Vikram’s shadow fell over me as we both crouched before thevetala.The creature drew up its ragged knees. It opened its mouth as if to speak. And then… itspatinto our eyes.
I jerked back, dragging my arm across my stinging eye.
“I don’t need my knives to kill you,vetala,” I bit out.
“I better not go blind,” groaned Vikram, rubbing his fist into his eye.
I tried to jab him with my elbow, missed and lost my balance.
“You are most welcome,” said thevetalasilkily.
I touched my left eye—the one he had spat into—and found it strangely cool to the touch. Vikram met my gaze.
Where both of his eyes had once been brown, one of them was now bright green. I glanced over the rest of his face, noticing things that had been invisible mere moments ago. The dying light tugged his sharp chin, cut jaw and hooded gaze from Otherworldly to beautiful. When I looked into his eyes, my breath caught. I sawthingsandpeopleswimming in his sight—a woman with gray streaked in her temples, a fistful of blue flowers, a stout king with a one-winged bird on his shoulder. Empty cradles and darkened halls. And a boy. A boy who held himself as if there were a storm gathering bolts of light within him. Vikram, too, looked disturbed. His brows were pressed together, and when his gaze fell to Maya’s necklace, his lips parted in wonder.
What had my eyes betrayed?
He turned suddenly, and his eyes widened.
“Gods,” he breathed.
I followed his line of sight and horror gripped me.
Before, the Grotto had seemed a lifeless, barren thing. Now shapes twisted before us. Creatures clung to the bone white trees. Creatures who were not resting in the branches or frozen in death, but awake and skittering.
And staring straight at us.
“Hurry, hurry,” whined thevetala.“This isn’t just about the two of you fools, you know.”
I covered the eye thevetalahad spat into and looked out onto the Grotto. Nothing but bone white trees met my eye. But when I covered the other eye and looked out, bodies teemed and writhed, gnashing their teeth.
“One eye to see the illusion… another to see through it…” said Vikram softly.
“But then why were we able to—” I stopped.
Vikram caught my gaze and quickly looked away. Why had we been able to see through one another, as if we were nothing more than panes of colored glass?
“The body is its own illusion. Now you can see through it,” said thevetala.“Rather like fleshy thuribles. They’re just keepers of things. What’s inside you is the thing those beasties like the most. You are, basically, a bowl full of lush memories. They want to scoop them out, sink their teeth into them, drown themselves in the imprints of living moments.”
“How do those monsters tease out our memories?” asked Vikram.
Thevetalasmiled and ice poured down my spine.
“They can sniff the shapes of memories rising off your skin like steam. They will tug on them. And you, like a drowsy fat bumblebee lulled by the blue throat of an intoxicating blossom, will fall into the arms of whatever illusion they craft.”
I sucked in my cheeks and patted the jacket. I was ready. Vikram looked more hesitant. The color had drained from his face and he was staring at the Grotto as if he knew exactly which nightmare was waiting for him.
“If you die, you die. Do not feel bad. I died. And I am quite fine,” said thevetala.“If you do, however, manage to be killed—and by the looks of you, I would not be surprised so much as irritated—please try to keep your heads. You’re no use to me decapitated.”
Since I’d already transported us to the Grotto, Vikram agreed to let thevetalaclimb onto his back. Thevetalasmoothed Vikram’s hair, crooning: “Nice donkey.” At the end of the sloping cliff, I checked once more to make sure that the enchanted eye worked. Vikram let out his breath to speak, and I prepared to hear formal, solemn words like “death comes for all of us anyway.” What I heard, instead, was:
“Race you to the end?”
It was such a bizarre thing to say that I… started laughing. I was shocked that I had a laugh left inside me and even more startled that it chose to announce itself moments before a battle where death had victory pinched between its thumb and forefinger. Once freed from my belly, the laugh warmed my bones. Maybe that’s why the best laughs tend to break free on the edge of lightless horror. Only then can they give wings to a drooping spirit. I needed that. And whether or not Vikram knew what he had done, I felt grateful.
Thevetalagroaned. “You are bound to die.”
All it took was one step for the Grotto to transform. The wind picked up my hair. One moment, I could see the slit of light at the end of the Grotto. A cave opening. At the back of my head, I heard Maya’s voice:The Lord of Wealth once ruled Lanka, a city of gold. Gold everywhere. Gold in the trees, in the rivers, in the air.Perhaps it was gold. Gold just on the other side. All I had to do was reach it.
