Page 27 of The Legend of Meneka
“Dewdrops,” I gasp. “Shimmering within me. Trickling into my very soul.”
“An unusual image,” Kaushika replies softly. “But yours to own. In my hermitage, yogis often view prana as sparks of tapasvin fire, but others have viewed it as air too. I have never encountered someone who views it as water, but prana is simply the universe’s magic, more subtle than any imagery we can give it. If this image serves you, follow it.”
A dozen thoughts crowd into my mind. The wonderment at the impossibility of what I’m doing. How I am able to view prana directly when my only connection to it should be through the City of Immortals. My mission, and his closeness.
The horse moves rhythmically forward, and the rain feels distant, Indra himself banned behind a shield. Amaravati’s magic surges in me, alongside the dewdrops of the prana, two sources that connect me to the universe’s power instead of one. My nature asserts itself, clinging to the familiar path of Amaravati. My fingers rise from the comb, curling into a mudra, Moon’s Reversal.Dangerous, Rambha whispers, and my eyes fly open. My hand drops.
Kaushika leans forward. “Hold on,” he says, and his fingers interlace with mine, curling both our hands back around the comb. “Stay focused.”
“This was a mistake,” I whisper. “I can’t do this.”
“You can,” Kaushika whispers back. “Give yourself the permission you need. Converse with yourself, Meneka. It is the only thing that matters. Feed who you truly are into your devotion.”
My eyes flutter shut again, hypnotized.
Give, I repeat, and my fingers tingle. The wild prana blooms in me again, radiant, while Kaushika’s warmth submerges me. Magic flares inside me. In desperation, I pray to Indra, asking him to intervene somehow. I try to focus on the raindrops I hear beyond the shield. I try to focus on my breath, a deep inhale. The scent of camphor androsewood. The golden tether of Amaravati. The dewdrops of my own life force.
My focus shifts from Amaravati into my own heart.
My breath transforms.
Power races through my veins, so sharp, so shocking, that I cry out. It is more power than I have ever felt before, as though what I have been receiving from Amaravati has been only a trickle. I am flooded with the universe for a single, terrifying instant.
My back arcs into Kaushika. My head drops back onto his chest. His arms close around my shoulders, keeping me steady, but I am barely aware of him. All I sense is my own self, and my fingers rise to sketch a shape, the rune of delight. It shimmers and undulates like water, not just an imagined construct in the air but a rune, atruerune. I am creating that which should be impossible for me as an immortal, yet here it is, sparkling with truth, radiating its strength out to me and Kaushika within the air shield, infusing us.
Kaushika gasps, then laughs, a rich, deep sound. His arms squeeze my own in sudden affection and triumph. I twist in my seat to see the delight in his face. The serious lines on his forehead disappear, and he looks younger, no longer formidable. Dimples pop on his cheeks and I have a sudden hysterical desire to touch them. To taste them.
Reveal your lust, I whisper recklessly, pushing. His shield sparkles at me, but I nudge the edges of it, consumed by my own magic.Reveal your lust.
My command locks into something. An image pours into my mind. I am straddling him, pushing his muscled chest down. His eyes glitter in anger and satisfaction.Will you be influenced?I whisper, trailing kisses up his neck as his pulse grows erratic.Will you obey?
Willyou?he replies. But his eyes shut in ecstasy, his hips bucking as I grind atop him, and it is not in the pleasure I am giving him, not only, but in the pleasure I am giving myself.
I gasp, and the crescent comb falls from my hands into Kaushika’s. I release my hold on the dewdrops—on my own prana—and the world steadies, no longer sharpened and awake. The image of his seduction falters, then disappears as I release Amaravati’s magic as well.
Stunned, I stare at him. Thoughts circle me, too chaotic to make sense, birds swarming in my mind. Kaushika’s eyes meet mine, intrigued, unaware of the apsara magic I’ve just performed. My breath is erratic, unable to understand what I saw, how I saw it, what it meant.
Trees undulate, and dark shapes grow firmer. Kaushika’s gaze lifts from mine, and I am shocked to discover we have stopped. It is fully dark now, and we are back at the hermitage. Lights glimmer from nearby huts, the rain silencing any chants. How did we get here so fast? I closed my eyes only minutes ago. I cannot breathe. I am dizzy, reeling with everything.
Kaushika sweeps off the horse and helps me down. His skin is warm on mine, but too soon, he steps away. A tilted smile forms on his mouth.
“I will admit I didn’t really think you could do it,” he says. “I may have been wrong about you.”
There is a hidden meaning behind his words, but I am too unmoored to make sense of it. I latch on to the most important thing.
“Does this mean I can stay?” I whisper.
“For now. Until the Initiation Ceremony. You will still have to pass that. But your training should go easier. You are stronger than you realize. Your power will only grow now that you’ve unblocked your path to it.” Kaushika nods to me, then leaps back on the horse. He pulls the reins and turns away to return the way we came.
“You’re not staying?” I call out.
“No. I have business to attend to.”
“What kind of business?”
“Our roads may align,” he says, smiling slightly. “You might find out on your own.”
“You said you would tell me if I managed to stay,” I remind him.
