Star Daughter(95)

Nani drooped all at once, no longer a fearsome matriarch but a sorrowing old woman. Her thread in the starsong frayed just enough to betray her grief before she regained control and raised her head high.

“In her wrath, Eshana petitioned for the gates between the realms to be closed, ending all contact between the starry court and mortals,” Jeet finished.

His vague expression solidified into confusion as he looked down at the audience, then went hollow with horror as Rati came up beside him. “You made me do that!” he rasped, clutching his throat like she’d choked him with a spell. Maybe she had. “I didn’t even finish reading my story.”

“Patience,” Rati said, not bothering to glance at him.

“Your turn is complete,” the ruling Esteemed Patriarch said. “Please vacate the platform.”

“What? No!” Jeet looked like he was about to detonate. Silver light swam under his skin, and his hands shook. “Tell him, Rati! Tell him I’m not done.”

Rati ignored him. “I told you the best house would win.”

Nani simply raised her eyebrows. “Do go on, both of you. I am certain everyone here can appreciate a good show.” To the watching Esteemed, she added, “Surely all of you see how ruthlessly Rati has manipulated her house’s champion, going so far as to feed him her blood. You cannot believe any words she puts into his mouth. She is using this hallowed tradition to further her own agenda.”

The court shimmered with the stars’ sheen, their hair and skin resplendent. All Sheetal could think, her mouth parched, was that Nani was going to get away with it.

Then Charumati rose and crossed the platform until she stood by her parents and Rati. “Jeet speaks true. Now I will offer the coda to his tale.”

Sheetal almost fell out of her chair.

Rati glowed like she’d just won the cosmic lottery.

Nana bent to whisper something, but Charumati shrugged him off. “When my mother returned from the mortal realm,” she said to the court, “only Nana even knew what she had done. Together, they concluded that though heinous in nature, her crime had not been unwarranted, and justice would best be served by closing the door on what had surely been an error born of passion. In return, she agreed to atone.”

She positioned herself opposite Nani. “Yet you did not. You became convinced that separation was the only way to heal the rift created between our peoples, and you have done everything in your power to make it permanent.”

“Was I then wrong?” asked Nani. She motioned to Jeet. “Is this mortal man then not after our blood?”

Jeet crossed his arms and glared at all of them. The tremors running through his body grew stronger as Dev took him aside.

“And these others—do they not seek us only for the glory we might provide them?”

Charumati’s eyes flared with silver flame, and her body blazed, limned in starlight. “You speak of selfish agendas. Yet you would use my daughter to serve your own. Even now, instead of viewing this moment as an opportunity to heal old wounds, you plan again to sever us from humanity altogether. My husband is mortal. My daughter, who stands before you and bears your blood in her veins, is half mortal. And still you would dismiss them as readily, as thoughtlessly, as specks of dirt swept off the floor.”

“What nonsense you speak!” Nani pressed her lips into a line.

“It is far from nonsense,” Rati said. “You care not who you hurt when they stand in the way of furthering your aims.”

The starry melody jangled, sending Sheetal’s already-fried nerves sparking. If she only knew what to say.

“Enough,” boomed Nana. He, too, shone like a torch. “Charumati, you are spoiling your own daughter’s competition.”

“If you cared about my daughter,” Charumati retorted, “you would not have coerced me to return here while she was still a child. You, Father, how you charmed and nagged, alleging I was harming us all by remaining below. You assured me it was for the best.”

A tiny door closed inside Sheetal. He had? Was anyone on her side?

In contrast to the smoldering room, Nani’s fire was controlled, scarcely evident in her face. But Sheetal could sense how she seethed. “Did we prevent you from bringing her along? You chose to leave her behind.”

“So you could turn her against the father who had nothing but love for her? So you could shame her for her heritage until she burned it away in self-loathing?” Charumati laughed, soft but disparaging. “I made many impulsive choices, yet even I knew not to do that.”

Nani sighed noisily, permitting the entire hall to hear her vexation. “And what, exactly, do you think to accomplish by throwing this public tantrum, my child?”

“Mother,” said Charumati, “the time for secrets is past. Humanity is suffering, and it is up to us to heal it.”

“Is that so,” Nani said dryly.

What was her mother doing? She’d told Sheetal she wanted to have enough supporters behind her before putting her plan into gear. Confronting Nani in public like this was only going to make her dig her heels in even deeper.

“It would appear there has been some turmoil in the House of Pushya,” said the Esteemed Patriarch of House Dhanishta, a sardonic cast to his mouth. “Perhaps you should consider withdrawing from the competition and tending to your internal affairs elsewhere? We do have a competition to complete.”