Bhumika had a reputation as a kind mistress. Ever since her marriage she had taken the rot-riven and orphaned into her household. All her guards, her servants, were her chosen, and fiercely loyal for it. So when she said, “Leave us alone, now,” it was no surprise that her maidservant lowered the fan and her guards bowed their heads in acknowledgment, all departing in swift silence.
The doors closed with an audible thud. Priya raised her head.
After a moment, Bhumika spoke.
“Tell me what happened.” The softness of her voice fell away, leaving only iron behind, and they were no longer maidservant and mistress.
They were temple daughter and temple daughter. Sisters, although Priya did not often allow herself to think in those terms. She didn’t like to look too closely at what sisterhood meant, a decade since their siblings had burned.
“Meena attacked me on the Hirana,” Priya said. “She knew what I was. She wanted me to show her the way to the deathless waters. And when I told her I couldn’t, she tried to hurt me.” Images of the fight flickered through her mind. They were too fresh to even feel like memories, yet. Her heart still raced. Her skin still itched with magic. “She had a crown mask.”
Bhumika’s right eye gave a rather expressive twitch. “Then? What happened?”
“She put on the mask. She hurt Gauri and tried to hurt Sima. And I—I threw her from the Hirana.”
“Did you say anything to reveal yourself?”
Priya said nothing.
“Priya.”
“Only to her.” She did not mention the princess. She did not know what the princess had heard, after all. Still, her words felt like a lie, one that curdled to bitter terror on her tongue.
“How could you have been such an idiot? Have I taught you nothing?”
“She was going to kill me. What was I meant to do? Hug her?”
Bhumika rolled her eyes. “Spirits, Priya. You could have said nothing. You could have cried out for help. I know there are plenty of guards up there.”
“And let them speak to her? She already knew what I—was. Am.” Priya raised her head. “Killing her was the only thing I could do to protect us. It would be worse if I’d admitted what I was and still let her live, wouldn’t it?”
“Obviously, yes,” Bhumika said tersely. “And how did she know what you are anyway?”
Priya shrugged. Ah, she knew that would only inflame Bhumika’s usually well-hidden temper further, but she was feeling rather ill-tempered herself. She’d been attacked. She had killed someone, and no matter how many times she told herself that it was something she’d been reared for, and tried to convince herself that she’d had no other choice, it had shaken her. And it angered her that she felt anything at all—that she wasn’t strong enough to feel nothing.
It was easier to be furious at Bhumika than to be angry at herself.
“Have you told anyone else about your past?” Bhumika asked.
“I’m not a fool.”
There was a long silence. Bhumika stared at her unblinking.
Finally, mulishly, Priya added, “No.”
Bhumika’s eyes narrowed. She drummed the fingers of her left hand upon her knee. “First you saved Sima, and now—”
“You’d rather I’d let Sima die?”
“To protect yourself? Yes,” snapped Bhumika. “Have you considered that saving Sima might be exactly what revealed you to the rebel?”
Bhumika was right, of course. That was how Meena had figured her out. She’d seen Priya confidently climb the Hirana, as the temple children once had.
“I can’t do as much as you can, twice-born,” said Priya.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Fine. Anyway, you know, Bhumika—I can’t even do as much as a once-born like me should be able to. Walking on the Hirana, saving Sima—it was a risk, but it wasn’t more than any brave woman could do or would do. Even if I weren’t what I am,” Priya went on, “I would have risked myself for Sima.”
A once-born should have been able to enter the sangam at will. Should have been able to manipulate the surface of the Hirana with ease. Should have felt nature, all its glowing, breathing power, wherever she went.
She’d had all that, as a little girl. Before the night of the fire had broken something in her.
The twice-born like Bhumika had been stronger still. And the thrice-born…
Well. There were none of them left, now.
“I think,” Priya said slowly, “that you’re just determined to be angry with me. I have done nothing wrong. I didn’t ask to be attacked by a rebel searching for the deathless waters. And I have done everything I can to protect myself. And you.”