Page 82 of The Burning Mountain
Billadev paused in his chewing and looked between Shota and Veer. He started coughing and beat his chest as the apple went down the wrong way and the implications of Shota’s statement became clear. “You mean…they finally did that?”
Shota flicked the back of Billadev’s head. “Have some respect. They are entitled to their privacy.”
Billadev’s face cracked into an earsplitting grin. “About time, I’d say. All that intensity in the air. I thought I was gonna choke on it.”
“How did you get this?”
“A spear thrust.”
“And this?”
Veer glanced down. “I don’t remember.”
They were in an isolated part of the grotto. Veer had taken Chandra to see a tidal pool. The same one that Revathi and Vireni supposedly thought had the medicinal plants. They couldn’t find a plant in sight, but there were some spectacular sea creatures. Chandra spent a joyous hour familiarizing herself with the sea anemones, urchins, sponges, and starfish—creatures of her childhood that she could never see in Amaravathi due to its lack of an accessible seacoast.
Then a thin drizzle began, and they had to take shelter under a small rocky overhang. Veer had come prepared and soon had a fire going. They stared at each other over the roasting flatbreadsand corn cobs and abandoned their meal to make love again, unable to resist keeping their hands off each other.
“How come you have scars on your body?” she said, running her finger over the tight linear pattern of circular marks. “Despite using the healing stone?”
“The healing stone accelerates healing. If there will be a scar at the end of normal healing, there will be a scar even if I use the magic stone,” he said, adjusting the blanket over her to protect her from the chill breeze. He was reluctant to get up and wished they could stay for a while, but it would soon get colder. They needed to move before their absence was noticed.
“They are amazing. I thought you called them thesangrahastones before? Where do you get them? I don’t believe I have heard of them before.”
“Thesangrahastones are rare and mostly appear in inaccessible places. They have the unique property of storing certain kinds of magic. My sister and father could infuse their respective powers into these. My sister in particular makes them in excess in her spare time and gifts them to family. Especially me.” He paused. “Virat was the one who discovered a way to use these stones.”
Her hand stilled on his chest. She attempted to get up.
Veer cursed himself for bringing up Virat, but he couldn’t keep doing this.
He grabbed her wrist and sat up partially. “Chandra, I know it is painful to hear about him, but we can’t avoid his topic all the time. Like it or not, he has made himself a part of this quest and we need to talk about what that means for us.”
“I know,” she said in a low voice, meeting his gaze. Her eyes were limpid pools, compelling in the way she was unhesitant about showing her vulnerability. “But it bothers me that you’re going with him on this mission to find the Makara. What will youdo if he controls one of the crew? Or you? Or my brother? What about Billadev or even Shota?”
“Virat’s mind control doesn’t work on me. We’ve been together for so long and practiced our magic together so often that my mind naturally started developing shields against his invasion. I’ll be all right. So will Shota. Mostly.
“As for the others… Well, for some reason I haven’t been able to fathom, Virat appears to need our help, and it seems to be related to the key. He wouldn’t do anything to raise our suspicions, and he knows that invading minds without consent would be a deal-breaker for me.”
She still looked skeptical and said plaintively, “Why can’t I go with you?”
Veer tugged at her hand, and she came willingly once again into his embrace. “The Makara is an ancient beast, a giant, miles-long sea serpent,” he said, savoring the smell of jasmine that he always associated with her, that must have seeped into his very pores by now. “I’ve every reason to believe it will be immune to my powers, which means I must find another way of destroying it. It wouldn’t hurt to have another powerful person, like your brother, be there with me. And if I manage to find some clues as to why Virat is interested in all this, then all the better.”
Chandra seemed to think about it for a while. “Then take me with you too. I can help the same as my brother.”
“No.”
She gave a discontented sigh. Her hair was mussed and the redbindion her forehead was smeared, but she was still the most beautiful woman in the world to him. “Why?” she said. “Is it because my brother is here, so I’m no longer of use to you? You don’t need me anymore?”
“It’s because I have another task for you,” he explained patiently.
“What kind of task?” she asked suspiciously, leaning away from him.
Veer’s lips twitched. “I see you don’t believe me. Good, you’re learning.” But he sobered quickly. “Shota told me he showed you the manuscript that Virat shared with us. Do you remember the last drawing in it?”
“The place with those pillars on the stones. The waterfall?”
“Yes. I recognize the place—a valley—not too far from Swara, which is a border town of Vivismati. The locals know it as the Valley of Music. I need you to find the last key piece there.”
He rummaged through the pile of his clothes nearby and pulled out a familiar object.
