Temple of Indra's Lies (Time-Traveling Bibliophile Book 3)

by Rachael Stapleton

  ”I ought to take a whip to ye. Running away the day before yer wedding,” he growled. “And to meet O’Catháin!”

  She couldn’t keep the surprise from her face.

  “Have ye any notion what a bloody stupid thing ye did? Why, I should let Sorely Boy throw ye from this cliff! Did ye think we would no find out? What the bloody hell did ye think ye were about?”

  He shook her, and her head whipped back once. Sive’s hands came up involuntarily to grasp his wrists. Her eyes were wide as she met his furious gaze.

  “Let’s get her back to Dunlace! We can discuss this more in private.” The words were Sorely Boys and were directed at Uilliam. Sive had been so focused on Uilliam that she hadn’t noticed him.

  Uilliam’s hands tightened on her arms, and Sive had to hold back a squeak. She knew he had forgotten that he was holding her, that he was not hurting her deliberately. His attention had shifted from her to Sorely Boy, his expression dangerous.

  “Aye, I’ll allow her to explain herself at length later, and then she can beg yer forgiveness. And I’ll make one thing understood. “Uilliam looked back at his daughter. “Ye are marrying tomorrow. Under no circumstance, are ye to try to run off again. I want yer promise.”

  His eyes bore into hers.

  ”I’ll have yer word!” His hands were tightening on her arms again.

  Sive met her father’s gaze with apprehension, but she was no less determined.

  Uilliam practically gnashed his teeth when she remained silent. Staring up into his dark and wild eyes, feeling the sheer force of the body bending over hers, she had to remind herself again that this was her Da. That despite his vibrating rage, she was in no danger of bodily harm. The worst he would do was lock her in the tower or the dungeon and then Conal could rescue her.

  ”Yer promise, now!”

  ”Leave her to me! I’ll talk some sense into her.”

  ”She is still my daughter to discipline!” Uilliam hissed at Sorely Boy, who had stepped forward as Uilliam bent threateningly over Sive. But even as he was rebuking Sorely Boy, Uilliam’s eyes never left Sive, who was practically hanging from his hands as he lifted her onto her toes by the strength of his grip on her. “Yer promise, Sive!”

  ”I dinna want to marry anyone but Conal. I would rather be thrown from this cliff.” The words were breathless but valiant.

  Uilliam roared, the sound so loud that it almost deafened Sive for an instant. The lid was off his temper now, and no mistake. “Ye’ll damned well do as ye’re told, and I’m telling ye that if ye ever, ever pull such a stunt as todays again I’ll lock ye away so that ye never see the light of day again.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  First Temple Visit

  Blood Moon, Southern India, September 27, 2015

  I bent my head and climbed into the small black-and-yellow automobile. Cullen referred to it as a tuk-tuk while Sam called it an auto rickshaw. We’d mostly taken the train and bus so far throughout India but from what I’d seen in the streets I was more inclined to think of the vehicle as an abandoned theme park ride: three wheels, bright paint and lots of motion. Cullen was quick to follow me but he’d barely sat down before the rusty tin can roared to life. With the swift acceleration came a steady stream of dust and smog that clung to the air like steam, and entered the auto from the open sides. I leaned into Cullen’s side and buried my face in his shirt to stem the coughing. It was only nine in the morning, but he was already sweating. His deodorant and pheromones were hands-down better than the burning diesel fumes pouring in from the decrepit old bus speeding passed us. Hanging on to him for dear life also kept me from falling out the side of the vehicle as the driver darted in and out of traffic, zigzagging past an alarming variety of travelers—cars, buses, bicycles, scooters, pedestrians, stray dogs, and haughty, slow-moving cows.

  After about ten minutes of open roads, the vehicle slowed again, encountering traffic as we passed through some sort of ramshackle village. Men made repairs to some of the huts. A woman stooped to bathe her children with water from a copper dish. Two men led goats down the road while others carried water in buckets.

  I caught the attention of a child in the street. She couldn’t have been much older than eight. She ran over to me, laying her hand on my leg. “Me help you.” She motioned to a group of boys behind her. The whiteness of her eyes glistened against the darkness of her hair and skin.

  “Aw, Cullen? I think she’s asking for help. She’s hungry.”

  He leaned over and dropped some coins into her palm just as two older boys ran up and elbowed their way in. The older boy’s eyes grew wide when I looked at him, as if he recognized me. A vague memory popped into my brain from the day I was mugged.

  Cullen was about to give them five rupees when I held up my hand. “Wait.” I turned to the boys. “I know you.”

  The boys backed away.

  “Don’t run.” I called after them, but they were already gone.

  I leaned out the side as the tuk-tuk took off.

  “Everything okay, Aeval?”

  “I think those were the boys that mugged me.”

  “What?” Cullen shouted. “Why didn’t ye say so? I’d have grabbed the wee buggers.”

  I shook my head. “I wasn’t sure until they ran.” Cullen leaned out the side but I knew the boys were long gone. I was counting the minutes as the tuk-tuk forced its way down a narrow beat-up street, hitting several large potholes while avoiding the never ending stream of pedestrians.

  As we exited the alley, we randomly bounced from one lane to another before hitting the countryside, and eventually the perfectly manicured lawn of the Airavatesvara Temple.

  We climbed from the taxi and I spotted our guide, Mani, standing just inside the smooth stone walls of the entrance. He was pacing. I checked my phone. We weren’t that late. It’s not like things ran on time in this country anyway. What was his problem? I tossed Cullen a look. “I wonder where Les and Sam got to. They left ahead of us.”

  “Relax, Aeval. They’ll be here. Ye know what traffic is like here and not all drivers take the same route.”

  “True,” I said in agreement. “But doesn’t something just feel off to you about Sam.”

  “It’s cute that ye’re jealous, Sophia, but ye know I’m yer mate, right? I don’t wanna have to fight Leslie for yer hand in marriage. I’m not above wrestling a pregnant woman but I’m not exactly for it either.”

  “Stop referring to her as pregnant…She’s getting an abortion and I’m not jealous… Okay, yeah, maybe a little. We have been spending a lot of time with her. But that’s not what this conversation is about. You know she’s like a sister to me, and I just don’t want to see her hurt again so soon.”

  “Your heart is big and ye’re scared for her, and ye’ve a right to be. My brother was an arsehole, but not every lad is like him, and while this Sam fella might not be y’er cup a tea, he’s obviously Leslie’s, so let’s cut him a break until he proves otherwise.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded. He was right.

  “Here we go.” I whispered patting my bag where the jewels were safely stowed. “Let’s pray that this is the place.”

  Cullen squeezed my hand and we headed for the entrance. Leslie and Sam had beaten us there and were already waiting inside just out of sight from where we’d been dropped off. Cullen tried not to gloat.

  After an hour of walking and the initial background spiel on the area, our guide, Mani, led the way up a staircase to the hall of pillars. I ran my hand along the elephant trunk that acted as a banister while Mani talked about the thumbnail sized carvings that made up the place. Unlike the other sites we’d visited the last couple of weeks; this place oozed mystery, with colonnades, candles and Ganeshes.

  Mani wiped the sweat from his forehead. For a local, this guy sure did sweat a lot. I mean we were all soaked, but we weren’t accustomed to this heat. I couldn’t imagine living in a place where you never adjusted to the temperature. Then again, I was from Cana
da, where the air in the winter hurt my face.

  I turned to head back down the steps.

  “Next we’ll go to the Darasuram Temple, where Indra’s cursed white elephant had its color restored in the sacred waters.”

  We walked until we stood in front of a huge stone carved chariot drawn by horses. Again, like the other temples, the ruins, the overall beauty of the ancient city struck me. It was so easy to get lost in the fine ministrations of brush on stone and lose sight of why we were here.

  Cullen, who was clearly not feeling the beauty, rolled up one of the sleeves on his white cotton shirt. “This is all very nice, Mani, but is there a chance ye could get on with it already and take us to the statue of Indra? We’re anxious to see it.”

  I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. It was time.

  “As you wish,” Our guide whispered, his Hindi accent flavoring his words.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Drunk in Love

  Northern Ireland, November 1551

  Sive looked down at the wedding gown she’d been forced into and wished for the hundredth time that things were different and that she could be happy. She’d dreamed of this day for so long but she’d never imagined Sorely Boy, Warrior Chieftain of the MacDonnell Clan, standing at the end of the aisle.

  Conal had put the heart crossways in her when he hadn’t shown at the cottage a week ago but now that she knew why—that he’d never received her message to meet—she had hope once again. Faith burned inside of her that he would show and fight for her hand.

  Still, he was leaving it to the last minute, to be sure. She’d give him an earful once they were together and safe.

  She sighed and walked to the vaulted window to savor the view. The unceasing white, lace-capped waves crashed against the cliffs. If she were forced to live without Conal then she’d join them.

  Just one more sip of whisky and she’d be brave enough to go courting trouble. After yesterday’s incident in the bath she was more terrified than ever to become Sorely’s wife. He would use her ruthlessly—she could see it in his eyes and feel it in his cruel grip. She’d pushed him to the brink of his temper the other day, knowing he couldn’t touch her but he would surely pay her back.

  Conal was here somewhere on the castle grounds, and if he wasn’t going to come to her then she would just go find him.

  “Sive,” Conal called from the hallway behind her. She turned and he appeared as if out of nowhere, or perhaps it just seemed as such with the way her head was swimming. His hands moved to close over her upper arms, pulling her into his embrace, and hugging her so tightly against his body that the contact hurt. Her arms went around his waist. For just a moment she clutched him as fiercely as he was holding her. Her eyes closed.

  “Ach, I have missed ye, Conal. I tried to get to ye but Sorely intercepted my message and took it to Da.”

  Her lips were warmed by the touch of his. As she pressed herself up against him, he forced her away, holding her arms tightly so that she couldn’t come closer to him.

  “Sive, ye’re drunk. What are ye doin’, lass? The weddin’...” He released his grip on her arms and stepped away.

  “Ye dinna want to kiss me, then?”

  She looked up at him.

  He gave in and kissed her fiercely, as if he were starving for the taste of her mouth. Wrapping her arms around his neck, Sive kissed him back. Her heart was pounding so loud that she could barely hear his harsh breathing. A quickening started in the pit of her stomach. Her knees grew weak. She clung to him as the only solid thing in a whirling universe.

  ”Ahh, Sive.” He lifted his mouth from hers to trail kisses across her cheek to her ear. Sive took a deep, shuddering breath, burying her face in his neck. The warmth and male smell of him enticed her. Parting her lips, she touched her tongue to his throat.

  His arms tightened around her and he pulled her up on her toes as his mouth traced a blazing path down the side of her neck. When he reached her shoulder, he paused for a long moment while his mouth seemed to burn through her skin. Her nails dug into his shoulders, her mouth opening against the side of his throat.

  “I wish things were different, Sive. I want nothing more than to be standing at that altar with ye today but it’s not up to me. I almost didn’a even come. I can’t trust myself to stay away from ye and I can’t stand the idea of those bastards hurtin’ ye because of me. I only came to find ye because there were whispers that ye were gone in the head and I feared ye might harm yerself.”

  “I love you, Conal,” she breathed in his ear and felt the hand on her waist clench for the merest instant. Then his hold loosened again and he pulled back.

  “My lovely Sive,” he said unsteadily.

  ”Kiss me again,” she whispered. “I will marry no one but ye.”

  “No, lass, ye haven’t the choice. I’ve tried but yer Da will no listen to reason.”

  “He’ll listen if we’re together. We’ll tell him the truth of it—that ye’ve already claimed me. He’ll have no choice. Sorely will never marry me if everyone knows we’ve lain together.”

  “Aye, I suspect he will, just to spite me. Besides that, ye’d be shamed. I think it’s best if I leave now. Sorely’ll never let ye go and I canna bear to watch ye walk down the aisle to him.”

  “Take me with ye then, Conal, please.”

  “I’m sorry, lass, but there is nowhere we could go that Uilliam and Sorely wouldn’a find us and kill me. And I don’t care for myself a lick but I canna bear to think of ye facin’ their wrath alone with me gone.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Crooks Can Be Deceiving

  Southern India, Blood Moon, September 27, 2015

  “You must be Sophia?” a woman said, approaching from the side.

  “Yes.”

  “I’m Saraswati. I understand you were looking for me.”

  For a second, I paused—this woman couldn’t be Padmini’s great aunt. I looked closely at her face. She was supposed to be the oldest woman in the town but this woman was in her fifties at the most.

  She had a fine spray of lines at the corner of her eyes and her hair was black, worn long, with no trace of silver. She had the same bright green eyes and delicate lips as Padmini but still, I was expecting an elderly woman. She was smiling at me expectantly, and I realized she had asked me a question.

  “Thank you for finding me,” I said, taking her hand and steering her away from the group. “I’m sorry I missed you the other day. I was mugged while I was waiting for you and I haven’t quite recovered. Your niece said you worked here at the Airavatesvara Temple.”

  “I do.”

  “It’s so nice to finally meet you. We’ve been all over your country in search of a place that my great-grandmother told me about—The Temple of Indra —and apparently we’ve finally found it. We were just on our way to the statue now.”

  The woman scowled and looked over my shoulder.

  I glanced back at the group. Mani seemed to be the object in her crosshairs. He swallowed and turned away nervously and she returned her gaze to me.

  “Go on,” she said.

  “I was under the assumption that the temple was near the River Ganges in Kanpur but no one seemed to know of the temple. Your niece was the first person who offered help. She admitted she’d never heard of the Temple of Indra either but said there was another temple associated with the God, Indra, or rather his white elephant, whose curse was lifted here. I thought maybe the whole curse-lifting thing was a good sign.”

  I swallowed. The woman was staring blankly at me.

  “What we’re specifically looking for is the shrine to Indra. I have something that was once stolen from it and it needs to go back.”

  “The Purple Sapphire,” Saraswati said.

  “Yes, you know it?”

  “No, my dear. I know the story but that is all it is: a story to keep poor villagers and tourists from pillaging India’s sacred temples.”

  I looked up at the rest of the group and turned
my body away.

  “Well, I’m afraid it is true. You see, I own the sapphire and I am cursed because of it.”

  Sarawati’s eyes roamed behind me and then she scanned me up and down.

  “I see your aura, child, and you are hardly cursed.”

  “Well that’s true. The curse broke with the death of my stalker but still I need to put the sapphire back before it hurts someone else. Only the sanctity of Indra will protect the people from the jewel’s magic.”

  “I do not believe that this sanctuary you speak of exists.”

  “I was told it does. As a matter of fact, that’s where we’re going. Mani, our tour guide, says there is a secret subchamber within the Temple. He’s taking us there now.”

  “I’m afraid you’re being duped, my dear.”

  “No.” I shook my head.

  “Yes.”

  I didn’t want to accept this. We’d come so far and yet I trusted this woman. “Come with us, then and see for yourself.”

  “I don’t need to see such lies for myself, and perhaps you shouldn’t trust just anyone. This is my address. Come to my house tomorrow afternoon and I will tell you what I know. Do not leave the jewels unattended and come alone.”

  “You don’t trust this guide?” I questioned.

  Saraswati looked past my shoulder and shook her head.

  I followed her gaze. The man was soaked in sweat and his left eye twitched. She was right. My gut had been telling me not to trust him.

  “Will you take the jewels then, and I’ll get them back from you when I visit?”

  She agreed rather loudly and made a show of accepting the box, but as she pulled me in for a hug she tucked the box back into my bag. “Go now and be safe.”

  She walked away still pretending to hold something and I wondered why she wouldn’t really accept them.