“Maybe,” Parushi said. “But he knew how you felt about the tithes when he sent Kamran to confront you in the stepwell. Alone. It hardly seems worth the risk.”
“I’ll keep my distance,” I reassured her. “But I have to try, out of respect for Ektha.”
Parushi was completely unconvinced, but she stopped arguing since we were approaching the guards posted near Nikith’s room. The woman and man in Ullal’s blue bowed to me and then saluted Parushi.
“Any visitors?” Parushi asked.
“Only healers. Nallini is there now, on Tara’s orders.” The guard that replied was a hand shorter than Parushi. Her ink black eyes were sharp, and she wore the curved sword and dagger at her waist with confident ease. “Nobody else has been allowed through, but he’s been insistent that a messenger be sent to him.”
“Did you summon one?”
“No.”
“Good.” Parushi gave an approving nod, and the soldiers beamed. Any compliment from Parushi was high praise. “Stay sharp.”
The soldiers saluted again as we left. We’d just gotten to Nikith’s thick wooden door when someone?—a woman?—cried out from inside.
Nallini.
Parushi swung the door open just in time for us to see Nikith squeezing Nallini’s wrist with his good hand.
“Don’t forget your duty,” he growled, but his eyes widened when he saw Parushi.
“Get off of her!” Parushi charged between Nikith and Nallini, and she shoved him away.
Nikith stumbled backward, falling hard onto the redbrick floor, and his bloodshot eyes filled with fire. “You dare strike me, brother of the rani?”
“I will strike down any friend of the Porcugi!” Parushi spat at him, adding another stain to his wrinkled, sweaty kurta.
Nikith prepared to rush at Parushi, and she grinned at him recklessly, welcoming the challenge.
“That’s enough!” I stepped into the room.
“Rani!” Nikith stared at me.
My brother-in-law looked like he had aged years in the last three weeks. His hair was matted with grease, and the circles under his eyes were so dark they were almost black.
Nallini whipped around, and her gaze went from my face to my arms to Devi, who had managed to sleep through the entire encounter. “She can’t be here!”
Nallini pushed me back toward the door. Nikith reached into his robe, and there was a flash of silver?—a dagger??—before Parushi slammed into him. Her blood splattered on the ground as I turned to protect Devi and ran into the hallway.
“Guards!” I screamed so loudly that Devi awoke and began yelling as well, but it served its purpose. Two guards?—one from either side of the hall?—materialized in front of me and charged through the doors.
A piercing whistle drew even more, and four guards formed a knot around me and the rajkumari, their blades drawn as we stood in the hall.
“Not her! Secure him!” Parushi protested from the room.
“Take me into Nikith’s quarters!” I commanded as I bounced Devi and tried to calm her.
The guards hesitated and looked at the woman who had spoken to Parushi earlier. She gave a curt nod when I yelled, “Now!”
Inside, a guard kept a tight grip on Nallini’s shoulder, and they stood a little more than an arm’s length from where Parushi lay on top of Nikith. My brother-in-law screamed his protests about the indignity of such treatment, while another guard stood nearby with his blade drawn. Blood dropped from Parushi’s left arm, and a dagger lay beyond their reach.
The scene was completely at odds with the sumptuous room. Nikith had never moved out of the quarters that he’d shared with Ektha, and I’d never asked him to do so. Beams crossed beneath the high ceiling, large paintings and colorful dhurrie rugs covered the floor, and there was a sofa covered with too many pillows opposite the desk and bed. Ektha’s portrait hung in a corner, and she watched all of us as we scuffled in the space that was once her sanctuary.
“Stand up, Parushi,” I said.
Parushi glared at me mutinously but complied. She kicked Nikith’s dagger farther away and then unsheathed her own, keeping it pointed at Nikith as he rose. Blood trickled down the fingers of her left hand. It freckled the redbrick floor, which drank in the droplets as they fell.
