Page 60 of The Seeker
“You don’t look like a harmless girl no matter how hard you try. If I saw you in a dark alley, I’d still run away.”
“Don’t you recognize me, Meera Bai?”
She looked up, and before her eyes, the girl aged until she’d become the mature woman Meera remembered from childhood with deep-set eyes and grooves where her mouth had laughed.
“Anamitra.”
Vasu shrugged and the young visage of her great-aunt returned. “You didn’t know her when she looked like this, but I did. You didn’t see into her heart.”
Meera sensed a trap, so she returned to shuffling through maps.
“Don’t you want to know what was in her heart?” Vasu asked. He disappeared and reappeared in a blink, hovering over Meera’s shoulder. “Aren’t you curious?”
“Her heart isn’t my business, Vasu. It wasn’t when I was child, and it isn’t now.”
“She was your aunt. Your mentor.”
“She was my teacher.” Meera tried not to react to the now-familiar visage. She could see Anamitra in every line of Vasu’s face now. The angel was doing it on purpose.
Vasu leaned in. “She would say she never met herreshon—that she wouldn’t even want to—but that would be a lie.”
Meera’s stomach dropped.
“She wasn’t mated yet, but he was. He was one of the Tomir warriors, a distant cousin of your father’s. His mating had also been arranged, and he was well-pleased with it. To him, meeting hisreshonwas a chance event that changed nothing about his life. He was bound and loyal to his woman.”
She couldn’t not ask. “And my aunt?”
“She was furious.”
Meera looked up in surprise. “Furious?”
The girl with Anamitra’s face gave Meera a very Vasu smile. “Long before she met her mate, when Anamitra was a young singer first come into the fullness of her power, she became drunk upon it. She was the heir of heaven’s wisdom. Kings and queens bowed to her counsel. Gold was placed at her feet. In Udaipur, her word was absolute.”
“And she had no mate,” Meera said.
“She had many lovers, as was her right. Men vied to be her beloved, and more than one family offered riches if she would mate with one of their sons. She was beautiful, powerful, and brilliant. She had everything she desired.”
“Except…”
“This warrior. He wasn’t hers. He could not be. Not even Anamitra could break the bond between mates. This Tomir warrior was the one thing that had ever been denied her, and because of that, he was the one thing she wanted above all else.”
“What happened?”
Vasu shrugged. “Nothing. Maarut’s father, your grandfather, saw that the presence of the scribe disconcerted your aunt and assigned the warrior to another post. Anamitra eventually consulted with her parents and her most trusted counselors to choose Firoz, your great-uncle. He was a scholar two hundred years her senior and considered a wise and mature choice. They mated and were wholly devoted to each other until Firoz was killed. I don’t think Anamitra even considered another lover after Firoz returned to the heavens. She loved him very much.”
But he was not herreshon.
“Why are you telling me this?” Meera asked.
“There is nothing that should keep you from what you want,” Vasu said. “If you want the scribe as yours, take him. Anamitra told you a tale that she used to comfort herself. She once told me that if Firoz had been herreshon, the pain of his death would have destroyed her.”
“Wouldn’t it have?”
Vasu cocked his head. “How many scribes and singers live beyond theirreshon? Many. The Irin race wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t so. Anamitra told you the lie she made herself believe. There is nothing dangerous about your taking yourreshonas your mate. Do you think the Creator makes mistakes?”
No, but she did think Vasu would manipulate her if it suited his purposes. It was possible the angel wanted what was best for Meera. Sometimes he was oddly benevolent. It was equally possible that distracting Meera by dangling a fond wish in front of her suited one of Vasu’s twisted schemes and everything the angel had just told her was a lie.
“I’m going to check what you said,” Meera told him. “I’m going to ask my father.”
