He shot me a sidelong glance. “It’s complicated. There are factions and agendas, and that is why I believe Araz asked me to watch over you in the event that he couldn’t. I plan to keep my word. You won’t enter that mountain alone,” he said firmly.
A shadow fell over us, and I looked up as a bird swooped low, gliding right past us.
“Fuck!” Ravi pulled on the reins, and the horses came to a stop. “Fucking Kabootar. They have no survival instinct. Scavenging bastards.”
“Sounds like the pigeons of our world.”
“Do pigeons steal your food?” he asked with half a smile.
“They rummage in bins and eat food that’s been thrown away.”
“Yes, similar to these creatures. They seem to be attracted to our camps, probably because of the food.”
Another shadow fell over us, and I looked up to find three birds circling us. They swooped low before veering off. My stomach dipped. “Weird that they’re following us now. No food here to be had.”
Ravi chuckled. “They’re scavengers, but they’re not stupid. They know that we have to stop to eat sometime. Now…let’s go over the kind of creatures we might encounter inside the mountain…”
Ravi knewof two kinds of dangerous creatures that resided in mountains and caves. These beasts weren’t connected to the devouring force, but they were lethal nonetheless. Ashwing bats and heatstalkers. The bats were usually found in caves, but the inside of the mountain was a network of tunnels and caverns, so we might encounter them there. According to Ravi, as long as we were quiet and didn’t startle them, we’d be fine. If disturbed, then their screech caused panic and their wings dripped burning cinders.
Not good.
The heatstalkers were slightly more insidious. Small lizards with translucent skin, they lived in burrows in the rockface. They were blind but hunted by picking up on heat and sound vibration. Their venom caused hallucinations. A victim would be completely off their head while being devoured by a pack of them.
There could be other threats, and there most likely were, but these were the two that Ravi knew of.
Puranee Ghaatee was visible now, a mountain range at the end of the road, and nestled in the lineup was a crimson mountain. Vasuki’s home. Or so the Asura wanted us to believe.
“There’s an entrance on the east side of the mountain,” Ravi said. “The others will set up camp while we head inside. Are you claustrophobic?”
I didn’t like confined spaces, that was true, but I’d been inside a mountain before. “I’m fine.”
“Okay. Fear of heights?”
“No.”
“Can you swim?”
“Yes.” I bit back a smile as I studied his profile, so serious as he ticked off all the possible obstacles we might come up against.
“Ravi, I survived the trials and the labyrinth. I’m not going to freak out now.”
He cracked a smile. “Of course you won’t.” He looked down at me, his emerald eyes warm as they tracked over my face. “I’ve missed you, Leela.”
I nudged his shoulder with mine. “I’ve missed you too.”
The tension I’d been carrying since finding out I’d have to navigate the inside of Vasuki’s mountain was gone. Having Ravi go in with me made it into less of a mission and more of an adventure.
The shadow of the mountain soon fell over us, and we turned onto a valley to the east side of it.
Ravi brought our carriage to a halt and dismounted. “Set up camp,” he called out to the others. “Stay alert. We cannot afford to let down our guard, no matter the information we’ve received.”
He came around my side of the carriage and offered me his hand to help me down.
Dharma, Joe, and Bina joined us.
“You’re going to be okay,” Joe said. “Just follow the map. Don’t veer off track.”
I patted my pocket where the map was nestled. “I won’t. Thank you.”
