Page 25 of The Burning Mountain
Veer caught her forearm to retreat deeper into the shadows.
I don’t know. Have you?thought Chandra.
Veer, who was keeping the guards in his eyesight, whipped his head toward her.
“I didn’t say that out loud, did I?” asked Chandra, slightly panicked.
His face softened, but he didn’t answer her question. “We are going to rescue Prince Aditya tomorrow,” he said instead.
“You found him?That’s great news,” said Chandra, grabbing his arm in excitement.
Veer’s brows rose at her enthusiasm. “Yes. But he isn’t in great shape. We’ve yet to see how much of a toll this imprisonment’s had on him.”
“At least that’s much better news than what I have,” she said, her posture slumping as she leaned against the giant blocks of stone that formed the exterior of the palace. Thianvellian architecture tended to favor blocky structures, which they tried to soften using strategically placed arches and plantings. The strongly scentedchampak, which grew in a nearby planter, almost hit her in the face under the influence of a stray gust, and she brushed it aside impatiently.
“No luck in getting Namata Devi to reveal how to get to the throne in treasury?” asked Veer sympathetically.
“No…and yet I feel like I am missing something.” Chandra tucked the tendrils of hair behind her ears and thought back to one of their earlier encounters.
“Do you want me to stop and leave?” She had blurted out one day, frustrated by the lack of progress and goaded by the regent’s words.
Namata Devi’s eyes had widened at her petulant tone. The other maids had also halted what they were doing, mouths hanging open.
But Namata Devi quickly recovered and sent Chandra a warning glare. She addressed the other maids first. “Get back to work,” she said furiously. “And you. If you are going to quit when something doesn’t go your way, you’ll never get to where you need to go.”
Chandra blinked, wondering if there was a deeper meaning behind those words. She had apologized profusely and bent to her task. And that was the end of that.
Ironically, it was after that incident that Namata Devi had refused to see her anymore.
“Time isn’t exactly our friend in this quest, Chandra,” said Veer, watching her closely. “We’ve known Aditya’s location for a while. And tomorrow we get the opportunity we’ve been waiting for. Ketuvahana is going away for a short while and we plan to strike then. So, I need to know. Can Namata Devi hold up her end of the bargain?”
Chandra chewed on her lip, pensive. “I honestly don’t know what to say, Veer. Namata Devi has shown every indication of helping us. You know she gave us information about the key piece’s location. But…”
The lazy moon finally made an appearance. Their hiding place was still shaded but its slanting light deepened the sharp angles of Veer’s stern expression. “The only way this partnership is going to work is by mutual trust, Princess. If she can’t fulfill what we requested, the deal is off. We need Prince Aditya’s half of the pendant. But we don’t need to rescue him for that. The reason I agreed to it is because Gauri Devi promised her sister would help us in this matter.”
“I thought Namata Devi would give us the cipher for safely navigating the treasury room when she felt like she could trust us. But lately…”
“Yes?”
Chandra glanced down into her hands. The shawl wrinkled from being bunched under her fists. She released it and smoothed her fingers over it.
“I haven’t seen or spoken to her in days, despite me seeking audience every day.”
“She’s been refusing to meet you?” asked Veer incredulously.
“Yes. She sent a message with one of her maids today, saying that she had reconsidered the idea of having me make this shawl as a gift.”
“Hmm… What do you think about that, Princess?” he said, rubbing his chin.
Chandra pursed her lips and began hesitantly, “My gut tells me to trust her. It might be that she isn’t allowed to meet anyone. Her wedding is only a few days away. It makes sense she would be extra cautious about speaking to some stranger.”
Veer was silent for a while and leaned back into the shade. “What’s this about a shawl?” he asked eventually. “Billadev didn’t mention that before.”
Chandra bent her gaze down once again. “It’s nothing important. We were almost caught at that first meeting, and she spun a tale about how I was convincing her of my embroidery skills, and this is the result.”
“Was that the reason I saw you stomping earlier? You seemed to be in quite a fit of temper.”
Chandra gave him an embarrassed nod, her finger twisting the shawl, making the wrinkles worse. “You know how I get riled. I’ve been working on this for weeks now. She made me pull out the stitches multiple times because they weren’t to her exact specification. I told her, practically begged her, I knew little about embroidery, but would she listen? Made me ruin an excellent, and no doubt costly, piece of clothing.” Chandra realized how disgruntled she sounded and cleared her throat. “And now she sends word that she doesn’t really need the shawl, and I’m to keep it. Before you arrived, I was considering setting it on fire for closure.”
