Page 39 of The Circle of Exile
His father had beaten him? Iram glanced at Mehrunisa, eyes wide. She gave an inconspicuous blink. Iram immediately held Atharva’s arm — “Please, he is my brother,” she said out loud, hoping to get her message across to him. When she glanced at her husband, he had already understood and let his arm hang loose by his side, hand relaxed. But his eyes drilled holes into Faiz.
“Sit,” Atharva commanded. “Let’s finish this without the ego war and we will get going.”
Faiz’s shocked face recovered. He crossed the room to them, eyeing Atharva with a mix of trepidation and false bravado. Atharva took her hand and gently tugged her away from the armchair. He seated her on a settee to the side, then strode to the armchair and took her seat.
As if that was balance enough, Faiz lowered himself to his armchair.
“You are free to leave whenever you like. Your secret is safe here with us. I swear on the graves of my ancestors.”
Iram let out a silent sigh of relief.
“But before you go,” he added, glancing at her. “I want you to give me that document you made. For the next round of our investors’ meeting. The bank is…”
“What investors?” Atharva questioned, looking back at her.
“We… the Mir, I mean, is trying to open a cooperative bank of his own in Nagar. He wants to make the town self-dependent and make himself indispensable to the community so that the Pakistani government can’t threaten him again, with the titles and such.”
Atharva sat back — “And the permissions for such an ostentatious plan inthiscountry?”
“He was going to speak to the CM and the Major of the Army posted in Gilgit-Baltistan.”
“I did speak to Dilshad Khan,” Faiz admitted, looking hesitant. He glanced at her, then at Atharva, then at his elder sister. “This morning he called me to pull a favour in exchange for the permissions.”
“What favour?” Iram frowned.
“To kill me,” Atharva answered serenely.
Iram’s eyes widened.That blast.
“Didyourpeople plant the bomb and shoot those missiles?”
Faiz coughed, rolling his eyes heavenward. “Allah is my witness, I would never do that. I only had to push you to visit the mosque, and send an escort if need be, so that he could make sure you were there.”
“And didn’t you consider there would have been casualties in the blast, people of your own town?”
“It was supposed to be a low-intensity bomb.”
“And the missiles?”
“I did not know about them.”
“And here we are, with me escaping and the people of your town harmed. Do you know the casualty count?”
“The count is being taken.”
Atharva glanced pointedly at the clock — “By whom?”
Silence.
Faiz gaped, opened his mouth slightly but then closed it. He looked contrite, a little too arrogant to show it, but contrite all the same.
“You are a man of the army,” he attacked to defend himself. “You, more than anyone else understand that casualties are expected in war.”
“This is not a war you are fighting Mir Faiz, this is a town you are trying to nurture. And among those casualties, your niece and your sister could have died too. I don’t know what my wife told you or what you two were planning to do in this town, but one thing I know for sure is that a leader is an administrator first, a soldier later. Those casualties you expect in war are of soldiers, of men who have committed to die for your country. A man who is the sole earner in his family or a child who isn’t even promoted to primary school are not casualties you talk about so easily.”
Faiz stared at Atharva, unashamed, stoic, expressionless. Finally, Atharva shook his head. Then got to his feet. Iram followed suit.
“What is this document?”
