I have no response to that. Because he’s right—I deserve to be locked up and punished. But Mani doesn’t. The Raja puts an arm around Deven’s shoulders.
“Thank you, son. Thank you for bringing us a visha kanya and correcting the wrong that was done to our family.”
Deven pushes his father’s arm away. “I thought you would help her,” he said. “I never would have…” His eyes find mine and they are pleading with me to believe him.
The guards are dragging me toward the door. “Deven,” I cry. “Help Mani. Please.”
The Raja holds up a hand and the guards stop. “My first priority is finding and detaining the Naga. If the boy is still alive after that, we will see what can be done to help him.” I try to catch Deven’s gaze, to see if he will honor my request, but I can’t tell what he’s thinking. His expression is stunned, as if he’s suddenly found himself in a room he never entered.
With a flick of his hand, the Raja dismisses the guards and they drag me through the double doors. Once we’re in the corridor, I stop struggling. There’s no one to help me now. I’m so panicked that I don’t pay attention to where we’re headed until we reach a flight of stairs, and then my legs start to shake. This is not like the elegant, curving marble staircase in the foyer; these stairs are plain and narrow. And they descend into darkness.
One of the guards plucks a torch from a sconce on the wall. “Follow me,” he says. We move down the stairs in a single line with one guard in front of me and one behind. I wish I could trail my fingers along the stone wall; I feel unsteady with my hands bound in front of me. Defenseless.
Every step downward feels like a death sentence for Mani. My mind is racing for a way to escape. I could push the guard in front of me with my shoulder and hope he’s incapacitated as he falls, but that doesn’t help with the guard behind me. I might be able to turn quickly and kiss the man behind me before he could retreat, but my poison doesn’t work fast enough. It’s a bitter irony that my whole life I’ve felt like I’m too deadly to find happiness. But now, when it really counts, I’m not nearly deadly enough.
We reach the bottom of the staircase and my breath feels trapped in my chest. Rows of cells separated only by iron bars line either side of a narrow walkway. It’s chilly and damp, and an unpleasant musty smell fills the air. The flickering light from the torch doesn’t allow me to see much, only huddled shapes behind the bars. But I can hear them. A man muttering to himself. A woman humming an off-key tune. A child crying. I shiver. What kind of person imprisons a child? It gives me even less hope that the Raja will help Mani.
The guard behind me takes my elbow and leads me to an empty cell at the back of the dungeon. The other guard holds the torch so that his comrade can see to unlock the huge metal padlock. And then they both escort me inside. The cell is small, with a stone floor and a single blanket folded in the corner. Water drips from the ceiling, forming a puddle in the center of the room. I’ll have to sleep pressed against the wall to avoid getting wet.
“We’re going to take these off now,” one of the men tells me, pointing to my wrists. “Don’t do anything foolish.” I hold out my hands, but before he touches me, the other guard steps forward and holds the torch off to one side, careful to keep it between my face and both of theirs. They obviously overheard my confession in the Blue Room and know exactly what a visha kanya can do. My heart sinks. For the first time I see the appeal in being as deadly as Kadru. If I were two hundred years older, both of the guards would be dead already and I wouldn’t be powerless to save Mani.
Once the manacles are removed, the guards back slowly out of the cell, as if I might charge forward at any moment. They secure the padlock and then retreat back down the path without a word. The torchlight disappears and I am plunged into darkness.
“A flicker and gone!” one of the prisoners yells. “A flicker and gone.” He sounds like he’s in a cell across from me, but I can’t tell for sure.
“Hush,” says another voice, a woman’s. “Go to sleep.”
“A flicker and gone!” the man shouts again. The woman yells back and the two start trading insults—hers make sense and his don’t.
I press my back against the wall and sit with my knees drawn up to my chest. My wrists are tender from where the manacles dug into my flesh, but it’s nothing compared with the pain I feel at failing Mani. Why did Deven bring me here? Did he know his father would imprison me? Was that the plan all along? I feel sick at the thought that I walked into the palace and confessed. That I allowed myself to be taken.