Sita scoffed. “He thinks I’m a silly girl—silly and weak.”
“Are you?” the sister with the torch asked.
Sita didn’t answer.
The kneeling woman released Sita’s ankle. “Many think that you must shine a light to see clearly. But some things can only be understood in the dark. Perhaps you’ll know yourself better before you leave this place, Sitamun.” She stood and reached for Sita’s hand. “Now get up.”
Sita blinked at her. “But my ankle…”
The woman cocked her head, birdlike. “Is there something wrong with it?”
“What do you mean? It’s—” The words died on Sita’s lips as she looked down. Her swelling and bruising were gone.
It can’t be…
Tentatively, she flexed her foot. There was no pain. She tried putting a little weight on it.
It was as if the injury had never happened.
“Come along now,” the sister with the torch said merrily. “Mustn’t dawdle!”
Sita rose to her feet, perplexed. “But how—?”
“As I said, my sister has quite a gift!”
Sita stared at them in wonder.Quite a gift indeed! She’d put Khetara’s greatest healers to shame.
She followed the two women as they retraced their steps through the tunnel.
“It’s not often that I meet another set of twins,” Sita said as they walked. “You are twins, aren’t you?”
“We are,” the somber sister replied.
“My brothers and I are triplets, but everyone always says Mery and me might as well be twins, we’re so alike. That used to make me proud. Now…” She trailed off.
“What is he like, your brother Mery?” asked the bright sister.
Sita ducked under a sunken stone in the ceiling. “Charming, fun, passionate…”
“Ah!”
“…selfish, manipulative, ruthless, cruel…”
“Ah.”
“No one in the world was closer to him than me. If anyone should have known what he was capable of, what was truly in his heart…” She wasn’t sure why she was opening up to strangers, but shock and fear had made her honest. Plus, they were very good listeners.
“He did bad things, your brother?” the bright sister asked.
Sita swallowed. “Unimaginable things.”
“And you fear if this evil exists in him, it must exist in you?”
“I suppose I do,” she replied.
“It does.”
Sita didn’t know how to respond. She stopped and leaned against the wall, momentarily short of breath. “W-what?” she finally said.
