Page 118 of The Surviving Sky
Some of the pressure in Ahilya’s lungs released.He’s alive. She obeyed, and Dhruv drifted out of her vision.
She didn’t know how much time had passed, but the next time she woke, she was alone. Ahilya sat up slowly. Her every muscle ached. Her right arm was in a cast of bark, but she could move. She touched the ridges along her throat. The skin was bruised but the bumps were receding.
Standing up took a long time. Ahilya had to clutch the wall next to her to pull herself up. She was in a small chamber. If she’d stood in the center and extended her arms, she’d have touched opposite walls. Ahilya willed the bark to part, and it creaked open to a narrow corridor.
She stumbled through it, confused. The corridor, lit by tiny glowglobes, led into a balcony. Ahilya lurched toward the railing, looking down. Blue-green light sparkled below in what appeared to be a tiny courtyard. Trajecting lights. The Architects’ Disc. She was in Nakshar’s temple. Nakshar had survived. But theshape…thisshape…She was up so high.
Ahilya’s heart started to race again. Vertigo gripped her. The temple looked like a gigantic beehive, a hundred narrow corridors leading away from the central railings into darkness. When she squinted, she could see other shapes leaning on the railings in the lower levels. It seemed all of Nakshar’s citizens had been brought to the temple. Her mind reeled; this design resembled the landing architecture so many weeks earlier. Iravan’s landing architecture. Had there been another lull? Were they finally landing? Where was Iravan? Why hadn’t he come to her?
Hurried footsteps sounded behind her, and Dhruv emerged from the dark corridor.
“Oh, thank rages,” the sungineer said. “I wondered where you were. How are you feeling?”
“Thirsty,” she said. Dhruv was carrying more water, and this time, he let her take the jug from his hands and drink.
“How long?” she asked when she was finished.
“Three weeks on the whole,” he replied, accepting the jug back. “You’ve been under sedation to heal, and you’re recovering. That’s good. Tariya and I were worried. She’ll be back soon. She’s been helping on the infirmary floor.” Dhruv studied her face. “Do you remember much?”
“Nakshar…disintegrating.” A sob grew in Ahilya’s throat, and she swallowed it back painfully. “Tellme…what happened.”
“There was an attack,” Dhruv said slowly. “A yakshaattack—thisbird-yaksha—”
Ahilya shook her head. She remembered it, but her mind could not accept this. Yakshas did not attack. They were not predators.
“The creature was huge,” Dhruv went on. “And,well…we don’t know very much. The yaksha came out of nowhere, and the next moment, the ashram was breaking apart. The rudra tree survived, as did most of the temple, but it was a near thing. All thecitizens—thesurvivingcitizens—they’vebeen brought here.Thisis Nakshar now.” He swept a hand out the railing, toward the honeycomb they were in.
The bile rose in Ahilya’s throat. In her mind’s eye, she saw a piece of Nakshar fall away again, bodies hurtling into the night sky.
Dhruv answered her unspoken question. “We lost too much. The library, so many homes, much of the solarlab—it’sall gone. I was in the temple when it happened, but so manysungineers—they’re—”Tears filled his eyes. He started to tremble.
Ahilya grasped his arm, and he engulfed her in a hug, careful of her cast. She patted his back, disoriented, unable to help him, unable to speak. When he pulled away after a minute, his eyes still shone with tears but his voice was more composed.
“You should return to your chamber,” he said. “You need to rest. Recover and rest. It’s up to the sungineers and the architects now. There’s nothing you can do.”
Ahilya shook her head. He was trying to dismiss her. She needed to know why. She pressed his arm and searched his face. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Dhruv wiped his eyes. “Nothing. We’re flying under critical conditions now. Everything is rationed. We won’t last very long, but Reikshar is flying toward us.We…we don’t know if it will arrive in time. Kiana, Laksiya, andI…we’re trying something with thespiralweed—”
“Spiralweed,” Ahilya said, her eyes widening. “You told them about it.”
“I didn’t have a choice. We’re staring annihilation in the face now, Ahilya. We’ve lost so much, and the citizens are panicked. All that fear, all thatconfusion—Ichose to tell Kiana about the battery, and she and the others in the council chose to tell the citizens; to give them some hope. The city responds to people’s desire, and if I—we—hadn’t made the decision, we wouldn’t be able to sustain even this.” He waved a limp hand at thetemple—atNakshar—anddropped it. “The spiralweed is a desperate attempt for a battery, even for a short-termbattery—justenough until Reikshar reaches us. But we haven’t tested our prototype yet.It’s—it’snot looking good.”
Ahilya swallowed, and nodded; it was the right decision, but Dhruv did not meet her gaze. She pointed at the courtyard below them. “I have to get down there. It’s where Iravan is, isn’t he? What’s the fastest way?”
“I…”
“He must be unhurt and working, or he would have been right next to me. Yousaid—”Ahilya’s voice faltered. “You said he was alive. He is, isn’t he?”
“Theyaksha—hewas fightingit—trajectingat it. But the otherssaw—he…”Dhruv took a deep breath. “The yaksha took him away. I’m sorry. He’s as good as dead.”
“No.”
“Ahilya, please, I know this ishard—”
“You said he was alive. You said so.”
“I—”Dhruv reached for his glasses, but Ahilya arrested his movement with her hand.
