Sima turned her head.
“No,” she said, her teeth chattering. “You come in here.”
“Lady Sima.”
“I told you I’m not a lady!” Her voice was wild. “My lord. Prince Rao. I need—I can’t. Don’t you see?” A tumble of words, pouring out of her. “Priya never came back. Priya is somewhere out here and I—I need to find her.”
“Sima—”
“Help me or don’t,” she said, and turned again, wading determinedly deeper.
Rao stripped down to his tunic and trousers, all padding and armor thrown to the ground. Then he jumped into the water after her. It was cold, fetid. He bit his tongue and waded deeper, following the figure of Sima ahead of him. He caught up with her fast. Splashed the water beside her with his hand, in a gesture that felt childish, but also better than attempting to touch her when she was trembling with barely leashed panic.
“Go back to solid ground,” he entreated. “Sima, I’ll find her. I promise you.” Seeing doubt in her eyes, he added, “If I don’t, the empress will skin me. I’m not risking that.”
“I’m a strong swimmer,” she said. “I…”
“I’ll find her,” he told her. “Please.”
For a moment it looked as if Sima would argue. Then, still shaking, she nodded.
“Thank you,” Rao said to her.
He waited until she’d made her way back to the bank, then swam deeper. Above him the bridge of roots arched, vast and intricately knotted, light breaking through its small perforations in bright diamonds between the shadows it threw on the water below. He called out Priya’s name and heard his own voice fade into smallness, swallowed by the lapping of the water against bodies, against the struts of the great bridge.
“Prince Rao!” A yell from behind him. “My lord, wait!”
He turned and saw one of Ashutosh’s men following him. The man was clearly wounded, his shoulder bandaged, blood bleeding faintly through the cloth.
“Get out of the water,” Rao called back. “You’ll get your wound infected.”
“I spoke to the Ahiranyi girl,” he said, gesturing at Sima, who was standing on the bank, with oilcloth wrapped tightly around her. “I know where the other one is. Or was.”
“Show me,” Rao demanded.
He led Rao to where the islet had been. Now there was nothing. The soldier pointed a hand to where exactly he’d last seen Priya, wincing as he pulled his shoulder, and said, “She protected us here. With that unnatural magic of hers.” The man’s mouth curled into a sneer, but it seemed more like a reflex than any true expression of disgust. Then the look faded and he hesitated momentarily, before wetting his lips and carrying on. “I saw her collapse into the water. Right—there. And I didn’t see her come back up. Whatever… whatever she was, my lord, she deserves a decent funeral.”
“You think she’s dead,” Rao said, strangely numb.
“Of course, my lord. How could she not be?”
How, indeed. Any right-thinking man would know that no mortal could survive after collapsing into water. No human could survive airless, weighed down by a river. Why had Rao not considered that—not even ruminated over the possibility of Priya’s death?
Perhaps the hope that burned in him, despite all logic, was the result of a mind overfevered by battle. But Rao did not think so. Sometimes, a belief or instinct was a gift from the nameless. And thisfelttrue: Priya was not yet dead. Not yet.
“What’s your name?” Rao asked the soldier.
“Romesh, my lord.”
“Wait here for me, Romesh.” Rao gestured at the islet, then began to swim in the direction Romesh had pointed.
Through the water he could see fronds of things that should not have been growing there: feathery leaves so green they were almost lit from the inside; flowers the rose-rust hue of blood, and then the fading white of teeth.Rot, he thought at first. And then:Priya.
She lay beneath him in the water. Face visible, hair loose around her. Eyes closed.
He reached for her immediately, hands closing over nothing as if she were a mirage—an illusion of light, a trickery of the water. He didn’t allow himself to think. Only sucked a deep breath, and dived down, the light shining through the water onto the both of them. He reached for her—
Her eyes snapped open. Black, fathomless in the dark, two points swallowing all the light around them.
