by Andrea Ring
“There ain’t no healers here no more,” the old man says. “You should know that.”
“We’ve only just arrived from Dabani,” she says. “I didn’t know that. No one here has skill in healing?”
“The hermit Yoosuf used to come around and see to us every couple of weeks, but he died two moons ago. And he had the skill right in his fingertips. Could make the pain in my knee go away by breathing on it. Can you do that?”
Nili shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I do not have that skill, just the knowledge and some herbs.”
“We’ll be thanking you just the same,” he says nodding.
“The honor is mine.” Nili rises wearily to her feet. She places her gnarled hand on Yogesh’s brow, and he actually shies away. “I wish you good health, Yogesh.”
Even I can hear Yogesh burst into tears as we walk away.
***
“Take my hand,” Nili says. “Don’t speak.”
I taker her hand, and a bolt of energy zaps up my arm. Suddenly, I can hear Yogesh and the others speaking clearly.
“I know you’re still in pain, Yogesh, but it will be okay. The pain will pass.”
“It doesn’t hurt so bad,” he says sniffling. “It’s not that. Did you see her hand? I don’t want to look like her!”
Nili drops my hand and picks up her pace. I hurry to catch up to her.
“He didn’t mean it,” I say to her. “He’s in pain. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.”
“I’m fine,” she says.
“No, you’re not. You just helped two people. You probably saved their lives, and both disrespected you. You’ve done enough, Nili. It’s time to go home.”
“But we haven’t learned anything yet,” she says.
“Then we can try again another day,” I say. I stop her with a hand on her shoulder. “Come home with me. Show me how you did that amazing trick so I could hear them talking.”
Nili sighs. “Kai, this is my life. This is how it’s been since the accident. It might seem like a big deal to you, but it’s not to me. I’m used to it.”
“I’m bloody sick of hearing you say that, Nili,” I tell her. “Just because you’re used to it doesn’t make it right. We’re going home right now.”
I take her arm and drag her back the way we came. It’s time I showed Nili her worth.
LVII. NILARUNA
I had to stifle a giggle.
There’s Kai, without a tunic, a coarse cloak knotted at his throat as though it might strangle him at any moment, his gorgeous black hair hidden under a common turban that sits decidedly askew, and he’s furious on my behalf.
When he puts his hands on his hips and puffs out that muscled chest, I have to cough to cover up a laugh.
Honestly, it doesn’t bother me, the disgust, I mean, not any more. What bothers me is Kai witnessing it.
I disgust those he sees as invisible pariahs, and Kai had a front-row seat.
How can he truly love me? He can’t possibly. He only feels guilty for dragging me into this whole situation.
But he does look handsome in his guilt.
I let him lead me back to the palace. It was a long walk to begin with, and my hip took a beating while I tended Yogesh. Better I return now and rest.
We meet up with Faaris and Manoj just outside the palace walls. Kai passes me off to Faaris, and he and Manoj hustle on ahead of us.
“Did you find out anything exciting?” Faaris asks me as we slowly stroll back in.
“Not really,” I say. “We found out there was a healer who died recently. He used magic to heal his patients. But that’s all. But I did learn something last night.”
“Oh?”
“Shiva visited me. I asked him many questions, and he only answered a couple, but the most important was this: the assassin is within the palace compound, and Kai knows this person.”
Faaris stops walking. “What?”
I nod. “I haven’t told him yet. I kind of forgot about it, with the decision I have to make about Kai and me.”
“Nili, damn it, this is the most important thing! This is what we’re trying to prevent, and the entire reason you’re here! Get on my back. Quickly!” He bends his knees and turns his back to me.
“We’ll be a spectacle!” I whisper furiously. “Everyone will see you carrying an untouchable!”
“Now, woman! There’s no time!”
I reluctantly grip his neck and boost my legs around his waist. Faaris juggles me up higher on his hips and takes off running.
I just hold on.
***
“Do you even know where you’re going?” I ask him.
“Your room,” Faaris says. “You’re going to hole up and not take any visitors. When I find Kai, we’ll meet you back there.”
Outside my chambers, Saphala is standing, chatting with the daytime guard.
“Faaris?” she says as I slide off his back. “What’s going on?”
“Has anyone entered Nilaruna’s rooms since she left?” Faaris demands of the guard.
“No, sir,” the guard says. “Zara came by to clean up, but she met Prince Kai just down the hall. He sent her on an errand. She said to tell you she’ll be back in an hour or so.”
“Where did the prince go?” Faaris asks.
“I do not know.”
“Stay here, Nili,” Faaris says to me. “Saphala will stay with you. Let no one enter but me, Manoj, or Kai.” I nod. “Guard, admit no one. Do not leave your post, not even for a moment. Understand?”
“Is Nilaruna in danger?” he asks.
Faaris weighs the guard with his eyes. “Just be on alert. Anything happens to the women and it’s on your head.”
The guard bows.
And Faaris takes off running down the hall.
***
“What’s going on, Nili?” Saphala asks as I close the door to my chambers. She throws herself on my cushions.
I weigh how much to tell her. “There is an assassin,” I say. “Within the palace walls. There may be an attempt on my life.”
Saphala’s eyes grow wide. She stands up. “I should go to my room,” she says.
“Faaris told us to stay here.”
“You can stay here,” she says, “but I’d feel safer…” She lowers her eyes to the floor.
“Away from me,” I finish for her. “The target of the assassin.”
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I’ve been scared to death since that man attacked me. Why would anyone want to kill you? You’ve barely been out of your room since you’ve been here.”
“Word must have gotten out that I’m marrying the prince. We knew it wouldn’t be a popular decision.”
Saphala laughs. “Popular decision? That’s completely understating it. You seek to change our entire culture.”
“It needs to change,” I say wearily. “If this is the price, my life…well, how better for my life to be lived?”
Saphala gapes at me. “So you’ll stay here and marry a prince, why? So you can die?”
“You think I wish to die?” I say. “I don’t. Since my accident, the only thing I’ve been allowed to do is hide. But I know that the hunted rabbit who thinks he can hide will always be found. There’s no safe place to hide. At some point, you have to take a stand.”
Saphala rolls her eyes. “I don’t see a lot of rabbits staring down wolves.”
“We don’t see a lot of rabbits, period,” I say. “We’re untouchables, we hide, it’s what we do. But if we ever want a chance to be equals, we must come out of the shadows. We must take a stand.”
“What kind of stand can we make if we are dead?” she asks.
I raise my hand and point. “There’s the door, Saphala. You are not a prisoner here. Run and hide.”
“Come with me,” she whispers. “If the assassin is hunting you, your chambers will be the first place he looks.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I say.
Saphala crumples to the floor. “You think I’m weak,” she says. �
�You think I’m a coward.”
I lower myself carefully to a cushion beside her. “I know you’re scared. That’s normal. But Faaris and Manoj and the prince are looking out for us. Even the gods are on our side.”
“I killed a man once,” she says. “One of my captors, the one who was going to do the exchange.”
I cock my head to the side. Something about her statement does not ring true.
“I hit him over the head with one of the oars while he was sleeping and pushed his body overboard. I know how to survive.”
True.
So what was untrue about the first statement? Did the man not die? Or maybe he wasn’t one of her captors?
“You saw him die?” I ask.
She nods. “I saw him slip under the water, and he did not surface.”
True.
“And he was one of your captors? An evil man?”
She nods.
“I can’t see you too well with my veil on,” I say. “Yes?”
“Yes.”
Lie.
“How did he capture you?”
“He didn’t, not exactly.” True. “I was sold to his master.” True. “He helped watch over me.” True.
“Watch over you? Did he…did he force himself on you?” I ask.
“Too many times to count.”
Lie.
“You had…intercourse with him?” I whisper.
She nods. “Yes. He…I think he might have given me a disease.” True.
Dear gods.
“Have you seen a healer since you’ve been here?”
“I have, Faaris insisted, but I didn’t tell the healer…Nili, it’s shameful! How will Faaris ever look me in the eye if he knows I’ve been with another man and that I’m sick?”
True and not true.
“Are you sure you’re sick?”
“No,” she says. “I only bring it up because your father’s a healer and I thought you might be able to help me.”
“Do you have any symptoms?”
“No, but he told me…he said he has the Great Pox.”
I swallow hard. “Then you would have a lesion, though not all women detect it. Do you feel ill?”
“No,” she says.
“It can take up to a cycle for more symptoms to develop,” I say. “Has a cycle passed?”
She shakes her head. “Maybe a few moons, no more.”
“There’s no cure for the Great Pox,” I say. “But we can manage the symptoms. If anything comes up, tell me right away, okay?”
Saphala nods.
“And…I don’t mean to impugn your honor, I just want to remind you…you might be contagious. You can’t do anything with Faaris, or he might get sick, too.”
Saphala gasps. “Nili, I wouldn’t.”
Lie.
“But if you did, if you just got carried away, you could be put to death for that.”
She narrows her eyes at me. “Are you threatening me?”
“I’m trying to be your friend,” I say. “Why the hell would you think I’m threatening you?”
“And now you’re using foul language?” she says. “I’m the victim here!”
“Maybe,” I say. “I don’t know. You’re certainly not being honest.”
“I am,” she whispers. “Nili, why are you turning on me like this? I thought we were friends.”
“Friends don’t lie to each other. Friends visit each other if one falls ill.”
“Is that the reason?” she asks. “You’re mad because I haven’t visited you? I came here today to do just that. And before…Nili, I had my own healing to do. I’m sorry I’m not as strong or as selfless as you. I’m doing what I’m capable of.”
All true.
I sigh. “Regardless, Manoj said that you and Faaris have grown inseparable. If you believe you are ill, you have to tell him.”
“No!” she shrieks. “I cannot! I’ll lose him!”
“Faaris doesn’t blame me for the way I look,” I say. “He knows it was an accident. If what you’ve told me is true, it’s the same for you. He won’t blame you.”
“But he’ll still leave.”
“You have one day to tell him,” I say. “Or I will.”
I call to my guard through the door and ask him to summon another for Saphala. One quickly arrives.
Saphala is escorted back to her chambers.
LVIII. MAJA
Naag sets the girl off with a pat on her bum, and he leans back against the door of one of the stalls, trying to tie off his trousers. His hands shake, either from exertion or because the magic took its toll.
I rise, invisible, and get a hand around his throat. He gasps. I tighten my grip before he can scream.
I show myself, my true god form, in all of its mighty, grotesque splendor.
“Who are you?” he manages to mouth.
“Maja,” I say. “Once Hermit and Protector, now a god. I see you are using magic. Who taught you?”
He thrashes against me but doesn’t answer.
I put him in my thrall and release my grip on him. He stands frozen like a comical puppet.
“Speak now. Who taught you?”
“No one,” he says. “We are born to it.”
“Who is we?”
“Everyone.”
“But magic is evil,” I say. “You will be executed if you are caught.”
“All the untouchables here do magic,” he says. “Even the nobles know. But they dare not stop us or face our wrath.”
I search his mind. It’s pretty blank. Naag isn’t all that bright.
“Who are the strongest magic users in the city? Give me names.”
“They’ll kill me,” he says.
“It’s them or me,” I say. “Your chances are better with them.”
He swallows hard. “Badal. He has some control with the weather. Pathan. He’s fast. And Aaliyah.”
“A woman?”
“She’s a harpy but a strong harpy. No one likes to cross her.”
I fold my arms over my chest. “What did you do to that girl you were with?”
Naag glares at me. “Why do you care?”
“You made her sick. Why?”
“She’s just a whore,” he says. “A stupid whore who will bed any man who crooks his finger. I was teaching her a lesson she won’t soon forget.”
I read his mind. “You gave her the Great Pox?”
Naag looks away.
“You murdered her,” I say.
He shrugs.
I snap my fingers, and Naag falls to the ground.
He’ll never rise again.
I need to find this Aaliyah.
LIX. THE KING
I open the door to Mita waving a flagon of wine and two goblets in my face.
“After the day you’ve had, I thought you could use a little something to relax you,” she says.
Wine is exactly what I need, and the last thing I need. I refused the healer’s brew because I knew Mita was coming, but now I’m regretting it. My head pounds.
I take the wine and goblets from her and set them on the side table. “Maybe after,” I say. “I want to be clear-headed for you.”
Mita smiles.
We disrobe, and Mita seats herself atop me. I look up at her. There are no herbs in my system, and my body’s functioning as it should, but her sloppy movements are making my head ache.
I flip her over, and she gives a squeak. “Oh, my king,” she says, nestling her mouth in my neck. “What a scamp you are.”
Indeed. Now I can control our motion and prevent my brain from rattling around in my skull.
She claws at my back. “Yes,” she says. “Yes! My king! All the time we missed together…it should have been like this. We fit so well. I was made for you.”
I continue to pound into her, hoping and praying that she’ll finish soon so I can quit. I feel like I might vomit.
“Didn’t you miss me?” she says, meeting my thrusts. “Tell me you missed me. Ohhh…tell me we should have been
together.”
My head pulses. I stare down at her.
“Tell me I’m the one!” she screams. “Yes, Jagir, yes! Tell me! Say it!”
Her eyes are closed. Her lips hold an uneasy smile. I pump harder.
“Mita,” I grunt out. “You’re beautiful. Sweet Mita.”
She pulls my torso down and gnaws at my ear. I swallow back the bile rising in my throat.
“Tell me you love me, Jagir,” she whispers. “Tell me. You’ve always loved me best. Tell me.”
I fight to keep the rhythm. My head feels like it’s about to explode.
“Oh, Mita,” I say, and she screams, a loud, guttural moan that vibrates the tips of my toes.
As soon as she quiets, I hop off and head straight to the chamber pot near the bath. It feels like I empty two weeks’ worth of meals out of my stomach.
I rinse out my mouth and wipe the sweat from my brow. I pull on a robe before entering my bedchamber.
Mita is curled up like a satisfied cat in my bed. The sight makes me sick.
“It was you, wasn’t it?”
She cocks her head. “Come back to bed. What was me?”
I don’t move. “It was you who spooked Silvia’s horse.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
“Silence!” I roar. “You tried to murder my wife!”
“Jagir, I love you! I wouldn’t—”
“But you did,” I say. “Don’t try to deny it. I know when someone lies.” Which isn’t strictly true, but Mita doesn’t know that.
She clamps her lips shut. And that’s when I know for sure that magic is a daily part of her life.
“I will give you one chance to come clean, or I’ll have you executed. Leave nothing out.”
Mita starts to sob. But she tells her story through the tears.
“I loved you,” she says. “I loved you my whole life. How could you choose her over me? I thought we were going to be married!”
“I had to marry a noble,” I say. “You knew that. And I kept you as my mistress. It was the best we could do.”
“I was punished for not being noble enough!” she cries. “I couldn’t help how I was born. She didn’t deserve you! Jagir, I was young, so very young, and I was impulsive. I found out I was with child, and I lost my mind.”
