The power Bhumika and Priya had.
“Of course he did.”
“They’re getting restless.” A pause. The ground shifted, as Priya rocked back on her heels. “Maybe it’s time it happens. We can’t say no forever.”
“We do need help,” Bhumika said, eventually. “We can’t continue to be the only two thrice-born in the world.”
“Well, we have a good division of labor,” Priya said with a shrug. “I deal with the fields and the sick, and those gangs out in the villages, and you deal with the highborn and the politics.”
“There are a lot of fields,” Bhumika said mildly. “And a lot of people.”
“There are,” Priya agreed. Then she huffed out a sigh; long and slow and achingly tired. “There are.”
“I don’t know if you want the mask-keepers to pass through the waters or not,” Bhumika said. “You argue in their favor and against them.”
“I’m not arguing. I’m just pointing things out.”
“Maybe I want your view,” Bhumika said, a little irritation bleeding into her voice. “Maybe I need the advice of my fellow elder.”
“Ah, Bhumika,” Priya said. “Do you really want me to advise you? We’ll only disagree.”
“If I can take advice from people like Lord Chetan, I think I can stay calm with you.”
“I don’t know about that. I can be very annoying when I want to be.”
“Priya.”
“See?”
Instead of pressing forward into the inevitable argument, Bhumika said, “I received another emissary from Srugna.”
“Did you?”
“Mm.” This time, the Srugani king had sent one of his minor wives—a shrewd, beautiful woman with fashionably blackened teeth and kohl thick around her eyes, who had shared a fine meal with Bhumika and cooed over her daughter, then laid out the desires of her husband and his council. “They’re willing to pay us handsomely to have their own fields cleared or saved.”
“Well then, I suppose I’m going to have to learn how to do that,” Priya said. She sounded tense. “The rot’s spreading farther and farther every day,” she muttered. “It won’t be the Srugani alone who need help soon, I expect.”
“And that could afford us an opportunity. But it isn’t one we can take advantage of with you alone to do the work. You understand?”
“I wish,” said Priya, “that I could cure it. That I… Ah, Bhumika, I wish I weren’t so slow.”
“You’re not slow,” Bhumika said. “You’re trying to attempt the impossible.”
Priya’s forehead wrinkled as she frowned.
“You don’t know that.”
“I know it would be easier if you had help, and I have no time to spare.” And nothing like Priya’s skill with the delicate work of untangling the rot. “I have grown to know Kritika a little better. But you’re more familiar with the other mask-keepers. What do you think of them?”
“I think they want a better Ahiranya,” Priya said. “Or at the very least, they want Ahiranya to survive, and they want it to be led by its own people. They’re always happy to help me with my work. But I don’t know if that makes them trustworthy.” A pause. “They’renottrustworthy.”
“You seem to be fast friends with Ganam.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t know what he is,” Priya said. “Spirits, Bhumika, you really think I’d trust anyone.”
“I don’t,” Bhumika said. “But you have put your faith in some… interesting people.”
Priya laughed. “I guess I have. And look where it’s got us. Ruling our own country.”
