Chapter 44 #2
“Vishwajeet was very specific with his instructions on the day he brought me to you.” Nallini kept her voice low, but her white-knuckled fists were balled at her side.
“I was to offer you my best care during your pregnancy, and when the baby was born, I needed to ensure the firstborn heir was a boy.”
“But you couldn’t possibly control . . .” My voice faded as I understood her meaning. I clutched Devi closer and backed away.
The semicircle of guards tightened around me, and a few of them brandished their swords at Nallini.
Parushi reacted quickly—she jumped in front of Nallini, placing herself between the healer and my guards, her arms outstretched to either side. Nallini put both her hands up and stepped away from me.
We stood, frozen and staring at each other as my heart thudded in my chest so loudly that I was certain it would wake Devi again. But she slept soundly as I stared at her would-be assassin. Assassin. Spirits. Parushi had been right when she guessed it so long ago.
Parushi spoke up as she watched my eyes flit between her and Nallini. “Nallini has had more than ample opportunity to cause harm if she wanted to. And she hasn’t.”
A fair point, but there was still no need for Nallini’s deceit. “If what you say is true, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you show the letter to me when you got it?”
“I told Parushi.” Nallini seemed so small in this big room. “And Tara. They reviewed my letters to Vishwajeet before I sent them. Everyone agreed it was best not to upset you, especially in your condition.”
“Being pregnant makes me no less of a rani,” I said, furious at their secret planning. They had kept me in the dark, and now look where we were. “Don’t make that mistake again.”
Nallini and Parushi blushed as they nodded.
I turned to Parushi. “Do you swear that everything she said aligns with what you know?”
“Yes,” she said solemnly. “On my life.”
“And what about on mine? On Devi’s?” I stared at her, looking for a flicker of doubt or hesitation, but Parushi’s eyes were clear.
“I swear it,” she said.
“Nallini, do you swear your loyalty to me and Trimuladevi?” I asked.
Nallini nodded.
“Say it. Speak the words.” I commanded.
“I swear loyalty to the rani, the rajkumari, and Ullal,” Nallini said. “And I forsake my connection to Banghervari. I will never write to Vishwajeet again.”
I searched for any hint of a lie, any sign of that smooth, polished voice she used when she worked her words around her will. But there was only the same openness and honesty I’d seen when she fixed my heel. And cured Parushi. And dived off her horse to save me during the Porcugi attack.
Wordlessly, I nodded at her, and she bowed deeply in response. Parushi’s shoulders finally relaxed, and she began to put pressure on her wounded arm with her other hand.
“You can’t possibly believe her!” Nikith’s voice shook. “She’s an outsider! I’m your brother!”
He searched my face for compassion.
He found none.
“The letter was written in your hand.” My voice was steel. “You asked for the messenger. You summoned the emissary. You arranged my marriage. How long have you been colluding with Vishwajeet? How long have you kissed the hands of the creatures who murdered your wife?”
Nikith flinched with each sentence, but he held my gaze. And he stopped his denials. “Someone had to try to save Ullal.”
My sister’s husband was a traitor.
There was no coming back from this.
Ever so carefully, I unwrapped Ektha’s shawl from around Trimuladevi, draped it over my shoulder, and then summoned Parushi. “Take her to her nursemaids. You will watch the rajkumari with a double guard.”
Parushi opened her mouth to protest, but I didn’t let her argue. “I am trusting you with her. I cannot ask anyone else. Don’t worry about me—the other guards will stay.”
I kissed Devi’s soft cheek, and Parushi took her with her good arm and left, whistling for more guards as she walked out the door.
“Nallini.” She stepped in front of me, but we were still separated by the knot of guards. “Go find Tara and take her to Parushi. I will not send you with an escort, but know that if you and Tara do not show up promptly, I will send you to the Spirits as soon as I find you.”
Nallini blanched but nodded. “Understood.”
As the door thunked shut, I pointed to Nikith’s dagger. It still lay on the floor, crusted in Parushi’s blood.
“Bring it to me,” I commanded. Ektha’s shawl was heavy on my shoulder.
A guard fetched it and handed me the blade; its hilt was cold in my palm. The guards stayed with me as I stood in front of my brother-in-law, well out of his reach. Nikith waited warily, staring at the dagger instead of meeting my eyes.
“I don’t plan on using this,” I said, smacking the flat of the blade against my palm.
He flinched at the sound but then jutted his chin out defiantly. “What do you intend to do?”
“You’ve put me in a difficult position.” I continued to slap the blade on my palm as I thought. “I tried to honor my sister by allowing you to stay and making you comfortable. I expected loyalty and appreciation, but instead you tried to take advantage of my generosity.”
Slap.
“You dishonored my sister’s memory.”
Slap.
“You lied to your rani.”
Slap.
“You betrayed Ullal.”
Slap.
Nikith appeared calm, but sweat tracked down the side of his face. “What do you intend to do?” he asked again.
He didn’t sound so haughty anymore.
“That will depend on your answer to my question.” It was tempting—oh so tempting—to give in to the anger that boiled just beneath the surface, but I knew I needed to stay composed. “You and Ektha, as far as I could see, loved each other. How could you dishonor her memory like this?”
“I did it for her!” Nikith gestured at the portrait of my sister. “She would have seen the value of a partnership with the Porcugi. With Ullal and Banghervari on their side, the Porcugi would be unstoppable, and we would have reaped the benefits! The Porcugi promised me their favor.”
“But they killed her!” It took every fiber of my self-control not to point the dagger at his throat. “You should have known then that we needed to stop those monsters, but you continued to do their bidding. You even tried to attack your niece! Why?”
“Because you’ve refused to listen to reason.
The Porcugi will come to collect our debt no matter what, but I would rather pay in money than in lives.
I took no joy in it, but I also knew that taking one life now would have saved scores of lives later.
If you lost Devi, you’d have to go back to Banghervari, and we’d be able to make an agreement for the tithes.
” He looked at Ektha’s portrait. “I did it to save Ullal. I did it because I couldn’t bear to see the nation my wife loved torn apart by a needless war. ”
His words were a gut punch.
Ektha’s shawl was still draped over my shoulder, and I gripped it tight as I turned to the image of my sister.
Her deep pink sari perfectly contrasted the marigold blouse she wore, and jasmine blossoms flowed down from her tidy bun.
Even in the painting, her warm eyes and quiet smile radiated calm as her hands rested gently in her lap.
The bangle I now wore was around her wrist.
Where it truly belonged.
In a world where Ektha still wore her bangle, she would be ruling Ullal. She would have been an incredible rani—the one we needed. If anyone could have found a path to peace that still protected the people of Ullal, it was Ektha.
But even Ektha had known when it was time to fight. When the horns had sounded while we were in the stepwell, she was ready to join the battle. What was it she had said?
“Only a fool thinks peace is the answer to every problem.”
It seemed Nikith didn’t know Ektha as well as he thought.
Either that or he was trying to use her memory to his advantage because the Porcugi had promised him their favor.
Regardless, I had no use for his opinions anymore.
He’d betrayed Ullal, tried to murder his niece, and desecrated my sister’s memory with his sickening manipulations.
There was no place for him anymore, in this fort or in my heart.
I turned back to him. He was smirking, certain he’d struck the right nerve.
“You care only about yourself,” I said flatly.
His smile vanished, and he opened his mouth to argue, but I cut him off.
“Out of respect for my sister, I will give you a choice,” I said.
“You can stay confined to your rooms until I announce your betrayal to all of Ullal and sentence you to death. No burial rites will be performed, and you will spend your eternal afterlife searching for the Spirits and begging for their mercies.”
“You can’t do that!” Nikith took a step toward me, and two guards filled the space between us. “My brothers—”
I ignored the rest of what he said, and his words faded out.
After kissing Ektha’s shawl one last time, I placed it on a chair beneath a long beam that extended from one end of the room to the other and turned to meet Nikith’s eye.
“Or, you can have more honor in the last moments of your life than you’ve had these last months.
Do this, and I’ll tell the world that you died of illness, and I will make sure you have a pyre. ”
“But—”
He spoke the rest of his words to my back.