Page 21

Chapter 20

I THINK I MIGHT JUST BE GETTING THE HANG OF THIS

P ashim didn’t show for supper that evening; in fact, no drohi were present. Apparently the fortieth night of every month, or maheena as they called it here, belonged to the drohi, to do with as they wished. Yep, forty days in a month, eleven months in a year, and I had no idea how many days that was because I was crap at math. Anyway, tonight, the potentials were alone for the first time in days, and it was liberating.

We cooked as a group. I made rice that wasn’t mushy while Joe tried not to burn the flatbread. Dharma and Priti made roast chicken and potatoes, and Eve and Sylvie worked on a vegetable noodle dish. The rest of the group pitched in until it was time to set the table and sit down for our first proper meal together.

We picked the main central table with its long benches for our supper, and for a few moments, there was only the scape of spoons in bowls as we loaded up our plates with the various dishes that we’d co-cooked. I tried a little of everything, piling roast chicken, golden brown with a crispy skin, and fluffy potatoes onto one side of my plate and stir-fried noodles on the other. I made a note to leave room for the spicy vegetable curry, lentil soup, rice, and flatbread slathered in butter.

Everything smelled divine, and it tasted even better.

We ate in silence for a few minutes, filling our empty bellies, ready for some light conversation.

“What do you think they’re all doing?” Eve asked.

“No idea,” Remi replied around a mouthful of food. “I asked, but Crag was tight-lipped.”

“Is he ever anything else?” Eve said.

“Hey, he’s a male of few words.”

“The rice came out perfect,” Joe said, neatly changing the subject. “Unlike my roti.”

“Pashim is a good teacher, and your roti is delicious.” I snagged one off the pile.

“Oooo, speaking of Pashim, I have some gossip,” Priti said. “Keyton told me that Pashim had a demigod once.”

I lowered my spoon. “He was bound?”

“Yep. But his demigod died.”

“Oh no. How?”

“A pishacha killed her. Tore her in two. He leapt into the shadowy maw to save her, and it almost killed him too. It took him six months to heal.”

Oh god. No wonder he’d acted odd when I’d told him about Nani. He’d lost someone too.

“Wait, didn’t one of those pissy things kill your gran?” Eve said bluntly.

The table fell silent, everyone either looking at me in concern or throwing dagger eyes Eve’s way.

“What?” she said. “It happened.”

The more I confronted that night, the less hold it could have over me. “Yeah, it did. And yeah, it was. I told Pashim about it today. I didn’t know about his jodi though.”

“Even worse, I hear that she was pregnant,” Priti said.

“What?” Poppy and Regina said in unison.

“It happens.” Dharma shrugged. “The bond is powerful, and some drohi and demigods do have a sexual relationship.”

A kiss was one thing but, “How? They have such big dicks.”

And now I was the total center of attention. Shit.

“How do you know that?” Dharma asked with a dirty smirk.

“I knew all that tension between you two had to be going somewhere,” Priti added.

“Is that why you fell off the log?” Eve asked. “Was your crotch hurting?”

“Oh my god!” Sylvie smacked Eve’s arm .

“Whoa, whoa!” I held up my hands to quieten them all down. “It’s nothing like that. I walked in on him changing, that’s all. So they have children and then what? They stop fighting?”

“Nice change of subject,” Remi muttered beside me.

For a moment I was worried that it wouldn’t work, but then Priti took pity on me and went with the topic change. “The children go into the cradle to be raised by yaksha,” she said. “Offspring of demigods and drohi are always drohi. The children just add to the army.”

“And what if they don’t want to be in the army?”

“I doubt they get a choice,” Dharma said. “I doubt anyone gets a choice here.” She threw up her hands. “Hell, look at us.”

“Except gods,” Priti added. “Gods get a choice.”

But it wasn’t right. Taking their children. Owning a race…It was oppression. My gut knotted.

Everyone was quiet now, expressions as troubled as mine.

“We can’t do anything.” Priti said. “We don’t have the power.”

“No, not yet,” Dharma said.

But maybe when we were gods, we could do something. Anything, if enough of us banded together.

“I think I have a renewed interest in becoming a god,” Joe said.

Dharma held up her glass of water. “To becoming a god. ”

“To becoming a god!” we all echoed.

I just hoped we all made it.

The fact that I’d missed having a proper go at the dummy gauntlet grated on me, so once we were done with supper, I headed back out to the arena with the intention of taking a closer look at it. I asked Priti for her map, and she loaned it to me on the proviso that I not try out the gauntlet alone, just in case I got hurt. Once I promised, she marked the map with the route I’d need to take through the complex to get to the second arena.

It was strange being out of the barracks alone at night. The stars felt too close, as if I was walking in the sky, which I technically was, considering we were in a sky city. It was cold, misty, and altogether creepy, but I reminded myself that I was a big bad demigod, pulled up my big-girl panties, and dealt with it. The sense of being watched crept over me a couple of times.

Were the ankh still on duty?

I picked up the pace, squinting at the map in the dark to find my way through the complex. There were lamps fixed to the wall, but all were turned down low. An air of silent expectancy filled every passage, making my skin itch.

Was the complex empty at night ?

Did the other seasoned demigods hang out here? What about the Gurus? Where did they live?

There were several barracks on the other side of the complex—houses, as they were called. The demigod residents who lived there had either failed the labyrinth or had all taken a test or two and were waiting to take it. Only those that ascended moved to Shahee Kshetra—the royal domain.

Why were they keeping us separate from the other demigods? Why not just put us into the mix with the natives? Surely that was the best way to acclimatize us?

My thoughts accompanied me onto the platform above the dummy gauntlet that looked more intimidating at night than in the day.

I’d fallen at the first hurdle. The log.

I climbed into the arena and approached the huge tree trunk attached to a rotisserie-style mechanism. A few of us had fallen at this stage. I walked beneath it, studying the underside of the wood. Rough and notched like a tree trunk except… What was this? A smooth patch. Unnaturally smooth. It was at about the same point that I’d slipped and fallen. Ooo.

“You’ll find it on the real course too,” someone said from behind me.

I spun, immediately on the defensive, but relaxed at the sight of Ravi. “What are you doing here?”

“I followed you.”

“O-kay, that’s not creepy at all.” I glanced around, suddenly aware of how alone we were. I didn’t know this guy. We’d spoken once. I should not be relaxing around him.

His brow furrowed. “I won’t hurt you.”

“Oh goodie.”

“I mean it. I just…I want to help.”

“Why?”

“Are you always this suspicious?”

“Not suspicious, more wary, and you didn’t answer my question.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure. I guess I like the way you smell.” He flashed me a smile and took a step toward me. The moonlight caught his eyes, making them reflect eerily.

They have certain appetites…

I backed up a step, eyeing the ramp to the exit platform which lay to my far left. “What do you mean you like the way I smell?”

He ground to a halt and held up his hands. “Just that. You smell nice.”

My stomach quivered, but I held my ground. “Look, I’m not up for being eaten, okay?”

I gauged the distance between myself and the platform. Could I make it before he grabbed me?

He stared at me wide-eyed then let out a bark of laughter. “We don’t eat people, Leela.” He tucked his hands into the pockets of his pants and shrugged. “Look, I just want to help you. I’ve run this gauntlet several times just for fun. I can show you what to avoid. The timing…I can help you pass it. ”

“I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I still don’t understand why you’d want to help me. Why not one of the others?”

“I don’t understand the first part of your sentence, but I can answer the second. You remind me of someone. Someone I cared about a lot.”

I waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t, and my gut told me not to push. Now that I’d relaxed again, my instincts told me that he wasn’t a threat.

“I could do with some help.”

His grin was disarming. “Wise choice. And in the interests of transparency, I heard your conversation with your drohi earlier.”

Ouch. “Which conversation?”

“The one that tells me you’ll need real help if you’re going to ascend.”

The cynical part of me wondered what price tag his help came with, but it also reminded me that beggars couldn’t be choosers. I needed any help I could get. I’d have to worry about the price when it presented itself.

I sighed. “Okay, so let’s get started.”

Ravi walked me through the course, from the spots to avoid on the rotisserie log to the timing of the spikes and blades, then to the vines and where the snakes would most likely be, something which was changeable. I’d have to observe and find the patches of color that were lighter than the darker, richer, vines. There were spots in between those major aspects which he called confidence boosters, put there to make you let your guard down.

“Do not get complacent,” he said. “Always be alert because in the main gauntlet, these spots are where unexpected things will happen.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean things that you haven’t dealt with in the run before. Things that I cannot warn you about, and these…these are the true test.”

There were three of these spots. A steep rockface, a stretch of water, and a series of pedestals several meters off the ground, easily crossed if you leapt from one to the other, or so it seemed. The rockface was the midway point, after which came a series of ropes before the pedestals. The water stretch was right at the end, but on the dummy gauntlet the water was absent.

We worked on the first part of the gauntlet. It was late by the time we finished, and I was struggling to hold back my yawns.

“I’ll walk you back,” Ravi said. “If you want, we can test the gauntlet out tomorrow night. I know you’ll run it during the day, but some extra practice could be good.”

And with him here to help me, if I got hurt, it would be safe. “Thanks. That would be great.”

He walked me as far as the steps up the mountain, where we parted ways. Araz hadn’t returned to our room yet. I showered, changed into my sleep stuff, and crawled into bed feeling more positive than I had in days, because with Pashim and Ravi’s help, I might just be able to qualify for the labyrinth after all.