“Ready to seehim.”
Chapter 23
RATTITUDE WON’T WORK HERE
BLUE
Chandra teleports me to the sitting room, where the demigods are huddled on the sofa nursing hot drinks.
Dharma looks up in surprise when we appear, then her face crumples, and she holds out her arms to me. I leap off Chandra’s palm and scamper over, climbing onto her shoulder to hug her face.
“I’m sorry, Blue. So sorry. We’re going to get her back. We’ll find a way.” She looks across at Chandra, probably expecting him to confirm her statement.
He nods, his lips a thin line. “We will get her back. I vow it. Blue will fill you in on what…what the plan is.”
He vanishes, and all eyes turn to me.
“What do you know?” Bina asks. “What’s the plan?”
I hop onto the arm of the sofa and fill them in on everything, from the conversation I overheard Chandra have with Rajni to everything he said to me after.
“And he doesn’t know you overheard him?” Joe asks.
I shake my head. “Nah, doubt it. I dunno what to believe, ta be honest.”
“So Leela was right about the primordial evil not wanting to harm her,” Dharma says.
“He will keep her alive,” Chaya says. “Even after Chandra takes the throne, as she still has a claim to it. I doubt he will harm her if he believes he can still use her in some way.”
“Do you think they knew that the devouring force would be close to the mountain?” Thanil asks.
“Yeah, I do.” I twitch my nose in agitation. “I don’t believe Chandra knew, though. Honestly, I don’t know what ta think. I always felt he genuinely cared for Leela.”
“Yeah, me too,” Dharma says.
“Maybe he does,” Bina says. “But that doesn’t mean he wants the Authority to know it.”
“Good point,” Joe says.
“So the plan is what?” Dharma says. “For Chandra to take the throne’s power and go find Leela? Does that mean the throne will give him some special ability to locate the devouring force’s lair?”
“It must mean exactly that,” Bina said.
“Unless it’s all a lie,” Joe says. “Unless Chandra plans to take the throne and leave Leela to her fate. I mean…why take Blue out of the nest and put him in the room next door to where he was going to meet with this Rajni guy?”
“You think he wanted Blue to overhear the conversation?” Bina asks. “But why? All that’s achieved is to make Blue question Chandra’s loyalty.”
“Yeah, but has it? Chandra pretty much gave Blue the exact lowdown afterward, showing Blue that he could be trusted…Am I making sense?”
“Yes, you are.” Bina chews on her cheeks. “In a strange, twisted way.”
“So what do we do now?” Dharma asks.
“We get our own information.” I tell them about Madame Spider and her cryptic clue. “I’m gonna get into that library and find the knowledge she was talking about.”
“A spider?” Joe says. “How big?”
Mahira places a hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right. The spider is not here. She is in Prashikshan.”
