“I’m listening,” Rao forced himself to say.
“Let us have a proper introduction,” she said, polite as any highborn woman over tea. “We have very little time left before the yaksa comes. My name, my lord, is Bhumika.”
PRIYA
After the dream, she thought of the stone knife constantly. Malini’s new weapon.
It had extinguished her powers when it had touched her. She knew what that meant.
Malini could fight the yaksa without burning herself. Malini could fight, and Priya…
Priya was going to throw herself into the hands of fate.
The yaksa awakening in Alor was a sluggish heartbeat in the base of her skull: a slow, sullen, dreaming creature, roiling under soil. She tried to ignore it as she gathered the temple children and told them to climb the Hirana. “Not to the top,” she said. “Just until the height of that ribbon.” She gestured at the ribbon she’d tied a tree’s height up the Hirana, on the outstretched arm of a carving.
“I don’t want to climb the Hirana,” Pallavi said in a wobbly voice. “I’m frightened of it. What if I fall?”
“Then you’ll get back up,” said Priya. “Or I’ll catch you.”
“What if you miss?”
“I won’t miss,” said Priya.
Pallavi stared at her. Then she pointedly sat on the floor.
Priya sighed.
“Come on. It’s the only way you’ll learn.”
“Maybe we need an easier task,” Ashish said, his hands on the younger child’s shoulders.
“You need to dothistask,” Priya snapped.
“We don’t want to—”
“That doesn’t matter.” Priya knew her voice was harsh. Some of the children flinched. “You don’t want to listen to me? There are so many things worse than me. Some of them are yaksa, and some of them are people. The empire wants us dead, and our own gods don’t care if we live or die. Our own gods want to put you to a test that could kill you. But I want to teach you so that you’ll survive. So what are you going to do?”
Silence fell.
“They’re going to make us go through the waters, aren’t they? The yaksa,” said Ashish eventually.
“One day,” Priya said. “Yes, they will.” Deep breath. “I was always told you need to be strong to survive the waters. I don’t know if that’s true. But it’s all I can teach you to do. You have to try to climb the Hirana. You have to try to scrape away your fear. You have to be brave. It’s the only power you have. Please.”
Another silence, and then Ashish stepped toward the Hirana and began trying to climb.
She caught him with vines as he fell.
“Try again,” she said, thinly.
They didn’t know this, but this was the last time she could help them.
She thought of Mani Ara, and her fate, and theirs, and felt dread coil in her belly. A snake. A poison that lived in her.
Rukh was feeding Padma a mash of lentils and rice in the kitchen courtyard. She crouched down next to them.
“Rukh,” she said. “If you ever have a chance to leave Ahiranya, take it.”
“Hi, Priya. I’m fine, Priya.” He shook his head absently, wiping Padma’s face clean even as she wrinkled it in protest. “I’ve never been anywhere else,” he added. “Ahiranya’s my home.”
