The Rogue Queen (The Hundredth Queen #3)(30)

Old, held-in anger charges out of me. “Did you ask Anu to send you a Burner?” Healer Baka concealed the truth of my bhuta heritage to protect me from Tarek’s hatred for my kind. Though her justifications were well founded, I have yet to recover from her deception.

“Brother Shaan wrote me to say you’re full into your powers.” Her voice brims with pride. “Let me have a look at you.” She comes and turns me into the light.

“I haven’t changed much. I’m still thin as bamboo.”

“Haven’t changed? You’re a rani!” She skims her palm up my cheek, her eyes shining. “You’ve become the woman the gods intended.”

I tug her hand away. “Jaya—” My voice shreds to a rasp, and before I can stop them, tears pour down my cheeks. “Jaya’s dead.”

Healer Baka enfolds me in her arms. No one else knew Jaya as well as I did, except for Baka. When Jaya died, I had no one to mourn her with, no one who fathomed my bereavement. “She’s well, Kali. Jaya was good and pure. She’ll have a new life in her new form, and her loving spirit will continue to bless others. You may miss her, but do not mourn her. You will meet her again.”

I hold Baka tighter, clinging to her sentiments. “You truly think so?”

“Time is relative in the Beyond. Jaya will be born again, and you will reunite with her in another life.” My crying lessens to quiet hiccups. Healer Baka goes to close the door most of the way for privacy. Passersby would find it suspicious to find the infirmary sealed off. “Brother Shaan hasn’t written since your wedding. I began to worry.”

“A lot has changed since I left.” I set aside my grief to deliver the news. “Brother Shaan passed away.”

Healer Baka draws into herself. She and Shaan had a long-distance friendship that began in Vanhi years ago. They trusted each other implicitly. “I’ve missed more than I realized,” she says.

“Why don’t I tell you everything over a hot drink?” I am cold, and Healer Baka keeps the most delicious herbal tea mixes.

While she prepares the tea, I relay all that has happened. Unloading the burden of my loss for Jaya opens a floodgate of confessions: falling in love with Deven, murdering Tarek, my expansion of Burner powers, and Ashwin unleashing the Voider. The only part I omit is Healer Mego’s prognosis of my condition. Baka listens, interrupting only once for clarification about the Voider returning in the physical form of Tarek. Long after we sip the last of our tea, I finish my summary and await her reaction.

“I’m . . . I’m at a loss,” she says. “You and Natesa are friends?”

“Out of everything I told you, that surprises you most?”

“You forget that I helped raise you. I’ve seen stray cats get along better than you two.”

I chirp a laugh. “Well, it wasn’t without effort.”

“Kali, I’m so glad to see you again, but . . . you shouldn’t have returned.” My chin ticks sideways at her reprimand. “Your health is poor. I can tell you’re hurting more than you let on.”

“I’m fine,” I say, fiddling with my teacup.

Her expression does not change. “Even if that were true, you shouldn’t have agreed to meet Hastin here. He’s too dangerous.”

“He picked Samiya for our meeting place. I wouldn’t have considered accommodating him, but the demon rajah is marching on Vanhi as we speak.”

Healer Baka pulls back slightly. “Your intentions for coming here aside, you’ve brought more mouths to feed. We’re living off our fall harvest.”

“The prince is aware and has promised to arrange for aid.” I leave out that he has no idea how he will do so, and Healer Baka notices. She pushes her spectacles up her nose in a quick jerk, still troubled. “I won’t let anything happen,” I say, a guarantee that even to me sounds more convincing.

She holds my solemn gaze. “I have to tell Priestess Mita. For the good of our daughters, she needs to know.”

I lock my jaw. “The priestess sent me to die in Rajah Tarek’s rank tournament.”

“You lived.”

“But Jaya didn’t!”

Healer Baka lays her hand over mine. “Priestess Mita’s strongest virtue is obedience. She submitted completely to the rajah, perhaps to a fault. But you know as well as I do that she couldn’t have stood up to him.”

I uncross my legs and rub my sore knee. I can no sooner rid myself of its ache than I can set aside my resentment for the priestess or my longing for a future with Jaya.

“Let me give you something for your leg.” Healer Baka rummages through her herb cabinet and takes out a jar. “I’ll mix a salve for the pain.”

“An Aquifier has been healing me. She’s very gifted.”

Healer Baka lowers her chin and peers over her spectacles at me. “Not all gifted healers are Aquifiers.” She hands me parchment and a piece of charcoal and then waves at the cot in the corner, the one that was once mine. Jaya used to sit beside me and watch me sketch for hours. “This won’t take long. Have a seat and draw while you wait.”

I should return to the lower floor, but I do not trust myself alone with Ashwin. And I have not sketched in so very long. This opportunity to create is too precious to squander.

I settle into the lumpy straw mattress while Healer Baka crushes herbs at her workbench. The fragrance of brewed tea and chamomile strokes my nose. Although Jaya’s place remains empty beside me, I press the charcoal stick to the parchment and draw as though she is watching.