Aasha frowned. “What does that mean?”
“You’ll see.”
The pile of rocks began to shift. They cobbled together, forming a living spire that grew and grew. The rock giant swiveled its faces, stretching one arm up. It sailed through the tree, knocking a handful of sleeping parrots from the branches. They squawked, took one look at the thing, and flew off in a different direction. Before, Aasha had been standing in a puddle of sunlight. Now this thing had choked off the light and she was plunged into shadows armed with nothing. Not a branch or a rock. Not as though that would have helped her.
“You’ve got everything you need,” said Zahril.
The rock giant advanced. Aasha took a step back. The thorny bark of a tree dug into her back.
“You’re just going to let it kill me?” she asked.
“The selection process is rather brutal, I’ll admit.”
As the giant marched forward, Aasha no longer wondered what had happened to the other contestants for the role. The rock thing roared. No true sound or yell echoed from its stone throat, but the effect was like the noisy cascade of rocks. It swung its fist up. Then down. Aasha tried to run, but the moment her feet touched the rim of the circle she was thrown backward.
She glanced up sharply.
Trapped in the circle.
That murderous Zahril had trapped her here. She glanced at her.
Zahril waved her fingers.
Aasha skirted around the edges. She didn’t have training in this at all. She’d never run an obstacle course, let alonerun,unless it was to the kitchens for desserts. As the rock giant swung another punch, Aasha cursed. How many times had Gauri tried to drag her to the training grounds and teach her how to use a sword? The ideasoundednice, but waking up at the crack of dawn to Gauri grinning broadly was terrifying enough.
If only she couldtouchthe creature.
But it didn’t have any thoughts. It wasn’t a sentient thing that had desires twisting above its head. And even if it did, the last thing she wanted was to expose her true nature to Zahril.
She thought of Gauri and Vikram and a raw ache opened up in her chest. She missed them. She missed Bharata. She missed that sense of belonging.
Think think think.
The creature had gotten its hand stuck in the earth from slamming it so tightly.It even lookedfrustrated, she thought.
Off to the side, Zahril inspected her hands.
“Don’t bother with pleading either. I simply won’t hear it,” she called lazily.
The last thing she was going to do was ask for Zahril’s help, thought Aasha. Her hands clenched. The spice of the tea that had warmed her veins now twisted through it, sending sparks to the outmost of her limbs. Those teeth of ambition nipped at her once more. Aasha had never felt this in all her life. This burning desire to meet a goal imposed by another person. She wanted to reach it. Smash it. Throw its remains across the smug grin of the Spy Mistress.
Zahril had said that she had everything she needed to defeat the creature. Maybe she couldn’t fight like Gauri or outsmart her way like Vikram, but she did one thing better than them all… she could read. People. Expressions.
That was her whole training.
This time, when the rock giant raced toward her, she didn’t run. She stood her ground. The creature didn’t pause. This time, Aasha didn’t look beyond the circle, didn’t pay attention to the arching boughs that would give her no protection. She focused on the face, forgetting its terrifying limbs and quickening pace. She treated it as she would any visitor to the Night Bazaar. What did they want? What did their faces say that their bodies didn’t?
Aasha searched its gaze. She had thought that it would be nothing more than crude, rudimentary features, a product of the rough-hewn magic. But there were subtleties too. The granite mouth slopedin a grimace. The brow, a jutting shelf of diorite, had been cleaved like a frown.
The rock giant roared.
She held her ground.
Secrets hid in gazes. She’d seen it so often in the Night Bazaar—a hungry gaze skimming over her skin even when the mouth was twisted in disgust, grief like a lightless aura around the pupil, pain tugging down eyelids into a heavy-lidded gaze of indifference. A gaze was like a prayer murmured under the breath, something swift and sacred and secret.
The rock creature had great hollows for eyes. But they were softened. And in the crease near its inner corner, Aasha caught a glimmer like a teardrop. It was hardly a foot away from her. Its trembling footprints gusted dirt into her eyes. Still, she didn’t take her gaze away from the creature’s face. She waited until it had leaned forward, jaws flung open and then she moved…
She’d never had the best reflexes. Even when she was learning how to dance, she sometimes lumbered after the rhythm instead of embodying it. But this was more like a punch that just had to glance off the object. Not connect.
