Page 16 of Invocation

He scoffed, looking like he couldn’t decide whether to take offense or apologize. He took the notebook.

“We’re looking for Ravi.”

She looked up at him. “Ravi?” she repeated, dumbfounded.

He nodded. He hesitated, then wrote more, propping his head on his hand. “There is a temple in Vondh Rav. The heart of the forest is there.”

“Heart?”

“The place where it was born. The source of the magic that gives it life. Ravi.” He glanced up at her guardedly, silently conveying the weight of this information. The description was vague enough that Novikke wanted to ask more questions about it. She resisted the urge.

“We’re going to ask her for help?” Novikke wrote.

He nodded.

She laughed faintly at the suggestion. She’d rather thought he’d had something more corporeal in mind.

“How does one speak to a god?” she asked.

“She does not speak. But she conveys her will and power to her priests.”

“So we’ll find a priest of Ravi, and they’ll be able to help us stop this thing that’s happening?”

He shrugged, not looking particularly optimistic. “I don’t know about these kinds of things,” he admitted. “But they will be able to help us if anyone can. If they can’t or won’t, I will go into the temple myself and attempt to speak to Ravi.”

“But you don’t think the rest of your people will be on board with this plan?”

He laughed ruefully, covering his face with a hand. “They will not appreciate a brother-killer trying to tell them that they should give him access to the most sacred place in Kuda Varai. They certainly won’t take my word on what they should do, and I don’t think we have the time it would take to convince them. We have to act quickly.”

“You think word travels that fast? They’ll know what you did?”

“Kuda Varai is large, but our numbers are small. We don’t often turn on each other. When someone does, it’s newsworthy.”

The topic made him look unhappy again, so she changed the subject.

“How far is the city?”

“We’ll be there by the night after tomorrow.”

Her stomach twisted with anxiety. They were so close already.

He was already writing something else and didn’t notice her distress.

“Vondh Rav is beautiful. I wish I were taking you there under more pleasant circumstances. I could show it to you.”

She tried to imagine getting a guided tour of Vondh Rav, and the image was so strange and ridiculous that she almost laughed. “What is it like?”

He thought. “It’s the only city I’ve been to. I don’t know what to compare it to,” he said, looking a little regretful. “It’s noisy. Even during the day. Too crowded. But it has everything. You’d never get bored there.”

“Did you grow up there?”

“No. I grew up in a village like Shadri’s. I moved to Vondh Rav when I got older…and then quickly moved away again.” He smiled wryly.

“I did the same with Valtos,” Novikke wrote. She twirled the pencil in her fingers, watching him. “I could show you Ardani.”

He said nothing. She knew what he was thinking without him having to write anything.

“If you need to leave Kuda Varai after this, I’ll take you. I meant it when I said I’d help you.”

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