At Priya’s side, Malini said nothing.
“I knew you’d find a way to use the maid,” said Pramila. “And here you are. Did you pay her? Bribe her?”
“I was not feeling well,” Malini said thinly. “I needed air.”
“Give me your key,” Pramila said to Priya. She said it abruptly, holding her hand before her.
“No,” Malini said. “Don’t give it to her, Priya.”
Priya had already unhooked the key. She had no opportunity to return it to her waist before Pramila seized it from her.
“It is such a small thing,” Malini said, in a voice close to tears, “to leave my room, and feel the air upon my face. If you would only allow me a little kindness,please.”
“Do not beg,” Pramila said, disgust in her voice. “Every time you weep and you beg—I know it’s all a lie, I know what you are—”
“I only beg because you keep me penned up like an animal. Do you think my brother wants me to die locked in a small room in a foreign land?”
“No, this isn’t the way I think he wants you to die. You know exactly what he expects.”
“Do you really want me to suffer as she did, Pramila?” Malini asked. Her voice was velvet. An entreaty. But Pramila flinched as if it had been a blow.
Pramila hissed, eyes harsh with rage, and without pause raised her hand to hit Priya—not Malini—around the face. It was not going to be a perfunctory blow of chastisement, Priya saw that immediately. Pramila’s hand was curled into a beringed fist, a hard knot of knuckles and metal rings that would leave Priya bloody, and Priya only had a second to feel a kind of breathless fury rush through her, at the ugliness of being used as a proxy for Malini, before she raised her own hand to knock Pramila’s arm away.
She didn’t have the chance. Malini slammed into Priya, grasping her wrists with her cold hands, and placed herself squarely between Pramila’s fist and Priya’s face. Priya felt a thud and a blinding pain as Pramila’s hand caught Malini around the ear, and Malini’s skull cracked against her own. Priya couldn’t move, couldn’t fight—Malini was holding her, her nails digging in as they had when Priya had woken her from a nightmare, a pressure like a needle-edged vise.
“No,” Malini said. Her voice cracked a little. “No, you mustn’t.”
Priya could barely see, through the shield of Malini’s body bent against her own, through all her loose dark hair, made even wilder than usual by the wind. But she felt Malini’s breath on her skin, and knew the words were meant for her.
She froze, then. Malini did not let go.
“Prin-princess,” Pramila said haltingly. “Are you hur—”
“You may hit me again if you like,” Malini said. “But you will not hit Priya. She has no part in our business.” She remained hunched over Priya. “Go on, Pramila. Do as you will.”
“Oh! Oh. You think I won’t strike you properly?” Pramila gave an ugly laugh, and through the curtain of Malini’s hair Priya could see snatches of her face: her wet, furious eyes, and the sneer on her lips. “You think I wouldn’t dare risk harming you, when you’re here alone with me? Youdeserveto be struck.”
“I am still the emperor’s flesh and blood,” Malini said, voice thin but steady. “Still a princess of Parijat. Strike me, if you will, but do not forget that my brother sent me here with a purpose.”
“Fulfill your purpose then,” Pramila ground out. “Accept your fate, so that I no longer need to look at you.”
Malini said nothing to that, and Pramila’s expression flickered—spasmed with something dark that lay far beyond hate. Then she calmed. Reined in her fury. She straightened her shoulders. Smoothed the pleats of her sari.
“More medicine, I think,” Pramila announced. “You’re overwrought, Princess Malini.”
Malini’s exhale was a shudder. Almost soundless.
“Now,” Pramila said. “Move. Princess.”
For a long moment, Malini remained where she was, folded over Priya, holding her wrists in that painful grip. Then, finally, she released Priya and moved away.
Priya lowered her head. Waited.
Pramila raised her hand. Malini made a sound, faint as falling leaves.
Pramila struck Priya, unimpeded. This time the blow wasn’t fueled by rage. This was a deliberate act designed to remind Priya of her place, and Malini of her own, but it did not make the cut of the rings any less painful, the blood in Priya’s mouth any less nauseating.
“Fool girl,” Pramila said. “Take the princess to her room.Now.I’ll be along in a moment.”
