I chirp a laugh. “Well, it wasn’t without effort.”
“Kali, I’m so glad to see you again, but . . . you shouldn’t have returned.” My chin ticks sideways at her reprimand. “Your health is poor. I can tell you’re hurting more than you let on.”
“I’m fine,” I say, fiddling with my teacup.
Her expression does not change. “Even if that were true, you shouldn’t have agreed to meet Hastin here. He’s too dangerous.”
“He picked Samiya for our meeting place. I wouldn’t have considered accommodating him, but the demon rajah is marching on Vanhi as we speak.”
Healer Baka pulls back slightly. “Your intentions for coming here aside, you’ve brought more mouths to feed. We’re living off our fall harvest.”
“The prince is aware and has promised to arrange for aid.” I leave out that he has no idea how he will do so, and Healer Baka notices. She pushes her spectacles up her nose in a quick jerk, still troubled. “I won’t let anything happen,” I say, a guarantee that even to me sounds more convincing.
She holds my solemn gaze. “I have to tell Priestess Mita. For the good of our daughters, she needs to know.”
I lock my jaw. “The priestess sent me to die in Rajah Tarek’s rank tournament.”
“You lived.”
“But Jaya didn’t!”
Healer Baka lays her hand over mine. “Priestess Mita’s strongest virtue is obedience. She submitted completely to the rajah, perhaps to a fault. But you know as well as I do that she couldn’t have stood up to him.”
I uncross my legs and rub my sore knee. I can no sooner rid myself of its ache than I can set aside my resentment for the priestess or my longing for a future with Jaya.
“Let me give you something for your leg.” Healer Baka rummages through her herb cabinet and takes out a jar. “I’ll mix a salve for the pain.”
“An Aquifier has been healing me. She’s very gifted.”
Healer Baka lowers her chin and peers over her spectacles at me. “Not all gifted healers are Aquifiers.” She hands me parchment and a piece of charcoal and then waves at the cot in the corner, the one that was once mine. Jaya used to sit beside me and watch me sketch for hours. “This won’t take long. Have a seat and draw while you wait.”
I should return to the lower floor, but I do not trust myself alone with Ashwin. And I have not sketched in so very long. This opportunity to create is too precious to squander.
I settle into the lumpy straw mattress while Healer Baka crushes herbs at her workbench. The fragrance of brewed tea and chamomile strokes my nose. Although Jaya’s place remains empty beside me, I press the charcoal stick to the parchment and draw as though she is watching.
10
DEVEN
My lungs and legs burn. Night left long ago, but the day has been in less of a hurry to end. All day long we have jogged over fields and marshes, side-footed down deep gullies, and marched up slippery hills, yet the imperial army is still in front of us. In the past hour, their tracks have led us into an autumn forest. The sunset streams through the trees that are thick with auburn leaves and the scent of inbound rain. The leaves’ redness, illuminated by the light, reminds me of Kali’s fire dragon in Iresh: fierce and bold, awe-inspiring. Just like the woman who summoned it.
My comrades’ pace slows to a grinding walk. I am tired, but not as tired as they. My urgency to find Brac fuels my strength, but I cannot run forever.
The farther we trek, the more certain I am that my brother was captured and the less I can deny that this is my fault. A moon ago, I let Brac and Mother stay behind in Tarachand. Before leaving Janardan, I sent Opal and Rohan—two young Galers, hardly old enough to live on their own—to find them instead of going after them myself. Both decisions led to this plight.
Rohan falls back, nearly out of view. Yatin and Natesa tread closer, shuffling through the fallen leaves. Trails and trails of broken branches lie before us, trodden down by heavy wagons and soldiers. Somewhere far ahead, leading the troops, is the demon rajah.
“Deven,” Yatin says, panting, “how much longer?”
Natesa lags behind, clutching her side. Rohan stumbles after her, even farther in the rear. None of us wants to risk not returning to the wing flyer in time to meet with the navy, but we cannot continue through the night.
I stop with Yatin. My knees wobble, close to giving out. “Stay here with the others. I’ll pull ahead and then circle back.”
Yatin bends over to catch his breath. “You’ll be of no use to Brac exhausted.”
“Exhausted is better than absent.” I swipe at perspiration dripping in my eyes and mumble an explanation. “This is my comeuppance.”
“The gods aren’t punishing you, Deven. You’re punishing yourself.”
I rest on a raised tree root. Finding Brac is paramount, but so are the welfare and condition of my friends. “I should never have separated from my family.”
Yatin sits, his bearded face sweaty and flushed. “As I recall, Brac offered to stay behind. Seems to me you’re angry about something else.”
My friend may be big, but he has never been slow. “Kali and the prince arranged to meet the warlord in Samiya. I tried to talk her out of it, but her mind was set.” I have had plenty of time to mull over why she sided against me, and I will relent on one point: Prince Ashwin and Kali must do all within their power to protect the empire. But depending on the warlord is still a bad idea. “Kali supports the prince’s efforts.”
“Kalinda has a will of her own, and a strong one at that.”
He did not walk in on her cozied up to Ashwin; otherwise he would not try to reassure me by touting her strong will.
Yatin pats his trouser pocket and then pats it again. He switches to his other pocket and takes out the lotus ring. “Gods’ mercy, I thought I’d lost it.”
I start to ask why he has not yet given Natesa the ring, but I hold my question when she staggers up to us.
“Praise the skies, you stopped.” She uncorks her flask and gulps down water. While she is drinking, Yatin slips the ring away. She passes him the flask, and he draws a long pull. Rohan straggles closer, a few strides away.
“Rest up,” I say, adjusting my pack. The straps dug bruising valleys into my shoulders while I was running. “I’m going ahead.”
“Give us a minute, and we’ll go with you.” Natesa flaps a tired hand at the distance. Lights have appeared in the trees, visible in the twilight.
We have caught up to the army.
“Son of a scorpion.” I drop behind a log. Yatin pulls Natesa down, and they kneel beside me. Rohan teeters up to us and slumps over, lounging on a leaf pile. I would lie down too, if I thought I could get up again. I drop my pack to lighten my load. “Yatin and Natesa, stay here. Rohan and I will go ahead and stake out the camp while it’s dark.”