Page 88 of The Surviving Sky
The staircase opened up to the night air.
Ahilya stepped onto a terrace. She wasabovethe temple, she realized. A million stars shone down to give her light. Nakshar had finally flown through the cloud cover, for there was no sign of the storm from earlier.
The terrace was like a secret garden. Rosebushes and topiary writhed and curled, attempting to return after the damage to what must have been their archival design. Ahilya picked her way through the foliage, past nooks and alcoves. She let the fragrant breeze wash over her. The budding garden was so beautiful, the night so peaceful, that for a moment, she forgot why she was here.
She came to a stop down a winding path. About fifty feet away from her, a clearing interrupted the garden. No foliage grew there. Instead, the clearing was pure white stone. A golden dome shimmered above the stone, reaching so high, it seemed like its own building. Ahilya crept closer, moving at an angle, keeping to the expanding bushes.
The golden shimmering came from nearly a dozen layers of deathchambers. Their lights crisscrossed in a complex labyrinth like a dense web. Within the web stood a stone platform about waist-high. Bharavi lay on it, looking diminutive. Her chest rose and fell in deep sleep. Her body glowed with the light of trajection, blue-green shapes twinkling through the translucent robe of her uniform.
And at the edge of the golden light, staring at Bharavi, stood Iravan.
Shadows fell over him, throwing the angles of his face into sharp relief. In the golden light, Ahilya saw his sleeves rolled back like they always were, except now his arms were bare, not a single rudra bead in sight. The absence of the black beads, despite the white of his Senior Architect’s uniform, made him lookunexpectedly…sinister. Iravan fiddled with something in his hands, but except for that, his body was utterly still.
Ahilya did not know how long he stood there, unmoving, or how long she waited, watching him, but the stars grew deep in the sky and the temperature dropped, leaving her cold.
Then on the stone slab within the web of deathchambers, Bharavi stirred and stretched.
It was as though that was the sign Iravan had been waiting for.
He pocketed whatever had been in his hands and walked into the golden light, through one forcefield into another. Ahilya drew in as close as she could, still hugging the foliage. Bharavi sat up on her stone slab, her radiance astonishing, watching Iravan as he approached. Only one forcefield separated them, but Iravan didn’t make to enter it. Instead, he extended a fist to knock and Ahilya realized the last layer was no ordinary forcefield of a deathchamber, but a layer made of glass. He could not get through it. She was looking at a giant deathbox. Deathcage, Airav had called it.
Iravan nodded to himself. A stone bench waited just outside the glass, evidently for visitors. He sat down on it, his elbows on his knees, his fingers interlocked. Ahilya saw Bharavi’s mouth move. Iravan studied her for a long, silent moment.
Then he said something in reply.
Unable to hear them, her stomach clenching in sudden fear, Ahilya watched from the silent shadows.
30
IRAVAN
Iravan,” Bharavi said in her clear, musical voice. “Are you here to release me?”
Yes, he thought, but he couldn’t form the word.
His heart grew cold. He watched her as though from a great distance. Irrelevant details came to him. The air smelled of honeyfruit. His hair was damp, grit settled in it. How long had it been since he’d eaten? In the sanctum earlier that morning, while ridding himself of his wheelchair. Had that only been this morning? It seemed so long ago.
“You’re still trajecting,” he said, at last.
Bharavi glanced down at her arms, where her tattoos moved in strange, unfamiliar shapes.
“I suppose you could call it that,” she said, shrugging.
“What would you call it?”
“I don’t have a name for it yet.”
“Ecstatic trajection?Supertrajection?”
Bharavi smiled at him across the glass. “If you like.”
“There’s nothing in there. What are you trajecting?”
She extended an elegant hand. “The jungle.”
Iravan drew in a sharp breath. “How’s that possible? You’re in thedeathcage.”
“I’ll tell you if you let me out.”
