KUNAL
“This,” Kunal whispered, “is how I must find out? From my sister, in secret?”
Varsha’s face was drawn.
“He won’t tell you, brother,” she said, speaking of the emperor. “I shouldn’t even know. If I hadn’t heard him talking to his priest, I would know nothing either.”
Saketa under siege. Hundreds of his father’s loyal men dead, many of them by the very fire that Emperor Chandra had assured them would be an unbeatable weapon.
“I—I must go home,” said Kunal. “Must go and protect Father. Protect Saketa. I must speak to the emperor.”
“He’s never going to allow you to leave,” said Varsha. She was flushed, her hands restless on her lap. She looked close to tears, which he knew was a sign not of nervousness but of anger. “Perhaps he’ll allow you to go once Father has done everything he’s asked—once Prince Aditya is dead and Princess Malini is defeated—but I don’t know. I don’t know.”
“If we wait, there won’t be anything left of Saketa.” He thought of the inhumanity of the emperor—of his sister’s increasing timidity, her smallness growing more deliberate, erasing her. Of the constant smell of smoke. Ofhome. “We can go together,” he said impulsively. “We can go home, Varsha. Father will protect us once we are there. What benefit is the emperor truly giving him now, after all?”
“Brother,” she said, cutting through his words. “I’m already carrying his child.”
A beat of silence.
“Oh,” Kunal managed.
“I couldn’t leave here regardless. I’m his wife. I’m his now, you understand? Father has made his bargain, and I must respect it. But if I give him a son, a future emperor of Parijatdvipa…” She kept her eyes on his. “If I win his affection and trust, if he wishes to reward me—Kunal, there’s no end to what Saketa may gain.”
“You think I shouldn’t go and help Father,” said Kunal, finally. “You think I should stay here where the emperor wants me. A—a glorified hostage, in all but name. Is that what you really think, Varsha?”
“You must do what you feel is right,” she said, lowering her eyes. “You… What can I do to stop you?”
Tell your husband I’m running away, he thought.Say a single word in front of one of those maids he has spy on you.But no, there was no point giving her ideas, and Varsha—simple as she was—knew better than to speak of this before a single living soul who was not her brother, her kin.
He bribed his way from the mahal. Took only a handful of guards and his horse with him and absconded in the night. Traveled in the dark, by starlight. He was determined to get home. Determined to help his father.
His luck held for nearly a week.
Then he crossed paths with strangers on the road. A group of men on horseback.
“Friends,” Kunal said, giving them a nod. “If you allow me to pass…”
They did not move.
“No closer, friend,” said the man on the farthest horse. Like his companions, he was dressed plainly, in a simple gray tunic and dhoti. He had a pleasant, forgettable face—wide, watchful eyes. “What business do you have here?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” Kunal said, raising his chin.
“It’s a simple question,” one of the other men grumbled.
He didn’t want a fight. What he wanted was to ride as far as he could, as fast as he could, until he was back at his father’s side.
“I am going home,” Kunal said begrudgingly.
“Home,” the stranger repeated. His gaze lingered on the green in Kunal’s tunic; the hints of metal embroidery glinting in the silk.
Kunal shivered. He had thought his clothing subtle, almost invisibly dull, when he’d fled the imperial mahal. But now, under the stranger’s eyes, he realized the cut of his tunic was distinctively Saketan—that his belt was shaped to carry a whip, even if he did not have one to hand. That the metal on his jacket might not have been silver or gold, but it was still a polished hue that shone like a beacon in the firelight.
“You look as if home is across the border,” the stranger said.
“It is not a crime to be from Saketa,” Kunal responded. “And you, I think, friend—you are far from home. Very far.”
“Oh, very far,” the stranger agreed. “Well, if we’re both travelers, why don’t we share a meal? My men and I were planning to rest. You’re welcome to join us.”
