“How much of that is true?”
“Who cares if a story is true or not so long as it is told? Either way, yourvanaraswill not accept the fruit that damned and stole their queen.”
What a ridiculous curse. If I could have taken down kingdoms with demon fruit, I would’ve grown it too. Thevetalafixed its hollow eyes on me. “Careful, girl. The Queen wanted too much too. Her story was vengeance. Do that, and your life’s tale will be nothing but another’s ending.”
That still didn’t answer the question. Had Queen Tara’s crime only been to lead an army of women? What was the crime in making yourself invincible? Skanda’s grinning face flashed in my memory. If I had the choice of invincibility, I would’ve taken it too.
“So, let’s assume that you eat this fruit and don’t eat everyone around you,” Vikram said. “Could you smash through the walls of this place and free us?”
“You could do that,” said thevetala,butting into our conversation once more. “But how will you get out?”
“The way we came,” I said.
“And then what?” said Vikram. “That doesn’t leave us with many clues. And we only have two days before—”
“Don’t!” I shouted.
“—Kubera’s tournament,” finished Vikram.
Panic thrummed through my chest.
“What did you say?” said thevetala.His voice was deathly quiet. I pushed myself off the wall despite the impossible pain and hunger setting me on fire.
“Maybe I should follow my instincts and eat you just for being plain stupid,” I snarled.
Vikram stepped backward, his eyes widening.
“It astounds me that Ujijain has any plans to make you ruler. Did they teach you nothing?” I gritted out, just out of earshot from thevetala.“Never reveal where you are going. Never reveal what youneed.You just gave away two of those things by, once more, loudly observing all the ways in which we are in dire need of help.”
“I didn’t mean—” started Vikram.
“I don’t care what you mean. I care about what you’ve done. Thatthing—” I said, flailing an arm in thevetala’s direction. “—will sweet-talk you into giving away your own soul just to get to where you want to go.”
“What if it is telling us the truth?” he countered. “Are you the only person capable of being correct? What is so impossible about taking a leap of faith andtrying? Besides, it wants something from us. And until it helps us, it won’t get it.”
“You’re assuming I’ll even follow you to this Tournament. I might as well hide out in the Otherworld until a cycle of the moon passes and go back to the human world.”
“Are you that frightened of magic?”
I narrowed my eyes. “If you were half as clever as they say, you would be frightened too.”
“So you’ll waste a month of your life instead of grabbing the best opportunity?”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Doubt dug into my thoughts. Before, I didn’t want any part of magic. But if we survived, I couldn’t waste a month of my life. Where would I go? What would I do? I remembered the promise tucked inside the enchanted ruby… the lull and temptation of everything I wanted folded neatly into a wish.
“I know how to get out and I know how to get to the Tournament of Wishes,” trilled thevetala.“Did you know they call Alaka the Kingdom of Desire? It is just north of Naraka. So quaint, is it not? Death and desire are almost always hand in hand. You will not even leave this kingdom without me. This is the kingdom of thevanaras,you short-lived fools. They are wiser, stronger. Their tunnels and insies and outsies are not like your straightforward forts with their hidden passageways. But I can’t break the walls. The girl would have to do that.”
“What do you want,vetala?” I asked.
“I want a body.”
“We will not give you ours.”
“How about only one of you dies?”
“No.”
“Well, if you shall not part with your bodies, then I suppose I must settle for your shoulders,” said thevetala.“I cannot walk. Or fly. I wish for the crematory grounds, and not this damn solitary confinement with a single stinking iron tree and not a dead body around me for miles.”
