The Library of Fates(19)

Even though I knew this, I couldn’t quite wrap my mind around how fast it was all happening. “So that means we leave . . . tomorrow at dawn?”

Arjun reached for me, stroking my arm.

“Are we being selfish, Arjun?”

“I don’t know,” he said, leading me to the hammock, gently lifting me into it. I watched him for a moment before he grinned, slipping in with me. We began to laugh.

“If this were a magic carpet, we could just fly away in it,” I said.

“Too bad we don’t live in a Persian fairy tale.”

“We only dress like we do. For Sikander.”

Arjun laughed, and I kissed him again. I wanted to close my eyes and stay here, in this hammock, curled up in his arms forever. It felt like the most natural thing in the world. After all, this was how we had been since we were children. Only now, the desire between us had spoken, made itself clear.

“I love you, Arjun.”

“Thank God for that. I was afraid you were just using me for my body.”

I giggled, wrapping my arms and legs around him, and for a moment we were literally like two seeds in a tamarind pod. “Could you blame me if I was?”

“I guess that would be all right.” He shrugged, a smile across his face.

We were quiet for a moment before I asked, “If we leave, can we go find my mother?”

“You think he’s telling the truth about her being alive?”

“Maybe I’m just hopeful. We’ll be all alone. I can’t imagine never seeing Papa ever again.” Tears pierced my eyes. “Who else do I have?”

“You have me,” he insisted. “You’ll always have me.” His voice was fierce, his hand held my face, and I could see from his eyes that he meant it. “I can’t imagine never seeing you ever again.”

“Remember that story Mala used to tell us about the vetala and the Diviner?” I asked him. “I was thinking about it the other day, but I couldn’t remember it.”

It was the first love story Mala had ever told me, and now that I was in love, I couldn’t stop returning to it in my mind.

“I remember. The Diviners hated the vetalas; the vetalas hated the Diviners,” he said as he stroked my hair. “But they had some sort of agreement. They left one another alone. Until one day, a Diviner stumbled into vetala territory. She feared they would eat her soul, take her body, but instead, one of them fell in love with her.”

“How did it end?”

“The vetala was immortal and the Diviner wasn’t. So it ended with her dying and her vetala lover waiting centuries for her to be reborn, scouring every corner of the Earth in order to find her.”

“No wonder I forgot it. It’s too sad.”

“It’s all just folklore anyway, isn’t it? That’s what you always said.”

Before I could respond, I heard a quiet crack, followed by a rustling sound. I froze. Maybe it was just the wind. Or a twig snapping. But we were in an enclosed space; there was hardly any wind here.

“Did you hear that?” I whispered, trying to hide the frantic hitch in my tone.

“Hear what?”

And then I heard it again, except this time there was a scurrying sound that followed it. I pulled away from Arjun, trying to extricate myself from the hammock.

Something dashed around the edge of the courtyard, but it was impossible to see what—or who—it was from where we were, with all the palm fronds around us.

Maybe it was just a mouse, but my heart was beginning to race. “What was that, Arjun?” I whispered, beads of sweat forming on my upper lip.

I could see that he was nervous but he didn’t want to scare me. “Probably just a small animal.”

“What if someone saw us?”

He shook his head. “Nobody ever comes here.”

“Tippu the gardener does. We do.”

“Yeah, and that’s it. Tippu isn’t going to tell on us.”

“What if he heard us?”

“Then he heard us,” Arjun whispered. “We’ll be fine. I’m not going to let anything happen. Just . . . we should return to our quarters. Say your goodbyes to everyone . . . I mean, not literally, but in your own way.”

I took a deep breath. “You’ll be at the banquet tonight?”

He smiled a false smile. “Looking forward to it,” he said. “Do me a favor,” he added as I got up and brushed myself off. “Charm him tonight. I don’t want him to suspect anything.”

In less than twenty-four short hours, my life would change. I would leave my home, my family. And what awaited me out in that vast world I had barely seen a fraction of? It was the great Unknown, and it both frightened and thrilled me.





Ten



“THESE,” MALA SAID, her eyes wide, her hands holding up a sculptural pair of platform shoes studded in diamonds.

I hesitated, looking at the precarious and sparkling footwear: a combination that didn’t inspire confidence. I hesitated. “Can’t I wear sandals?”

“Girl, why don’t you just greet him in your pajamas, with grit in your eye and with your hair a snarled mess?”

I blushed. I could tell that Mala was just hurt because she had hand-selected the shoes for me, but she was right. I remembered what Arjun had said about charming Sikander.