“That’s from the dustwolf that attacked you,” Kali explains when she sees me looking. “We’re lucky that we had Esther. She got the poison out before it could do much damage. I swear she was better than a vaid!”
“Hardly!” Esther laughs. “Don’t be excessive in your praise, Kali. You know that only magi gifted in life magic are trained to heal and become vaids. Good vaids can work their magic and fully heal wounds like Cavas’s in perhaps an hour. I’m but a half magus with some knowledge of healing.”
I glance up sharply. Another half magus? A seer? Esther smiles and nods at me, as if sensing my questions.
“I was lucky that the old vaid at this labor camp needed help and agreed to show me how to mix herbs and make salves and potions,” Esther says. “I could have worked much faster if not for the dust that you all inhaled. Kali had been knocked out for a whole week.”
A week? “How is that even possible?” I croak out. “How long have we been here? Where are we?”
“So many questions this one asks!” Esther turns to retrieve a small vial from a table next to us and mixes a drop of it into a steaming copper mug.
“Wait until the other one wakes up,” Kali says. “She’ll ask about ten times as many.”
“Don’t worry; it isn’t a criticism,” Esther says before I can open my mouth to retort. Her brown eyes look at me kindly, and despite my confusion, I find myself relaxing under her touch. “To answer your first question, it’s the Dream Dust that puts you to sleep, though you may have guessed that already. Some people can go into a permanent sleep state; it drives many mad. Second, you’ve been sleeping for around ten days. Third, you are in Tavan, which was a city for weary desert travelers once and later a labor camp where marked girls were held captive until the Battle of the Desert.”
Tavan, a labor camp? “But all those stories—”
“Hush! You can ask your questions later,” Esther scolds. She hands me the copper mug, which is smoking now.
“What’s in there?” I ask suspiciously.
“Chai, mostly. And diluted blood bat venom. Don’t look so alarmed—I’ve been feeding you a drop of it every day. It helps leech out the poison from your leg.”
I take a sip, grimace at the taste. Is this what Papa felt like when I gave him his medicine? I glance up and find Kali looking blankly out the window. A sound not unlike hooves clatters outside, reminding me of—
“Your horse,” I say, making Kali turn around. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” she says gently, even though pain flashes through her eyes. “We saved Agni and Ajib at least.”
“Thank the goddess that you had Indu and Latif with you,” Esther says. “They guided the horses, protected you from the worst of the storm.”
“Latif?” The name tastes sour on my tongue. “He was there with us?”
“He didn’t show himself because he knew you were angry at him,” Esther says. “But he wasn’t willing to leave you behind. Not after what happened at the palace.”
The words claw at my insides, dig deep. It would be easy to give in, to sink along with the strange weight crushing my chest. I breathe deeply, search for a distraction, a lifeline. “So, Gul—”
“Will be all right. I was in to see her earlier, before I came to see you.”
I say nothing. I don’t miss the glance Kali exchanges with Esther or the fact that neither of them looked at me while talking about Gul.
“How about having a look outside your window?” Kali asks me brightly. “He can do that, can’t he, Esther?”
Esther frowns. “As long as he doesn’t overexert himself.”
With their help, I climb off the bed and hobble to the window, its curtains drawn open to let in the morning light. The room we’re in looks over a courtyard overgrown with desert grass, thhor plants, and honeyweed bushes, interspersed with odd little wooden posts. A narrow path connects the building we’re in to another one: a house built in the style of an old haveli, dark figures dancing across the roof.
I squint.
No. Not dancing.
Fighting.
Braids flying in the air, their long wooden staffs making a noise that, over here, sounds like a gentle clack.
“Lathi practice,” Esther comments softly. “We’ve been training for the past twenty years. Waiting. We couldn’t believe it when Indu brought her here.”
Her. I know, without asking, that she’s talking about Gul.
The faded letters on the building across from us spell out SOLITARY CONFINEMENT. DANGEROUS. I narrow my eyes at the posts in the courtyard, at the broken chains hanging off them, blackened with rust and time.
“We call this courtyard Freed Land,” Esther says. “The posts are a reminder of our former captivity. Twenty-two years ago, at least two girls, if not more, were continuously chained here to the stocks for what the guards deemed misbehavior. The building we’re in formed the barracks. It took me a long time to see how afraid the guards were of our dying—of turning into living specters—because of the way they tortured us. Few did, though. By the time most of the girls had their magic drained, they wanted to die anyway. Not everyone was as angry or as strong-willed.” She points into the distance. “Look. Beyond the building. Do you see them?”
For a few seconds, I don’t. Then, slowly, they begin materializing before my eyes: golden bars as tall as mountains. One bar after another, as far as the eye can see. Small gray figures circle the air around the bars. Without being told, I know they are living specters.
“It’s like a cage,” I murmur.
“Yes. As long as we can see the bars, it means Tavan remains invisible. It’s how we’ve lasted for so long over here. Not that the Sky Warriors haven’t come looking. Raja Lohar’s general used to
