Immortals of Indriell- The Collection

by Melissa A. Craven

  What? Starving’s no joke, man. Lennox passed him the parmesan cheese with a smirk.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER

  TWELVE

  Sasha: Summer

  The Chola Valley Temple

  “This is it?” Sasha swept the narrow room with her eyes, looking for the rest of it.

  “The student must focus on the lesson,” Brother Rabishan said. “You will find everything you need here.”

  “Yes, thank you.” Sasha set her duffel bag on the edge of the small cot. She couldn’t call it a bed since she was pretty sure it had been made at a time when people were much shorter than her five-foot-ten-inch frame.

  The cold stone floor was covered in brightly colored rugs, and the window would give her the early morning sun. A small cabinet housed the traditional clothes she would be expected to wear while in residence. All her size. Like they’d known months ago that she would be arriving today.

  That’s exactly it, Sasha. In the real world they probably found out yesterday, but who knows how long that gave them to plan for her visit here.

  It wasn’t a sleeping night for her, and she wasn’t sure she would have been able to settle down even if she was tired.

  Sasha ultimately spent her first evening at the Chola temple, alone in her Spartan dormitory, reviewing every last detail of Quinn’s situation in her mind. She didn’t need her corkboard wall—she remembered everything. And thinking about Quinn kept her from thinking about tomorrow.

  She missed him terribly. No matter how good her intentions were, Sasha just kept making Quinn’s situation worse. The kiss that she still wasn’t sure about had flustered Allie when she ran into them in the gardens that night. To avoid interrupting them, Allie had circled the building instead, and that sent her right into the hands of the waiting Coalition—who were there because they’d seen Sasha heal that dove just hours before. And now this. She’d waited one day too long to act, and now she was stuck in this time screw with her hands tied and no way to help Quinn at all for the foreseeable future.

  “Midnight snack?” Imogen stuck her head into the room after a soft knock on Sasha’s door.

  “I’m always down for snacks.” Sasha smiled.

  Her sister brought in a tray of fruit, hot tea and some kind of nutty bread.

  “Let’s get our plan in place for tomorrow.”

  “We have a plan?”

  “We need a plan, Sash. Jay’s going to take over your training. We will be separated, since the mother wishes to teach me something while I am here,” she said bitterly. “We need to decide the best ways for you to learn what you must, but not too quickly. Or too well.”

  “I don’t like the idea of us being separated,” Sasha said, taking a bite of warm bread and butter, fresher than anything she’d ever tasted before.

  “He’s made certain assumptions about you so I think we should play into his expectations. For now.”

  “Act like a brat and only learn the lesson after I’ve driven him to the complete edge of his patience?” Sasha suggested.

  “Exactly. You’re going to be stuck in the meithari phase for a while, so you two are going to have to find a way to be friends, which is going to make it difficult for you to keep up the necessary deceptions. You should be cautious of Jay, but you need to trust him as your teacher. He is a good man but he has … issues that have nothing to do with his ability to be a good instructor.”

  “I don’t trust him,” Sasha said. “There’s something he isn’t telling us.”

  “Let him have his secrets. It doesn’t matter. It’s in his best interest to teach you well. His attitude toward you now is his armor. It’s his way of keeping people from getting too close. He’s a career soldier. I’ve seen it before with others like him. He keeps everyone at a distance because his life belongs to those he works for. He doesn’t have anything else. Give him some time to learn how to talk to a seventeen-year-old girl.”

  “What history do you two have?” Sasha asked. “You weren’t, like … romantically involved, were you?”

  “No, nothing like that. We spent a lot of time here together a lifetime ago. We became close friends. But when we left the mother, we went our separate ways. I made positive changes after I learned to let my past go. Jayesh seems to have gone right back to the life he was trying to escape when he came here in desperation. I think coming back has thrown his failures in his face, so try to remember that he is also here to learn whatever the mother hopes to teach him. You cannot know how difficult his private time with her is for him.

  “But there is something odd about this arrangement, isn’t there?” Sasha asked. “Sloane was obviously a Senate rep through and through, but Jay strikes me more as a … mercenary than a loyal Senate soldier.”

  “That’s what we can never forget. Jay is a hired gun and his loyalty is questionable. We don’t have the whole story from either side so you must be extremely careful about what you reveal to him.”

  “I’ll just distract him with my brattyness.” Sasha grinned.

  “Don’t lay it on too thick, sister. We want to get out of here eventually.”

  “I’m aiming for somewhere between annoying and uncooperative, dialed in at about seventy percent of my capability. At the end of the day I’ll get the lesson so we can move on. I just want him to have to work for it enough to know he never wants to work with me again.”

  “That’s the dream.” Imogen smiled. “Let’s just hope it doesn’t take years here to accomplish it.”

  ~~~

  When Jayesh came for her shortly after dawn, Sasha was prepared to make him wait.

  “Almost ready!” she called as she rushed around her dormitory to finish dressing. She wore loose-fitting linen pants and a matching tunic. The yellow fabric and golden embroidery made her skin glow like polished bronze. She struggled to lace the embroidered belt around her waist as she hunted for the matching slippers. She wore her dark curly hair in a messy bun on top of her head, letting a few curls escape to frame her face.

  “Took you long enough,” he said when she finally answered the door still holding her belt and her shoes. “Hurry up. We’re behind schedule.” His traditional white linen trousers fit him like a glove and the long sleeveless over tunic fell to his knees, and had a deep embroidered V-neck. A golden armband cuffed his tattooed bicep. With his feet bare and his ensemble topped with an actual turban, Jayesh looked like he’d stepped straight out of the Mughal Empire of the sixteenth century.

  “I didn’t realize we had a schedule. Maybe you should try slipping an itinerary under my door since I don’t read minds. What are we doing this morning?” She attempted to find a civil tone as she continued to fumble with the belt.

  “We will be training in the northwest pavilion.” He turned her around abruptly and tied the belt for her. “Finish pulling yourself together and meet me there in fifteen minutes.” He stepped down the long stone corridor without another word.

  Sasha darted back into her room to grab her sunglasses and overtunic and headed down the hall to her sister’s dormitory.

  “Phase one of irritate Jayesh was a smashing success without even trying,” Sasha said as she stepped into her sister’s rooms—which were hella more comfortable than her tiny closet. “Hey, no fair—this is an apartment.”

  “I am a veteran of the temple, sister. Believe me, I did my time in the dormitories. How did you manage to irritate him so quickly?”

  “Breathing? I don’t know.” She shrugged, flopping down onto the bed beside her sister. “You’re meeting with Mother Raghavan later this morning, aren’t you?”

  “I am.” Imogen sounded nervous.

  “Any idea what she thinks you need to learn?”

  “Not the first. I imagine she sees something I don’t. For a woman who lives outside of time and away from the happenings of the world, she is remarkably informed about the current climate of the Immortal world.”

  “You’ll tell me about your lessons later?” Sasha asked.

&
nbsp; “If I can. Now you’d better run along. Don’t keep Jayesh waiting too long.”

  “I’m going. See you tonight.”

  “Be careful, Sasha.”

  “You too. I know you’re here because of me, but I want you to know I’m here for you too, sis.”

  “Thanks, Sash. That means a lot.”

  Sasha made her way along the labyrinth of corridors and into the bright sunshine of the temple courtyard. She headed for the northwest quadrant to meet Jayesh at the largest pavilion there. The gardens were in full bloom and the fragrant flowers calmed her in a way only nature could. Sasha had such a close connection with the earth and an even stronger bond with its creatures. The gardens would be a perfect place for her to train and meditate—if she and Jayesh could get past their differences.

  The pavilion was almost primitive, built of stone and carved with Vedic figures and patterns. Dozens of columns held the pavilion aloft, each draped in billowing silk in oranges and yellows to match the warm earthen tones of the landscape. Inside, the shade was cool and the light dim. Torches burned along the stone walls on either end of the structure, and incense burned in braziers near the entrance. This place really is like taking a trip back in time. It was so untouched and innocent in a way. But Sasha had no doubt that many Immortals had come here to face their demons.

  The training room had seen much use. Swords and shields hung on the walls at opposite ends of the pavilion. Practice weapons were stacked on shelves along with staves of varying lengths. The western wall was open to the gardens, sheets of silken fabric tied back against the pillars.

  Jayesh stood at the center of the room, shirtless and moving through a sequence of kalaripayattu forms. His strong shoulders strained against the movements.

  “Take those idiotic glasses off. They are an outside distraction,” Jayesh said as he slipped his tunic back on.

  Sasha was more than a little disappointed when his abs disappeared behind his shirt. He was a dick, but at least he was pretty to look at—until he opened his mouth.

  She left her slippers at the threshold of the pavilion—it was considered holy and she wasn’t the disrespectful teen he thought she was. She hung her sunglasses and the flowing orange silk vest she wore over her tunic on the pegs at the entrance.

  Crossing the room, Sasha thought of all the ways she could make this difficult for him, but in this place, with so much history and atmosphere, her palms itched to get started. For the first time she felt her interest stirring, wondering what she would learn while in this sacred place.

  “What’s on the agenda for today?” she asked, taking her usual student’s stance in front of her teacher. She wasn’t used to training with strangers. It left her feeling awkward.

  “You will touch my feet as a sign of respect when you enter these training grounds.” He stood ramrod straight, waiting for her to comply.

  Sasha was no stranger to martial arts training and she was familiar with most customs of respect. She had no doubt what he said was true, but there was no way she was touching his feet.

  “How about we don’t and say I did?” Sasha gave him a curt bow instead.

  “We will abide by the Chola customs while we are here.” He returned her bow with a level stare.

  “I don’t think so.” She lifted her chin. “You’re demanding it as a sign of submission when it should be given in respect.”

  “Just sit already,” Jay barked in his military tone and her back was immediately up for the second time in as many minutes.

  “Say the magic word.” She put just the right amount of angst into her request. “I am not one of your soldiers. At least not yet.”

  “I don’t need the attitude, Sasha. We’re never going to get anywhere if you don’t show some respect.”

  “Quite frankly, if the kalaripayattu guru and his student are supposed to have a close relationship of respect and friendship, you are the one giving attitude. I’m just following your lead,” she said as she took a seat on the stone floor, gesturing for him to join her.

  “We will begin our first lessons of meithari tomorrow.” He took his seat opposite her. “Today, I would like to take the opportunity to get to know you. Or rather, your gifts,” he amended. “You will not be permitted to use them during our sparring sessions until we reach the second stage, ankathari, but as your mentor during this time, I need to have a thorough understanding of all your gifts.”

  “Absolutely not. When it comes to my gifts, my sister is my mentor while we are here,” Sasha said. “I do not know you. I trust you to teach me kalari, but you’ve given me very little reason to trust you blindly where my gifts are concerned. We can discuss my targeting gift, but that is all. The rest of my abilities are mine to protect. Until you show me you are worthy of my trust, I’ll be keeping them close to the belt. To do otherwise goes against everything I’ve ever been taught.”

  “Fine. We will begin with your targeting gift. That’s the most interesting thing about you anyway,” Jayesh muttered. “Clearly, it is going to take a miracle for us to achieve the kind of relationship that will get us out of this place.”

  “I did not ask for this,” Sasha said. “You are blaming me because you find yourself in this place you hate. That is not my fault. I wasn’t given a choice.”

  Jay stood and crossed the room. His shoulders tensed and his footsteps heavy as he paced. “This is hopeless.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. If you will just meet me halfway….”

  “My mind is on the mission I should be preparing for. My team needs me in Africa, yet I am here. With you. My job there … it means something to me, Sasha. I’m not just a hired gun. I know the Senate wants you trained in a way that will only strengthen the future of my team, but I have never been a patient man. There are things I need to be doing, and training a sixteen-year-old child isn’t one of them.”

  “I’m seventeen,” she corrected him. “And there are other things I should be doing than wasting my time here with you.”

  “Shopping with your friends for shoes?” Jay turned to face her with a sneer. “Snapchatting your life away?”

  “Go ahead. Judge me one more time.” Sasha stood to face him. “Paint me with all the stereotypes of my generation. Don’t attempt to actually get to know me so we can get out of here anytime soon. Go ahead. Keep acting like a dick and see how long we’ll be stuck in this time screw.”

  “Please tell me what important things we are pulling you away from, angel?” he snapped as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Tell me what you have going on in your life that is more important than a nation of people at war, suffering under the rule of a brutal dictator? I’m listening.”

  “My Com—” Sasha’s hands clenched into fists at her side. “…The boy I’ve grown up with and loved my entire life is a captive of the Coalition. He was taken from his family because of me.” Her tone was low and full of all the loathing she felt for Jayesh and his assumptions as well as for herself and her failures. “He is suffering because I wasn’t there for him. I was leaving for Atlanta. Before you came for me, I was going to go find him. I was going to help him escape, or at least be with him as a support. And then you showed up on my doorstep and now we are here and Quinn is still in Atlanta where no one can reach him.”

  “What did you think you were going to accomplish by going there, Sasha?” The critical tone in his voice vanished, replaced by one bordering on kindness.

  “The people who have him seem to attract people like me. Young and talented Immortals. I was going to walk through the front door of Sterling Tower and ask for help with my training. It was a good plan. I could have gotten close enough to help him. To help our family with the knowledge they need to free him.”

  “It wouldn’t have worked,” he said softly.

  “How do you know?” she fumed.

  “Trust me. I know. You’d never reach him that way. Put it behind you and let your family take care of Quinn while you take care of yourself. I need you to have your head in
this, Sasha. Fully in this … or we are going to fail.”

  “Let’s just get back to training. I’m in the mood to punch things.”

  “We will meditate first. Then we will have lunch and discuss my plan for your training. We will have time for kalari tomorrow.”

  “We have to make the most of our time here, Jayesh. We should train and not let the days slip past us.”

  “When I was here before, the best I was able to calculate, time passes at a rate of one day to every couple of hours outside. Sometimes, when we aren’t learning what we came here to learn—like now, because we are both sucking at the first lessons of meithari—it’s more like a week here is an hour at home. We have all the time in the world to get this done, Sasha. Somewhere along the way, we will become friends. It is the nature of this place. Follow me.” He stepped through the giant pillars and down the crumbling stone steps into the sweeping gardens below.

  Sasha followed him down the steps, too irritated to truly appreciate the beauty of the temple gardens.

  “Together or separate?” Jayesh asked.

  “Let’s not push our luck on the first day. I’m going over here,” Sasha said, leaving Jayesh to find his own quiet corner to meditate.

  Sasha stomped along the garden path, her blood pounding in her ears.

  “Sasha?” Jayesh called behind her. “Just … give me time to find my footing. I wasn’t expecting any of this.”

  “You think I was?” She winced at her sharp tone. “Perhaps we both need a good minute to ourselves.”

  “Perhaps,” he agreed. “Come find me when you feel you have found the right frame of mind.”

  Sasha walked along the dirt pathway to one of the many small alcoves. Short shrubs grew around a natural fountain where flowers floated in the breeze along the water’s surface. She knelt on the moss-covered cobblestone and focused her gaze on the flowers. Meditation was as much a part of her life as her daily training was, but for the first time in ages she couldn’t seem to ground herself in the moment.