“You look well,” he says, and I wonder if there’s a trace of bitterness there, mingled with the obvious relief in his voice.
“I, uh, need to check on Esther and see where she is,” Sami says before rushing off somewhere. Kali murmurs something in response. Cavas’s eyes widen, and a moment later, I realize why: I’ve moved several steps forward, hands reaching out for him. I drop them, blushing.
“You … you’re all right? Your leg…” I curse myself for my own inept mutterings.
His lips, I realize, appear a lot fuller when he smiles. “I’ve been better.” He blinks as if remembering something, and his expression shutters.
“Cavas, I’m sorry for—”
“Don’t.” His breath rushes out as if he’s been holding it in. “I can’t. Not now.”
I nod. I can’t expect him to forgive me for what happened at the palace. Not in this moment. Perhaps never.
“Do you know why Esther wants to see us?” I force myself to change the subject.
“I think she wants us to meet someone. Though I’m not sure who. I’ve asked,” he adds, when he sees me raise an eyebrow.
A gust of air curls around us, bringing tears to my eyes. For a moment, I think it’s the dust again, but Cavas suddenly moves forward and pulls me away from the wind with a frown. “That was a—”
“Living specter,” I finish. I can feel its presence now, hear the malevolent cackle. A girl.
“They’re all over this place,” Cavas says quietly. “Some are women. Some are little girls like Indu. They probably died while their magic was being drained out of them.”
My stomach turns over. Indu was simply another girl who had been taken from her family, who had been tortured until she became a specter. “All these specters … they’re from Tavan?”
“Most, but not all. Latif didn’t die here.” Cavas pauses for a moment. “And I officially met my mother. She’s a living specter as well.”
The words take a moment to register. “By the goddess! Cavas, you must be…” My voice trails off when I see his expression. Uh-oh. “Did your meeting not go well?”
He lets forth a bitter laugh. “To say the least.”
I’m deliberating on how to respond to this when the sound of footsteps makes me turn. Esther has emerged from the building. “Oh good. Everyone’s here now. Well, almost everyone.”
I look around her but see no one else. “Who is it that we’re supposed to be meeting? Where are they?”
“It’s only one person,” Esther says, hesitating slightly. “I would have brought him here, but Kali believes I should prepare you first, give you both a bit of background.”
I glance at Kali apprehensively, but she simply shakes her head. Listen, her eyes tell me.
“In a few minutes, you’ll be meeting with our savior,” Esther says. “The Pashu king, Subodh.”
Cavas is frowning—as puzzled as I am. I wonder for a moment if it’s a joke. But from the grim expressions on Kali’s and Esther’s faces, I can tell it isn’t. “But Raja Subodh’s dead. He’s supposed to have died during the Battle of the Desert. There are portraits of Sky Warriors parading his head around the city of Ambarvadi!”
“That was an ordinary lion’s head,” Esther says quietly. “Lohar wanted people to think he killed the Pashu king, but he really hadn’t, not even with a giant atashban that took ten Sky Warriors to power it. When the Pashu armies perished or retreated, Subodh was one of the few left fighting. But he was also injured. Badly. Lohar managed to shoot a spell chaining him to Tavan. But Lohar hadn’t anticipated what Subodh had done before. Subodh and the Pashu had killed the guards at the labor camp and freed the rest of us girls.”
Her voice rises, gaining strength. “We rose as one to fight—the living and the dead. The living fought off the Sky Warriors. The dead—well, most of them were living specters, really—turned us and the whole city invisible. When Subodh woke, he helped the specters reinforce the city’s invisibility by raising a magical gate. As long as the specters remain on guard, the gate cannot be breached. It’s why, whenever the Sky Warriors returned, they couldn’t find us, their spells shooting into nothingness.”
“Why is Subodh still here, though?” Cavas asks. “Why didn’t he break his chains and leave?”
“Lohar’s magic was too strong. The chains burned whenever Subodh tried to break them. Nearly killed him at one time. It’s only now that the king has died, they’ve been broken and—”
“—I’ve finally been freed.”
His voice reminds me of rainfall, of thunder rumbling in the sky.
Even being told of his existence beforehand doesn’t prepare me for the sight of the rajsingha standing behind us: nearly twice as tall as a tall man, his torso and legs the only parts of him that resemble a human, though these, too, are covered in a coat of tan fur. A thick mane surrounds a heavily scarred face, some wounds healed, some fresh, right around the whiskers. His eyes are like liquid suns, glowing even from this distance. I have the oddest feeling he can look right into me, can read my mind without a touch. I’m not sure I like it.
It seems both strange and perfectly natural for him to slink into a crouch and walk to us on all fours, reptilian tail swaying behind him—though I’m certain he could, if he wished, walk to us the way a human would. Or someone who is both lion and human. King Subodh of the Pashu. Neither Cavas nor I move as he pauses before us and scans our faces.
“Welcome,” Subodh says in perfect Vani. “We’ve been waiting for you, Star Warrior. And you, Seer.”
I’m no Star Warrior, I want to tell him. I don’t deserve your hopes. Or your dreams.
Bite your tongue, girl. A chill goes through me. It’s Subodh’s voice in
