“I came to see if you were all right,” he said, giving her a slow blink, perhaps allowing her to adjust to those unearthly eyes. “You’ve fallen behind.”
Chandra gave a start and realized she couldn’t see the others in the group. “Oh, I didn’t realize. You go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”
“Want my escort? Your torch is out, and you can’t see in the dark.” Before she could answer, his hands came to rest on her shoulders and prodded her into moving.
She couldn’t deny his offer of help; she didn’t have a flint to light her torch again. Nor did he seem to have a spare torch. She supposed with his abilities he didn’t need one.
“What animal are you borrowing your sight from?” she asked, more to fill the thick silence that descended between them.
“A bat. I borrowed the sound, Princess. But my eyes take on the eye color of whatever animal I’m controlling.”
“Oh…”
They walked along to the vibrating beat of the sea, drumming against the damp walls of the passage. The walls were not thin, but this close to the seacoast, the violence of the ocean was more apparent.
His hands on her shoulders felt heavy and confining, like the thick manacles that bound her hands on the day she was dragged to the arena to receive her punishment.
But they also carried a warmth that was welcomed in the damp chill. She wondered why he didn’t send one of his men to check on her, instead of coming himself.
“You didn’t really need to come check up on me. I would’ve caught up eventually,” she said into the darkness.
“It’s fine, Princess. I don’t mind and I wanted to talk to you…to apologize for earlier.”
His words burst open the bubble of hurt inside again.
“You should be ashamed of yourself. You knew exactly how precious the centuries-old bas–reliefs were and still went ahead and destroyed them. Do you have any idea what you have done? What will I say to my father once he is well again? You are taking too much advantage of the fact you are the son-in-law of this kingdom, and our customs protect you from retaliation, but remember, Prince Veer, that every thread has a breaking point.”
“You know the reason why I had to break the bas-reliefs. There was no other way through,” he pointed. “We wouldn’t be walking this passageway if I hadn’t done what needed to be done.” His voice was even and measured, without an ounce of regret.
Chandra snorted. Oh, she knew all right. Veer saw nothing wrong in destroying centuries-old sculptures that had been a part of Amaravathi’s heritage. Their beauty and the stories they told, the legend they perpetuated, were lost forever. Reduced to so much rubble.
He had always shown a blatant disregard for the customs and practices of the people of the subcontinent. Nothing had changed over these seven years.
As their steps echoed in the hollow passage, Chandra thought back to the first time they had run across each other.
* * *
The war between their two kingdoms had been at its peak then, with heavy losses on both sides and no end in sight. Prince Veer, a skilled commander, had joined his father in the war tohelp turn the tide. His prowess and savagery had earned him the nickname of “scourge of the north.”
That day, Chandra had been visiting a shrine, located deep in the woods of Amaravathi, along with her sisters. It was an annual pilgrimage, and the females of the royal family were expected to make it by foot. They had reached a grove of thousand-year-old trees in the Navari Woods and were offering prayers to the Nature Spirits that were said to dwell within the trees, when Veer’s men crashed into their place.
In that battle between their guards and Veer’s men, she chanced to lock swords with the prince himself. She still had no idea how she defeated him. He was better, not to mention a physically stronger fighter than her. But she knew the area had an abandoned, covered well and drove him toward it, causing him to fall down the well.
But they still lost that day to Veer’s superior troops. She and her sisters sat huddled on the forest floor; Chandra, the only one suffering the ignominy of having her hands bound. Veer, still dripping stagnant water, stalked toward them, looking like a creature of the deep with moss tangled in his scraggly hair and beard. He smelled like a ditch and Chandra could practically feel her sisters’ recoil as the younger ones tried to hide behind her and Aswini.
“Why have you captured us?” Chandra asked before anyone else could say anything. “We are King Chandraketu’s daughters. Capturing us goes against the rules of war that women and children are not to be harmed. Release us at once.”
Veer ignored her and focused on her sisters, the other princesses. “The words of the poets do not lie. The princesses of Amaravathi are indeed beautiful.” Chandra watched with trepidation as he seemed to focus on her eldest sister, Aswini, easily the most beautiful among them.
She plucked the courage to address him again. “You haven’t answered my question, Prince Veer. Did the fall down the well also damage your hearing?”
That got his attention. He swung around, incredulity widening his eyes at the disrespect.
“Who are you?” he asked, raking his eyes up and down her body with rude insolence, taking in her ripped clothing and disheveled hair. “A bodyguard to one of the princesses, perhaps?”
“I’m a princess, you ill-mannered imbecile…” She caught the glint in his eye and shut up, realizing that he knew very well who she was and was merely winding her up for his own amusement.
“My apologies, Princess,” he said, bowing slightly but ruining the effect with his mocking expression. “You don’t behave like one, so I was rightfully mistaken. No grace, no comportment, and definitely no manners. Were those cuss words I heard earlier when you came at me with a sword?”
