“Priya—where are you going?” Bhumika asked, alarmed.
“I’ll be back.”
“Priya—”
“I’ll be back.”
MALINI
The encampment was larger than their first sight of it suggested, long rather than broad, winding to match the narrowness of the space the seeker’s path allowed between the arch of trees. There were fine tents, and men sharpening their swords. No horses, and no fires—just a silent watchfulness that swelled into something new when Malini entered the camp with Rao at her side and Commander Jeevan and his small force of soldiers at her back.
Priya had vanished. Malini bit down on her tongue, a light and assuring pain, and did not look for her again.
She looked at the men in the camp instead. Dwarali. Srugani. Saketan. Aloran. These were men of Parijatdvipa, of her family’s great empire. She straightened, wishing she had some of her finery about her—her crown of flowers, the armor weight of her jewels—but she would make do with what she had, even if all she had was her mind and her pride. She had accomplished plenty with less, in these past harrowing months.
“Here,” Rao said, ushering her forward. He guided her to a tent, opening the way for her.
She turned back for a moment. Met Commander Jeevan’s eyes, steady and unwavering, even with enemies at his back.
She faced forward. “Rao,” she whispered. “Make sure the Ahiranyi men aren’t harmed.”
“I will,” he told her.
Good, she thought grimly. Or Bhumika and Priya will see us buried.
With a nod, she entered the tent.
It was no fine Parijati royal tent. There was no carpet rolled out across the floor. No cushions, no braziers burning, beneath a canopy of gold and white cloth. The tent was well made but plain, a Srugani domed construction. There was only a low writing table upon the floor. And a man standing before it.
Aditya.
His face was familiar and strange to her, all at once. There was that same firm jaw, those same arched brows. Those wide, dark eyes, exactly like her own. Her memory of him had always been so clear to her, so unchanged. But she had forgotten, somehow, the length of his nose. The mole under his left eye. The way his ears stuck out, just a little. The way his face warmed, always, infinitesimally at the sight of her. Her brother. Here was her brother.
“Malini,” he said, and he smiled his old smile. He held his arms open, fingers curled toward her, openhearted and beseeching. “You’re here. At last.”
Malini had never been the kind to fling herself into embraces with the ease of a small child, even when she had been a child. She gripped his hands instead. Then his arms. She simply held on to him, just to assure herself that he was real.
She had worked so hard to be here. It had seemed impossible, at times. But here they both were. At last.
“I’ve dreamt of being here,” Malini said. Tears threatened, despite herself. “For so long, I thought perhaps I’d not… not live to see you again.”
“You’re here now,” he said, his voice low and warm. “You’re safe.”
Safe.
That shook some of the fog of emotion away. Left her cold and still and once again, herself.
“Malini,” he said. “Sister. You’re so thin.”
She shook her head, wordless. He could draw his own assumptions on why that was the case. As if he understood that she was not disagreeing, that she was simply shaking his words off, like cold water, he smiled again. Said, “We’ll get you as much food as you want. Anything.”
“When we’re home in Parijat and all is well, and you have the throne safe in your grasp, I will do nothing but eat my fill,” she told him. “But where is your army?”
“We don’t need to discuss that now,” he said. “Not when we’ve only reunited.”
She shook her head at this, too.
“I sent you men from across the empire, and I see many faces, but no horses. No elephants. You lack the numbers to see yourself on the throne.”
“They can’t fit upon this path,” he said with grating patience. “The forest disturbs them. And the monastery has no place for war elephants.”
“Monastery,” she repeated. “You still remain at the monastery?”
He inclined his head.
“The bulk of forces await orders upon the path to Dwarali.”
“Then why,” she said, “are you not on the path to Dwarali, leading them?”
“I was waiting for you.” But she knew at once that was not the entire truth.