“Aargh! You dense man, you can’t just brush it aside like that and expect everyone else to agree with you. Let go of my leg,” she said, tugging at it once more.
“No. I need to see how bad it is.” He tightened his grip above her ankle yet was careful on the injured part, glancing at her from beneath the flop of hair that fell over his forehead, his look searing. “If I were you, I’d resign myself to it or there’ll be a lot more touching before I’m done. What a ridiculous belief.”
Chandra subsided with ill grace and allowed him to examine her ankle to his heart’s content. He pronounced it was only a sprain—she could’ve told him that—and then said they would do some healing with the magical stone later that evening when they were alone in their hut.
After a while, she spoke again. “I…I had reasons for the incident with the temple elder. You know that.” When Veer continued to look unimpressed, Chandra hurried to explain. “That old woman was insulting Matangi…”
“And this matters to you how? Matangi is a wayfarer and has been on the road for years. She can look after herself.”
“Doesn’t mean she wasn’t hurt by the old woman’s words…” argued Chandra.
“Again, why should that matter?”
“It matters! King Amarendra built this temple so all people, regardless of their sex or caste, could pay respects to the Lord,” said Chandra, frustrated that he wasn’t grasping her point.
“There you go again with your hero worship.” Veer rolled his eyes, which inflamed her more. “And how are you going to explain today?”
“What do you think I should have done?” she asked, her voice assuming a waspish tone. “Let the girl be trampled to death?”
“There are guards for that purpose—”
“Who were too busy to notice the little girl.” Chandra clenched her fists and took deep breaths, trying to get a handle on her emotions.
“What you did was foolish, Princess. Did you know that despite my powers controlling animals, I can’t manage an easy foothold on diseased minds?” he spoke past gritted teeth. “That elephant was crazed. If I’d been any later, you and the child you were trying to help would have died.”
“Yes, I realize I owe you thanks for that and may I say you were quite good with the spear. Where did you learn to do that?” asked Chandra.
A muscle bunched in his jaw. “That is not the point…”
“If you are done with interrogating me—”
“Not even close…”
“Then I have some questioning of my own to do,” she said, overriding his words. “Why exactly was your kite following me around?”
Veer bent over her ankle once more, even though he had finished wrapping a simple cloth bandage around it. “I asked Vihari to keep an eye on you. For your own protection,” he said smoothly.
“I’ve been taking care of myself all these years. I don’t need your protection.”
“Nevertheless, I promised your mother I’d bring you home safe and sound, so…”
“Ha.”
“What is that supposed to mean, Princess?”
“Nothing you ever do is so straightforward, Prince. Why don’t you come right out and say you don’t trust me, instead of giving me all these lame excuses? If you had trusted me, then you would have told me about Vihari.”
“Of course that’s not true. I do trust you.” The lie fell off his lips so smoothly he didn’t even blink an eye.
“Then why am I finding out about your plan to steal the statue only now?” she countered.
His fingers halted. “Who told you?”
“That is immaterial. What I want to know is how could you come up with such a stupid plan?”
“The last key piece was hidden with a goddess statue. So, it stands to reason that it could be the case here too,” he argued, as if he saw nothing wrong.
“I knew you were looking for a way to inspect the Lord’s statue, but couldn’t you have found a better idea than…stealing?” she asked, half exasperated with him.
