Page 38 of The Burning Mountain
“What’s the meaning of this? Who are you?” Veer knew this was Sakaala.
He noted the drawn swords in the hands of the guards behind him, and beyond, was Ketuvahana’s tall figure. He, too, was frowning at the scene that greeted him.
A sudden hissing sound made them all take a combined step back. Snakes swirled around Veer in ghostly, sinuous shapes, thenagamanipulsed a deep green at his wrist.
“What do you think?” asked Veer nonchalantly. He had thought—and discarded—about a thousand ways he could spin this, finally settling for open-ended questions instead, to see how far he could get away with it.
Veer knew, despite all of Ketuvahana’s supposed licentiousness, he would be suspicious if something didn’t add up.
Not that it mattered. All he needed to escape was a few moments in Ketuvahana’s presence. Who, with any luck, had brought the preciousspatika lingawith him.
“Of course,” said Sakaala, his face breaking out in a confident smile. “Who else might be able to come this far into the prison? Wizard Maayavi, you’re here earlier than you said.”
Veer hid his surprise with some difficulty. Had they never met face-to-face with the wizard who was helping them?
“I apologize for not recognizing you, but every time we’ve met, you have inhabited different bodies, so it’s rather hard to identify you,” said Sakaala.
Veer listened to his words with a sense of dread. What exactly did he mean by switching bodies? Only beings of the spirit realm, the not-quite dead, had that capability. So far, Veer had contented himself that even if the enemy had wizards in their employ, they could deal, because they’d be human, susceptible to human weaknesses and human mortality.
But an undead person, who was a wizard…such beings were rare.
They lost their essence of humanity and resorted to living like animals, slowly losing their emotions, shunned by society. He had encountered something like that only once before and that creature had courted death.
Veer suppressed a shiver. He didn’t wish for a repeat of that experience. Although physically frail, their magic was strong and deadly.
“What happened here?” Ketuvahana narrowed his eyes. He had moved to the front and seemed to be injured with a bandage wrapped across his chest.
Ketuvahana’s gaze drifted toward the half-burned carcass of the boy lying in the trench. “Where is Prince Aditya?”
“As you can see, dead over by that trench,” drawled Veer.
Ketuvahana’s eyes sharpened with interest. “This is Prince Aditya? And you say he’s dead?”
“Come see for yourself, if you don’t believe me.” Veer stepped away from the body. The snakes followed him, clearing the path for the men, who lifted the body from the ditch and turned it over.
The face was partially burned, but it was recognizable as Aditya. Especially by the clothes and the misshapen pendant he always had around his neck.
“What is your game, Maayavi?” Ketuvahana crouched by the carcass and examined it with a critical eye. “Why would you kill Aditya now, after you imprisoned him here with thenagamani, where none of us could touch him?”
“No game, Ketuvahana,” said Veer, thinking fast, inventing a reason he would be satisfied with. “It’s because of the type of magic I performed. I needed the victim to remain alive for a while, otherwise it would rebound on the performer. Namely me. And you.”
Ketuvahana’s brow rose as if he doubted the truth of his words. “Am I to believe you did it because you wanted to protect me?”
Veer shrugged. “Don’t care what you believe, really.”
Ketuvahana seemed annoyed at the answer but stopped further questioning. He signaled his men to transfer the body from out of the dungeon, and they sprang into action.
“How did you kill him?” he asked conversationally.
“Knife to the throat,” answered Veer curtly. “Prevents them from screaming. He didn’t put up much of a fight, though, more’s the pity.”
“It would have helped if his face was left intact,” complained Ketuvahana.
“What’s left of it should still be sufficient to convince people it’s really him,” said Veer, watching the men carry the body of the prince carefully up the stairs, until only Ketuvahana remained behind with a pair of guards.
“Aren’t you going to release me from thenagamani? You have thespatika linga, don’t you?”
“Release you?” asked Ketuvahana, halting on the steps that lead to the outside. His eyes assumed the squinty, suspicious gleam again, and Veer knew instantly he had blundered.
