Chapter 49
Given the pace of the horses, I knew we were making good time, but the road ahead kept stretching farther.
I finally fell asleep long after the stars had made their appearance in the darkened sky, and I awoke only when the sun was burning brightly.
One of the guards chuckled as I leaned forward and asked how much longer.
He promised he’d tell me when we got close.
As it turned out, he didn’t need to say a word. Only a little while later, my chariot thudded to a halt, and guards brought their horses to either side, blocking my view.
“An armed rider!” one of the guards shouted.
Swords scraped against their sheaths, and a booming voice yelled. “Identify yourself and your purpose.”
“I am Avinash, and I have come to escort the rani back to Ullal.”
The soldier from the stepwell! He was the one whose discretion Thevan trusted after the incident with the emissary. Thevan—just the thought of seeing him lit my face on fire.
I waved to get the guards’ attention. “I know him! Let him speak!”
The woman to my right stepped aside so I could see.
We’d stopped on a path that crossed through an open field, and though trees towered around the grassy clearing, everyone was visible here.
The horses stomped their impatience as Avinash bowed deeply.
He kept his hands far away from the hilt of his blade.
“My rani. Ullal will rejoice with your return.”
“Why were you waiting?” The guard closest to Avinash still had his sword out.
“Our rani never takes this long to return from the mountain,” Avinash said.
“When we went to look for her, we found a Banghervari banner near a river and assumed she had been taken to her husband. Our general instructed that one of us wait here until either the rani returned or we received word about when she would.”
“Why shouldn’t the raja want to see his wife?” the guard bristled. “Banghervari is her home now.”
“Of course.” I stepped out of the chariot, letting the cool grasses tickle my feet as I commanded their attention. “Which is why the general did not send anyone after me; he knew I was safe.”
The guards finally sheathed their weapons, but the one closest to me dismounted near my side.
“Thank you for bringing me so far,” I said. “I will accompany Avinash back to Ullal on one of your horses.”
The Banghervari guards had no chance to protest. I marched to the dismounted guard’s golden horse and stroked the star on its forehead.
“What’s her name?” I asked.
It took a moment for the guard to realize I’d asked her a question. “I think they call her Biju. This is my first time riding her.”
“Ah, well, you must be tired. And sore.” I turned to the rest of the guards. “All of you. You should take turns riding in the chariot on the way back.”
A few of them gasped at the idea.
Staying there any longer would just give them time to formulate their protests, so I mounted the horse—cursing the absurdly ornate sari I’d been wrapped in—and rode away, toward the trees on the other side of the clearing.
I called over my shoulder, “If the raja has any questions, tell him I commanded it.”
Once we’d buried ourselves in the woods and were well out of view, I asked Avinash, “Why were you really there?”
Avinash checked behind him before saying, “It’s true that General Thevan sent me, but it wasn’t until—”
He licked his lips and braced himself. “Until the Porcugi started their attack on our fort at dawn.”
“What?” I exploded, and Biju jumped ahead. I calmed her but kept her pace far faster than we were going before.
“I am to take you to safety,” Avinash said. “The rajkumari was evacuated, and I am to take you there.”
His voice faded as he finished and caught sight of my glare.
“We’re returning to the fort,” I said. “And the only question you should worry about is whether or not your horse can keep up with mine.”
Smoke clouded the air, drowning out the salty scent of the seas that I loved.
Biju sprinted through the city’s gray, deserted market and to the fort’s front gates.
She reared at the closed doors as I screamed for them to let me in.
The guards scrambled upon seeing me, and Biju and I squeezed through the small gap they opened.
Avinash soon followed, barely making it through before they closed the doors again and locked them.
A trumpeter announced my arrival with three long blasts and two short, and the other trumpeters around the fort and along the beach took up the call as we trampled across the gardens where I’d been married.
“Find Thevan and report back about where I can meet him,” I commanded Avinash. “I need to change out of this ridiculous sari and get some arrows, but I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Parushi came sprinting across the front lawn, her face covered in soot, which made her maniacal white smile stand out even more.
“It’s about time. I have your bow, and your sword is with Sima.” She stopped and stared at my sari. “Let’s get you out of that, though.”
A kaashtha sari was procured, and I ducked into a nearby building that usually held targets for practice. I was changed in a blink as the hands of the two women who brought the sari worked in a blur. Parushi filled me in as they pleated, folded, and flipped the long fabric.
“We were half prepared for the attack. We already had a store of fire arrows ready, and we’d set up fire pits along the beach long ago,” Parushi said.
“There aren’t enough turmeric arrows yet, though.
The healers needed some of the roots for their paste, and we didn’t have much time to prepare after Thevan returned from the mountain. ”
I nodded. “Have the Porcugi breached the walls?”
“We’ve kept them on the beach so far, thanks to the combination of the fire and the turmeric.
” Sweat streaked down from Parushi’s hairline to her chin, leaving tracks in the ash that covered her face.
“We hit them with a fire arrow and then shoot the turmeric where we’ve burnt the scales off. But it’s not easy.”
The women dressing me stepped back, and I thanked them before running to the stables with Parushi at my side. Sima stomped impatiently as I tied on my belt with my sword and dagger. He’d flourished since leaving Banghervari, relishing his runs on the beach and training with our soldiers.
Before I mounted my horse, Parushi tossed me my bow and gave me a quiver full of arrows. It was filled with the traditional white feathered arrows, but there were three that had an orange color. I pulled one out and saw that even the shaft was golden.
Parushi said, “We’ve soaked those in turmeric.”
I grabbed an extra quiver, hooked it onto my belt, and placed the orange feathered arrows in there. I needed to know what I was reaching for.
Avinash appeared at the stables just as I settled on Sima’s back. “I’ll take you to General Thevan.”
We burst through the stable doors with a clatter that would have brought the grounds to a halt on any other day, but today it was consumed by the battle’s deafening clamor. Sima followed Avinash from the training grounds and into the gardens, snorting at the horse in front of him to go faster.
A horn announced my arrival as we rode toward Thevan.
He stood at a small table in the corner of a garden that was walled off from the beach but close enough to hear the signals from the battle.
The flowers here had been trampled into the earth until their colors were lost. A stack of coconut torches lay near a robust fire whose smoke obfuscated the view, making the once vibrant garden gray.
“Report, General,” I said.
Thevan stood at straight attention, but he brushed his hand over the rakhi I’d tied to the hilt of his talwar. “You should be with the rajkumari.”
“Don’t waste my time.” I dismounted and strode to his side. “Report.”
Thevan saluted, instantly becoming a soldier instead of a friend. Or whatever he was. “They’re attacking from the sea. And they keep coming. They’re fighting with greater ferocity than ever before, and any soldier that gets too close is snatched up and taken away.”
He gestured at the X’s on a map. “We have fires for the coconut torches all along the beach, but once we contain one group of Porcugi, another arrives. Even with the coconut torches and the turmeric arrows, it’s difficult.”
I studied the parchment on the table as Thevan spoke.
A line of X’s ran parallel to the fort’s beach wall, and two more arcs of X’s extended off the line and created semicircles toward the port.
A few on the outer arc had been scribbled out, so I assumed those fires had been compromised during the battle.
A horn on the beach blasted four short notes and two long, then two short and two long. Thevan slammed his fist onto the table, and Parushi paled.
My general rubbed his forehead as he crossed out two more of the fires on the outermost arc. He called out to the man with the horn, “Fall back to the inner arc!”
The horn’s command was taken up, and there was even more shouting from the beach. Thevan turned to me. “Our soldiers are giving everything they can, but I don’t know how much longer we can hold them. You need to get to safety.”
“I’m not leaving.” I stared at the smoke billowing up from the beach.
A wail pierced the air, and there was a thud followed by feral screams.
“The general’s son is dead!” someone yelled, and more and more voices took up the call.
“The general’s son? What son?” I asked Thevan, who stared at me in confusion. He was my only general, and he had no son—even if he’d fathered a child, the boy wouldn’t have been old enough to fight. What general could they mean?
Thevan frowned, and Parushi looked at me like I had two heads. Maybe five.
“What are you talking about?” Parushi had to shout to be heard over the pandemonium.
There was a loud cheer as the horns blasted a signal I did not recognize.
“One of their leaders has fallen,” Thevan said. “The ones with rings on their hoods seem to be in charge, and one of them was killed.”
One of their leaders. The only ones on the beach were us and the Porcugi.
Perhaps their general’s son had been killed.
I listened to the sounds on the beach more carefully.
The yells of our soldiers were clear and crisp, but there were other voices too.
They spoke with a strange accent and carried their s’s for far too long, much like the voices I’d heard in Banghervari.
Matanta had said the Spirits had given me many gifts . . .
“Rani, are you—” Parushi began.
“Shh!” I held my hand up.
“Fall back! Fall back to the general!” The strange voices were so clearly inhuman now.
There was only one explanation: I could understand the Porcugi.