The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen #1)(64)

“Tell me the moment the Dharma Raja’s representatives seem to move. Or do anything. Can you do that?”

“I can, I have, I shall, I will,” sang Kamala.

“Good.”

I tugged her reins, about to lead her to the palace temple when I heard a soft jumping sound behind me and felt the pointed edge of a dagger at my neck.

“Stop where you are, imposter.”

I stopped.

Kamala bent her head to me. “Surely I can eat that one.”

“No,” I hissed.

“No? You won’t stop?” said the voice, laughing. Gauri.

“I wasn’t talking to you. I was talking to the horse.”

Kamala snorted indignantly.

“I heard you talking to my brother.”

“So what?”

“I know exactly what you plan to do and I won’t allow it.”

This time, I turned around and faced her. Gauri was a full head taller than me. Strange that she used to run to me, wrapping her arms around my waist in a hug. I fought the urge to throw my arms around her. There was murder in her eyes, a calculating gaze no doubt caused by a quick and sudden immersion in court politics. And she had a military background to add to that. Smart girl. The moment I held her gaze, she paused, lips parted for just a moment before she looked away.

Had she recognized me? I wanted her to. I wanted her to see who I really was beneath the saffron robes, torn hair and ash-covered skin. But she shook her head, as if ridding herself of a momentary lapse, and refocused her dagger at my throat.

“You heard what I said to your brother. That means nothing in Bharata.”

A smile quirked on Gauri’s face.

“You don’t strike me as a charlatan,” she said.

Her tone, a questioning lilt, slammed me back through memory. In a blink, we were back in the Bharata I remembered, the capitol carpeted with lush trees and heavy with the perfume of wind-fallen fruit. And Gauri was once again the hesitant, soft-voiced eight-year-old who asked what we would be in her next life. Twin stars? Makaras with tails long enough to wrap around the world? I swallowed the lump in my throat, tamping down the memory like a dead fire.

“And you don’t strike me as a murderer,” I said, flicking aside the point of her dagger. “I want to help you.”

Gauri looked taken aback. A familiar rosiness spread across her cheeks.

“Why would you do that? What did you really come here for?”

I hadn’t known until now, but I saw it, felt it. I came here for her. Because it didn’t matter whether I had lived in another realm for years that I thought were mere days. It didn’t matter that I had tasted fairy fruit, fallen in love and broken a heart. Some bonds were impervious to all manner of experience. And the truth was that, no matter what happened, we were sisters.

“I came here because I’ve known about the villagers’ concerns for some time. I once lived in Bharata,” I said. “It is my home, and like anyone else I want to see that it will be safe. Loved. Cared for. The citizens prefer you far more than they do the current raja—”

“Careful, sadhvi, what you’re saying reeks of treason—”

“People always have their favorites,” I said calmly. I hated myself for even encouraging her to leave this place, to risk her life when I knew that I couldn’t protect her. But there were worse things that could happen to her if she stayed. She would be a prisoner. She would never get the chance to make her own choice. And if there was anything I could give her, some parting present for never being there when she grew up … it was that. A choice.

“What I’m suggesting would help you as much as it would help him. You could go and reclaim those lost soldiers. Boost morale. Do you really think you can do it?”

Gauri nodded, her eyes shining. “I know I can.”

Tears burned behind my eyes. Come back safe.

“And will you go alone?”

Gauri nodded again. “It is safer that way, not to risk anyone’s lives. And I know where they’re being kept. I’ve received word.”

She fell silent, her gaze distant and eyes fixed on a shaded area sequestered in a copse of once-bright lime trees. I knew that place … it was a rendezvous for lovers.

“The person you received word from,” I said after a while. “You love one of them, don’t you?”

Gauri started, a protest on the tip of her lips.

“I…,” she began before weakly trailing off. She quickly regained composure and her eyes narrowed. “That’s none of your concern.”

You are my concern, I wanted to say. You are my sister. But I said nothing. I just let her words hang in the air.

“The best motivation is love,” I offered.

Beside me, Kamala nodded vigorously. “And food!”

Gauri’s eyes widened. Like a ghost of sound laid atop the other, I heard what Gauri did—a sort of mangled neighing.

“Your horse is rather strange.”

Kamala nodded again.

“So what’s your plan, sadhvi? I heard what you said to my brother. If your grand design is announcing that I should go, he’ll never let you leave alive. He’ll call you crazy and denounce you. Trust me. I’ve been around long enough to witness how he handles dissent.”

“Then we won’t give him the chance. You will leave as soon as our meeting concludes. Right under his nose. And when you return, you will praise him.”