***
Gauri and Vikram stood at opposite sides of their bedroom. Outside their window, the moon had waned to a sliver. Lamps burned low. The silk sheets had been pulled back in invitation, but neither of them made any move toward it. Vikram leaned against the wall. His truth-telling necklace, Biju, lay against his throat. A warning in yellow topaz. Gauri did not lean against anything. She stood with her arms crossed, still as a statue. The room was grand, but it was not so large that it should feel like a realm of its own. And yet, in that moment, it did.
“I spoke in jest,” said Vikram carefully, as if he were speaking to an infant. “Perhaps you might have heard of this bizarre human development known as humor?”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I have clouds stuffed in my brain.”
“See, I wouldn’t mind that. Perhaps it would give you some damned levity.”
Gauri’s mouth flattened to a line. “Sovereigns are not known for their levity. They are known for their solemnity. For their respect to the art of ruling.”
“Laughter and respect are not mutually exclusive.”
“They are when it is said at my expense!” she shouted. “You humiliated me.”
“You are overreacting!” said Vikram, taking one step forward.
Gauri took one step back. “You criticized my military strategy.”
“On the contrary, my beastly wife, I praised it,” said Vikram. In the past, the nickname had a touch of sweetness to it. But now, spoken in fury, the words seemed to have curdled in his mouth. He practically spat them out, and Gauri bit back a flinch. “I said that the only way that our militia could win a war any faster is if they kept your favorite dessert behind enemy lines.”
“Everyone laughed.”
“Because it was charming! We were speaking to our advisers, and it made you seem somewhat human for a change.”
“I don’t like that.”
“You don’t like anything.”
Gauri dug her heels into the ground. “That isn’t true.”
“You don’t like it when I laugh…”
“Again, not true.”
“Very well, you don’t like it when I make others laugh. You think it, what was it that you said last time? Ah, I recall now. It cheapens our social strata and undermines our rule.”
She bit her lip. And then, very quietly, she said: “I like it when you make me laugh.”
“But that isn’t enough, is it?”
“I just don’t see why you cannot keep your charm to matters outside of court.”
“It’s who I am,” he said. “You have freed yourself of needing your people’s love, but that does not mean you have to be so cold.”
“It keeps me impartial.”
“Just this morning, the gardeners told me that they had orders to move the Garden of Swords and Sweets into the courtyards of our residential quarters. Is that true?”
Gauri lifted her chin. “Yes.”
“Are you ashamed of what I made for you?”
“No!” she said, her eyes widening. “Of course not!”
