Chapter 29 Ganam
GANAM
Ganam had never thought he’d end up being a spy for the widow of the regent of Ahiranya.
But that was life, he supposed. Unpredictable.
You could spend most of it fighting to see your country free, and actually live to see the day come to pass.
And then, by chance, you could also live to see your gods return, and the man you used to follow rise from the dead, and learn that the world you’d dreamed of was just more of the same.
Rot, and tyrants, and keeping your eyes open for danger. So it goes.
He made his way toward Elder Bhumika’s study. He’d left Rukh behind in the practice yard, staring up at the night sky, counting the stars. “I know Elder Bhumika told you to keep an eye on the yaksa,” Ganam had said. “But you need to be careful, boy.”
“I told her I would be,” said Rukh. “I mean, I told her I am.”
“Then you lied both times.” Ganam sighed. Put a hand on Rukh’s head. “There’s no handling you without Priya here,” he told him. “Just wait until she gets back. She’ll beat some sense into you.”
He’d speak to Elder Bhumika. He rehearsed what he’d say in his head. Send the boy away. Get him some work in another household. Or at that library of yours. Anywhere he can’t get into trouble.
Leave him here, and he’ll find it sooner or later.
There was a lantern lit in the study. He could see the light through the door, which was open a sliver. But there were noises from inside, muffled, and if she was talking to some highborn he didn’t want to interfere.
He peered in.
At first, he thought he was seeing something he really didn’t want to see.
Jeevan kneeling, and Bhumika bent forward, like they were about to embrace—or kiss.
But then he saw that Bhumika’s hand was tight on Jeevan’s arm, and her shoulders were shaking.
She was shaking so hard, so hard, and Jeevan was whispering to her, “My lady, Lady Bhumika. Breathe with me. Breathe…”
She gave a hitched sob.
“I can’t,” she said. The heartbreak in her voice made the hairs on Ganam’s neck rise. “I can’t. Jeevan. My baby. My girl. My little girl…”
Jeevan was pressing a hand to Bhumika’s hair as she sagged forward; as sadness racked her.
He couldn’t be here for this. This wasn’t his to see.
But—fuck. Padma. What had had happened to her?
He stumbled back, cold wrapping itself around his body. Quietly. As quiet as he could be. Went numbly down the corridors, searching until he finally found Khalida weeping in the kitchens with Billu, saying her mistress had sent her away. She told him all she knew.
Mothers torn from their children. Love being used like a weapon. Ganam had joined a rebellion to save his country from this. And here it was.
So it went. That was life. More of the same, in an endless, grinding cycle. But he felt the same anger hardening inside him that he’d felt years ago, when he’d vowed to risk his life for a better world.
He wasn’t going to allow this.
“We’ll get her back, Khalida,” he promised her. “We’ll get the little one safe. You wait and see. That’s my promise. No matter how long it takes, we’ll see it done.”