Vikram grinned and immediately tented his fingers together. Aasha looked fearful.
“I would not speak before this pool,” she whispered. “If the Serpent King is in a foul mood, he may take even your musings as an answer. And you have only to look around you to see the result.”
The mist folded back upon itself, revealing a boneyard on the opposite bank. I stepped back, my ears pricked for any sign of the water rippling or branches cracking around us. Nothing happened. I breathed a sigh of relief. I thought Vikram would be comforted too, but the boneyard had transfixed him. He refused to look anywhere else for a long while. Only when I tugged on his elbow did he step away from the water’s edge. Once we were a safe distance away from the pool, Vikram folded his arms, gaze fixed on the ground.
“There were bones there,” he said hoarsely. “People have died trying to get to the Serpent King.”
“Maybe it’s just a morbid decoration.”
He whirled around to face me. “This is not a joke, Gauri.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Nothing,” he said tersely and gave his hair a quick tug.
Aasha eyed us knowingly, but if she could somehow read his thoughts, she did not speak his secrets. As we walked back to Alaka’s courtyard, the sun had begun to set. A crowd of raucousyakshashad gathered near the entrance of the groves. The moment they saw Aasha, a drowsy grin slid onto their faces.
“Come here, beauty,” one of them sang. “Let us touch you.”
Instead of threatening or maiming them, which is what I would have done in an instant, Aasha seemed to stumble. She shrank a little on herself. I glared at theyakshas,but I wasn’t going to risk fighting with a magical being unless I had no choice. Instead, I walked to Aasha’s other side. I was a flimsy barrier against magic, but it was better than nothing. Vikram stayed where he was.
“They won’t attack you?” I asked.
“They might. It has happened before,” she said quietly. “But for them to reap any pleasure from the desires I summon, I would have to want to touch them.”
“Then there’s no reason for them to attack you. Don’t be scared.”
I didn’t know why my first instinct was to protect her. She was a thousand times deadlier than I’d ever be. But her face when she saw theyakshastugged at my heart. I’d seen that expression whenever the harem eunuchs announced Skanda’s visits. It was worse than fear. It was hopelessness. It warped a person’s face—flattening their eyes, crimping their lips into grimly determined lines. I recognized it. And I hated it.
“That’s not why I am scared,” said Aasha. “They don’t need to force me. They always know that I will want their desires just as badly as they want to be shown them.” Aasha reached up and delicately traced the blue star at her throat. “I don’t want to want their desires. But it is my sustenance. And they know it.”
I shuddered. “That doesn’t make it right.”
“It is the way things are.”
“It shouldn’t be,” said Vikram.
When we got to the banyan tree, a group of workers had already begun to assemble thevishakanyas’ tent. This time, the tent resembled a peacock. Gold talons dug into the earth, and a tail the size of a village swept out as a grand carpet and entrance, speckled with sapphire and emerald. Silver and gold threaded through the false feathers, and the design of the bird’s neck arched in a graceful welcome.
“Thank you for your help,” said Vikram.
Aasha nodded. “My words are my honor.”
She left afterward, disappearing down the hill and into some unseen quarters where thevishakanyaspresumably took rest before entertaining the crowds of Alaka. I turned to Vikram. He had been quiet since he’d read the riddle of the Serpent King.
“Are you well?”
“Yes,” he said, but his voice was biting and none too friendly. “Those bones… I just can’t shake them from my head. I hadn’t realized… that is to say I had forgotten about death.”
“After all we’ve been through, you’re just now becoming concerned about dying?” I almost wanted to laugh.
He lifted his gaze to mine. “It just feels different now.”
Now it was my turn to fall silent. I stared around us. The setting sun had carved out the world into a landscape of gems. Hills red as garnets. Pools full of sapphire fire. And the people had also been transformed by the falling sun. Whatever light remained in the sky seemed to race eagerly to illuminate Vikram. If I hadn’t known him, I would have thought he was some Otherworldly being who had come to try and steal something from me. Like my voice. Or the memory of my first kiss.
Or something far more precious.
“The risk matches the reward,” I said, trying to keep my voice light.
