Rising Like a Storm by Tanaz Bhathena

Author:Tanaz Bhathena
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

28

CAVAS

Captain Emil makes me recite the speech to him the next morning, one eye on the scroll, another eye on my expressions.

“You know the words,” he says when I finish. “You even sound like you mean them.”

“I do mean them,” I lie. “I’m loyal to Rani Shayla.”

The captain stares at me. Something akin to disappointment flickers in his eyes, but it disappears so quickly that I can’t be too sure. “Come along,” he says.

Instead of going upstairs to the royal chambers, we make a left at the staircase, heading deeper into Raj Mahal, through another set of hallways held up with giant marble pillars shaped like palm trees. Indradhanush knits a rainbow-hued metal web through the glass roof, casting a shadowy lattice over the floor. Guards appear, posted every few feet, their spears embedded with firestones, their eyes the only part of them that moves under their dark-blue turbans.

The hallway ends in gold doors made with paneled mirrors, flanked by two hard-faced Sky Warriors. They nod at Captain Emil and move aside one of the panels, revealing another, smaller door.

Hot air cloaks me the moment I step outside, following Emil down a set of stairs. A pair of sleek white mares are tethered to a carriage made of polished wooden doors and a glass roof, dazzling indradhanush spiking its giant wheels. Unlike open-air Ambari carriages with their colorful umbrella roofs, this carriage is from the Brimlands, one of the many that the king sent as gifts to celebrate the binding of his second daughter, Farishta, to Lohar a few years ago. The only change to the carriage is the new emblem now painted over its doors—an atashban crossed with a trident. Next to the carriage stands a familiar figure, a man whose eyes widen ever so slightly when he sees me. Apart from this, though, Ambar Fort’s stable master doesn’t speak nor give any indication of our former connection.

“Captain Emil,” Govind says with a quick bow. “The carriage has been modified as requested.”

“Thank you, stable master,” Emil says before turning to me. “Go on. I will take off your shackles once you’re inside.”

Climbing into the carriage shackled is a lot more difficult than I anticipated, pricks of pain jolting my wrists every time I make a move. Eventually Emil gets impatient, and Govind rushes forward to push me in. As he does, he presses something small and hard into my palm. I keep my expression neutral as my pulse kicks up a notch. My fingers roam over the familiar surface of the coin—a green swarna to communicate with living specters. Govind’s specialty.

I sense the magic in the carriage’s walls the moment I climb in—thick as the air outside, nearly as suffocating. Sweat forms a layer on my forehead and nape. I look out the open window and breathe deep.

“Don’t even think of escaping.” Captain Shekhar has stepped in. “You’ll kill yourself before you know it.”

So a barrier of sorts. I wonder now if this is what the rekha felt like to the women at Ambar Fort—an invisible cage that bound them to Rani Mahal.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.