Page 32 of The Surviving Sky
Bharavi’s eyes were full of sorrow. She shook her head again. “I’m so sorry.”
“Or he must still be in the jungle,” Ahilya said, weeping. “Still held up by Iravan’s vines. Iravan had him. Hehadhim.”
Bharavi pressed her shoulder, and the healbranch vines over Ahilya retracted. Ahilya let herself be led away. Behind them, Kiana and Laksiya’s soft conversation returned. Bharavi stopped by a leafy wall, and the leaves separated to reveal a glass magnifier. The Senior Architect pinched her fingers and spread them apart. The view expanded.
Ahilya’s words died away. There, underneath them, was the jungle.
In a way, from up high, the earthrage was even more terrifying. Ahilya heard it in her head, the gnashing of rocks, the rush of the storm, the whipping of the wind. The jungle appeared a dark, bestial creature, writhing and churning in its own madness, massive balloons of dust exploding into the earth. She wanted to look away, but she couldn’t. How long had Oam lasted in his armor? Had he been in pain? She hoped there hadn’t been pain.
“It all happened too fast,” Bharavi said, her arm still around Ahilya. “The earthrage began nearly on the heels of the landing. Maybe minutes after you and your team left. I’m surprised Iravan was able to traject in the jungle at all. In here, it was chaos. All the Maze Architects who had been sent off duty had to be called back. We needed to take off immediately, but we didn’t have enough architects ready. We didn’t even have flight architecture inplace—wehad to reuse Iravan’s landing design.”
Thick tears clogged Ahilya’s throat. She couldn’t breathe properly. She’d told Oam she’d keep him safe. He’d been scared.We shouldn’t be here, Iravan had said.We should be back in the ashram. What had she done? Had she killed her husband, too? She should have called the expedition off. She should never have allowed any of them to take such a risk.
Bharavi sighed. “This has never happened before. We didn’t even know the earthrage was happening until the first tremors. At the very least, the lull lasts a few hours. The shortest ever recorded was seven hours. But this?”
Ahilya swallowed. Her face felt sticky. She brushed her fist to her eyes, her chin. She knew this about the length of earthrages, but she couldn’t speak. Her chest hurt as she tried to draw in a breath.
“We thought you had returned,” Bharavi continued. “By the time your sungineerfriend—Dhruv?—wasable to tell Kiana about your absence, it was too late. We couldn’t risk waiting any longer, not in the jungle, at least. The best we could do was rearrange Nakshar’s architecture so we could hover safely, but it was a slim hope. Nothing survives an earthrage. We didn’tthink…”Bharavi’s voice shook. “We didn’t think any of you would comeback….”
Ahilya turned her eyes away from the chaos below to gaze at the Senior Architect. No architect explained themselves unduly to a non-architect; even Iravan would have kept his words restrained. Why was Bharavi saying all this now? Merely to comfort Ahilya?
Bharavi’s eyes were troubled. “Whatever Iravan wasdoing…I’ve never seen trajection like that before. None of us have. We didn’t feel him in the Moment. We couldn’t even keep track of all the plants he was trajecting.That…that’s very bad.”
Ahilya stared at her. “Wh-why didn’t you help him?”
“It couldn’t be risked. We can’t allow any jungle plants inside Nakshar, andhe—allofyou—werecovered in those contaminants. Only Iravan knew what those plants were. We couldn’t, in good conscience, unlock the bark to help you.”
“And if it had been three architects out there? Could you have helped then?”
Bharavi shook her head. “Ahilya, it’s not about that. Our survival depends on such rules. We will always do what’s best for the ashram.”
But preservingarchitectswas what was best for the ashram. That hadalwaysbeen the best for the ashram.
Ahilya turned away back to the magnifier, sickened and confused. She couldn’t make a clear thought. Was she doubting Bharavi now? The woman was her family. This was her own fault.Shehad failed. She had been the mission’s commander. She had let Oam die.
She blinked her tears back, trying to discern the jungle, but Nakshar had ascended too far now. Despite the magnifier’s enlargement, all Ahilya could see of the earthrage was the dust. She had waited at the city’s terrace only a few hours earlier, wanting to study these very dust patterns. Years had passed since then. Hysteria built in her, threatening to bubble out as incongruent laughter.
“So, it was Iravan who let us in?” she asked dully.
Bharavi shifted her weight. “Ahilya, it shouldn’t have been possible. He trajected your entry while simultaneously stripping his trajection of the jungle. That’s very advanced, even for a Senior Architect. He broke several known limits of trajection.But…”She drew a deep breath. “You’re here. You’re alive. And that’s what matters.”
Us, Ahilya thought.But not Oam.
The citizen ring felt heavy on her finger. She nudged the useless thing with a light hand, and Nakshar’s map blinked over her palm again, showing her all the architect areas under construction, while the rest of the city lay dark.
“Whatever happens now,” Bharavi said, “you have to remain calm. All right? Try and staycalm—”
“Why didn’t the alarm go off?” Ahilya interrupted.
Bharavi frowned. She looked past Ahilya.
Ahilya turned around. She heard the scrape of bark, the magnifier closed, and they stood once again in a temple separate from the jungle.
Kiana and Laksiya stared at her. Her question had carried into the quiet temple. From near Iravan, Airav and Chaiyya arose. Iravan struggled to sit up on the chair that had grown under him. His eyes were open but unfocused. Shadows stood out despite his dark skin.
Ahilya lurched over to him. “Are you all right?” she asked.
She grabbed his hand and pressed it to her cracked lips. He raised his eyes to her and squeezed her fingers, so gently it was a mere hint. Ahilya breathed deeply. He was injured, but he was going to be fine. He had to be fine.
