The Silent: Irin Chronicles Book Five(44)

“That doesn’t work with me,” Vasu said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Leo knew exactly what he was talking about. He also knew—or he suspected—why the mention of Arindam’s name had provoked such a reaction in Vasu earlier. Ginny had said Arindam was making attacks in northern India. According to Ava, who knew Vasu as well as any of them did, Vasu made his home in an ancient city in Rajasthan, which was northwestern India. It was likely that Vasu, who didn’t have many sons after years in hiding, was feeling the pressure of an enemy near his territory.

“That was Niran.” Alyah walked back to the dining table. “They rode up to the border, but they couldn’t find any trace of them.”

Kyra shook her head. “They should have taken me with them.”

“No, they shouldn’t have,” Leo said.

“Don’t be overprotective,” she said. “You’re not my brother.”

“No, I’m your…” He shut his mouth. It wasn’t the time. Not with a Fallen angel and an audience. “They wanted to ride as fast as possible. I’m sure that’s all they were thinking.”

Sura said, “They won’t go into Burma without more people. Once you go that far north, Arindam’s Grigori are everywhere.”

“So what are we going to do?” Kyra said. “We need to get Prija back.”

“We will,” Sura said, “but it’s better to be prepared than fast. Don’t forget, Prija can defend herself. Like the Fallen said, they want to use her as a weapon. They won’t harm her.”

Vasu pointed at Sura. “He has a plan. They both do.”

Leo asked, “What is he talking about?”

Sura sat at the table and folded his hands. “We’ll wait for Niran.”

Vasu rested his chin on his hand. “Boring.”

“I don’t care.”

Vasu disappeared.

Everyone froze, but the Fallen didn’t reappear. Not even when Kyra reached over and took the bowl of sticky rice.

“Vasu?”

Nothing.

“Huh,” she said. “I guess he’ll come back when it gets interesting again?”

Leo said, “With Vasu, you never know.”

Alyah said, “My country was boring until you came to it, Leo. Tell me why I shouldn’t put you on a plane and send you far, far away.”

“Because I think I know what Vasu was talking about.” Leo looked at Sura. “And so does he.”



“When we killed our father, we didn’t do it alone,” Niran said. “There was no way we could have managed it. We had help.”

The two Grigori brothers, Alyah, Leo, and Kyra were sitting at the dining table again, the map still spread in front of them. Niran looked exhausted and angry. He’d ridden for two and a half hours, up to the Burmese border, trolling through the villages and side roads for an hour in the middle of the night before he returned. There was no sign of Prija or her captors. Niran was certain they’d crossed into Arindam’s territory.

Leo said, “Sura said he used his father’s enemies in the plan to kill him. Were they Arindam’s sons?”

Niran hesitated, then nodded.

“I am the one who made the connection,” Sura said. “I’d performed Sak Yant on several of them. I was living away from our father in the mountains along the border. There were like-minded Grigori there, trying to live quietly. After some time, trust built between us. We knew we would never be free if our fathers lived. As long as they ignored us, we could live as we wanted. But the minute our fathers called us, we would come.” Sura’s face was bleak at the memory. “We would answer their call and do whatever they asked.”

“We had no choice then,” Niran said.

Sura lifted his eyes. “We made a plan to free ourselves. First we would kill Tenasserim. Then we would kill Arindam.

“But it didn’t work out that way.”

“No. Our brother Kanok had become close to Intira’s mother when she was pregnant. Though she was human, he developed strong feelings for her. Intira’s mother survived her birth, but Tenasserim called for her too quickly after the baby was born. She did not survive more than a month.” Sura’s face filled with sorrow. “She was a bright woman. A student at the university in Chiang Mai, but she was enamored of our father, as all the human women were. Kanok was devastated when she died. He could speak of nothing but killing our father. Prija helped him. She spoke then. They plotted to kill Tenasserim and only told us a few hours before they moved. We were able to call a few of Arindam’s sons who were close, but we didn’t have many. Prija engaged our father while the three of us attacked him.”

“Arindam’s sons held off our brothers as well as they could, but two of them were killed,” Niran said. “Sura and I survived, but Kanok did not. Prija was in a coma for a year. When she woke, she didn’t speak anymore.”

Leo said, “And Arindam’s sons lost the taste for rebellion.”

Niran nodded. “They decided that they could not bear the losses to their number, even if it meant staying under their father’s rule.”

“You cannot discount that Arindam has always been more generous with his offspring than Tenasserim was,” Sura said. “Many of their number are hundreds of years old because their father feeds them power.”