Star Daughter(94)

He broke off midsentence and blinked a few times. His lip curled, and he gave a minute shake of his head. To anyone else, it probably looked like he’d lost his place.

Dev chewed on a fingernail as he watched his cousin. Whatever he’d said to Jeet, he definitely still cared. Sheetal wished so hard she could spare him whatever was coming.

Rati only waited, shackling Jeet with her daggerlike stare. Sheetal saw the moment when he caved, his eyes closing, his head bowing slightly.

When Jeet started again, it was in a completely different tone of voice, one much lighter. “I will spin you a tale so rare it is unknown to most of this court—its true ending concealed to date. You may consider it a secret history of the star hunters.”

Minal gripped Sheetal’s arm hard enough to bruise. She barely noticed the pain. Rati had warned them. I will tell the court myself.

Only she was making Jeet her microphone.

Nana and Nani descended from the stage and onto the platform in a flood of silver light. “Be still, boy,” Nani commanded, while Nana bore down on Jeet. “We have no time for your misguided attempts at horseplay.”

Sheetal sneaked another glance at Dev. He sat frozen.

Jeet kept reciting as if Nani hadn’t spoken, projecting his voice until it carried to the farthest corners of the chamber. “Upon learning the mortal man Chandrakant had willingly bled her sister, Ojasvini, stealing her lifeblood daily until she nearly perished, the Esteemed Matriarch of House Pushya, Eshana, journeyed to the mortal world in search of retribution. There she sought out Chandrakant and ended his life with the same knife he had used on Ojasvini. . . .”

Sheetal tasted acid at the back of her throat. All around and through her, the starsong trembled with indignation and support for Nani’s actions. How dare that mortal treat a star so cruelly?

If Rati had expected the court to condemn Nani for that, she couldn’t have been more off.

Smug and relieved both, Sheetal peeked at Rati to see how she was taking being so wrong.

The smirk on Rati’s face might as well have been a bucket of ice water, the way Sheetal froze. The story wasn’t over yet, after all, and from the cunning way Rati watched Jeet, whatever he was about to say would be beyond horrible.

Stop, Sheetal silently begged Jeet. Just stop.

“. . . but not before she cast away the child Ojasvini had borne him. Her own daughter Charumati’s cousin.”

The starsong exploded into a thousand screams.

Child? Sheetal reeled. There had been a child?

“That is more than enough,” said Nana. “You are wasting the judges’ time.”

“Ah, but my champion is permitted the entirety of his turn,” Rati called from her tent. “And I for one would hear the rest of his story.”

The Esteemed Matriarch of House Dhanishta nodded. “She is correct. Continue, mortal Jeet Merai, if you would.”

Nani’s mouth puckered in anger, but there was nothing she could do.

“Though she might have brought him here,” Jeet narrated with a little too much fanfare, “instead Eshana abandoned the poor babe, her sister’s offspring, to a mortal family, leaving them no guidance.

“Traumatized by her ordeal, Ojasvini made no protest as her sister ripped the infant from her arms. In shock, she accompanied Eshana to the gates of Svargalok. But as Eshana moved to enter the palace, Ojasvini’s clouded eyes cleared. ‘I will not forsake my child,’ she said. ‘I must go back for him.’

“‘But you cannot bring him here,’ Eshana replied. ‘Not when that man nearly bled you dry!’

“‘The court has always accepted all our children, mortal blood or no, and raised them into full stars,’ Ojasvini said. ‘It is our duty to do so. Moreover, he is my son, and I love him as I once loved his father.’

“Eshana knew this to be so, yet she could not abide the thought of that mortal’s child living among the stars. ‘You must not do this. I will not permit you.’

“Ojasvini grew sorrowful. ‘You would punish my son for the sins of his father? Well, I will not. Tell me where he is.’

“Eshana refused. ‘I have placed him with a mortal family. That is all you need to know.’

“Ojasvini implored her, even throwing herself at Eshana’s feet, but Eshana would not yield. Finally Ojasvini turned away to descend once more. ‘No matter how long it takes, I will find him,’ she swore.

“Eshana’s overweening pride outweighed her compassion, and though she knew stars could not survive for long in the mortal realm, she let her sister go. She was certain Ojasvini would soon come to her senses and resume her life among the stellar court.”

Listening, Sheetal grew sicker and sicker. Would Nani have abandoned her, too?

She spun one of her bangles around and around. Worse, would Nani lock the gates behind her as soon as the competition was over?

“Time passed, yet Ojasvini did not return. Eshana initially attributed it to obstinacy. Then more time passed, and even her hard heart could not withstand her sister’s absence. Eshana began to rue her own rashness and slipped away to the mortal realm to find Ojasvini—and the babe she realized she should never have given away.

“But there was nothing to be found. Eshana had waited too long. By the time Ojasvini had located her son, his flame had escaped him and razed the house where he dwelled, taking his foster family and him with it. Though the firmament soon tore at her tattered heart, mandating she return, Ojasvini spurned its many calls. She would not leave without her son, and so, she slowly extinguished.”