Page 49 of The Prince Without Sorrow

Chapter Forty-Eight

Shakti

S HAKTI WALKED ALONE ALONG ONE OF THE PALACE’S corridors that looked out onto one of its long pools. Busts of past Maurya royals were placed on pillars between each column, their names etched into the granite.

She stopped by the sculpture of Emperor Adil. Even immortalized in stone, his features were made to be cruel. Shaking her head, she moved away from it. She could hear his taunts in her head, his noisy complaints of her wretchedness and unjustified anger engulfing her like a tidal wave. The palace was under lockdown, with no one able to leave. The only good news she’d heard from Ruchira was that Harini had left for the city some time before the announcement.

‘Your family is a scourge, Adil,’ she muttered. ‘I hope that mayakari curses litter your bloodline for generations to come.’

Adil’s bust, of course, said nothing.

‘Your children will tear each other apart and I will watch,’ she said heatedly. ‘And then I will taunt you until I die.’

Adil’s bust remained silent.

Releasing a high-pitched squeal of exasperation, Shakti aimed a swift kick at the pillar that held Adil’s bust. However, it was so firmly melded into the ground that it made barely a wobble. Frustrated out of her wits, Shakti took out her dagger and threw it at the bust. The dagger landed squarely between his eyes, right on the bridge of his nose. The material cracked upon impact, fissures travelling from the centre point before slowing to a stop.

She was so tempted to cast herself into The Collective, and order Aarya to drop dead.

Do it.

Was that her voice, or was it Jaya’s? At this point, Shakti could not differentiate between her own volatility and the distorted echo of her aunt’s voice that did not sound like her aunt at all. Maybe she was going mad, too.

‘ Little witch .’

She startled and looked down. At first, she could barely see anything, but her eyes adjusted to spot an ant-sized, moon-white nature spirit peering at her from behind the column.

‘ Spirit? ’ she asked, stunned. How did this creature exist here?

She glanced at the pool reflecting the moonlight with perfect clarity. Ah – the water.

This minor spirit could not communicate well, perhaps affected by its own surroundings. When it came forward to ghost against her feet, Shakti sensed a question:

Angry?

‘ I am not mad, nature spirit ,’ Shakti replied. ‘ It is the world around me that refuses to stay sane. ’

The nature spirit cooed, and a chill crept up her spine. Fuck. It had been so instinctual; she shouldn’t have answered it. What if someone had seen her? What if someone had—

‘I found you.’

It took all of Shakti’s strength not to jump out of her skin. She knew that voice well. Dulcet tones, a demeanour of innocence that belied a tempest of hunger and wickedness. As she turned, Princess Aarya seemingly melted out of the shadows behind her, dressed in fighting gear.

The world around her constricted. It became hard to breathe. Clasped in Aarya’s right hand was a sword, the very same one she used in combat practice. Before, it had been aimed at Shakti without proper intent. Now, with the silver blade shining beneath the moon, its intent was all too clear.

‘Princess Aarya,’ she said. Her heartbeat thumped against her ribs.

The princess’s eyes were flat. Dull. ‘You,’ she said softly, taking a step towards her. The tip of the sword dragged along the ground in an unceremonious screech . ‘It was always you .’

Shakti thought she saw a flash of disappointment, an undercurrent of sadness beneath her downturned lips. Something close to betrayal. But that couldn’t be. That was not who Aarya was.

‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Shakti replied, purposefully keeping her voice slow. Discreetly, she shifted her eyes to her own dagger that was lodged into the bust. There was enough time to wrench it out and defend herself. A dagger against a sword was no fair match, but she had the advantage of cursed speech.

‘Don’t lie to me, mayakari ,’ Aarya said as her pretty face twisted into a sneer. ‘There was no need to see you speaking to that nature spirit. I already knew it was you.’

‘Princess,’ Shakti said slowly. Her heart was struggling to keep a regular rhythm. ‘Are you feeling all right? I can get the ph—’

‘You reacted to the tea, mayakari,’ the princess growled. ‘You cannot talk your way out of this.’

Tea?

Shakti’s mind flashed back to the conversation she’d had with the princess in her chambers. Did she put in some kind of poison? No, that couldn’t be it. So then, what was she possibly talking about?

Princess Aarya watched her with a devious grin. ‘The stories are true,’ she laughed, ‘the Ghost Queen really does reveal a witch.’

The Ghost Queen?

No , she thought frantically, that can’t be. I made her stop. She couldn’t have.

‘The Ghost Queen is a rarity,’ Shakti sputtered, ‘its claims are a lie.’

‘ Really? ’ The way in which the princess feigned shock would have been almost comical had the situation not been so dire. ‘Then tell me why the staff who I had drink the tea did not cough it up like you did? They found the taste to be rather pleasant.’

Emperor Adil’s voice surfaced in a haunting echo.

Listen carefully, witch – the Ghost Queen is purported to reveal a mayakari if they come into contact with it .

Magic harms magic.

Spirits. Her reaction to the tea made sense, then. The princess had really, truly found a Ghost Queen. Of all the bad karma Shakti could have received, and this was it?

‘A foreign body reaction,’ she lied.

‘You know, I’m surprised you didn’t see it yourself – I made the order to have one sent to the palace if the flower was found, and mayakari, they found one . One measly Ghost Queen on the cusp of death, and it was brought to me. One fucking flower, and I used it on you. Want to know why? Because I dreamed. Of you .’

The princess was ranting now, becoming more agitated with each passing moment. Shakti surveyed her surroundings, looking for a suitable port of escape. Nothing . Running was doable, but useless. Aarya would catch up to her.

Shakti found herself focusing on one remark during her assessment. Aarya had dreamed of her – when? She had remained as Adil for each dream she’d invaded. When had she—

Oh.

‘Until the Ghost Queen was brought to me, I’d suddenly lost all desire to find it. I thought it was strange,’ Aarya continued. ‘Then, I remembered the nightmares. In one of them, my father drowned me beneath moss, and for a moment in that dream, I saw you. He turned into you. It made no sense to me why you would appear, why I would dream of you . But then I entertained that curiosity. Asked about Mathura’s native language, and you told me a falsehood despite claiming it was your birth state. Remember it?’

A vague recollection surfaced, of Aarya asking her if there was a polite and informal level to the state’s native tongue. She’d said no.

Fuck .

‘What a shame it’d be to burn you,’ Aarya mused. ‘I trusted you to guard my life, you know. I liked you; I thought we were similar.’

Suddenly, an image of Jaya flashed in Shakti’s mind. Her burned corpse, her emerald necklace, her laughter, her kindness. Everything good and terrible came rushing into Shakti’s consciousness at once, and all she could determine was that she would not meet her doom like her aunt had done.

No, she would live, by any means possible.

‘Please!’ Shakti exclaimed, putting her hands up. ‘Don’t hurt me.’

Aarya stopped in the middle of her tracks, head tilting to the side like a curious dog’s. ‘And why not?’ she asked.

‘You once told me you desired power above anything else.’ Her mind racing, Shakti said the only thing she could in a desperate attempt to save herself. ‘You seem to be willing enough to poison your own brother for it.’

Aarya made no attempt to defend herself. ‘How else could I take power and right what he’d wronged?’ she remarked. ‘Yes, I slipped in crushed sea mango into his drink. What of it?’

The careless, unconcerned way she admitted to attempted fratricide threw Shakti. Arush was Aarya’s family. She could not imagine having such callous disregard for it.

‘You’ve hurt your own family,’ she said. ‘Would your father not have been disappointed?’

‘I did not mix enough to kill – I am not so heartless,’ the princess replied as if Shakti’s accusations had hurt her deeply. ‘Only enough to incapacitate. And do not dare speak my father’s name.’

Without another word, she charged at Shakti. Adil’s name seemed to have spurred the princess to action. Swiftly, Shakti jumped back, her hand reaching out to grasp the hilt of her embedded dagger. Bad luck was playing against her; the dagger refused to budge. Shakti turned just as Aarya tackled her to the ground. She landed face-first, and felt her arms being pulled back roughly, secured by Aarya’s own. She heard metal clatter on the ground and realized that the princess had dropped her sword. The fear returned stronger when she turned her head up, only to see the gleam of a small dagger instead.

‘I carved my skin like it was a canvas,’ Princess Aarya hissed against her ear. As much as Shakti struggled, she couldn’t break away from the princess’s iron grip.

‘No,’ Shakti rasped out. ‘ No . Let me go!’

‘ Tch . Such lies against a princess – you should be punished,’ Princess Aarya’s voice rose to a fervent pitch.

Shakti heaved. ‘ Fuck you ,’ she spat.

An incredulous laugh. Then, ‘An eye for an eye,’ the princess remarked. The next thing Shakti knew, the back of her tunic was being cut open before the dagger’s blade dug into her skin.

Shakti screamed.

It was as if her arm were being sawn off; the pain was excruciating. Aarya did not cut once and leave it at that. Instead, she went back in, scoring repeatedly over the same cut she had made, making the incision deeper and deeper as she went. If she kept going, she would soon pass the muscle and hit bone.

‘Do you know what I’ll do?’ the princess asked softly, ‘I’ll pin my brother’s affliction on you, mayakari. They’ll believe me, too, when your body burns blue.’

In that moment, Shakti wondered if it was better to burn. She could only scream, struggle, and grit her teeth as Princess Aarya carved something on her back. What was it – an endless knot? The word traitor ? Mayakari?

Her vision turned hazy. She was going into shock. If Shakti didn’t react soon, she would faint then and there, and the murderous princess would carve a sculpture out of her body.

Do you want to die like this, Shakti?

It was Emperor Ashoka’s voice. Faraway, but insistent. Was this how her life would end? Would this mean she would be free from The Collective? Or would she be stuck with it for eternity?

Shakti did not want to find out.

With an immense heave, she twisted to her side. It disturbed the princess for a split second, enough that Shakti rolled over and tried to sit up. Scramble away. Alas, Aarya recovered from the sudden motion and lunged, trapping her again. The newly cut skin on Shakti’s back dug into the ground and she grimaced.

Before she could aim a kick at the princess’s chest, Aarya’s hands went around her throat.

Shakti gasped, her arms reaching up to claw the princess’s hands, but she only squeezed tighter. Pain raged as she felt the soft cartilage of her throat contort. She couldn’t breathe. She could only let out pathetic gasps like a fish out of water. Black spots began to cloud her vision.

While she struggled, Princess Aarya watched her with a manic expression. ‘You’ve embarrassed me, Shakti,’ she whispered. ‘A mayakari working for me all this time and I did not realize. Did Ashoka know about you? I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. You don’t deserve to burn. No, I should kill you myself.’

I can’t die like this.

A sudden burst of inhuman energy overtook her as she dug her nails into Aarya’s hands and spat the saliva that had been pooling in her mouth directly at her face. The princess screamed, like her spit was something infected. The grip against her throat loosened.

Shakti moved quickly. She used Aarya’s disconcertion to push away her hands and aim a hard kick at her abdomen. Letting out a pained grunt, Princess Aarya lurched back, still wiping her eyes.

Getting back on her feet, Shakti clutched her left shoulder. Her mind was racing. There was a sure way out of this. Quickly, she backed away when Aarya stood up, dropping the dagger and reclaiming her sword. Whatever the princess planned to do, she would show her no mercy.

Stall , Jaya’s mind whispered. Save yourself.

‘I have something that may be useful to you,’ Shakti said, panting. ‘A power. An ability. You could change the world with it.’

Aarya scoffed but thankfully made no move to lift her sword. Shakti let her approach, aware that one wrong word could cost her life. ‘Like what?’

‘Your father’s memories,’ Shakti replied, watching Aarya’s eyes widen first in surprise before shifting to outrage. ‘His voice, his consciousness – they were transferred to me upon his death.’

The princess had been so close to her, but once Adil was mentioned, she jumped back like Shakti was poison. Disbelief marred her eyes, along with a spark of disgust.

‘His death? You lie,’ said Aarya, her voice a torturous grate. ‘That is impossible. How...’

A dark cloud descended over Aarya as she narrowed her eyes at Shakti in understanding. ‘You – the poison. The curse... you killed—’

‘I can speak to your father,’ Shakti interrupted her, ‘and I’m the only one who can.’

‘Liar,’ Aarya growled. ‘You’re trying to save your own skin. You seem like the type to fight death just to steal back the chance to live.’

She raised her sword.

Shakti wouldn’t peter out like this. Not when she had one more trick left to try.

Just before the hilt of Aarya’s sword made contact against her temple, Shakti made one last-ditch attempt. ‘You want to know how I appeared in your dreams?’ she gasped. ‘It’s because I can enter them, command them. I have powers that no other mayakari have. I can speak to your father; invade dreams. I gave you the order.’

Aarya stilled. ‘What order?’

‘ Cut yourself ,’ Shakti repeated her old directive, ‘ for you deserve to bleed, daughter . That was me.’

She saw the moment Aarya recognized it, saw the mixture of disgust, horror, and fascination in her calculating eyes.

‘You want to rule the Ran Empire in its entirety, princess?’ Shakti asked. One last chance. ‘Keep me alive and I can help you conquer the world.’