Priya shrugged. Ah, she knew that would only inflame Bhumika’s usually well-hidden temper further, but she was feeling rather ill-tempered herself. She’d been attacked. She hadkilledsomeone, and no matter how many times she told herself that it was something she’d been reared for, and tried to convince herself that she’d had no other choice, it had shaken her. And it angered her that she felt anything at all—that she wasn’tstrongenough to feel nothing.
It was easier to be furious at Bhumika than to be angry at herself.
“Have you told anyone else about your past?” Bhumika asked.
“I’m not a fool.”
There was a long silence. Bhumika stared at her unblinking.
Finally, mulishly, Priya added, “No.”
Bhumika’s eyes narrowed. She drummed the fingers of her left hand upon her knee. “First you saved Sima, and now—”
“You’d rather I’d let Sima die?”
“To protect yourself? Yes,” snapped Bhumika. “Have you considered that saving Sima might be exactly what revealed you to the rebel?”
Bhumika was right, of course. That was how Meena had figured her out. She’d seen Priya confidently climb the Hirana, as the temple children once had.
“I can’t do as much as you can, twice-born,” said Priya.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Fine. Anyway, you know, Bhumika—I can’t even do as much as a once-born like me should be able to. Walking on the Hirana, saving Sima—it was a risk, but it wasn’t more than any brave woman could do or would do. Even if I weren’t what I am,” Priya went on, “I would have risked myself for Sima.”
A once-born should have been able to enter the sangam at will. Should have been able to manipulate the surface of the Hirana with ease. Should have felt nature, all its glowing, breathing power, wherever she went.
She’d had all that, as a little girl. Before the night of the fire had broken something in her.
The twice-born like Bhumika had been stronger still. And the thrice-born…
Well. There were none of them left, now.
“I think,” Priya said slowly, “that you’re just determined to be angry with me. I have done nothing wrong. I didn’t ask to be attacked by a rebel searching for the deathless waters. And I have done everything I can to protect myself. And you.”
“You could have died. Do you understand that?”
“I do.”
“You could have been accused of being an assassin. Or a rebel. Or both.”
“I’m truly not a fool,” Priya snapped. “I don’t know how often I have to tell you. I know.”
Sometimes she hated Bhumika. She could not help it. There was something about her temple sister that made her blood burn and poison rise to her tongue. Bhumika was all falsehood: meek to the world, fire in her heart. Bhumika liked fine sweets and fine saris and fine music. She had never, ever scrubbed a floor. And Bhumika had married the regent. That, Priya would never be able to comprehend, for all that Bhumika had saved countless lives in her role as his gentlehearted wife.
When Priya’s brother had abandoned her on Gautam’s doorstep, it had been Bhumika who had saved her. Bhumika, who had arrived in her mahogany palanquin and taken Priya into her household and ensured that Priya had food and shelter and the opportunity to live anew.
I can’t give you power. I can’t give you what we lost. I can’t even give you a family, Bhumika had told her.But I can give you a job. And that will have to be enough for you.
“Thank you for getting me out of the prisons,” Priya forced herself to say, tempering her tone. “I appreciate it.”
“Well, you don’t have me to thank,” said Bhumika. “It was the princess who interceded on your behalf. She told Vikram that you saved her life. She begged to have you as her own maidservant.Begged.And what could he do, but agree?”
“What?” Priya croaked out.
“There’s lemon water on the table by the window,” Bhumika said, gesturing vaguely to the left of the room. “Pour yourself a glass, and pour me one too.”
Priya did. Her hands did not even shake. But Bhumika’s voice was kinder when Priya handed her the glass. Spirits knew what Priya’s expression must have held, to blunt the edge of her ire.
