“We’ve made hard decisions like that before,” I said, my voice muffled by her hair.
“Yes”—she drew in a shaky breath and lifted her head, looking into my eyes—“but he was just a boy. Not a warrior like the others.”
Thunder boomed overhead again. Wiping a tear from her cheek with my thumb, I said, “You did what you had to do.”
“Did I?” she asked glumly.
Sighing deeply, I answered, “You did. Kadam isn’t a cruel man. If he believes the young man’s death needed to happen, then it needed to happen. Otherwise…” My words trailed off. My attempt to soothe her felt oily and wrong somehow. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Kadam. I did. I believed that he believed it needed to happen. I just didn’t know if I believed it yet.
“You question my actions too,” she said.
“No. Not yours.”
“I will speak with you first next time, Sohan,” she said insistently. “I promise you this.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“It was wrong for me to make the choice without you.”
Now that she was more under control, I purposely moved my hands away from her body, placing them on the ground. “You thought I’d stop you,” I said simply.
Ana cocked her head and nodded briskly before standing up and offering me her hand. I took it and glanced at her injured thigh exposed beneath her torn clothing. “It does not matter if you try to stop me or not,” she said. “We agreed to do this together.”
I rose with my hand in hers though I didn’t allow her to take any of my weight. “I’m sorry I hurt you,” I said gruffly.
“You did not hurt me any more than I hurt you.”
We began walking back to our home. “I think I hurt you a little more,” I said, lightly teasing her. “I’ll use the kamandal to heal you when we get back.”
“Also I would like a bath and good night’s sleep.”
“Me too.”
We headed back to our mountain home, walking side by side, a companionable silence between us. When we arrived at the base, she stopped short at seeing the vast numbers of people camping there. It was like a small city had sprung up. Straining my ears, I caught the musical lilt of at least a half dozen languages, and yet the atmosphere was one of cheer and mutual respect.
“We must send down supplies,” she said fretfully as she counted the campfires that dotted the land.
“I’ll see to it,” I said wearily. “Shall we head around back?” I asked, thinking of the hidden passage.
“No.” Turning to me, she wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her body close to mine.
I reacted instinctively though I was confused and slid my hands around her small waist. My eyes were drawn to the soft petals of her lips and the thick, dark lashes that swept over her cheeks as she closed her eyes. Around us the air changed. A bright, golden light encompassed our bodies, bubbling softly like sunset-tinged sea foam. Her hair brushed my arm as it whipped in the wind that lifted us up into the night sky.
As we floated above the camp, her power wrapped around us, I pressed my cheek against hers and we held on to one another. I wasn’t sure if our fight had completely fixed the divide that lay between us, but the distance to bridge it was certainly smaller than it had been. We touched down and I took her hand, leading her to her room. When I left her there, the door closing on the small smile I gave her, I sought out our young apprentice, Xing-Xing, and handed him the Golden Fruit.
His eyes bugged when I told him of its power. After a few demonstrations of how to use it, I left him in the supply room with the task of creating enough food to feed two thousand warriors. He set about the work with great enthusiasm, and I couldn’t help but laugh when the scent of sugar and honey infused the air.
Before I found my bed, I bathed quickly, not even bothering to dry off. I shook my wet hair wildly, like a tiger would, and then climbed between the sheets. It was a good twelve hours before I moved, and when I did, I immediately knew something was wrong. My head hurt and slick, black rainbows swam before my eyes. Someone had been in my room and had dealt me what would amount to a killing blow over the head if I had been a typical mortal man.
Brown, crusted blood flaked from my sheets as I sat up and gingerly felt the raised knot on the back of my head. Standing and nearly falling, I grasped desperately for the bedpost as I tried to steady my quavering legs. Stumbling forward, I hurried toward Ana’s room and wrenched open the door only to find her room ransacked and the bed empty. The scent of several men stung my nostrils. How had they gotten in?
I called out for Xing-Xing and for Ana’s man, Bhavin. Neither of them answered. Panicked, I searched Ana’s room. Had she taken off the amulet? The only way she could have been captured was if she’d been hit over the head like me, that is, unless she’d taken off the amulet. She did that sometimes when she bathed, though I’d warned her time and again to always leave it on.
Rummaging through what remained of her jewelry box, I found nothing of value. Gone were her weapons as were several priceless gifts she’d been given over the years. To my great relief, I spotted a golden tail tucked behind the curtain.
“Fanindra,” I said. “Can you help me find her?”
The golden cobra blinked her eyes and stretched her coils, growing larger until she was full-sized. She slid across Anamika’s bed, her tongue flicking out to taste the air, and then circled the post, moving quickly down until she reached the floor. I followed her to Ana’s bath, and Fanindra stuck her head beneath a towel on the lip of the stone edge.
When I picked it up, sure enough, the amulet fell to the ground with a thump. Thanking Fanindra, I placed the amulet around my neck and lowered my arm. Fanindra wound around it and hardened into gold as I raced out of the rooms, following the scent of the men. Their scents headed toward my hidden stairs, and I cursed myself for having left so abruptly the day before and leaving the secret door open. Instead of taking the time to run down the stairs, I leapt into the dark space in the middle and fell, using the power of wind to slow my drop so I landed in a soft crouch at the bottom.
When I closed the hidden door behind me this time, I used the amulet to seal it shut permanently and took off at a run, following the men who’d taken Ana. Fanindra’s emerald eyes lit the landscape for me though I could see well enough at night as a tiger. Even so, I noticed how living creatures were outlined vividly when she turned her gaze on them. “Help me find them,” I whispered to her. “Help me find Ana.”
Without the amulet, they could overpower Ana, keep her unconscious. They wouldn’t be able to draw the bow or wield the gada though they could certainly take them. If they had enough men, they could divide the weight of the weapons easily enough, and my nose told me they had plenty.
In fact, the numbers grew. More and more scents joined the party as I ran. My blood ran cold as I thought about what they could do to her. Ana was a warrior but without her powers, she couldn’t handle so many. To keep my mind off the danger she was in, I ticked off a list of possible assailants, trying to figure out who might have done this. Truthfully, we’d made a lot of enemies, even if I only considered the current time.
The temptation of seizing the powers of the goddess was a strong motivation. As many safeguards as we’d put into place, it was now obvious that there weren’t enough. I’d been too complacent in my duties. Too relaxed. I should have woken up before a man even entered my room, let alone given him time to bash me over the head.