Heir of Iron

Chapter 22: Mandhi

(The picture above is from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10283499/No-sex-please-were-Indian-survey-finds-men-in-the-sub-continent-have-fewest-partners.html.)

PART 3

DEMON

There was fire, and there was smoke, and there was noise. She couldn't see through the mist, and her thoughts tumbled like flakes of ash in the chaos of flame and the crackling thunder of the stones. Navran stood like a charred tree, mute horror drawn on his face. A dusting of soot blackened his cheeks.

The noise around them resolved itself into screaming. And she realized that the crush of people behind them was disappearing, draining away like a tide down the causeway, as the crowd fled the holocaust. Her thoughts snapped together all at once. She seized Navran's hand.

"We have to go," she said. Her voice was hoarse. Had she been screaming?

His gaze didn't leave the river. She pulled him back. He stumbled, his knee hit the ground, and he blinked as if waking from a dream.

"He was fire," he mumbled. "He was all flame."

"I saw," she said. Gocam burning but not burned. The image was fixed in her eyes as if she had stared at the sun, but she blinked it away. "Let's go. I don't want the Jaitha militia to find us here."

He lurched forward. She pulled at his hands, and they ran together after the fleeing crowd, away from the causeway, and lost themselves in the city.

The platforms and walkways of inner Jaitha were chaos. Screams and shouted rumors echoed down the narrow wood-covered alleys and across the flooded streets. The bridge is burning. The bridge is burning. They ran past reed boats overturned and careless people thrown into the water. Curtains were drawn shut against them as they passed, and men crouched in the doors of their homes with hostile expressions, their posture declaring their readiness to defend themselves against the threat of a riot. The thikratta called down Chaludra's fire. Ruyam blasted the bridge to strike against the king. Arguments spilled out of windows clattered onto the slatted wood. They ran and elbowed aside anyone that got in their way.

Navran had a dazed, lost expression, and followed Mandhi without any indication that he understood where they were going. It had been a while since Mandhi was in Jaitha during the flood season, but she was able to remember the way along the platforms well enough. As soon as Paidacha's guest-house appeared ahead of them she shouted, "Paidacha!"

He appeared in the door with a fierce expression, wielding a bent and blackened knife. When he made out Mandhi and Navran his eyes grew wide, and with a panicked note in his voice he said, "Come in! Quickly!"

They ran through the door, and the curtain dropped behind them. Paidacha stayed a moment longer, pulling the curtain aside just enough to watch the walkway that passed before his door, then turned to them in shock. "Mandhi! Navran!" He grabbed Mandhi's face in his hands and kissed her fervently on both cheeks, then fell onto Navran's chest kissing his hands and cheeks. "You're safe. You're alive. Forgive me, Navran. I've prayed for your return every day since---"

Paidacha paused for a moment, then looked at Mandhi. "Where is Taleg?"

Her heart twisted. An awkward silence stretched for a breath before she made herself say, "He fell in Majasravi."

"Mandhi! Tell me, no, that it wasn't---oh, but it was." He began to weep, then knelt and kissed her hands.

She rested her hands on his head and said, "You're not the only one to blame. What's happened here?"