Page 78 of Her Soul for a Crown
“Tell no secrets.” Kama shook on the deal.
***
“How much?” Anula said by way of greeting.
Premala scrunched her nose. “For what?”
“For you, darling.” She winked.
A flush raced across Premala’s cheeks. “Please keep your dirty jests to yourself while we’re inside, my raejina consort.”
“You can call me ‘Anula.’ And inside where?”
In the depths of the Pleasure Gardens was a cluster of rosebushes. Past the thorns and roots lay a wooden door, which housed a set of stone stairs, which led to a branch of underground tunnels, as warm and welcoming as a graveyard.
Statues, taller and wider than Anula peppered the dark, dank, torchlit space. One Divinity sat and one stood at the convergence of two tunnels, star-filled eyes pursuing Anula’s every move, and not with loving kindness.
Anula shivered as they ventured deeper; she wondered if the Divinities could truly see her or her tether to the Yakka in the bushes somewhere above them.
“This way,” Premala said, leading her through a throng of monuments to the far wall. She wrung her hands as they stood before a colorful portrait of a woman. It smiled benevolently at them and lifted a hand.
The hair stood on the back of Anula’s neck. “I thought all the blessed gifts were in the palace.”
“They are.” Premala’s gaze darted warily between them. “The caves were made specifically for the Kattadiya. Blessed for our Heavenly purpose. You only need to take her hand, and she’ll guide you to where you need to be, if you are worthy.”
Anula scoffed, eyeing the portrait’s yellow sari, her nearly see-through hatte, the tight bun that twisted on top of her head. “Must I beg?”
“This isn’t a laughing matter. If Thilini, the first guruthuma and guardian of the caves, doesn’t believe you are aligned with the Kattadiya, then I have to leave you here.”
“What, in the tunnels?”
Premala nodded nervously.
“I thought the Kattadiya protected the people.”
“From Yakkas,” she corrected. “And those aligned with them.”
Worry spiked Anula’s pulse. Was a tether considered alignment? “How can she tell?”
“For prayer’s sake, do you question all the blessed gifts like this?” Premala hissed, nervously glancing at the statues.
“Only the ones who might condemn me to an underground maze,” she snapped back.
“S-sorry, my raejina consort.” Premala stumbled into a bow, knocked her head on the wall. The portrait frowned. “It’s not my intention for you to die. If you could please just do as I say, the guruthuma—”
“Calm down,” Anula said, righting her. “I’m not aligned with the Yakkas.” Alignment meant mutual trust, and there was absolutely none of that.
“You made a bargain with them.”
“So did all those people you help.”
“This is different. They don’t come down here. You’re being inducted into the Kattadiya.”
Anula raised a brow. “Why?”
Premala gulped.
“Because I’m the raejina consort?”
