“Yes,” he said, hoarsely.
“I forgive you, for what you did to me. Won’t you embrace me, my son?”
Vikram looked up from his feet, and found himself at the edge of a dusty cliff. He stumbled back, his nose filling with the sharp scent of pine. A net of tree limbs danced above him like laced fingers.
“Beta,” breathed his mother. “Come to me.”
He wanted to. Gods, he wanted to. But something stayed his hand.Hand.His mother stood with her arms folded across her chest. A burst of blue caught his eye. Blue blossoms. It was the blue tingeing her neck at the bottom of a cliff, her mouth full to the teeth with rocks. He frowned.Impossible.
The image burst.
He stumbled out of the mist, his head ringing as thevetalascreamed: “—fool of a boy!” He started running again, heart racing, to get to the other side. With only one eye open, he turned and found the thing from the Undead Grotto stumbling after him.
“Come back, Vikram!” it called in his mother’s voice.
He ran blindly into the mist, dodging thin tree limbs. But his foot slipped just as a boulder draped in mist lurched into sight. The last thing he saw was the gravelly dirt rising to meet him.
***
Vikram woke to being dragged across the uneven ground of a darkened cave. Small threads of light stitched their way across the rock, casting a thin and stingy illumination. Thevetalasquatted on his chest, and cackled when Vikram tried—and failed—to shove him off.
Gauri’s silhouette caught the dim light. Dirt streaked her arms, but she carried herself like a queen reclaiming her country. She was also, to his infinite loathing, hauling him around like a sack of fruit.
He groaned.Do I make you laugh, Universe?Once, when he was ten, he attempted to fly by attaching silk scarves to his arms and leaping from a tree. It did not work. When he was fifteen, he dressed like a courtesan to sneak into the harem. He ended up appearing too convincing to a palace guard and was forced to throw off his silks and punch the man. All things considered, this was not the most shameful thing he had endured.
But it was certainly one of them.
“Wakey! Wakey!” shouted thevetala,slapping his face. “I jumped off because I thought you were a husk of a thing. But the pretty monster came back for you.”
He wanted to strangle the creature. It would have been far better to feign unconsciousness and just allow himself to be dragged across the cave. Maybe the Universe would have smiled down at him and knocked his head against a rock. He twisted out of Gauri’s unnervingly strong grip. She dropped his leg with little ceremony.
“Get up,” she said.
“I appreciate your concern and my mind is perfectly intact. Thank you for inquiring.”
He wobbled to a stand and snuck a glance into her eyes before breathing a sigh of relief. Thevetala’s enchantment had worn off. Their memories had retreated back into their skin. Still, he wondered what she had seen in that Undead Grotto. Her face looked pinched in the cave light, her lips pressed tight. Now that her hands were free, her fingers twisted protectively around her necklace. When he looked at her under the enchantment, he had seen a girl who wore a hundred faces and never smiled in any of them. He’d glimpsed a memory of a princess who hid a sparrow with a broken wing in her room. He’d seen her clutch her blue necklace tight to her throat and drop her shoulders when no one was looking. Who was she?
Thevetalaraised his arms like the most grotesque infant. “Pick me up.”
Grumbling, Vikram swung the creature onto his back. Thevetalapromptly rested his chin on Vikram’s head with a delighted sigh. There was nothing else to do but follow the light. As they walked, Vikram sensed the enchantment of the Otherworld buried in the cave silt. It was subtle. Like moonlight soaking fruit trees, storm clouds crouching over palace spires and watchful eyes blinking open in the dusk. And it stirred him awake and wide-eyed.
“Thank you,” he said, partially to break the silence, but mostly because he truly meant the words. “You went back for me.”
“We need two to participate in the Tournament. And thevetala”—she jerked a disdainful nod at the creature—“would be of little use. So don’t thank me. I did it for myself.”
Thevetalabrought his head to Vikram’s ear. “I heard her heart leap from its cage of bones when I said you were dead.”
His own heart did a strange flip. They’d crossed through a Grotto where their own memories had been treacherous, but all he remembered was the sound of her laugh when he asked if they should race. Her laugh was low and throaty, as if rusty with disuse. He hadn’t been able to shake it from his mind.
“Vikram!” shouted Gauri.
His head snapped up. A moment from his toes, a massive rip in the cave floor reared to meet them. He ground his heels into the floor, his stomach turning as if he had fallen through the hole.Smack.Thevetalabrought his bony elbow down sharply on Vikram’s head. His body jerked forward, just as thevetalashoved Gauri.
“Jump! This way, cowards!” thevetalashouted.
Vikram’s heels slipped. He kicked uselessly, his arms spinning. Gauri tumbled alongside him. A furious, near-inhuman roar ripped from her throat. Vikram let himself fall, bringing out his arms as if he could fly. This would not be his death.
He hollered, an impossible grin stretching on his face. The dark slid over his thoughts. He reached into the shadows for Gauri. And found her.
