Chapter 13
Parushi and I stood next to each other, panting.
Sweat—and the Spirits knew what else—plastered my hair to my face.
I tried to gather it into my bun, but it was no use.
Continuing to stand here was useless too.
We needed to keep going. I picked up my sword and wiped the crusting blood off the blade.
“Where to?” Parushi asked.
Screams echoed from the beach and around the fort as the clash of metal against metal rang out.
It was impossible to know how many we faced, but even if it was just a few, they would be difficult to overcome.
The Porcugi were relentless, and our soldiers were undoubtedly taken by surprise.
The specter of the monsters alone was enough to make anyone question their sanity.
Add to that their strength and the practically impenetrable scales on their bodies, and I began to realize how many pyres would light the night tomorrow.
Our soldiers probably needed all the help they could get, but my heart was pulled around the corner to the front of the fort. A part of me knew that Ektha should be safe with five guards to protect her, but I needed to be sure.
“We go to find Ektha,” I said. “Once we know that she’s inside, we’ll rejoin the fight.”
After a stare toward the battle-worn shores, Parushi nodded, and we sprinted toward the front of the fort.
Ahead, a few bodies wearing the blue uniform of Ullal lay strewn on the grass.
More Porcugi must have broken through and entered the fort’s grounds.
I tried to call to Parushi, but my voice was drowned out by trumpets blaring from the top of the fort.
Three long. Another set of horns toward the front gate repeated the call. Three long. The rooftop trumpets confirmed the order by blasting three times again.
A signal to open the main gate? Now?
“No!” I screamed. It had to be a trap!
Somehow, I needed to warn the guards at the gates.
I lost all sense of feeling as I ran. The energy that had drained out of me after the fight with the Porcugi came roaring back, and with each heartbeat my steps grew stronger.
I cursed the size of this dratted building as every step was swallowed by its enormousness, making my progress seem futile.
Parushi reached the corner and turned to the front of the fort before I did. She let out a whoop as she slipped out of my view. I rounded the corner and found Parushi leaping into the air with her fist raised.
Six soldiers in Ullal’s blue uniform held the massive fort doors open, and a stream of people in jade tunics flowed in.
Their numbers increased, surging in strength, as the doors opened wide.
Yellow sashes trailed behind them as they sprinted toward the beach.
All of them were armed to the teeth with bows, arrows, swords, daggers, and staffs.
The man in front unsheathed his blade and pointed to the back of the fort.
“To the beach!” he cried as he ran toward our side of the building. “For Banghervari! For glory!”
“Banghervari!” the soldiers answered as they followed. Their trumpets rang out with ours.
Parushi and I raised our fists to them as they ran by. We screamed loud enough to wake the Spirits. “Banghervari!”
The soldiers made their way to the battle on the beach, carried on a breeze of hope. Or perhaps creating it. A cry of joy arose from Ullal’s soldiers as they caught sight of the reinforcements.
Trumpets rang out triumphantly from the beach. It seemed the tide had turned with the arrival of our suddenly staunch allies. I mentally thanked Raja Lakshmappa for sending his soldiers. Perhaps there was more to him than his pretty face.
Perhaps.
Ektha was sure to think so. She’d never let me hear the end of it. No point in delaying the inevitable, though. I’d have to tell her as soon as we found her.
We turned back toward the fort but ignored the central wide staircase and its ornate archway.
Instead, we ducked behind the row of hedges to its side, where the servants’ door was hidden.
The humble brown entry, designed to be as small and unobtrusive as possible, cowered next to the grand staircase with carved lions on either side.
I went to open the door, but Parushi stopped me with a shake of her head.
She knocked four times and waited. The response was two crisp knocks followed by a pause and then one more.
Satisfied, Parushi pushed the door open, and we hurried inside.
“Duck down,” Parushi instructed, and I complied just in time to avoid brushing my head against the top of the small entryway.
Two wide-eyed guards stared at us as Parushi closed the door behind her.
“Where is Rajkumari Ektha?” one of them asked.
My stomach flipped. “She hasn’t come yet?”
Their anxious silence answered my question. A voice bellowed from farther down the halls.
“I’m the raja of Ullal, and I can damn well be wherever I want to be!”
My uncle limped into view. His walking was much improved since the first attack, but he still used a walking stick when inside the fort. His gaze flitted back and forth between me and Parushi. “Where is Ektha?”
“A Porcugi attacked,” I said. “I sent her ahead while Parushi and I took care of it. She’s not here already?”
Worry knitted my uncle’s brows. Behind him, Tara approached, followed by a young servant I didn’t recognize. He gingerly balanced a plate heaped with biryani and couldn’t seem to decide whether he should keep his eyes on the plate, Tara, or my uncle.
“You need to get back to the infirmary,” Tara said. She pointed to Uncle Trimulya’s bandaged left arm. “Raja or not, you need to rest that wound.”
“It is fine. Your bandages have done wonders.” My uncle turned his attention to the servant behind her. “Come here with that food.”
The young man trembled as he stepped forward. His amber eyes kept flitting between the raja and the ground, and sweat trickled from his hairline to the back of his low ponytail, which pressed his collar against his skin. My uncle shoved food into his mouth, chewing as he thought.
Pointing to my left arm, I mouthed my question to Tara. “Is it bad?”
She shook her head.
After only a few bites, my uncle had done some serious damage to the plate of food. “I am bandaged. I am nourished. I am going to go find my niece.”
I stepped between him and the doors. “Ullal can’t have both its current and future leader outside of the fort and vulnerable. I will find her and bring her back.”
“You need to stay here more than I do.” He tried to push me aside. “You are the future of Ullal. You need to be protected.”
“You trained me for this from the moment I was old enough to carry a blade.” I held my ground. “Maybe even sooner than that. I am going. You are the raja, and you need to stay.”
I glared at him until he finally nodded.
He wavered a bit as he turned—it seemed like the wound on his arm was far more serious than he wanted to let on.
Even Tara looked surprised as she hurried to his side.
She would make sure he got some rest while Parushi and I found Ektha and brought her back.
With a start, I realized I never asked Parushi if she would come and help me.
“Parushi, will you—” I began.
“Let’s go,” she said.
Two more guards came outside with us. We kept our weapons drawn and stayed hidden behind the enormous, dense hedge. I signaled to the pair of guards that they should check the other side of the central stairs, but they shook their heads and pointed to me.
My uncle wanted them to stay with me. So be it.
Even though the clamor of battle raged at the back of the fort, the front remained eerily still.
We crept to the side after Parushi checked to make sure it was safe.
This part of the grounds had been deserted, except for the four bodies that remained where I’d seen them earlier.
They were crumpled like paper, and their limbs bent where joints had never existed.
My feet squished on the ground as I approached.
I tried not to think about the color dying my soles as I gingerly lifted the helmet covering the face of one of the soldiers.
My heart became a stone, falling from my chest down to my toes.
I knew this face. This was the guard that had given me his set of arrows when I had gone to fight the Porcugi. And left him. With Ektha.
Parushi’s gasp as she checked the other body confirmed what I’d feared. I ran to her, my feet completely unable to keep pace with my thoughts.
“Where is Ektha?” Parushi asked. “Where is the last guard?”
The grass was flattened and trampled in many directions, but I saw an undulating path heading for the gardens.
I didn’t speak as I ran to the gardens’ entrance.
Ektha must not have had much time. The other four guards probably fought off the Porcugi while she ran away.
She would have hidden, and with the trumpets blaring so much, she’d probably decided to stay there until it was safe to come out. I just needed to find her now.
The hedge on either side of the garden lay in disarray, and the entry arch was cracked.
I dashed inside and found the body of the last guard, her face frozen in frenzied determination.
Broken vegetation was strewn everywhere, and bright pink and orange petals were scattered in the mud, decorating the disarray.
I was about to follow the garden path deeper when my heart pulled me back outside again.
I paused at the hedges lining the garden wall. If there was little time, Ektha would have found the nearest hiding spot. Perhaps the guard had gone into the gardens as a distraction.
I fell to my hands and knees and peered between the battered hedge’s trunks and the garden wall.
There was enough room for a person to squeeze into that space.
I pushed myself into it and slid forward on the ground, ignoring the branches embedding themselves in my curls in an unsightly crown.
Sunlight came down only in slivers, making it oddly dark despite the time of day.
Branches were broken and the earth was pushed into unnatural mounds in front of me. Ektha had definitely been here.
I called out to the guards. “Someone was here—I can see tracks. Follow alongside me and I’ll tell you when I’ve found her.”
“I’ll go from the other side,” Parushi said.
Twigs caught in my clothes as they pricked and scraped my back, and it became harder to push myself forward in the smaller space. Ektha had always been more petite than me, though. She could have squeezed farther.
So I did too.
Sunlight streamed through the branches just ahead, and I caught a glimpse of toes and the crimson hem of Ektha’s sari.
“Ektha!” I called out. “I’m here!”
I could barely move in the small space, but I used my toes to keep pushing forward. I shook a few nearby branches as I continued to talk to her. “It’s okay. I’m here. Parushi is too. We’ll cut these stupid bushes and get out. The battle should be over soon, since Lakshmappa sent his soldiers.”
The guards began to talk excitedly from the other side of the bushes, so I couldn’t hear Ektha’s response.
“You won’t let me hear the end of that, I’m sure, but let’s get out of here first.” I extended my arm forward and tugged her red sari, but she didn’t react. I touched her foot—she was so cold—but she didn’t move, so I grabbed her ankle and tried to drag her toward me.
My grip slipped down her wet foot, and my hand scraped against the brush above us.
I cried out in surprise as a sharp branch cut through my skin, but Ektha still didn’t move.
My pulse echoed from my fingertips to my throat.
Ever since we were children, Ektha had always rushed to my side any time I was hurt.
Even back when Ektha used to train with us, Jagath had never let us practice side by side because Ektha would drop whatever she was doing if she saw me in pain.
But now she didn’t move.
I pulled my hand back and crossed it into a narrow shaft of sunlight. My breaths became thick and heavy before seeing what I already knew was there: Bright red blood streaked across my fingers and palm, staining it so deeply I was sure it would never come out.
Ektha had worn a pale blue sari today.