Page 32 of The Prince Without Sorrow

Chapter Thirty-One

Shakti

P RINCESS A ARYA FOUGHT AS IF HER LIFE DEPENDED ON IT.

She was like a wet, angry cat, eyes narrowed, claws out and ready to kill anyone within her sight. Combat training with the princess of the Ran Empire was something Shakti had never entertained in her life. It would have been an absurd thought, a lunatic’s daydream.

Yet, here she was, hands clutching her sword, sweat beading on her upper lip, legs heavy like iron as she deflected Aarya’s brutal onslaught.

‘Control yourself, princess,’ said Aarya’s sword-master, Kudha. She was a middle-aged woman who kept her sleek black hair trimmed short. Aarya insisted that Shakti be her sparring partner ever since her appointment. At first, Shakti realized it was a desire to test her skill against hers and Shakti had accepted. Why not since it posed an excellent way to humiliate the princess. Now, she was forced to admit that it was getting a little harder to upstage her. ‘You need to show restraint.’

The said restraint and deadly precision that Aarya was known for in the palace was untranslatable in the arena. Yes, she was relentless, but Shakti had soon discovered that accuracy was not in the princess’s repertoire when it came to physical combat. She struck whenever she regained a burst of energy, but she never scrutinized her opponent as much as Rahil did. She was powerful, but it was useless unless she knew how to direct it.

‘Stop!’ Master Kudha ordered, her voice stilling the blade in Shakti’s hands. She stepped back as the weapons-master wandered over, her gaze fixated on the princess who loosened the grip on her sword.

‘What is it, Kudha?’ Aarya panted. ‘My attacks have been relentless. What have you found this time?’

‘Relentless, yes, but imprecise.’ Master Kudha shook her head before turning her gaze towards Shakti. ‘You defend well, and you fight well, Shakti – as expected of a student trained in Mathura. Try and mimic your guard here, Princess Aarya.’

The silence that followed her command was agonizingly long. Shakti had quickly come to realize that Aarya was no fan of criticism. She only bottled it up and unleashed her vengeance through petty, often vicious verbal assaults. But here, Shakti knew that Aarya had no choice but to stay silent. Master Kudha was superior to her in terms of skill and knowledge, and her blunt remarks needed to be tolerated.

‘Try and mimic Shakti?’ Aarya echoed, her expression blank.

Master Kudha nodded. ‘Your guard is adequately restrained and explosive when she needs to be, princess. With more training, perhaps you can surpass Prince Ashoka one day.’

Eyes widening, Aarya huffed. ‘You think baby Ashoka fights better than me?’ Her tone was sceptical, cold. Whenever she spoke of her younger brother, it was always in a way that clearly signalled her inherent superiority over him. Ashoka was the weakling, he could never best Aarya in anything.

Shakti was beginning to wonder why Princess Aarya was determined to keep him below her for some inexplicable reason. What it was exactly, she had yet to find out.

‘I’ve seen Prince Ashoka fight,’ Master Kudha said, ‘and he fights like Rahil.’

Before she could stop herself, Shakti let out a low, appreciative whistle. Fighting like Rahil meant that Prince Ashoka would be, in some degree, extremely competent with a sword. He would most certainly be better than his older sister.

Princess Aarya turned to her, eyes flashing. ‘And what do you mean by that , Shakti?’ she asked tightly.

Ah, fuck. ‘Rahil is one of the best fighters in the palace, princess,’ Shakti replied with a one-armed shrug. ‘If Prince Ashoka fights like him, I can understand why Master Kudha would assume his superiority in swordplay.’

In truth, she’d been aiming to sting, and it worked. Aarya’s whole demeanour shifted as a muscle ticked beneath her strong jaw. With rigid movements, she wiped a thin sheen of sweat from her brow, her breaths steadying as she adjusted her fighting garb.

Master Kudha shook her head. ‘Rahil was trained by his father, and it was part of what made him brilliant. Why that boy refused a position under Emperor Adil, I will never understand,’ she said, mystified.

Aarya let out a bitter, clipped laugh. ‘Rahil has all the skill in this world and yet he will never stray from Ashoka’s side,’ she said, glancing at her sword. ‘Why do you think, Kudha – blind devotion topples even the best of giants.’

Blind devotion?

Shakti remembered Prince Ashoka’s doe eyes, the ferocious intensity with which he had observed Rahil after she had injured him. It had been nothing but a thin slice, but it appeared as if Ashoka’s whole world had been on fire.

That was not blind devotion , she thought to herself with a wan smile, it was anything but .

Rather, it looked like deep affection. Romantic love. It was something she could never understand, never feel despite the world around her telling her how it should . That she would . Such feelings were not for her, she had long since decided.

‘In any case,’ Master Kudha pointed to Aarya’s sword, ‘if you can match the level of your brother or even surpass him, you may finally impress me.’

‘Ashoka is a deer,’ Aarya said dully. ‘He will never be a tiger. He will never be like me.’

Never be like you? Shakti thought to herself shrewdly. What, cowering in your room and refusing sleep for two nights?

Ever since the night that resulted in Aarya’s self-mutilation, Shakti had been more careful with her dream invasion. In her defence, she had not realized that the ability could be used to harm someone physically. Besides, Aarya only sustained a deep cut. Emperor Adil had killed Shakti’s family – that was a far greater insult.

The dream invasion seemed to have scarred the princess for a short while, but her usual composure had been restored at the insistence of those around her claiming it was nothing but night terrors.

Best to err on the side of caution. It was why Shakti had found herself invading the princess’s dreams, but never assuming any form or interfering with them. Aarya’s dreams were fascinating, and she found herself as drawn to them as she was drawn to The Collective and Emperor Ashoka.

Aarya was a wicked little thing. Viewing enough of her dreams had soon made it clear to Shakti that the princess desired power beyond anything else. Power over her siblings, her fleeting lovers, and her father’s empire.

She’d almost felt guilty intruding in such a way. But the guilt had immediately been erased when the princess had one day spoken about a group of mayakari who had been discovered in a village just beyond the Golden City. Vindictive pleasure had emanated from Aarya’s eyes as she informed the council of the group of soldiers that she’d sent out to capture and kill the witches. The Ridi soldiers were yet to arrive, so the princess had ramped up investigations of potential mayakari, this time by offering gold as an incentive. And, since money drove the masses, more and more soldiers were dispatched to inspect any claims.

Shakti wanted nothing more than to drive a blade through Aarya’s heart.

‘Of course, he would never be like you, princess,’ Master Kudha said, her deep voice jolting Shakti back to the present. ‘I’ve never met a royal child more power-hungry than yourself.’

Princess Aarya smiled. ‘I only want what is best for the empire,’ she replied. Her eyelashes fluttered prettily as a sickly-sweet smile marred her features. ‘And what is best is to make us stronger than anyone else.’

Master Kudha hummed. ‘I cannot say that sending soldiers to the Frozen Lands is the best way to achieve it, princess,’ she said. ‘Seems a sure-fire way to send innocents to their deaths in the cold and unknown.’

Covering the snort that threatened to erupt from her lips, Shakti busied herself by idly scratching the hilt of her sword. Soldiers, innocents? Hah .

But Master Kudha wasn’t alone in her sentiments. Soldiers around Shakti talked. The palace staff talked. There was an undercurrent of confusion in the young emperor’s decision to expand into the Frozen Lands. Shakti had run into Ruchira a few days after Princess Aarya’s dream invasion, and the cook, too, had expressed concern.

‘Perhaps the children are traumatized by Emperor Adil’s death,’ she’d mused. ‘Grief can lead to rash decisions and unforgiving dreams.’

Shakti had been drunk on satisfaction. Her dream invasions were working.

‘I disagree with Arush’s plans to divert soldiers to the Frozen Lands.’ Shakti was startled out of her thoughts by the sound of Princess Aarya’s voice. ‘Why he chose to do this, I cannot imagine. The south is the path of least resistance – it is the most obvious choice. I hear they have deadlands that are untouched.’

There she went again with those deadlands. What an odd thing to be invested in.

‘Why the fascination with the deadlands, princess?’ Shakti asked curiously. ‘From what I’ve been told, they’re rare and the grounds are tainted; they’re difficult to farm. Is there any use in useless land?’

Jaya had told her that deadlands were where a Great Spirit had died of unnatural causes, like a curse or extensive human-made changes to the climate and terrain. The land didn’t stay permanently dead, of course. It always regrew, but mayakari could always sense something wrong. Something tainted.

Princess Aarya ran the tip of her sword along the ground, leaving a perfectly straight indent behind. ‘There is a plant that is purported to grow in those areas that is of great interest to me,’ she replied. ‘The Ghost Queen. Have you heard of it?’

Shakti frowned. ‘It may as well be a myth considering how incredibly rare it is, princess,’ she said, recalling a lengthy story Jaya had once told of a translucent flower that bloomed at night and disappeared during the day. According to her aunt, the Ghost Queen only grew in deadlands and nowhere else.

‘Rare and of no use other than looking beautiful,’ Master Kudha added impatiently. ‘Let us recommence your training, princess.’

Princess Aarya seemed to hold a hundred secrets in the upturn of her lips when she replied, ‘I was told they were priceless in their use.’

She resumed her stance, but Shakti stalled for a moment, digesting the princess’s words. Unease wormed its way into her intestines. On one hand, she could understand that Aarya would be the kind of person to procure an item for its rarity. On the other hand, why insist on sending out groups of soldiers to search for something so uncommon? And what priceless use was she talking about? She didn’t remember Jaya giving her words of caution when it came to plants.

Let it be, little bird.

Should she?

Adil’s daughter is his mirror , her inner voice rebuffed Jaya’s. Intuition told her there was something else to it. Though she had never stepped foot into a deadland nor seen one in her life, Jaya had told her that to mayakari, they were adulterated. But she’d never expanded upon it, and Shakti had not pressed further. Not when she had been so invested in learning combat over anything else.

Where can I find more information , Shakti wondered, frustrated. She barely heard Master Kudha’s order to ready themselves. Muscle memory obeyed the command, but her mind stayed elsewhere. Where would the princess get— ah.

Just when Princess Aarya’s sword met hers, the answer came fast and sharp like the prick of a needle against skin:

Adil.