When a new day lightened the sky, we stood up and made our way to the edge of the Night Bazaar. The market had already begun to shift and gather itself for the next day. Tents turned transparent as glass before spiraling into pillars. Golden motes of pollen fell through the air and landed on the discarded and the spent. Broken jewelry clasps, silk cones full of half-eaten iced fruit, trampledshatranjpieces and bits of paper with predictions of true love. No sooner had the golden dust touched them, and then they disappeared into the ether.
“I met someone too,” I said, so softly that neither Uloopi nor Nritti heard.
The words still felt unfamiliar and impossible on my tongue. I wanted to savor the sound of them, each word a bright candy for me alone. I knew they’d be supportive and teasing, loving in their own way.
But I wanted to keep the secret of him close.
3
DEATH
YESTERDAY
In Naraka, the mirrors gloated. Behind their silver faces, cities spied on me just as I spied on them. I wondered what they thought of this pacing mess of a king. From the corner of my eye, I could have sworn that I saw a tree quivering with laughter. Even the palace, which was usually restrained in its mischief, taunted me, and voices from a hundred directions whistled smugly:
Is the Dharma Raja nervous?
I ignored them and tipped backward just as an onyx throne spiraled from the ground to catch me. Leaning back, I squinted up at the glittering mirrors. In the smudgy darkness of the palace, they looked like shards of stars.
The sight of theTeejpodium had unsettled me. I could not forget the scent clinging to those lotus blooms, the way a specific desire had been fitted to every gap within me. Every time I closed my eyes, I thought I caught the perfume of the companion in my dreams. A girl who smelled like night-blooming flowers and silver on roses. I needed to meet her. And yet, a part of me couldn’t stomach the thought. A word echoed in my thoughts:cursed, cursed, cursed.
I had to be careful not to love her.
“Hungry?” called Gupta.
He was whistling as he walked toward me, carrying a silver platter full of the strangest fruit I’d ever seen. It was night-black; each inky slice looked flecked with stars. A curious smell filled the air, like a dream that had ended at the best part.
“Where did you find this?” I asked. I didn’t want to take a bite. I already felt unfulfilled as it is.
“You should really read my reports.”
“Not in this life.”
He rolled his eyes. “They’re dream fruit. Created by Night herself.”
“What’s her name again?”
I’d never seen her in the courts of the heavens, but that was because she spent so much of her existence in the human world. I had heard her name before on the lips of the dead and dying. They thought she heraldedme.Ridiculous. No one could summon me.
“Oh, many… Kalindi, Yamini, Syamala… surely you’ve heard of her?”
“In passing.”
“Met her?”
“No.”
This, for whatever reason, seemed to be the correct answer to Gupta. He drummed his ink-stained fingers against his arm.
“Rather intriguing guardian. When the day is gone and the nightdescends to take her place, many people in all the realms consider it a time that belongs to the demons and the dead. And you, naturally. Some perceive her as something of an ill omen.”
I smiled to myself. I knew that feeling of never walking somewhere without a thread of fear unspooling in every living being. Where the shadow of you fell like a veil over every conversation and every interaction. I enjoyed it entirely. No reason to waste a single word on etiquette. It was considered merciful not to speak and thoughtful to avoid, essentially, everyone.
“I imagine she must revel in it,” I said.
“Quite the contrary,” Gupta said. He tossed a slice of fruit in the air to catch it with his teeth. It bounced off his mouth and fell to the ground. “Nooo… that was the last piece.”
“So get more.”
