“And yet, I have no answer for you,” said Chandni. “Hurt me if you wish. Hurt Sendhil. Kill us both. We cannot give her to you.”
Ashok nodded.
“Tell me,” he said. “She was upon the Hirana long before any of us. She was there as an infant. Is she yours?”
“It doesn’t matter,” said Chandni. “Whether my flesh made her—whether she was left a foundling at the base of the Hirana, with birth blood still on her—what difference does it make? I thought of her as my own. That was my error.”
Ashok nodded again. Rose to his feet.
“Tie her to the tree,” he said. “Tie them both. We’ll see what becomes of them.”
PRIYA
Priya told Malini curtly that they would head directly to the seeker’s path. When Malini suggested the bower of bones, Priya shook her head. “Your prince will be long gone,” she said. “Better if we try to catch up with him.”
She strode ahead, leading the way. For a time, they walked. And walked. The trees were thick around them, with heavy leaves that drooped over their winding path between the trunks and branches.
“So,” Malini said after a time. “Your elders live after all.” Priya could hear Malini’s careful footsteps behind her. “It was very strange in their home. They barely spoke to me.”
Priya actually bit down on her tongue. She was so—so angry.
“Priya, will you stop for a while? Or slow down.” Malini’s voice sounded strained. “You must be exhausted. I certainly am.”
Priya didn’t want to stop or slow down. Stopping meant thinking, and she didn’t want to think. Not of the tree with its faces of flesh and bark, or Chandni’s resigned, rot-riven face, or how all of it had made her feel. Scared and grief-stricken, but more than anything, angry.
“Priya.” Malini’s hand closed on her shoulder. Her voice was gentle when she said, once more, “Stop.”
Malini’s palm felt overwarm on her shoulder. Priya could have shaken off her hand. But she didn’t. She stood still and closed her eyes, calming her breath, and listened to the rustle of the trees. The faint rush of water.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Priya said tightly. She swallowed. “I can hear a stream. I’m thirsty. Come on.”
The thick maze of trees soon parted, opening to a slope of gray rocks that ringed a pool. The pool was fed by a silvery, snaking waterfall, pouring over the low, green-dusted rocks. The water rippled faintly as the waterfall rushed to meet it. It was clear, unmarked by anything resembling rot. Priya clambered down to it. She heard Malini huff out something that might have been a swear, and follow her.
Priya kneeled down on the edge and cupped the water, cold and clear, and lifted it to her lips. She drank. Then she splashed her face, blinking water from her eyes. Ah, spirits, she felt unclean, as if her own mind had stained her skin. The sight of Elder Chandni, Elder Sendhil, the tree—
“My elders,” she choked out. “I don’t want to talk about my elders.”
“I know,” murmured Malini.
“They—Chandni—said they thought… they thought we weren’t even human. That I’m not even human. She thinks I’m monstrous. My own—my own family. That’s what they think of me. Do you think I’m monstrous, Malini?”
Priya heard Malini’s footsteps drawing closer. But she didn’t really want to hear Malini’s reaction. She was afraid suddenly that Malini would say yes. So she spoke again instead, the words tumbling out of her. “Because I think you are. Or I’m afraid you are. Oh, you’re so lovely to me, you’re very good at being lovely, but you’re also the woman who organized a coup against the emperor. You’re deep waters, Malini. You’re so much more than you’re willing to show me, and that scares me. I think I’m always waiting for you to turn on me.”
“I’ve been myself with you, always,” Malini said. Her voice was careful. Steady. “But we all have more than one face. We have to have many faces in order to survive, don’t we? That’s natural. Normal.” Malini was at her shoulder now, kneeling also. “This face you know didn’t abandon you in the forest when you collapsed. I carried you when I was weak, to people who frankly frightened me, and I stayed with you. That was all me.”
Priya knew that was true. But how could she trust Malini? How, when she couldn’t trust herself?
“But the rest of you,” Priya said unsteadily. “Your other faces—”