“Jignesh!”Vanika shouted happily.
The girl leaped off her mule and ran up to the older man, throwing her arms around his chest.She let off a quick stream of words in an unfamiliar language.Ellie assumed it was Kuvi, based on the very limited reading she had done about the Khond.
Vanika’s tone turned from affectionate to chiding as she waved her hands from the armed men to Ellie and the rest of her party.
“Hao, hao!”the older warrior protested, separating his arrow from his bow and holding them up with an air of tired conciliation.
Vanika turned back with a smug air, casually scratching Kalb between his ears.“I told Jignesh that he can’t shoot any of you.”
Neil looked quietly alarmed.“Would he have shot us if she hadn’t told him not to?”he asked under his breath.
Adam regarded the men thoughtfully.“I’m guessing these folks have good reason to want to know who’s coming to visit.”
Vanika led them forward, Kalb trotting at her heels.Jignesh dismissed his men and joined them, his long legs easily keeping up with the tranquil pace of the horses.
The hill descended into a lightly forested valley sheltered by the surrounding slopes.The Adrija village sat at the base of it, framed by tidy fields of turmeric and other crops.Thirty houses lined the single dirt road.The buildings were simple, with a single story and a thatched roof, but their craftsmanship was apparent in the elegant carvings around the door frames and the painted murals on some of the walls.
Flowering bushes in hues of gold and crimson brightened the landscape.Jasmine vines twined up the pillars that supported covered front porches, while bushy neem trees provided oases of shade.
A weathered post stood in one of the fields beside the village.The wooden column was roughly twice Ellie’s height, the top half bifurcated into a pair of tapering points like the horns of a cow.The monument felt vaguely ritual, piquing Ellie’s anthropological interests.
Jignesh split off with the horses, leading them away for rest and food, while Vanika led Ellie and her companions into the village.Women watched curiously as they passed.Silver rings thickly decorated their ears and noses, while tattoos ornamented their cheekbones, chins, and foreheads in geometric arrangements of dots and lines.
Vanika stopped at a larger house shaded by another fragrant neem and dashed inside.A quick burst of Kuvi reached Ellie’s ears before the girl popped back out onto the covered porch alongside a diminutive woman with age-silvered hair.The older lady regarded Ellie and the others with an expression of mild surprise on her tattooed features.
“Attuburhi, evasi Bates Sahib, Mallory Memsahib, Tyrrell Memsahib, Fairfax Sahib.Oh—and Kalb.”Vanika punctuated her last introduction by scrubbing the dog’s ears.He soaked up the attention with panting adoration.“This is my grandmother, Nirjara.Everyone here respects her because she’s the kuttakaru.”
“Kuttakaru?”Ellie echoed the unfamiliar word.
“It means she speaks with the gods and the dead,” Vanika replied.
“Like a priest, you mean?”Ellie pressed curiously.
“Do your priests actually speak to the gods?”Vanika retorted with an air of challenge.
“Not usually,” Ellie admitted.
Vanika smirked.“Then they are not like my grandmother.”
A group of children raced up to the house in a hurried mass.One of the oldest among them, a boy of around ten, grabbed Vanika’s arm and tugged, rattling off a quick stream of chatter as he pointed toward the hills, imparting some childishly exciting news.
“Hao, wai!”Vanika answered quickly.
She hopped down from the porch, calling back over her shoulder.“You can all wait here!My attuburhi will take care of you until my cousin arrives.”
Constance regarded the child with mingled humor and irritation.“And where are you going?”
“Nowhere important!”Vanika asserted unconvincingly, then bolted off, trailed by a wave of other children.
Nirjara smiled warmly, motioning them to the stools scattered about her porch.“Aas, bas e-thi,” she offered in careful Odia.
Ellie dropped onto one of the low seats, a thousand questions burning on the tip of her tongue—not that she could ask any of them.It appeared that any conversation with the older woman faced a substantial language barrier, and their translator had just skipped away into the village.
Neil sat down beside Ellie.Adam crossed to the end of the porch, leaning against the pillar as he studied the village.
Kalb flopped down by Ellie’s feet, huffing a tired breath over her boots.
Constance poked her head into the house.“This is splendid!”
