Page 31 of The Surviving Sky
He collapsed in her arms, unconscious.
She half-arose then, thinking of getting help, when she heard the crunch of footsteps. Ahilya spun toward the sound just as Bharavi appeared and pushed her aside. The short-haired woman fell to her knees next to Iravan, her face ashen. She pulled one of Iravan’s eyes open. The capillaries were blue, the pupil rolled back.
Bharavi cursed. She tore the tattered remains of Iravan’s kurta and lifted his bare arm to the sungineering bulb that appeared in the grass, supplied by Nakshar in response to her desire for light.
Illuminated by the golden beams, Ahilya saw what she hadn’t before. Iravan’s dark skin was crisscrossed with angry black welts. They looked like grotesque creepers, sharp and angry, burned as though permanently.
“He’s overextended himself,” Bharavi said, her tone clipped. “The trajection has left an afterimage. He needs help now, or his veins will incinerate.”
Ahilya’s heart skipped a beat. “The sanctum?” It was where architects were healed.
“This is beyond the sanctum.” Bharavi stood up. “He needs to be connected to the rudra tree directly now.”
She gestured for Ahilya to move away, and Ahilya scuttled back. Bharavi narrowed her eyes. Light exploded from her. Ahilya threw a hand up for shade, her eyes watering. When she lowered it, Iravan lay on a pale white healbranch platform, his head turned to a side. The waist-high platform began to skim forward. Bharavi swept past Ahilya, following it.
Ahilya struggled to keep up. “Will he be all right?”
“I don’t know. He needs Chaiyya now.”
Ahilya’s heart pounded harder. She reached to touch Iravan’s damp hair, but the platform moved too fast. Tears trickled down her face. Her mind couldn’t comprehend what had happened. They had been safe. She’d gone on a hundred successful expeditions before. This was supposed to have been a routine excursion. The platform passed through darkness and light, sungineering glowglobes flashing through the corridor.
“Bha,” Ahilya began, in a whisper. “My apprentice. Oam. He’s still outside. Iravan had him,too—”
Bharavi’s eyes were on Iravan. She cursed and trajected again, her veins sparkling. Underneath Ahilya, the ground firmed, and then she and Bharavi were skimming behind Iravan.
Ahilya swallowed back her questions. Oam had to be all right. He had to be. If Bharavi had known to come to the part of the city where she and Iravan had entered, then thetemple—thecouncil—hadbeen watching their ascent from the jungle. Surely it meant Oam had made it safe. He must have entered Nakshar through another part. Maybe he was already at the infirmary, receiving healing. Ahilya opened and closed her mouth, wanting to confirm it, but hot tears choked her. She couldn’t take a full breath.
At last, Bharavi put up a hand, blue-green with a simple curving pattern. The corridor ended in a wooden wall. Bark retracted. The platform skimmed forward, and the wall closed behind them again. They were back in the temple.
Unlike the expansive courtyard Ahilya had left, the temple now resembled a small dark cavern. The rudra tree stood at the center, shorter, and the Architects’ Disc was only a few feet off the grassy floor. Maze Architects moved over it, as many as during the landing. Most wore their robes, but several wore ordinary kurtas and trousers. A nervous chatter hummed around them, sharp and anxious.
“He’s here,” someone shouted.
Instantly, Ahilya and Bharavi were surrounded by the other councilors. The rudra tree grew thicker, taller, carrying the Disc into its upper stories. Senior Architects Airav and Chaiyya trajected Iravan’s platform away, and laid him at the tree’s base. The temple transformed as rock walls expanded, pushed by writhing roots. Multiple levels formed, doorways materializing then disappearing, passageways lit by sparkling glowglobes before all became dim once more. Ahilya gazed up but saw the ceiling had risen too high.
With the ascension of the Disc, only the six councilors remained in the temple. Bharavi stood next to Ahilya, but the two Senior Sungineers Kiana and Laksiya strode away, heads together, voices indistinct. Lying at the base of the now-massive rudra tree, Iravan was a mere dark shape buried under wet earth. Chaiyya knelt by him, trajecting fiercely, and Airav’s voice was raised in a lilting hum. Ahilya made to move, but vines had crept over her legs without her notice, up her arms andchest—healbranchand sandalwood, scabbing her wounds, sealing her cuts. She blinked, not fully understanding.
If the temple was changing, then they were no longer under flight protocol. It meant the rescue was over. Then where was Oam? She tapped her citizen ring, her heart beating hard. Nakshar’s map hovered over her palm, the Architects’ Academy, the architects’ homes, the solar lab, all prioritized and under construction. Yet there was no infirmary where Oam could have been taken. Fingers trembling, she tapped at the ring again to compose a message to him, but the connection dissolved before she could complete it.
“Where’s Oam?” she asked, her voice cracking. “Why isn’t he receiving healing?”
Airav and Chaiyya didn’t look up, continuing their healing of Iravan. Senior Sungineers Laksiya and Kiana in their glittering yellow kurtas exchanged wary glances.
Bharavi put her arm on Ahilya’s shoulder. “I’m sorry. Oam never entered the ashram.”
“No,” Ahilya said, choking.
“Only you and Iravan returned.”
“No.”
“You know this already.”
“No, I don’t know,” Ahilya said, tears streaming down her face. “Idon’tknow. Please, Bha. He’s out there, in the jungle. Iravan trajected the both of us. I saw him rise. Maybe he entered the city from a different part. Maybe he’s in a different corridor. We have to look for him. We have to help him.”
Bharavi merely shook her head.
“He’s only a boy, Bha. Please.Please.”
