The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen #1)(61)
“She is there now,” said the woman by my elbow, still clutching my hand. “The courtiers are talking about forcing her to break her vow of chastity. The Raja will make her marry. He will make her leave Bharata and her wedding will be her exile.”
“He is furious,” whispered the boy. He mimicked his hands as if he had a swollen belly. Skanda.
Joy and fury warred inside me. Gauri was alive. But now they wanted me to send my own sister to the forefront of a war against a kingdom that would claim so many of Bharata’s people. The crowd pushed us forward, smiling around mouths full of blessings as they damned my sister.
“Is this what fame is like?” whinnied Kamala into my ear. “How delightful.”
“This isn’t fame,” I whispered back to her. “This is fear.”
As we walked forward, I wondered if Skanda had kept our father’s sanctum the same. Maybe that’s why he held court outside. Maybe he never wanted to see helmets piled up, their spaces in the iron opened up for smiles and screams or blood-choked cries. Or maybe, it was too full of helmets to make room for people and plans. Maybe it was just a mausoleum now.
The people formed a dense semicircle around me and Kamala. We stood at the end of the Raja’s welcoming “hall.” It was a makeshift platform. Up close, the lotus blossoms that I thought had strung its sides were nothing more than artfully folded ribbons of silk. Had we run out of flowers too?
Skanda braced his elbows on his knees. The smile he flashed was too narrow.
“You are the first ascetic to pass through the realm of Bharata in quite some time,” he said.
A layered greeting. Skanda had at least some shadow of our father’s style. But there was also a glint in his eye. He did not believe I was a sadhvi and I didn’t blame him. I moved awkwardly in my hermetic garb, constantly tugging at the turmeric-yellow robes and pushing the crusted ash and salt off my skin. Maybe a real sadhvi wouldn’t do such a thing.
“To what do we owe this honor?”
Every pair of eyes turned to me. I pushed my body a little closer to Kamala, fumbling for the right words.
“I—” I paused, racking my brains and thinking of the boy’s words. “I’m here to see … Gauri.”
Skanda’s eyes narrowed.
“The Princess Gauri.”
Oh God, I hope I am right. I hope that’s who the boy meant. I hope he didn’t take me for a fool.
“Why?”
“I have traveled across … places … places of great woe. Of great”—I turned, looking at the crowd of people pressing up one against the other, and thought about everything they’d said and everything they wanted—“of great sorrow. I am here to warn you that no place is safe. And that an army is necessary to protect its people.”
“We have enough of our army remaining.”
Before I could say another word, a furious growl ripped across the platform. I jerked my head up just in time to see Gauri storming across the stage and pushing aside the weak efforts of Skanda’s guards to block her.
“Remaining,” she repeated in a furious voice.
I could hardly speak. Joy blossomed in my heart. Here she was. Gauri was safe. More than that, I realized, as I followed the expressions on the citizens of Bharata’s faces: She was adored. Gauri was strongly built, and she wore her hair like I once had, scraped back in a tight braid.
Even as she glowered, dimples flashed in her cheeks. But the most striking thing of all was what she wore. She had forsaken the garb of the harem women and wore the armor of a soldier. But her outfit was different; it was inlaid with emerald, so that when she moved, the light skittered across the metal like light dancing on a pond. She looked like a beautiful naga woman, a snake goddess wreathed in light, moving serpentine and sly.
“You cannot be serious, brother, even the sadhvi has pointed out the error of your ways. Our city could come under attack at any point. We should be ready. You should send me to reclaim the lost troops from the Ujijain Empire.”
“My city,” corrected Skanda, this time standing up so fast, he toppled a platter of sweets that was waiting beside him. “My empire. I have indulged you for too long. I allowed you to train beside the other soldiers. I allowed you to show your feats of archery to the citizens of Bharata. I allowed you to leave the harem and walk through the cities, acting as my ambassador. And now you dare to spar with me in front of an audience?”
One man beside me clenched his jaw, and I sensed that a fight would break out in her defense if Skanda made one wrong move. Skanda must have noticed because he suddenly sat down, his face assuming a blanket of calm.
“Now that the sadhvi woman is here, perhaps we could let her decide.”
No one would argue with that. Even Gauri bowed her head deferentially. I shifted my feet and attempted some measure of mysticism and authority.
“Does your stomach ail you?” whispered Kamala.
My attempt clearly failed.
“I would be honored to settle the dispute,” I said loudly.
Gauri was looking at me quizzically, her eyes roving over my face and hands … settling at my neck. Did she recognize the necklace that was once hers? If she did, she gave no sign. I bowed at the hip, deftly spinning the sapphire pendant away from my throat and onto the back of my neck. I loved Gauri, but if she didn’t trust me, she might out me as a thief by accident.