Chapter 25
WE NEED TO GO BACK TO MOVE FORWARD
LEELA
Astorm gathered as we approached Shantivan. The sky was dark and churning as it prepared to rain down wrath on the earth. The sea grew choppy, as if attempting to rise to meet it.
“Won’t be long till it hits,” Rathor said as he lowered the rowboat that would take us to the shore.
The wind howled, shoving at the tiny vessel as it shimmied down the side of the main ship to hit the water with a slap.
C’ael and I climbed down the rope ladder into the boat, and Rathor began rowing. But the sea fought back, and it was obvious that each pull on the oars was an effort.
There was another set of oars, and I reached for them, but C’ael beat me to it, picking them up and settling into a rhythm with Rathor, as if they’d been tandem rowing all their lives.
I squinted at the shore pressed beneath a sky heavy with darkly pregnant clouds.
The coast watchers must have seen the ship arriving because a small party waited on the beach to greet us—Drohi and djinn standing side by side.
Were Zarael and Jaantor among the party, or had they dropped off the djinn from the devouring force camp and already headed back to the Swargana?
I recognized Bhartina, the leader of the djinn that lived here, and Ramashi her son. They were Pashim’s kin. Jasha stood to one side. He and I didn’t have the best history.
The sea surged, the boat rocked, and I grabbed hold of the lip to steady myself.
“Water’s shallow enough here.” Rathor brought the rowboat to a halt.
That was my and C’ael’s cue to leave. “Thank you for everything.”
“You can thank me by stopping the primordial evil,” he said.
“We will,” C’ael replied.
He climbed out first then lifted me into the water. We waded to shore, where the party waited.
Bhartina and Ramashi hurried down the beach as we stepped out of the sea.
“What are you doing here?” Bhartina asked, wide-eyed. “We were not sent word of your arrival.”
Not sent word? “Didn’t Zarael tell you what’s happened?” She stared at me blankly, and a pit opened up in my belly. “Zarael was bringing djinn here to safety.” I searched her face as I spoke, looking for an inkling of recognition.
Her brows pinched. “No one has arrived here since you left for the labyrinth.”
Oh gods…
C’ael slipped his hand into mine and squeezed.
The wind screeched, and a huge raindrop hit me in the forehead.
“Move!” Jasha ordered. “Storm is going to hit.”
Bhartina nodded and hurried us up the beach.
“We can talk back at the village,” Ramashi said. His gaze flicked to C’ael then back to me, but he didn’t ask who he was.
I jogged up the beach surrounded by djinn, my heart fracturing because if Zarael and Jaantor weren’t here, then something awful must have happened to them.
It was strange being back in the village. Back inside the building where I’d stayed with Araz and my friends when we’d trained for the sea trial. Nostalgia was a lump in my throat and a fist in my chest.
I sat at the worn wooden table, mug of herbal tea clutched in my hand, attempting to wrangle my emotions into neat boxes and arrange my thoughts into words that would relay the full gravity of what was happening to this world.
Bhartina and Ramashi took seats opposite C’ael and me. Jasha stood by the door, his arms crossed over his chest, gaze narrow as it flicked between me and C’ael.
Zarael and Jaantor were gone.
That much was obvious.
The primordial evil must have done something. Maybe the same thing that he’d done to the settlement? Gods, what if my other friends had met similar fates?
C’ael reached up to graze my cheek with his fingers. “Breathe, Leela. It will be all right.”
“Who are you?” Jasha demanded. “Who are you to touch her in that way? To console her in his place?”
C’ael fixed Jasha with a cold gaze. “I’m her friend. And he isn’t here. But if he was, I have no doubt he would appreciate my efforts to comfort Leela.”
“I doubt that very much,” Jasha said. “Leela is bonded to Araz, and bonded drohi do not take kindly to any other male touching their demigod.”
He should know. He’d taken a fist to the face for laying hands on me, but I’d also learned that his hatred toward me had been jealousy. He was in love with Araz, and he obviously had no clue what had happened to him. No one here did.
“Jasha…Araz has been taken over by the primordial evil, and the primordial evil has taken the throne in Aakash Sansaar.” He blinked sharply, his mouth parting in shock. “The primordial evil has the residents of the royal domain in his control and has cut off entrance to the sky world.”
Bhartina cursed softly. “Well that explains why communication with the Isle has dried up. Tell us everything.”
I spilled the whole story, from the labyrinth to how we’d believed Araz dead, to the primordial evil kidnapping me and tricking me into believing I was engaging with Araz.
I told them about the revelation that Iblees was Araz.
How the evil had latched on to him, and how I was Iblees’s twin flame.
I explained how C’ael fit in to it all, then paused for a beat to let them absorb everything, expecting questions, but Bhartina urged me to continue.
I explained how I’d failed to save the throne and had to flee, leaving my friends and anchor behind, about the camp, the vayujaari and the nagrata. About Pashim being back and Priti being Yama.
Ramashi sat up straighter, his eyes wide. “Pashim is back?”
I nodded. “Yes, he is.”
“Trust him to cheat death.” He looked over at his mother, Bhartina. “I guess the stories you told me about Aunt Waleena were true.”
“Of course they’re true,” Bhartina said with a good-natured frown. “Your aunt was a formidable warrior and stubborn to boot.”
Waleena…Pashim’s mother. Had she lived here? Had he ever met her? Had he ever been stationed here? “Where is she now?”
“I do not know. She was amongst the warriors protecting the djinn in their pilgrimage to the new lands.”
“The new lands?”
“Far across the oceans. A promised land. The Asura gifted it to us as part of the pact to provide drohi for their war against the devouring force.”
“But you stayed here?”
Bhartina smiled. “I do not possess my sister’s adventurous spirit, and I had Ramashi to care for, but she…”
“She gave her child to the Asura.”
Bhatina nodded slowly. “Yes. She was chosen to bear a drohi, and she did her duty, but giving up her child broke something in her.”
“She never met him when he was grown, did she?”
Bhartina shook her head, her eyes filled with memories. “Waleena carries the warrior spirit of our father Thomelin. He died in the before wars. The ones shrouded in the confusion of old history. There have been many.” She sighed. “But enough about the past. Tell me what is happening now.”
I filed away what she’d told me about Waleena and continued recounting what had happened.
How the settlement we’d traveled to in hopes of finding a portway had simply vanished.
I told them everything, and they listened without interruption.
When I finished, the only sound was the howl and whine of the wind and the hammering of shards of ice and pellets of water on the roof.
“The djinn from the camp should have arrived here days ago,” C’ael said softly. “The fact that they didn’t…”
“You believe they were eliminated by the primordial force,” Ramashi said. “Maybe unmade like the settlement?”
Unmade…yes, that’s what it had looked like. “I believe so.” It hurt to say it. To think it. My friends…all those people. I exhaled. “I have to stop him.”
“You have a plan?”
“I did. The obelisk in the Shahee Kshetra can call back the Deva. I wanted to activate it, get them to come back and stop the primordial evil. The plan was to gather allies and find a way into Aakash Sansaar. Maybe by activating one of the portways that lead to the sky domains. But the evil bastard is unmaking all the settlements, which means the portways are being destroyed. Pashim, Ravi, and Kalani are working on the allies issue, but Araz called us here.”
Jasha stepped forward. “How? You said he was under the evil’s control.”
I looked to C’ael. “C’ael is connected to Araz. They spoke in a dream. Araz told him to come here. To the flame in the temple. We need to go there now.”
“The Iblees flame,” Ramashi said, his voice low with reverence. “Araz is Iblees…”
Silence fell as this revelation fully settled.
Bhartina was the first to break it. “You can’t make the trip up the mountain in this storm. It’s much too dangerous.”
“This is no ordinary storm, Leela,” Ramashi added. “It’s seasonal. It will rage and ebb and rage again for many weeks. We’ve learned that even we, the water and air djinn, cannot tame it.”
“We can’t wait a week,” C’ael said. “We’re running out of time as it is.” His brows came together in a frown, and I could almost see the cogs in his brain turning.
“What are you thinking, C’ael?”
He pressed his lips together and exhaled through his nose. “I can’t transport you there, but I can shield us to some extent on the journey.”
Of course, he could teleport up the mountain if he wanted. It was getting me up there that was the issue. “No shielding. The last time you did that, I lost you for days. We’ve got to do this the old-fashioned way.”
“The path will be flooded and probably icy in places,” Bhartina said.
It sounded like it would be a nightmare climb, but C’ael was right; we couldn’t wait. “We’ll have to risk it.” I gave Bhartina a crooked smile. “Besides, I had an excellent trainer who taught me how to climb in shitty weather.”
Bhartina’s eyes lit up. “Yes. I suppose you did.”
“I’ll come with you,” Jasha said. “If this is truly Araz’s wish, then I will aid you in completing it.”