There is a spark in Leela. One I felt even when I wanted to hate her.
The Red Mountain comes into view as the sun begins to dip. The day has slipped by, but I barely feel the ache in my limbs, and it is all to do with my companion.
As we enter the shadow of the mountain, my stomach trembles in a mixture of nerves and anticipation.
The last time we were here, I waited outside while Ravi ventured in.
This time I get to make the journey with him.
We navigate the track around the mountain to the entrance hidden by brush, and Ravi begins to clear it aside.
I touch the bracelet around my wrist, my fingers tracing the rough texture. It’s hair, after all. A single thick strand from Vasuki’s tail. The twin of it sits around Ravi’s wrist. Talismans to give us safe passage through the tunnels.
I hope they work.
“Are you ready?” Ravi asks.
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
Ravi draws a crystal from his pocket. The same one that Leela had the last time we were here.
The corner of his mouth kicks up when he catches me staring at it. “I liberated it from the carriage after…after she was taken. Never had the chance to give it back to her.”
But he had the chance a few days ago when we’d all been together. No, he keeps it because it once belonged to her. A memento.
I smile. “You can give it back to her when we return with an army.”
He nods, then ducks into the gloom. I follow, ready to meet the mythic naga that until now I’ve only ever read about in books.
The journey isquick and uneventful with Ravi leading the way, ever alert. He pauses here and there to sniff the air, his eyes narrow, glinting as they catch the light from the crystal. It truly is an amazing stone.
I wonder how it recharges. Does it evenneedto recharge, and are there more? Maybe we can use them in place of the bijli that runs the appliances and wall lights in the Danava domain. I push aside the random thoughts as we approach a large hole in the floor.
“This must be it,” Ravi says.
I study the hole, my stomach fluttering with unease. “You don’t know for sure?”
“The last time we came this far, we wereinsideVasuki’s mouth.”
“What?”
“I’ll tell you about it later.” He lowers himself onto the lip of the hole, then hands me the crystal. “Just in case.”
I take it. “In case of what?”
“In case I’m wrong and you need to continue without me.”
My pulse spikes. “Wait, you can’t?—”
He drops into pitch-black, and my stomach squeezes. “Ravi!” Silence greets me, and my insides tie themselves in knots. I step closer, holding out the crystal to try and push back the inky darkness. The hole is more of a slope. A slide. “Ravi?”
His voice echoes up toward me. “I’m here. Come down!”
Relief releases the noose around my throat. I clutch the crystal tightly, shuffle forward, and drop. The tunnel rushes by, gray in the crystal light, widening until I see the exit.
I brace, landing in a crouch, the crystal held out so light sweeps across the chamber.
My night vision is good, but without the crystal’s light to warn me the exit was close, I would probably have landed badly and seriously hurt myself, yet Ravi, who made the drop without light, is fine.
