Page 73 of Her Soul for a Crown
Premala leaned closer. “That’s because the Kattadiya were nearly killed off, not by a usurper, but by the people. They didn’t want anyone healing those they had paid to curse. So the surviving Kattadiya disappeared. Only the trusted could find them.”
Mere weeks ago Anula had thought she knew the truth of the Heavens, the truth of the lies. Did she know nothing? She swallowed. Was all that the Blood Yakka told her true?
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Kattadiya do not act for themselves, only for the protection of others.” A voice drew near. The woman unmasked herself. Gray-streaked hair was wrapped tightly in a knot, and fine lines pinched her narrowed eyes. “I am Guruthuma Hashini of the Kattadiya. If you are amenable, we can help you break your bargain.”
Anula’s arm stung. She slapped a hand over it, willing her skin to stay in place a little while longer. “How? What was that?”
What had the Yakkas endured?
“It is called a tovil ceremony, and it’s the only way to control a Yakka,” the guruthuma said. “We will help you, on one condition.”
Anxiety rippled. At the sweat now streaming down her back, the pain sizzling up her arm like slow streaks of lightning, or the way the guruthuma’s eyes bore into hers, she couldn’t tell. She mustered a scoff. “To break a bargain, I have to make another one?”
“It’s not like that,” Premala blurted.
“Quiet, acolyte,” Guruthuma Hashini snapped. “She is allowed her questions. We come to you only because of your desperation in the market. Do you no longer wish to break your bargain? Does it not strangle and weigh heavy on your soul? Is it not the reason foryour…discomfort now?”
The air in the room dried in Anula’s lungs. How did she know? A piece of her skin flaked off. She caught it before the others saw. “What do you want?”
“It’s simple,” Hashini said. “We want your commitment to completing the tovil ceremony. We will teach you, if you promise to let us perform it and be rid of the Yakka curse you bargained upon yourself.”
Anula breathed heavy, clenching her teeth as a pain as sharp and bright as a sword dipped in fire sliced down her arm. Warm stickiness flowed between her fingers. She stood quickly, shuffling to the door. This was madness. She didn’t need to get involved with a woman who believed she was ordained by the First Heavens. With the masked people of a Yakka’s nightmares.
Did she?
The Blood Yakka was on the cusp of finishing his business. She would have the crown and throne, the names on her list, and true justice any day now…unless the relic was false.
Her pulse tripped over itself.
“Raejina Consort?” Premala asked, cocking her head. “You don’t have to be frightened. We’re here to help. No one has to know you are with us.”
“I’m not worried about what people think,” Anula said, minding racing, blood trickling faster. She backed into the night, closer to the Yakkas.
Perhaps she did need this, if only to threaten them. Clearly the Blood Yakka knew of the masked men—women. Clearly, he feared them. If she agreed, she’d have a second plan if the relic failed. And if it did complete the bargain, the Kattadiya would have what they wanted—her freedom. There was nothing to lose.
“I’ll do it,” she spat, sweat soaking her upper lip. “I accept yourdeal.”
“Excellent.” Guruthuma Hashini smiled. “Premala will collect you when it is time.”
The words wrapped around Anula’s arms, squeezed tight, as her skin flaked off and she fled the Kattadiya.
28
Only in slumber did the line betwixt Anula’s brows disappear.
Light breaths shifted tendrils of her hair across her face as she slept deeply. Whoever she had sneaked off to meet with in the night market had left a mark of worry. Reeri wondered at thewhoas much as thewhy, for someone had been important enough to risk the wrath of the tether.
“Watching again?” the blessed gift whispered overhead. “That is not how you attain progeny.”
Reeri bristled. “Leave me alone.”
“Three nights you’ve watched her now.” The raja tutted.
The wind whistled through the chamber. Three nights, was that all it had been since the night market? Three nights of vigilance, of keeping nightmares at bay. It seemed appropriate, since they were so close. A last reprieve, for her.
Yet if she had noticed, she said nothing. Spending her days wandering the gardens, she only spoke when asking if Nuwan had sent word. Each time, the crease betwixt her brows deepened.
