Hollow Palace (Wattpad Exclusive)

Chapter Five

Five

Eli remained on the ground for a long time after Naga had gone. The goddess’s power continued to shudder through her, alternating between spasms of nausea and tingling sweats. Her ears rang, and her sight blurred with ghosts and prisms.

At some point, Kiran rolled her over and spilled water onto her lips, which broke her from the lingering trance. She sputtered, choking on the water. Her eyes refocused. Kiran gazed evenly down at her.

“You survived Naga’s touch,” he said. “You are able.”

Her entire body ached. “Able to do what?”

Kiran stood up and disappeared from her view. She stayed on her back, too sore and spent to sit up. As she settled into the pain, shattering in her head and throbbing everywhere else, she became aware of the crackle of the fire, the thick aroma of beans bubbling. Slowly, she rolled onto her stomach and looked toward the center of the room.

“Are you supposed to cook beans on a temple fire?” she asked, her voice sounding thin in the quiet chamber.

“Every fire is a temple fire,” Kiran said, kneeling next to the pit.

On the other side, Jena was slumped on her side. Eli pushed up to her knees and hung there for a second, absorbing a fresh bout of pain, then getting to her feet and dragging herself to Jena. Eli dropped to her knees and touched Jena’s shoulder. She appeared to be sleeping.

“Is she all right?”

“She’ll be fine,” he said.

Eli stared into the low flames. Fresh wood was piled next to Kiran. She wanted to ask how long she’d been on the floor, but then—she didn’t really want to know. Memories of the goddess’s presence reverberated through her.

“Your god wants you to kill people,” she said finally. “What a surprise.”

Kiran hooked his arms around his knees and leaned back. “Tell me about the world, adrijanya.”

“You mean, tell you who you’re supposed to kill,” she said.

“I will discover it with or without you.”

“Then it will be without me.”

Silence settled between them, which grew strangely comfortable. She supposed after being invaded by the presence of a goddess, the viprashan had lost some his power to unquiet her.

He stirred the beans, set in a low iron pot at the edge of the fire—one he must have taken from the hunter’s supplies. The mule carcass was gone. She didn’t ask where it had gone, or how Kiran might’ve moved it. She had other things on her mind.

Naga had spoken of four traitors. Eli’s mother was one of them. That meant the four people Kiran was meant to kill were the vamins, the heads of the four shyas—Vaanjana, Abjana, Surjana, and her own, Adrijana. He only had until the equinox, which was in four weeks. One week more than she had.

If she didn’t reach Devpur before then, her mother’s voice would dissipate, the magic would kill Eli for failing, and the remaining three vamins would elect the new vamin for Adrijana. All three of them were probably on their way to Devpur at that very moment. Even if they were not called on to elect Adrijana’s new vamin, they were required to be present at the Hollow Palace when the new vamin took the kosha and named their padaka.

Jena would tell Kiran this much.

Eli had no love for the vamins. She’d wished death upon them more times than she could recall. But as she gazed in the white heart of the fire, the pungent incense of hemlock smoke attempting to lull her into sleep, she realized that whether or not the vamins lived wasn’t what was troubling her—it was whether or not she could live with herself if she did nothing.