The night of their wedding was a night of discovery.
How long could a kiss last without the urgency of breathing? How long could a breath last without the urgency to kiss? It was a discovery of delicacy, like reaching for a bloom only to discover that it was a creature in camouflage with brilliant wings now catching the light as it danced out of reach.
Later, held tight in Vikram’s arms, Gauri considered what she had said to him before she had descended to steal back his last breath. She had not told him yet, and she wasn’t sure that she ever would. In the arena where she had practiced her swordplay, she had said:
“Tomorrow we are chained to each other’s side. I do hope you like the Tapestries on the throne room walls. We shall be staring at them until the day we die.”
She relayed this to him now, and he lay there silently.
“I remember,” he said. “And I remember asking if that was all that tomorrow meant to you. Does it still?”
She curled a little closer to him and shook her head. What tomorrow meant… whatthismeant… was too immense to fit into words.
“This is an adventure, Gauri,” Vikram whispered against her hair. “All of it.”
“Even staring at the ugly wall Tapestry in our stateroom?”
He winced. “Unfortunately.”
Gauri laughed. And though she was sure that there would be days when she could not, and perhaps even a stretch of years where she knew only the shadow, she took comfort in knowing that this laugh was just the first of many.
END
PRESENT
“Their wedding was held with great pomp and ceremony,” said Hira’s grandmother. “Everyone who attended said they had never seen a more handsome bridegroom or a more beautiful bride. She even carried him over the threshold, which shocked a few people, but the pair of them thought it would be good to start shocking people early. Might make them more immune to the rest of the surprises they had in store for their kingdom.”
Hira’s heart ached, but she was not sure why.
It was a happy story, wasn’t it? The bride who went to fetch her beloved and who returned victorious… but she still lost. In a way.
And for the first time since their fight, Hira’s heart ached for her sister. Was it possible that she too felt lost? That maybe, when shehad seen the toys Hira had left in her treasure chest, that she did not think of them as playthings but… reminders. Of something she was leaving behind.
“Did they live happily ever after?”
This question made her grandmother pause.
“They lived,” she said carefully. “Mostly happily. Sometimes furiously. But always gratefully. It is, I think, the best way to spend existence.”
Hira nodded, and hoped that she looked as wise as her grandmother sounded.Spend existence.What a strange phrase. It made her think that her own years were like currency. She had learned about currency and all of its strange magic when she had listened to her father’s councilors.This much armors our soldiers. This much paves the roads.Ifshehad currency, she would have spent it on something far more interesting: likemagic.Sometimes her grandmother told stories like that. A place, called the Night Bazaar, whose currency dealt in years and memory.
“Does it still happen?” asked Hira.
“Does what still happen, my little jewel?”
Hira pulled her knees to her chest. This portion of her grandmother’s window faced the royal grounds. And Hira saw a procession of chariots. Servants bustling through the growing crowd with trays of refreshment and sweet lime juice.
“Adventure,” whispered Hira.
Her grandmother did not answer. Instead, she took off the necklace that she wore around her neck. The snake necklace that Hira swore turned different colors, though she seemed to be the only one who thought so. She clasped it around Hira’s neck, and the weight of it felt like an oath.
“Did you know that when your grandfather wore this, it told the truth?”
“Really?” asked Hira.
“Oh yes,” said her grandmother. “People lived in fear of him repeating anything they said. Honesty does not make for good politics. But it does make for loyal subjects. The snake had a name too. Biju.”
“It doesn’t tell the truth anymore?” asked Hira sadly.
