Chandra thought briefly of bailing outside, but Veer was still on a rush mat, various medicinal pots and unguents around him.
There was no telling what Vihari would do after, if she disappeared from his eyesight. She straightened, causing the bird to focus once again on her with hate.
Vihari was usually well behaved. True, she got the impression he didn’t care too much for her, but then, the bird didn’t seem to like anyone apart from its master. The bird was intelligent and, more than once, she had to tell herself, he wasn’t an ordinary mountain kite. Veer gave him respect and a status equal to his friends.
It didn’t help that she had fooled him once before, when she evaded his surveillance. It appeared he took it personally. After that incident, she had heard the kite had actually left in a snit and Veer had let him go with no reservations.
Just as the kite dived, coming straight at her, claws hooked, she tripped backward, fortunately, falling safely against a rush mat.
“Vihari, stop!” came Veer’s voice. The kite screeched, as if in rage at being denied, but it glided to a stop.
“Are you crazy, woman? What did you say to upset him so much?” Veer stood up and helped her to her feet, checking her for injuries.
“Me? Nothing!” She batted his hands away. “Your bird is insane. How was I to know that he understood human language?”
“Ah, did you subject him to your sharp tongue as well? He isn’t as tolerant as me.”
“Tolerant isn’t the word I’d use to describeyouright now. All I did was ask him to stay outside until you woke up. Umph, take your hands away. I’m fine. Why weren’t you able to control the bird sooner?”
Veer looked at Vihari, they now shared identical eye color. The bird hopped onto the extended arm and Veer took him out without a word.
“Hmph,” she said, when Veer remained in silent conversation with his kite, just outside their hut. “I have work to do. I’m leaving,” she said, raising her voice.
“Wait, I need your help with something,” he called back through the open door.
Why couldn’t he have gotten one of his friends to put this on for him?Chandra had a million things to do with the festival celebrations this evening. Agrani was already running her ragged. And she had been fasting since morning as a part of her pledge to the goddess for healing her husband. But she had stayed when Veer asked her to.
He appeared entirely too comfortable for someone who had to be in pain from the extent of injuries he had sustained. He had woken up just a few days ago and already looked like he was healing rapidly.
Vihari blessedly had left, on some mission his master had for him.
She dipped her fingers into the pot of ointment and touched it to one of his bruises, trying not to notice the warmth and suppleness of his skin.
It was just ointment, and he was just a man, for heaven’s sake; why was she getting so worked up over it? Over him? She had done this before to injured people who came to her mother’s dispensary. It ought to be no different.
She finished the job, trying her best to keep her mind on the task and not the way his muscles bunched, ignoring the goose bumps on his skin, which could either mean he was cold or affected by her touch. She finished and turned to leave when he called her.
“Wait, I think I have some bruises here too.”
She reluctantly crouched down and examined where he was pointing.
“A little to the left…bit more,” said Veer.
“I don’t see it,” she said, confused, and then spotted the crafty gleam in his eyes. She suddenly realized he had cleverly moved his body while she was distracted, trapping her in place. She couldn’t move away without brushing against him.
“It may’ve faded, but I still feel it. I’d like some medicine to be applied there too,” he said, his voice suspiciously innocent.
“You’re making it up. There’s nothing there!”
“Why would I do something like that, Princess? And why are you hesitating? It is not like the medicine is going to harm me.” He tilted his head, pretending to have come to some conclusion. “Or are you having trouble thinking of me as any other patient?”
She thrust the pot into this chest, annoyed. “Apply it yourself.”
He grinned and caught her wrist.
“Why do you enjoy tormenting me so much?” She hadn’t meant to ask that question, but it flew out of her mouth.
He, however, seemed to take it seriously. “I believe the joke is on both of us, Princess. If I am to be the only one to suffer this insanity, the least I can do is to make you acknowledge its existence.”
