Matanta cocked his head, then barely inclined it toward me?—just enough to be noticed but so little I questioned what I saw?—before he walked back into the cave.
“Only look back long enough to correct your path forward, little one.”
Chapter 47
Thevan waited for me a few steps beyond the tree line. He stood in a shaft of moonlight with one hand hidden behind his back and an empty sheath at his waist.
My breath caught at the sight of him. There he was, waiting for me and ready to take on the Spirits themselves to defend me if needed.
“Very subtle.” I tried to keep my voice light as I approached.
“I didn’t know if there would be time for subtlety.” He sheathed his blade and picked up a knotted, bulging cloth from near his feet. “I collected these for you. Gave me something to do while I waited.”
“Thank you.” I took the sack from him. The scent of paarijaata was so strong I didn’t need to open the knot to know what was inside.
Thevan’s brows were wrinkled as he squinted at me through the darkness, searching for any sign of distress.
“I’m unharmed,” I promised him, staring into the stars reflected in his eyes. “But we need to go home quickly. There is much to do.”
We made our way down the mountain and into the forest. Through the canopy of the trees, I could see slices of the sky, and they gradually brightened from black to gray to purple. We walked in silence until I finally said, “You haven’t asked me what the Spirits said.”
“If it’s for me to know, you’ll tell me whether I ask or not,” he replied.
I held back a smile as I showed Thevan the turmeric root, but it was barely a shadow in the darkness. “As soon as we reach the fort, I want all our soldiers to start coating their arrows with turmeric.”
“As a paste on the shaft?” Thevan asked.
“Whatever allows us to deliver the most turmeric with each shot. It’s the Porcugi’s weakness.”
“I’ll get to work as soon as we return to the fort. But we need to find a place to rest first. You had Trimuladevi less than a moon ago, and you haven’t slept.”
A part of me railed against the thought that I needed any accommodation, but I couldn’t deny that I was tired and sore. “There is a river nearby. We can rest there after getting something to drink. Not for too long, though.”
We cut through the forest and toward the river. Thevan’s eyes never rested; they darted through our surroundings for any sign of a threat. He didn’t admire the way the leaves of the mango trees went from black to gray to green as the sun began to rise. He never noticed the nest of black crested bulbuls high up on the branches as they stretched their yellow wings and tended to their young. He definitely noticed the tiger sleeping on a nearby tree and made sure to walk between it and me, but I doubted he saw the pink blossom tucked between its toes.
Perhaps that was for the best, though, because while I was reveling in the glories of nature, Thevan had the wherewithal to pull me behind a tree. He pressed a finger over his lips. I snapped back to attention and followed his line of sight, down a slope and toward the valley where a small rocky river ran through the trees.
A makeshift camp sat farther downriver, and voices floated toward us as people awoke and relieved the overnight guards. A few horses whickered as they were fed, and one person stirred a pot hanging over the fire. I counted six white tents along the riverbed, each with enough space for two people?—three if they squeezed tight.
Every single one of them bore the crest of Banghervari.
“Hurry up!” The deep, resonant voice cut through the air of the forest as easily as it had the palace, and it still made me wince. “We’re leaving! I’d hoped we could find her here and take her back without a scene at the fort, but perhaps my source was wrong. If the rani is in Ullal, we’ll go there!”
Soldiers jumped at Vishwajeet’s command, disassembling their tents and extinguishing the fires.
“Nikith,” I whispered. He’d known of my plans to visit Matanta after Devi’s birth and must have told Vishwajeet before he was discovered. I turned to Thevan. “There’s too many of them for us to fight off. They’re here for me, so I’ll go to them and figure out a way to come back home. But you need to go back to the fort.”
“I won’t leave your side.” Thevan kept his eyes on the camp. I saw his lips moving as he silently counted the people there. Thirteen. “We’ll both go back.”
“They have horses and a proper night’s rest. They’ll beat us to the fort, assuming they don’t catch us on the way. I can’t win this race, and I will not be shamed in my own home. Best to confront them here and now to find out what they want.”
Thevan set his jaw. “If you must confront them, I’ll go with you.”
I handed him the turmeric root. “Our soldiers need this more than I need you.”
Thevan wouldn’t leave. He began to count the people below us again, so I turned his head until he faced me. I resisted the urge to cup his cheek or smooth his worried brow.
“Vishwajeet is there,” I reminded him. “He’ll recognize you and see that you’re not a healer. That would create more problems than I can solve, and I...”
