he finishes. “Big and round like melons.”
Nili laughs. “You’re a lucky one.” She smears the ointment over the wound, and Yogesh sighs. She winds cloth over the ointment and finishes up.
“There you go. Change it every six hours. Remember to boil the cloth first. The skin will heal, but the bigger risk is infection. If you take a fever, get to a healer.”
