Page 76 of The Surviving Sky
“What happened to you?” she asked, concern making her heart beat faster. “And your rudrabeads—they’regone—”
Iravan glanced at her hand on his arm. Then he looked up at her, meeting her gaze. His dark eyes were filled with so much derision, so muchcontempt, that his gaze felt like a slap.
Ahilya instantly dropped her hand and staggered back.
He had never looked at her like that. Not once.
The rain outside sounded like a drum beat.
“I-Iravan?” she stuttered.
He reached into his pocket and extracted a white cube smaller than his fist. “Care to explain this?”
Ahilya stared at the offending deathbox, lost for words.“I—I—”
“Why don’t I tell you what happened?” he snapped. “The two of you have been scheming up here in the solar lab, behind my back, behind everyone’s back, sabotaging the ashram because of your petty resentments against the architects. This is why you didn’t want me to accompany you into the jungle. You didn’t want a Senior Architect watching you.”
“You don’t understand,” Dhruv began.
“Iravan,” she said at the same time.
“How long has this been going on?” he asked, speaking over them. “What else have you smuggled in?”
Ahilya exchanged a guilty look with Dhruv. Dhruv’s eyes darted over to the desks where his petri dishes held samples of the plants she had brought in.
Iravan let out a cruel laugh. “I see. Well, this ends now.”
One of the desks holding Dhruv’s equipment flattened, the wood turning into grass, and the grass opening up into a yawning hole. Stormy clouds rumbled through the abyss. Dhruv’s equipment went flying out of sight, whipped away by the wind. Ahilya’s heart hammered in her chest as Iravan opened more gulfs in the deathchamber.
Dhruv lunged for the nearest cavity in the floor, hands outstretched. “NO!”
He stopped short, his hands gripping the edge, staring down at the endless sky.
“Iravan,” Ahilya said, breathing fast. “Please listen. We were stupid and reckless, but it wasn’t because of a grudge. Dhruv is using the plants to make abattery—justlike the council wanted. Likeyouwanted. We’re on your side.”
Her husband ignored her. Iravan was a vision of blue and green vines, standing tall amidst the churning wind that sluiced through the invention chamber. His eyes were trained down at the turbulent sky, furious and glittering.
More holes opened up, one right next to Ahilya. She backed away, panicked. The wind tugged at her clothes and her hair, whipping them around her. The gap grew wider, all the holes joining together into a gigantic breach in the floor. Petri dishes, rudra beads, optical fibers fell away out of sight. Iravan stood a few feet from her, uncaring, but beyond them on the other side of the chasm, Dhruv was on his knees, staring at his life’s work disappearing.
He looked up, his glasses askew, his normally placid face almost deranged with anguish. “You left us no choice,” he screamed. “You don’t understand the pressure to build abattery—”
Iravan’s head jerked toward him. “Idon’t understand? I’m a SeniorArchitect—noone understands better than I do. But there are rules for a reason. Your irresponsibility nearly destroyed the ashram. It could have killedeveryone.”
“Iravan—stop,”Ahilya gasped, but the wind took her words away. She retreated as far as she could, but still the void continued to grow. Dizziness gripped her as great gray-black clouds foamed underneath, their streaks climbing the void, then whipping away. Sharp flecks of wind-churned rain cut her like jagged knives.
“I hate this dependency on architects,” Dhruv yelled back. “Sungineers can’t doanythingwithout it benefiting your kind.”
“How dare you?” Iravan’s eyes flashed. “You survive because of the sacrifices we make. You have no idea what we’re put through.”
Ahilya stared down, her hair lashing around her, feeling the emptiness below. The edge was so close. Her breath came out quick and panicked.
“You think being born with the ability to traject is a gift?” Iravan spat out, glaring at Dhruv. “It’snot—it’sa burden, and we have to do it for squabbling ingrates like you.”
Ahilya’s body swayed. Her fingernails sank into the foliage of the wall behind her.
“Iravan,” she said again, choking. “Stop.”
But consumed by his anger, he didn’t seem to hear her. His face was twisted in cold fury, still turned toward Dhruv.
