Page 92 of Her Soul for a Crown
“I—I—” Anula tripped over the panic in Premala’s voice and the question it seemed to ask: whethershewas a threat to the kingdom.
“Why? It’s bad enough you made a bargain for the throne, but you brought them back! Do you have any idea what our ancestors went through to be rid of them? Don’t you know how much pain they caused? Don’t you care?”
“Yes!” Anula snapped. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have kept your secret. I wouldn’t have checked on the kitchen maids. I wouldn’t have dedicated my whole life to get here.”
Premala startled. “A-apologies, my—of course you care. It’s just…look what you’ve done.”
Anula clenched her jaw.
“For prayer’s sake, you can’t walk away from the Kattadiya. Not now,” Premala whispered. “Not even as raejina consort. You took the blood oath, Anula. If you try to leave now, they will denounce you and perform the tovil ceremony anyway.” Premala wrung her hands. “Please. They will kill you.”
“Let them try,” Anula said, running a trembling hand through her hair, as if she could shake off the guilt nipping at her neck. “I didn’t take a blood oath.”
“Yes, you did. You gave your blood to Guruthuma Thilini that first day.Thatwas the oath. You aligned yourself to the Kattadiya.”
Anula’s breath caught between her lungs and throat. The first time she had touched the guruthuma’s portrait had been at Premala’s request. To prove she wasn’t aligned with the Yakkas. There had been a prick, small and quick, like a mosquito bite. And though she’d touched Guruthuma Thilini’s hand plenty of times since, she wasn’t pricked again.
“Haven’t you noticed the compulsion?” Premala asked.“Outside these caves, you cannot speak the name of the Kattadiya. The oath compels you to keep us secret. And when Guruthuma Hashini deems it’s the right time, she will use the oath to call you here, and either you comply and become pure in the safety of her power, or you resist and are purged from our blessing. Then you’ll be just another bargainer, your life taken along with the Yakkas during the tovil. There is no leaving, Anula, not alive. So please, do as I say. Stay far away from the Yakkas, give me a few more days, and let me cast them from you. Let me end them, permanently.”
For once, the girl didn’t stammer, didn’t falter. But Anula felt as though she’d tripped over a mountainside, and the fall was long.
“Have a good time with your not-paramour?” Kama asked as Anula emerged from the brush.
“I was with the—” Her voice cut off. The air not caught but stifled. Ripped from her mouth and carried away.
Cursed Yak—cursed cosmos. Premala had been right: She couldn’t speak their name. Which meant she couldn’t explain, couldn’t warn or protect the Yakkas. Powerless, once again.
Anula scoffed. “I don’t need a paramour to have a good time with myself.”
Bithul narrowed suspicious eyes. Could he see the panic beneath her veins? The ocean rising over her head? She should have taken the first meeting with Nuwan as a sign, turned back and told Auntie Nirma that she wasn’t ready, that it wasn’t the right time. Perhaps she would still be alive. Perhaps they would’ve honed the plan, made contingencies, uncovered more truths.
Storm clouds darkened the gardens. If Auntie Nirma had been wrong about who’d ultimately burned Eppawala and their family, did that mean her plans for justice were wrong, too? Had Anula chosen the right path?
Look away.
She clenched a fist. Of course she had. Murder was murder, both on Earth and in the Heavens. Bringing justice to the guilty might have been Anula’s first and only good decision so far, but it wouldn’t be her last. She would find the Bone Blade and kill Wessamony, before the Kattadiya struck. She’d free Reeri and the Yakkas.
Then she’d free Anuradhapura.
35
Heat gently woke Reeri.
He sighed into it, inviting it to melt him further. There was a time he could not remember the sun’s touch. How it warmed him as if under a blanket of lion furs. How it drew the tension from his muscles like poison from a snakebite. How it weighed heavy on his chest, squeezed his forearm, drooled on his—
Reeri’s eyes snapped open.
Anula cinched her arms tightly around him, nuzzling his waist. A soft smile spread as she blinked up. A flush heated Reeri’s cheeks, and he wondered what those lips tasted like without poison.
“Now kiss him,” the blessed gift raejina whispered loudly overhead.
Anula jumped, tore away, and toppled off the bed.
“Oh,” the blessed gift raejina groaned. “You truly are not good at this.”
“They are a lost cause,” agreed the blessed gift raja. “Best wait for the next raja to choose another wife.”
Reeri let out a breath, cleared his head of lips and kisses, and leaned over the edge. “Your tincture worked.”
