by SGD Singh
A low rumbling hiss like a cross between a crocodile and a tiger reverberated through the forest, and one look at the Dáanav's glowing eyes told Asha to let go.
“I see your hand is still disappointingly unadorned.” Ranya tilted her head again, still pointing the staff at Asha. “Have I been mistaken about you all this time? Are you nothing but a useless civilian, after all?” She ran a hand along the monster's scales and added softly, “Although civilians can be pretty tasty, don't you think so, my darling?”
Time to go.
“Yeah, Darling definitely doesn't suit him,” Asha said. “He'll never learn his name if you keep sapping over him like that.”
And Asha closed her eyes, the rooftop at Nidhan's house clear in her mind.
“Okay. There's good news and bad news,” she told the startled group, taking her necklace from Mia and putting it back on. “Well, only a little good news and a lot of bad—”
“Asha, just tell us what happened, for Christ's sake!” said Lexi.
“Obviously, it didn't work to just hold my hand,” said Asha. “The good news is that I woke up when I wanted to, so that's progress, right? Janu will be happy about that.”
Everyone just looked at her impatiently.
“So, yeah. Ranya was at Headquarters. We should probably tell someone that. She's planning to open a portal. But she is completely insane, so really, who can say? And I got to see a real live Dänav, up close and everything. Not fun. And smelly like… I don't know, hell?”
Asha watched as their faces fell. Everyone looked suddenly exhausted.
“Did she say when?” Ariella asked.
“Actually, we didn't get that far. She was about to feed me to Darling Slaughter when I decided to leave.” Asha looked up at the sky. “Although, I was technically here, so I guess I wouldn't actually make much of a meal. It's all very confusing. Does anyone else have a headache? Where's the papaya?”
They were all looking at Asha in alarm now. Lexi shook her head once and Tzirga, Ariella, and Mia got up to leave.
“I'll call Uma,” said Ariella. “Just… take it easy, Asha.”
Mia gave Asha a hug and they left, leaving Lexi and Asha alone with the almost burned-out fire. Lexi crossed to the boxes of fruit, and brought a papaya back to Asha, who sat rubbing a hand across her face.
“Thanks,” she mumbled. Within seconds, the papaya was shriveled and dried, and Asha felt a little better.
They sat and stared at the dying fire, dark orange and red dancing through the charred remains of wood. It reminded Asha of the Dáanav's eyes, and she looked up at the stars.
“You know what I wish?” Asha said.
“Hmmm…” said Lexi.
“I wish we had the chocolate chip crust cheesecake with the blueberry drizzle and raspberries Felipe makes.”
Lexi burst into laughter. “I thought you were gonna say everlasting peace amongst all realms or something!”
Asha shrugged. “That would be nice too.”
“What about the enchiladas with tomatillo sauce, and fresh guacamole?” Lexi groaned. “Oh, even just beans, fresh tortillas, and pico de gallo. Sour cream—cheese!”
Asha laughed, nodding. She drank a glass of water then turned to Lexi. “Let's ghost Nidhan.”
Lexi snorted, eyes still on the remains of the fire. “You should rest, Asha. It doesn't matter where he is.”
“No, I want to prove you're wrong about him.”
Lexi looked up, narrowing her eyes.
“Besides,” Asha continued. “I've been thinking, maybe you can come with me if you focus on someone you know, someone you've actually seen before.”
Lexi stood abruptly, looking down at the orchard. “We were trying earlier. We all felt a kind of like a… horrified… repulsion?”
“That sounds about right. Ranya has that effect on people—babies, anyway. And Vampires. Not to mention her pet.” She patted the chair next to hers. “Let's test out this new theory. Plus, I know you've been wondering where he is all night, Lexi, deny it if you wa—”
“Okay.” Lexi heaved a sigh, falling back into the chair. “But only for scientific purposes. And he did volunteer to be haunted…”
Asha took Lexi's hands in hers. “Close your eyes and picture Nidhan in your mind. Shouldn't be too hard.” Asha grinned and Lexi opened one eye and glared at her.
“Okay, ready?”
Lexi closed her eyes. “I guess.”
The nearly deafening clang of metal against metal. Cacophonous shouts echoing off stone.
They were standing in a giant brick and cement hall. Asha saw rows and rows of people sitting on the floor… eating.
She felt a hand in hers and smiled at Lexi, who stood next to her, blinking in confusion.
Behind them, people were throwing steel plates into steel troughs, with loud crashes, while others busily gathered them to be washed, and others stacked them. Asha saw lines of people who stood beyond the windows.
Directly in front of them, moving slowly between the rows of people and carrying a steel pail, was the towering figure of Nidhan. His face was radiant as he stooped slightly before each person, ladling food onto the plates, chanting cheerfully. His Gatka competition clothes looked completely ruined. Even his dumala was splattered with food.
Lexi squeezed Asha's arm painfully and hissed, “Let's get out of here, Asha. Now!”
But it was too late. Turning to serve the person behind him, Nidhan saw them.
Narrowly stopping himself from ladling food onto a woman's head, he straightened and grinned widely.
Lexi stiffened next to Asha as Nidhan hurried to serve the rest of the line, moving steadily closer, until he stood in front of them.
“Oh, ye of little faith.” He beamed. “Good to see you ladies finally figured out how to ghost someone other than that psychopath… although, uh, you don't have your heads covered, and shoes? Hello? So 'bye!” He waved, and with a sweep of his filthy clothes, disappeared into a crowd of servers.
A few people looked at him curiously, no doubt wondering why he had been talking to the wall.
Asha looked at her feet in alarm, then smiled at Lexi in triumph, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Not a word, Asha. Not one fucking word.”
“What?” She was starting to laugh. “I didn't say anything!”
She closed her eyes.
The second Asha opened her eyes, Lexi bolted out of her chair and stormed into their room, slamming the door.
Asha laughed, shaking her head. It was only one-thirty, so she changed into pajamas, making a point of ignoring Lexi, who was pretending to be asleep. Asha grabbed a shawl and went back outside with her harp.
Remembering her first nights in Punjab, Asha watched the palm trees gently waving in the moonlight. She was filled with wonder at how much had changed.
“Mind if I join you?”
Asha jumped. Himat stood at the top of the stairwell, fixing his orange eyes on her, his handsome features serious. Even in a T-shirt and sweats, he looked like a model.
“Sure,” she said. “I was just getting ready to practice. Have you eaten?”
He nodded, frowning down at the garden, and Asha gathered more wood from the pile by the stairs and started the fire again. Himat settled into a chair and watched the flames.
“What's up?” Asha asked him, gathering her harp onto her lap.
“Oh. Nothing,” he said.
Asha watched him in silence for a minute.
“It's my birthday,” he said softly. “I've just been feeling homesick. I thought of your playing and thought I would come over, that maybe…” He shrugged, picking at the leather of his wrist guard. “It's as beautiful as a sunrise in Kashmir…”
“Happy birthday.” Asha smiled. “Do you sing, Himat?”
He glanced up at her and shrugged. “Once in a while, I guess.”
Asha began to play an Urdu folk song made popular by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Himat's eyes, perfectly reflecting the fire, widened. Asha nodded
to him to start singing, but he looked at his hands with a shy smile. Asha laughed, and started to sing herself. After gaping at her, he finally joined in.
Himat could sing! Really sing!
Lexi came out, wrapping a shawl around her shoulders. “Wow!” she mouthed at Asha from behind his back, and settled into the chair across from him.
Asha knew the musical tradition of India's Muslim community was rich, but if this was what came from Himat's idea of once in a while, I guess, she wanted to hear the people he grew up around sing. Her fingers struggled to hit the notes perfectly so as not to distract him, and she wished she had practiced the piece more often.
On the second chorus, Lexi added her exquisite voice, and Asha concentrated solely on playing, her heart filling with the sheer pleasure that is unique to music, as the harmonious sounds filled the night and orange sparks flew through the air, soaring against the stars.
When the last chord slowly blended away into the darkness, Himat clapped, his smile dazzling. “Is there any song you guys don't know?” He laughed. “I mean, thank you. I don't feel quite so homesick now.”
“You're welcome,” she said, bowing her head. “I'm going to practice for another two hours, if you want to stay…”
“I should get back to Headquarters before I fall asleep,” said Himat. “But if you really don't mind… I'll stay just a little longer. Uh… will you sing again, Asha? Your voice is beautiful.”
Lexi raised an eyebrow at Asha and crossed her arms.
Asha laughed. “Sure.” She gave Lexi a stern look. “Today's his birthday.”
“Happy birthday,” Lexi said flatly, and Himat looked embarrassed.
For the next two hours, Asha played Lexi's favorite Cuban songs, and both girls sang. While Himat was there, she tried to keep up with back-up vocals, her high voice lending harmony to Lexi's full, rich tones. Sometime between four and five in the morning, Himat silently left, and Asha and Lexi played for another hour, not talking once about Nidhan until, an hour before dawn, they finally went to sleep.
† † †
Weightless.
Asha opened her eyes and blinked around her small rooftop bedroom, feeling disoriented.
Her senses felt awakened, as if, up until that moment, she had been blind and deaf. She could see every crack, every brush-stroke in the mint-colored paint on the ceiling, which seemed somehow farther away, the room somehow larger.
Oh, crap.
It was happening again. The super-human eyesight, like the night she first saw Ranya outside Headquarters. And now, super-human hearing, she realized. She could hear water dripping slowly down the drain in the bathroom, the scratching of a large beetle as it tried to fit under the door, and every sound in the garden below.
Lexi came out of the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel, singing absentmindedly to herself. She looked at Asha and stopped short.
“What?” Asha said.
But what actually came out of her mouth was a shrill, “Aaaaaawp!”
“Unbelievable!” Lexi said. “That is you, isn't it, Asha? For fuck's sake, how many Talents do you have?”
Asha looked down at herself and jumped.
And ended up ten feet in the air.
Feathers! I'm a… I'm a… wait a second. What the hell?
“You're a bird, Asha,” Lexi pointed at the mirror. “A goddamn Jodha unit bird. A larger-than-normal sized peregrine falcon, to be exact.” Her eyes softened, taking on that look of adoration normally reserved for weapons, and Lexi reached out a hand. “And you're so cute! Look at your speckled black and white little tummy. You look so soft and fluffy and feathery. Can I just… ?”
“Aaaaaawp!” Curved, black talons shone at the end of yellow feet. Wow!
“Or not!” said Lexi, pulling her hand back.
Chapter 24
“Where the hell do you think you're going?” Lexi said as Asha eyed the open door, barely able to contain her excitement. “Don't even think about it. You're not going anywhere like that until we… until I… just hold on a goddamned fluffy-feathered second!”
She rushed out the door, closing it behind her, and Asha heard an ear-splitting “Nidhaaan!”
After thundering steps on the stairs and a hushed conversation that Asha could hear every word of, Nidhan and Lexi came back into the room.
Nidhan swore in Punjabi, stumbling back.
“Uh… we should, um, probably, like…” he said.
Knowing that her chance to fly—actually fly—was disappearing fast, Asha looked at their indecisive faces with a rising sense of panic.
And then it happened.
Asha knew she could talk to Aquila. Knew without a shadow of a doubt that if she called him with her mind, he would answer.
Aquila!
Asha? There was no hesitation. His voice as clear as if he were sitting right next to her. I'm on my way!
Asha was so excited, she barely noticed Lexi and Nidhan arguing, barely remembered to breathe. A few short minutes later, something scratched at the other side of the door.
“And now what the hell was that?” said Lexi, taking her stake shooter out of its holster and loading it in one fluid movement, a knife in her other hand, she nodded to Nidhan to open the door.
“It's still daylight, Lexi,” he said as he unlocked the door.
“And you just happen to know all of the advances Underworlders are making these days, right?”
“Look how calm Asha is. Jodha can sense Underworlders. I think. She'd be more… more—”
“You think? She just found out she can shift. It's not like she has any training. No offense, Asha.”
“I'm opening the door now,” said Nidhan, rolling his eyes as he swung the door wide, but Asha saw he was holding a curved dagger at his side.
Asha's heart leapt as the familiar sparrow hawk, her hawk, glided silently into the room, golden brown feathers shining in the late afternoon sun, talons reaching out to land smoothly next to her on the bed's headboard.
“Oh, for Christ's sake!” Lexi threw her arms up, then returned her stake shooter to her weapons belt. Pointing her knife at Aquila, she growled, “She gets electrocuted by power lines or some shit, and I will hunt you down and serve you for Thanksgiving dinner.” Lexi stormed out of the room, leaving the door open. “Let's go get something to eat, Nidhan!”
Nidhan stared at the majestic bird with piercing eyes, but finally shrugged once and left.
Thanksgiving?
Never mind. Let's go! Asha was jumping with anticipation.
Okay. Try to keep up if you can!
Asha laughed, and a strange clicking noise filled the room. She watched Aquila spread his wings, glide out the door, and land lightly on the carved stone railing. He tilted his head, fixing her with one round honey-yellow eye.
It's easy, Asha. Just spread your wings and—fly!
He dropped from sight, gliding silently back into view a moment later. Asha didn't hesitate. With one jump, she spread her “arms” wide and, dipping forward, she moved with exhilarating speed through the door, soaring over the mango trees, the screech of a Eurasian sparrow hawk shattering the silence, cheering her on, the soft clicking noise of a laughing falcon, her laughter, filling her ears.
And they were flying.
Higher and higher, peaceful stillness settling around them as the city below grew farther away. Only to drop, diving at blinding speed toward the empty fields, Asha screaming in delight as she passed Aquila. And rising again, weightless.
Floating in lazy circles, riding the warm air of the thermals, looking down at the world from above.
Then, with a touch of a feather, off again, gliding effortlessly, swooping toward the sparkling green of the manmade river, their shadows dancing on the bright water, skimming taloned feet along its rushing currents.
And with a powerful beat of broad wings, soaring once again above the trees to marvel at the sights below.
Time seemed to slow and Asha took in every detail of each li
ving creature she saw as they went about their busy lives. She saw thousands of people living in beautiful, chaotic harmony, and she felt a fierce sense of protective determination growing within her.
All too soon, the sun began to set.
Landing in the upper branches of an enormous banyan tree, they watched in companionable silence as its fading light cast an orange haze over the city, lighting sparkling fires in pools of holy water at places of worship, shining like liquid gold in the fields. The sounds of the blaring city mingled in stark opposition with the haunting prayers. And even through the fog of pollution, Asha had never seen anything so breathtaking.
Asha turned to Aquila in awe. For some incomprehensible reason, she could feel his joy. It was as if she could sense his thoughts, his emotions. Asha wondered if he knew what she was feeling, and was reminded of the night Aquila knocked on her door when she first saw Ranya.
He turned his head to her, fixing her with one piercing eye, an eye that was still very much his.
We should get back, he thought-spoke.
Have dinner with me?
Uh… I'm not really…!
Asha started to laugh.
C'mon! Nidhan will have clothes for you. Although…
Lustful thoughts while in a tree are not a good idea, so I've been warned.
He made a noise Asha now recognized as laughter as he dropped backward, gliding in a gentle circle around the tree.
It's been said that the falcon is the king, or in your case the queen, of speed in the raptor world. Care to test that theory?
Asha dove into a swift glide, amazed by her perfect sense of direction as she flew to Nidhan's house at invigorating speed, screeching as Aquila easily passed her.
Landing silently on the roof of her bedroom, they looked down at Lexi and Nidhan already eating by the fire.
So, tell me what happened to the guy, the Jodha who had lustful thoughts in a tree?
What do you think happened? And who said it was a guy?
Fine, don't tell me then… All right, how do I, uh, switch back?
Simple. You just… want to. First, though, get off the roof, unless you want to end up like the guy with the lustful thoughts.
Not being able to resist, Asha glided onto the chair next to Lexi.