The Chariot at Dusk

by Swati Teerdhala

  Now the question was if they could have faith in the Pretender King.

  Chapter 16

  Esha barged into the small anteroom, waving a note in the air. Three pairs of heads popped up to look at her. The anteroom they had chosen for today’s meeting had the bare minimum of what they needed: a table, a few scattered chairs, and privacy.

  “Good news,” Esha said. “King Mahir responded. He has been looking for the artifacts without the map. He had some insights into the copper scroll.”

  “What’s the good news?” Alok asked impatiently. He twisted the ring on his finger, the only indication that the stress of the last few days was getting to him.

  “He also has some thoughts on his brother’s favorite location. He mentioned they used to travel south a lot as kids, for the winters. Vardaan always loved the rivers near the coast of Dharka,” Esha said.

  Farhan nodded and scribbled something onto a scroll. “That helps immensely. Vardaan will have to have kept it near a place of magic. Let me think. . . .”

  Esha thought to the team that had left a few days before: Kunal and Laksh, Arpiya and Bhandu. She shouldn’t be worried and yet it never quite worked that way. Kunal and Laksh were volatile together, but Esha had hoped they would balance each other out. And Arpiya would keep an eye on them both.

  As for her team, Esha quickly assessed who would be best on a quick mission. She’d have to take Reha, if only because she didn’t trust the girl here alone, and Aahal. Perhaps Alok or Harun. Farhan was too valuable as a translator to endanger him, and he was making strong progress on the pile of scrolls they had gathered.

  “That narrows it to . . .” Esha trailed off, hoping Farhan would finish the sentence.

  Farhan traced his hand over the large map unfurled across the wooden table in front of him.

  “The Jyos tributary. Or the Ruins of Varnika.”

  “Isn’t the Jyos tributary just near the coastline?” Reha asked, peeking around Farhan. “I’ve heard about it a lot. Near the famous rice paddies of southern Dharka.”

  “There’s only a small part of the coast that’s referred to as the Jyos tributary,” Esha said. “It’s where the river splits before entering the ocean and was given that name because of the two colors of water that merge there. Harun, thoughts?”

  “From what I’ve been able to read over Farhan’s shoulder, the Jyos tributary makes the most sense,” Harun said. “The conch needs to be kept underneath the water, according to the old myths, though the myths also say it will only open to an unuttered truth.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” Esha said. “What does that even mean?”

  “Couldn’t we just drip more blood on it?” Alok said, his ring twisting having graduated to worried nail-biting.

  Farhan shrugged. “That could also work.”

  “Good thing we have you around now, isn’t it?” Esha said to Reha.

  “Wonderful,” Reha said. She looked a bit concerned.

  “Anyway, the Jyos tributary rings a bell,” Harun said. “My uncle used to always talk about it, the place where the two mightiest rivers of Dharka meet and battle it out for supremacy, before combining as one.”

  “If he hid it there, it sounds likely he hid it at the point of convergence for the rivers.” Farhan looked disquieted. “We’ll certainly need a ship, and it won’t be an easy journey.”

  “Then we’ll take a team to scope out the area and report back,” Esha said. “Reha, Alok, you’ll be coming with me. Harun as well. But Farhan, we need you here.”

  Esha put a hand on the boy’s shoulder, and he nodded, though he looked a bit disappointed.

  Keeping Reha here had been important as they put together the details of the coronation and the type of government after. And to her surprise, Reha had taken on the role better than expected. Though she and Harun had barely talked, she was willing to listen as they shuttled her to meeting after meeting, switching the veils so that when they introduced the princess Reha, it truly was her.

  But Esha wasn’t sure what Reha would do if left alone here. She was still close to many of the Scales, especially close to Zhyani. And while the Scales had been allies, Esha was still wary of trusting too many people.

  Reha’s eyes brightened. “I’ll be able to leave?”

  “For a bit,” Esha said, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t have to look so excited. We haven’t locked you up, despite my suggestion. Dharmdev still has a lot to answer for.”

  Reha rolled her eyes. “I keep telling you I had only just gained the title of Dharmdev; it was passed from leader to leader. There were multiples, sometimes even at the same time. Do you really think one person could’ve fit all those stories?”

  “I did,” Esha said, the smugness apparent in her voice.

  “Well, the Lord of Justice simply wasn’t as good as the Viper. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “It’s a start,” Esha said.

  “I’m sorry for what they did to you,” she said hesitantly. Reha tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear in a demure movement, a contrast to the direct way she stared at Esha. “I didn’t order the mission that killed General Hotha, the one that you were framed for. I heard of it, but I’d only just gotten my pin, and then a few months later I was assigned to you. I was just doing my job.”

  That’s what everyone said, wasn’t it? Esha might have been one of those people too, following orders without thinking, doing whatever was asked of her, but Harun and she had been a balance to one another. Their power struggles had actually pushed them to never do things just because they had always been done. In that way, they had constantly challenged the past, despite Esha being unable to let go of it.

  Even now, she felt the prickling of the knowledge that Reha held—who her parents’ real killer was. She wondered if the girl would tell her. So far, she had been forthcoming with information, but Esha sensed a dark past behind Reha.

  Perhaps the boat trip would be the time for them to speak honestly.

  “I liked Aditi,” Esha said. “I might like you too, Reha. I remember you used to hate mangoes and loved sums as a child. Is that still true?”

  Reha looked at her, surprised. “Yes. I was the only one who could work the ledger for the Scales. And mangoes still give me hives.”

  “You don’t like mangoes?” Alok said. “That’s a punishable offense to Esha.”

  Esha chuckled. “To anyone else, maybe. You might not remember, Reha, but we spent much time together when you were younger. I remember it all. And I’ve fought for you every day since I helped you escape during the Night of Tears. Since I was captured and tortured for information about you. And since I became the Viper.”

  Reha’s face scrunched up, and she looked as if she was going to say something, but Esha didn’t know what.

  “I hope you prove worth it,” Esha said.

  She hoped all of this was worth it.

  After two days of endless jungle and rock that looked the same, Kunal came across a small river. It was unusual, not just because the land everywhere else was drying up, but because it was flowing in the wrong direction.

  At the Fort they had studied ecological patterns, and Kunal had been a good student. With the wind going east and the slope of the land, the water should be running in the opposite direction.

  He held up a hand to the others.

  Bhandu almost ran into him, cursing under his breath. “What now, cat eyes?”

  Kunal shushed him. He closed his eyes and tried to center in on the river and any animal life in the area. Normally, the jungle was a symphony of sounds, something he had reveled in even before he had been able to use the full power of his blood. But there had been little animal activity so far in their travels.

  He got off his horse and knelt by the small river, putting a hand to the ground. The songs here were different, broken. Notes missing and discordant harmonies.

  Wrong.

  “I think I found something,” Bhandu said.

  “What?” Arpiya asked.


  Bhandu pointed at the ground and reached over to pick up a small shiny shard of some sort of stone. “If we’re looking for temple ruins, this might be a good start.”

  Laksh nodded, gathering the reins of Bhandu’s and Kunal’s horses and leading them over to where Bhandu stood. “Looks like sun stone, which they used for temples here in the jungle. It’s the only stone that can resist decay in all this humidity and rain.”

  “Good find,” Kunal said, nodding at Bhandu.

  “That’s it, then,” Arpiya said. “We’re close.”

  She bent to the ground, looking for other stone fragments. Kunal watched her, an idea forming in his mind as he looked between the river and her. There were more fragments and the others were picking them up as they followed the river.

  The river must be a clue. Perhaps it was being pulled in the other direction due to a core of magic or something else powerful. They knew little about the artifacts, but two of them together in one location must have some effect on the land around them.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Kunal said slowly.

  He motioned for them to follow and took off in a sprint up the hill, following the river.

  The water near the Jyos tributary, the confluence of the two tributaries of the Bhagya River, glittered like a thousand broken stars, a heavenly blue and green swirled together into one. Esha shaded her eyes from the hot sun as she gazed over the villages below from the hill they had stopped on.

  Home was beautiful. Sweltering, sure, but beautiful. The dry sun of Jansa was nothing like this sticky heat. Her heart had felt lighter since they had crossed over the border to Dharka and part of her never wanted to leave. She inhaled the humid air and let out a loud, contented sigh.

  Reha cursed to her left, swatting at a group of mosquitoes as Alok chatted good-naturedly at her. It appeared as if the girl didn’t quite feel the same way as she about the weather.

  “No one told me Dharka was filled with these annoying bloodsucking gnats,” Reha said, continuing to swat unsuccessfully at the air around her. “Zhyani and Ishaan always made it sound like some paradise.”

  “Oh, that’s a good sign,” Alok said. “Means the land isn’t so parched that it can’t even produce humidity.”

  “I’d be okay with a little dryness if it got rid of these things,” Reha muttered.

  Esha tugged out the map Farhan had copied over for them and pointed at the lines he had drawn, with the supposed location of the conch somewhere in the middle.

  “We need to get there to find the conch most likely,” Esha said, squinting and pointing at a spot on the map.

  “That’s in the water,” Alok pointed out.

  “Precisely the need for a ship.” Esha made a face. “At least he hadn’t been lying about that.”

  Harun trotted up from behind, catching up with them. He had an uttariya tossed over his shoulders and a lightweight linen turban on his head. A simple outfit. Most people didn’t know what Harun looked like here, or so he had convinced them.

  The awkwardness between them had fully thawed since Esha had rescued him, but still neither of them had brought up the conversation they had before Vardaan’s capture. They had agreed to talk, but it always seemed like more important things came up.

  “Here,” Harun said. He handed a small rag and vial to Reha. “It’ll help with the mosquitoes. Drench the rag and put it on your pulse points. Should give you relief for a few hours.”

  “Thank you, Harun,” she said. “That’s kind of you.”

  “Mosquitoes are miserable creatures,” Harun said, giving her a little smile. “Our father taught me this trick. I’d always be the one to get bitten first—well, until you came along. The mosquitoes always preferred you. Mother would say it was because you had the sweeter blood.”

  Reha’s eyes perked up at the mention of their mother. “I think I might remember that, actually. She had long hair, didn’t she? And it always smelled of jasmine.”

  Harun nodded happily. “It was her favorite scent. You’d try to braid her hair and fail miserably.” He laughed, a small but joyful one. “It would come out a tangled mess that would take her hours to comb through.”

  “I’m still horrible at braids,” Reha admitted.

  They both grinned at each other, and Esha’s heart lightened.

  Esha cleared her throat. “We can charter a ship from there.” Esha pointed at a small dock in the distance. “If this map is any indication, we’ll need to be directly over the spot to find the conch.”

  “With a little bit of blood, right?” Reha asked wryly.

  Esha chuckled. “It might be a lot of blood. And if that doesn’t work, we’ll need to ready our truths.”

  She had meant it in jest, but looking at the faces of her team, she realized that they all had hidden truths in them.

  And if it was blood or her truth, Esha was pretty sure she’d pick the former.

  Chapter 17

  Laksh had some choice words for Kunal when he and the others caught up to him. Kunal had run up the mountain to follow the steep curve of the river as it pushed upstream, and his hunch had been right. Bhandu and Arpiya were panting as Kunal took a deep breath of air, his hands on his hips. He felt good.

  “I preferred it when you only lapped me once,” Laksh said. He dropped the reins of the horses and leaned a hand against the nearest tree to support himself. “Have I mentioned I’m not a fan of these new supernatural powers of yours? Mighty unfair.”

  “Wait till he takes you flying,” Bhandu said, sending him a wicked grin.

  Arpiya groaned at both of them and caught up with Kunal, who continued pushing forward.

  “It is pretty unfair that you’re not even slightly out of breath after making us run up that hill,” she said in greeting.

  “Laksh was always a bit of a whiner,” Kunal shot back.

  “Is this the fun Kunal?” Laksh looked skeptical. “I’m not sure I like him.”

  Kunal shushed him with his hands. “You’re all so loud.”

  “Ooh, he’s doing that bird thing again. See how his eyes are flashing yellow and he’s cocking his head? Like a bird,” Bhandu said knowingly.

  Perhaps being ignored wouldn’t have been so bad. Kunal growled in frustration and pointed upward.

  Arpiya picked up another stone, a larger one. “It looks like Kunal was right. The size of the rubble is getting larger. We’re getting closer.”

  They carried on, trudging up the hill to follow the small river. They crested the hill and at the center of it were the ruins of an old temple. The jungle had claimed it, devoured it, made it its own. Vines grew within its tall broken doors; trees sprouted in the middle of the old courtyards, still apparent centuries later. The air smelled damp around the temple, warm and heavy like the air after a thunderstorm.

  The ruins of the temple, shards of rock and stone jutting out at odd angles, shimmered in the midday sun with a luminescence that brought to mind the Tej rain forest or the ruby-red cliffs near the Fort. This had to be it.

  Kunal pushed forward.

  “It’s got to be at the end of the river,” he said. “Let’s check there first.”

  The others nodded. The river itself flowed into the temple and they followed it to its end, climbing over huge cut boulders and rubble, stepping carefully from tree root to root to keep their balance.

  At the end of the river, tucked into the back of the now-decrepit courtyard was a towering banyan tree pulsating with a light glow. And at the base of the trunk was the symbol from the scroll, the one for light.

  “This is it.” Arpiya’s breath caught. “It can’t be a mistake that the symbol is here again.”

  “Split up,” Kunal said. Up ahead of them, past the tree, were two dimly lit corridors that led into the ruins of the temple. “Arpiya, you’re with me. Laksh and Bhandu, you’re together. We’ll search the left hall.”

  He thought they might object to his orders, but all three nodded and split up. Arpiya and Kunal tread carefully, noticing
the foliage grew denser and sharper the closer they were to the temple, almost as if the ground wanted to keep them tangled there.

  The light faded as they drew deeper into the temple’s crumbling halls.

  “Where would a lamp be kept in an ancient temple?” Arpiya said. “That’s where we should start.” She turned to face Kunal.

  “Why are you looking at me?”

  “Come on, we all know you’re a teacher’s pet. You were clearly the only one who listened during school lessons as a kid.”

  Kunal sighed. “Let me think.” They crept farther into the darkness. “A conch was always blown and a lamp was lit at the beginning of old prayers to call the gods down, invite them into the house before offering them food, water, and milk. So, if I were to guess, they should both be on opposite sides of the main altar where the priests would pay their respects and perform the rituals.”

  “On it. Altar,” Arpiya said, clapping her hands together.

  The corridor they were in opened into what had once been the main hall. It towered above them, huge chunks of stone missing from the left side of the ceiling, cascading into a waterfall of stone that held up part of the room. Kunal didn’t like the looks of it.

  The rest of the hall was kept up by massive marble pillars, similar to those in the temple that King Mahir had taken him to in Gwali. Kunal looked for the altar, which would normally be in the northern part of the room.

  “There,” Arpiya whispered.

  Kunal followed her lead, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. He had no idea how she was seeing so well herself, but she made a straight line for the north end of the room. A large multicolored stone mosaic stood at the front, cracked in three.

  The closer they got, the more it seemed like the light was being sucked out of the room.

  Something bumped into him and Kunal jumped back and drew his knife.

  “Cat eyes! It’s just us,” Bhandu said, stepping out from the dark. Kunal relaxed. “We looked for the lamp in the last corridor to no luck. Laksh mentioned that we might want to look for the altar.”

  “Right, the altar is our best bet.”