Chapter 10 #2
“Yes,” he said, a faraway look in his eyes. “It reminds me of…of a different time.”
“Oh?”
He smiled down at me. “Maybe I will share the story sometime.”
We reached the other bank, where fresh voices competed to be heard, to draw patrons to their stalls.
“Can you win? Can you claim a prize?”
“Three hoops for a prize of your choice.”
Chandra slowed his pace, his gaze on a crowded stall up ahead, a weak smile on his lips as his gaze took on that faraway look again.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.” He made to turn away, but I moved toward the stall, curious to see what had made him pause.
A voice drifted over the crowd. “One arrow, that is all you get!”
“Leela!” Chandra gripped my elbow. “Where are you going?”
“I want to see.” I wove through the crowd to get a better view of the stall, but it wasn’t a stall.
It was an archery aisle. The target was tiny: an apple balanced on a dummy’s head.
People were lined up to try and hit it with an arrow.
The distance was vast, and shadows shrouded the target.
No doubt the stall owner had set it up this way to make it harder for anyone to hit.
Arrows whizzed past the apple or lodged in the dummy’s head and torso. Many fell short of the target altogether.
Yeah, it was unlikely that anyone short of an expert marksman was going to hit it, and no doubt the patrons trying for the prize knew this. It was all in fun.
Chandra came up behind me, resting a hand on my shoulder. We watched as the queue dwindled to nothing and the crowd began to disperse.
“Come on!” the stall owner cried. “Is that it? No one else wants to try?” He looked over at us.
“Young lady, do you wish your beau to win you a prize?” He glanced up at Chandra, his brow furrowing for a moment before smoothing out.
“A whole basket of juicy fruit is up for grabs. Think of the sweet desserts you’d be able to make. ”
“Do you want to try?” Chandra asked me.
“What? Me?” I laughed. “I was crap with the bow and arrow in training.” I dropped my voice to a whisper. “And that apple is no easy target.”
He frowned. “Humor me, Leela. Show me…”
“You want to see how crap I am?” I chuckled. “Fine.”
I stepped forward, and the stall owner gave me a patronizing smile, handing me the bow and an arrow. “Here is the Dhanush. Would you like me to show you—”
I rolled my eyes and took it from him, expertly nocking the arrow and holding the bow up in what I knew to be perfect form.
It was the aiming that was an issue, except for some reason, this time as I drew back the string, a sense of calm swept over me.
A sense of knowing…A confidence that if I let the arrow fly, it would hit its mark.
The people around me continued to chat, but their voices faded to background noise, a low hum that was almost white noise. Chandra’s cut through it, smooth and warm.
“Trust yourself,” he said.
I released the arrow.
Thunk.
The apple fell to the ground, my arrow embedded in it.
A pin-drop silence followed, and then exclamations filled the air.
The stall owner stared at me as if I’d grown two heads.
“Beginner’s luck,” Chandra said, offering the man a few coin. “Keep the fruit; we have plenty at home.” He put his arm around my shoulders and steered me away from the stall, away from the people who were now staring at me with open curiosity.
My pulse thudded in my throat and in the palms of my hands that had just held the Dhanush.
Beginner’s luck?
No; in the moment when I’d let that arrow fly, it had felt like I’d been shooting my whole life.
The talisman stall was set away from the others. It was a small tent with a table of pretty trinkets set outside the door flap. Chandra ignored the table and ducked inside.
I followed him into the lantern-lit interior, where a young man with closely cropped brown hair sat at a small table fiddling with silver and gold beads, a look of intense concentration on his face.
He looked up as we entered, breaking into a smile as he spotted Chandra.
“Old friend.” He abandoned his task and hurried over to greet Chandra. The males embraced, patting shoulders before stepping back.
“How are you, Silva?” Chandra asked, his tone warm with inquiry.
“I’m well. And you? It has been a while since you visited.”
“I know, I know. Things have been busy of late.”
Silva’s gaze flicked to me. “Busy, hmmm?” He arched a brow. “Is that what you call it now?”
“No, no, this is not…She is a friend.”
“A-huh. It is not often you are seen with a friend.” Silva smiled knowingly.
I kept my mouth shut. Let him believe what he liked. If Chandra wanted him to know who I was, then he’d tell him. Heck, this guy hadn’t called Chandra by his name yet, so he might not even know who Chandra truly was. It was best to keep quiet and let Chandra do the talking.
“So to what do I owe the pleasure?” Silva asked. “A social visit or something more?”
“I’m looking for a talisman to protect the dreamspace of the wearer. Do you have something like that?”
Silva’s expression grew serious. “For you or your…friend?” He looked over at me again, his gaze narrowing slightly.
“Does it matter?” Chandra asked.
“Yes, it does,” Silva said. “The protection will vary in power depending on who it is for, as will the price.”
“The price isn’t a concern. Give me the strongest talisman you have.”
Silva’s brows shot up. “The strongest, huh…very well.”
He retreated to the back of his tent and literally vanished into shadow.
I stared at the orange fabric, clearly visible through the shadow that Silva had just vanished into. “What the fuck? Where did he go?”
“It’s all right. Silva is a rare kind of tantrik able to create small pockets of reality hidden outside of time. He keeps his most valuable items in a pocket space that only he has access to.”
The way he said that was as if it was the most mundane thing ever. And to him, the Asura who could teleport, it probably was.
“How do you know him?”
“He was a survivor of a purge that happened a long time ago.”
“A purge?”
His tone dropped in volume. “There was a rebellion once. The Asura quashed it. Many were executed.”
Erabi had mentioned a rebellion too. Her parents had been executed for their part in it. “You saved him, just like you saved Erabi, didn’t you?”
He looked down at me in surprise. “She told you?”
“Yeah…she did.”
His throat bobbed, and he looked away. “I wish I could have saved more…”
Silva materialized from the shadows carrying a wooden box. “Here.” He handed the box to Chandra. “It’s the strongest I have at the moment.” His gaze flicked to me once again. “It will work best if it’s worn all the time.”
Okay, so he’d obviously surmised that the talisman was for me.
Chandra pulled a pouch of coins from his pocket and handed it to Silva. “Thank you.”
“And thank you for your business.” Silva pocketed the pouch then met my gaze and dropped me a bow. “Until we meet again.”
Chandra placed his hand on the small of my back, ushering me out of the tent and back into the night.
“He knows who I am.”
“Yes. But we do not use names. Not here. Not when there could be eyes and ears about.”
“Spies?”
“There are always spies,” Chandra said. “Come, let’s get to the rise, and I can shift us home.”
We were halfway across the bridge, two stocky men coming toward us going in the opposite direction, when I registered the prickling across my scalp. The men picked up speed toward us, and alarm bells went off inside me.
Chandra grabbed my arm and pulled me against him. My stomach dipped, signaling a shift. But it never came. Instead, a metallic scent filled the air and stung my nose.
The men broke into a sprint toward us, silver flashing in their hands.
Chandra shoved me behind him. “Get back to Silva now!”
I stumbled, scrambled to stay upright, and ran back the way we’d come.
Chandra bellowed a curse. The air crackled behind me. I looked back to see him surrounded by several men.
Where had they come from? Wait…they all looked the same…
Otherworldly light burst from Chandra’s skin, slamming into his attackers, pushing them away for a brief moment before they converged on him again.
Chandra fought back with no weapon but his fists. The men multiplied as if by magic, swarming him. Forcing him to fight harder to keep them from crossing the bridge. To keep them from getting to me. Oh gods, this was an assassination attempt.
I looked down the bank toward Silva’s tent.
Like fuck was I going to run and hide.
I ran in the opposite direction, toward the guy with the bow and arrow. His eyes flew wide at the sight of me barreling toward him.
“Dhanush! Now!”
He held it out, stunned. I yanked the weapon from his hands. “Arrows! By order of the liege!”
He babbled something incoherent, then shoved a quiver filled with arrows at me.
I slung it over my shoulder and bolted back to the bridge, heart slamming into my ribs.
One of the men had broken free of Chandra and was almost on my side of the bank.
I ground to a halt, reached back for an arrow, nocked it in one fluid move, then fired.
The man went down, and the cluster of attackers around Chandra halved.
Comprehension hit me in the gut. There were only two attackers. The rest were some kind of duplicates linked to the two originals. Killing the real guy had dispersed his copies.
The air fizzed, and more men appeared around Chandra. Shit, the guy that was left must have powered up. Movement across the bank caught my eye—two powerful men running toward the bridge.
Asura?
Were they there to help or were they with the attackers?
I couldn’t take the chance.
I drew another arrow aimed at one of Chandra’s attackers and fired. It passed right through him.
Dammit! I needed to hit the real attacker, not a copy.
An eerie calm settled over me because I knew what I needed to do. My body reacted with a muscle memory I didn’t know I had, drawing arrow after arrow and firing in rapid succession. The scene around me shifted to a blood-soaked battlefield, enemies swarming my companion…the man I cared deeply for.
My closest friend.
My confidant.
“No!”
I fired faster. Limbs burning. Rage igniting my chest.
Chandra turned to look at me, and for a moment he was someone else. Someone I knew and yet didn’t know.
I shot another arrow, and this time it hit home. All the men vanished.
I lowered the bow, the world shifting from night market to battlefield and back again.
Darkness edged my vision, and the world tipped.
“Leela!” Chandra cried.
I sank into oblivion.