The Library of Fates(64)

I nodded, but I still felt a wave of uncertainty.

“Have you decided where you’re going?” she asked me.

I shook my head.

“I should check on Thala,” I told her and walked over to the cot. Thala was sitting up, stretching. She looked as though she was waking up from the most restful sleep of her life.

I hugged her. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

But she had no interest in small talk. “Did you talk to him? Can he take us to the Library?” She pulled away, trying to read me.

I shook my head sadly.

“What do you mean?” She scrunched up her nose in frustration. “I saw you there, Amrita.”

“He wouldn’t,” I said. “We have to find another way.”

She appeared exasperated. “Did you even ask?”

“If it were an option, he would have offered.”

“I hope you’re both ready.” I heard Kalyani’s voice behind us. “We’ll need to depart together. Makara is ready to transport you wherever you’d like to go,” she said.

I nodded and thanked her, turning back to Thala.

“Well?” Thala glared at me.

“When he opens his mouth, don’t be scared,” Kalyani was calling out to the Sybillines who were lining up to exit the caves. They were talking among themselves, laughing, entirely unaware of where they were headed, and yet, they appeared blissfully happy.

Ignoring Thala for the moment, I got up and walked toward them.

“Kalyani, did you say we could go anywhere?” I asked.

Kalyani nodded. “Anywhere in the world. Makara is the gateway to all places.”

“Can we travel to the past?”

Kalyani smiled. “I don’t see why not.”

I threw my arms around Kalyani, embracing her tightly.

“Thank you,” I cried.

She laughed. “Thank you,” she said to me, her eyes shining. She was carrying a small bag with a skin of water and a quilt.

“That’s all you’re taking?” I asked her.

“I think where we’re going, we won’t need very much.”

“Do you think you’re going where my father and Mala went?”

“No. Everybody who leaves this world doesn’t die.”

“But how can that be?” I asked her. “That’s practically the only thing all human beings have in common. We’re born. We die. If you’re not dying, where are you going?”

“That’s the mystery,” she said. “We’re going where only the Sybillines can go.”

“Will I ever see you again?”

“That I can’t tell you for certain, but I have a sense that you might.” She smiled a mischievous smile, and I knew I would simply have to take her word for it.

Suddenly, Thala was beside me. “Are you going to tell me what your plan is?” she asked, but I said nothing. I knew my silence would annoy her, but I wasn’t sure how she’d react if I told her the truth, and I couldn’t think of any other option than to take this leap.

I watched as Kalyani threw open the door to the caves, exposing Makara, a smile on his blue face.

Kalyani turned to me one last time. “Wait for us all to leave. Then it will be your turn. Tell Makara where you’d like to go. Any place, any time. I wish you nothing but luck. And I’m honored to have met you,” she said, bowing before me. “Choose wisely.”

“Thank you,” I told her, embracing her and Tamas one last time. “Good luck on your journey.”

“And good luck on yours,” she said before Tamas turned to Makara.

“Makara,” he gently said, “show us the way.”

Makara opened his mouth so wide that it was large enough to swallow any one of us. But when I looked into his jaws, I saw the same place that Kalyani had shown me earlier that day. A spiral of cosmos, the night sky, waiting for the Sybillines.

“Goodbye,” Kalyani said, as she stepped into Makara’s lips.

I gasped, and Thala gripped my palm tightly, but Kalyani was already gone. All that remained was a dark tunnel full of stars, a passageway into a place that was as mysterious as that sky.

I watched as Tamas followed Kalyani. One after another, all of the Sybillines walked through the portal until they had disappeared into that shroud of darkness and light, and the cave where they had lived for centuries was silent, deserted once again.

“It’s just like how it was when they found it.” I smiled, feeling an odd hint of recognition, a wave of déjà vu overcoming me. “Where do you think they’re going, Thala?” I asked.

Thala softened for a moment. “To a place that I can’t see. But it’s magnificent, I know that. Maybe one day, we’ll get the chance to go there too.”

Slowly, Makara’s mouth closed, and then we were looking into his face, playful and serene.

Thala turned to me. “But more important, where are we going?”

For a moment, I hesitated. I thought about all the places we could go. I could go back in time before Sikander came to Shalingar, but then Thala would still be a slave. I could return to my childhood, relive those blissful years, but what good was that bliss if I now knew what would come?

I turned to Makara. “Makara,” I said to him, trying not to betray my fear of him, “I want to go back in time. I want to go to the place where my mother and father met. Where they first met Sikander,” I said.