“I vouch for him also,” Umbra says. “He is, after all, Leela’s anchor. It’s a solid plan.”
“Good.” Arpita nods curtly. “Because we put the plan into action tonight. We get the dagger and then we arrange a diversion, one that will allow Chandra to take the blade to the ground through a portway on Shahee Kshetra. He will locate Leela and bring her back to us.”
“Why him?” Tiraj demands. “Why not one of us?”
Arpita exhales heavily. She’s a tolerant woman, but I can feel her patience thinning. “Because we have no idea if the portway would even admit any of us. It hasn’t been shut down, but it may be restricted to Asura only.”
“Good point,” Umbra says.
“Yes, it sounds like something the Asura would do,” Tiraj sneers.
I don’t rise to the bait.
“There is also the fact that Leela knows and trusts Chandra.”
“Where on land will the portway transport you?” Bhoomika asks. “I studied the locations of the land portways, but I always had the impression that I didn’t have all of them.”
“There are hidden portways.” I sigh. “But in truth, even I do not know which one has been left active. That was Asura Rajni’s domain, much to my chagrin.”
“That bastard,” Arpita says softly. “I have no regrets that his mind has been taken. In fact, I would not care if it was addled from the experience.”
“And what if the primordial evil’s influence gets stronger?” Erabi asks. “What if we lose ourselves to his control?”
Silence falls, heavy and pregnant with awful possibilities, because there is no way to know for sure what he will do. Or when he will do it.
“We should be looking for a way to get us all onto the ground,” Tiraj says. “To get as far away from him as possible.”
They think that they can outrun him. That they can escape what’s to come. My gut twists. Is it time to reveal the truth of what I know?
A guard runs into the room and comes to a halt just inside the doorway, his chest heaving as he scans our faces and settles his gaze on Arpita. He bows in deference.
“What is it?” Arpita asks him.
“A message from our eyes in the royal domain. News that…” He licks his lips, his gaze darting from side to side as if trying to arrange his thoughts into a coherent sentence.
The twist in my belly tightens.
“Spit it out,” Arpita demands, her patience at an end.
“The harvest settlement has been unmade.”
Ice floods my veins.
“Unmade?” Arpita shakes her head. “What do you mean?”
“I do not know. The message stated that our spies had learned of the unmaking of the settlement.”
Arpita looks to me and must see my thoughts reflected across my face because her shoulders drop. “Chandra…what do you know?”
I close my eyes briefly and steady my breath. It’s time they be made aware. Not the whole truth because that isn’t for them to know. But enough for them to grasp the full severity of our predicament. “The primordial evil will most likely not expend energy on clouding any more minds because his focus will be on his true goal…”
“And what is that?” Umbra asks.
I take a deep breath and tell them.
Chapter 22
A CHUNK OF CHEESE AND A STORY
