“Close your eyes, Chandra. Forget everything except the words. You can do it,” came his stern advice.
Chandra shook her head, her eyes watering from the rush of the wind. Her limbs refused to obey her. Fear drenched her body.
“You have to do it, Princess. I’m not going to be of any help here.”
Chandra clamped a hand to her mouth to stifle another scream she felt bubbling up and closed her eyes. No longer able to see the ground, all she could sense was the weightlessness of the free fall.
How can he be so calm when we are about to die?Then she closed off all thought and called on her training to center herself.
She pushed her fear and terror into the back of her mind, her training helping her orient herself. Her throat unlocked from fear, and she whispered the incantation once again.
In her mind’s eye, shefelta door open, like a section of wall had crumbled. Something alien clicked into place. Chandra felt her consciousness divide into two. Unlike the brute force intrusion of Virat, this was more like a shared awareness. At the same time, Vihari leveled off, a few spare feet from the ground. Chandra inhaled finally, but the relief was short lasting as he began the ascent to dizzying heights.
It took time, but she was able to adjust to flying Vihari. The wind, which seemed so chaotic and determined to unseat her, felt like a benign hand that rocked the swing. As if she had sprouted wings to fly.
She took him over the cloud barrier, flew past a flock of wagtails, confusing them. Together, they swooped, rose, rolled, swiped, and climbed. Chandra forgot when her fear melted away, leading to awe and excitement. It was a different world in the air.
She laughed with sheer happiness, of being one with the bird, albeit each in their own minds.
All too soon, their flight ended, and they landed in a small clearing. Chandra got down on wobbly legs.Veer explained to her how they needed to give an offering of their blood to the kite as a sign of gratitude, and so they did.
“He likes you,” Veer said suddenly.
Chandra reached out and ran an affectionate hand through the soft down feathers of his neck. “It is I who should say that. I’m honored and grateful for this kindness he’s shown me. Thank you. To you both.”
A sudden ice pick headache bloomed behind her eyes and a high-pitched ringing deafened her ears. Something trickled down her nose but Chandra was too dizzy to do anything other than concentrate on standing on her two feet. Veer marched up to her.
He swiped a thumb at her lip and Chandra noticed red. She was bleeding.
“You lied about the hurt,” she accused.
Chandra saw the corner of his mouth tilt up in a smile. “Your fault for believing me, Princess. Shouldn’t you have learned by now that I am a devious bastard?” He pulled her close and placed a hand on her neck. “Put your head down. The bleeding will subside in a while. It gets better with practice.”
“There was no reason to lie,” said Chandra, her voice muffled by his chest.
“Would you have attempted it otherwise, Princess?”
“Was it so important that I do so?” she asked. Chandra felt the pain and the ringing recede as quickly as it came, but she was too comfortable in his embrace to let go.
“I’m sorry for using shady tactics, Princess. But yes, it’s important to me that you understand, that you feel what it’s like for me, when I merge with the birds. So you can understand why this is a part of me I cherish. It’s neither good nor bad. It’s a form of existence, free of human entanglements.”
Veer tipped her chin and looked into her eyes. “My father’s a long-range communicant. Before his marriage, he explained what that meant to my mother, so she was aware of what she was getting into. Our…situation is different, but as my wife, you’re entitled to the knowledge about how my magic works.
“Suppressing my magic would be like denying my very nature. For Sarun, if it turns out he indeed has magic, it’s the same. Not everything is bad or corrupt. It’s the people who use it that make it so.”
His words made hope spring in her heart. That perhaps there was a way they could pave a path to their own happiness.
Epilogue
The Spectral Releam
Thianvelli, Giridah Fort
Virat watched the moon traversing the night sky through the bars of a window. The torches burned in their brackets at the perimeter of the room but delivered no light brave enough to dispel the darkness of this place.
Guards waited outside, content to leave him alone inside, keeping watch through the open door. Virat’s focus was on theyantrahe had drawn seven days ago. The time was finally drawing near to when the magical ritual would deliver his prey into his hands.
Ever since his false death, Virat had developed an uncanny affinity with the spectral realm. It was the place his soul had gone to, after his physical body died.
