“We’re hoping to find a guide into the forest,” Adam cut in tactfully.
“Why?”Subhas demanded flatly.
“Familiar with a guy by the name of Borthwick?”
Subhas’s expression darkened with recognition.“I know who he is.”
Ellie recalled the information that Mr.Chowdhury had shared about the Criminal Tribes Act.A firebrand law student from a place like Ranyapali likely knew far more than she did about the impact of such laws—and what a man like Borthwick could do with them.
“He’s headed this way,” Adam explained.“Looking to get his hands on a historical curiosity he believes is hidden somewhere in your woods.”
Subhas’s eyes flashed with defiance.“Best of luck to him finding it.”
Ellie’s temper flared.“Join the Lord of the Dance on the ridge that points to the dawn of the longest day,” she recited tersely.
Subhas’s mouth tightened.
“I take it something about that description sounds familiar?”Adam drawled.
“Borthwick has the clues as well,” Ellie pointed out.
The look Subhas fixed on them was impressively intimidating for a man barely over twenty.“And the General Superintendent of the Thuggee and Dacoity Department is following these directions to what, exactly?”
Ellie answered a bit more uneasily.“A surviving invocation of the Brahmastra.”
Subhas crossed his arms.“You are aware that you’re talking about a load of mythological nonsense.”
“Ina vestenju,” Nirjara ordered.
Subhas translated for her, rattling off a stream of Kuvi.Nirjara eyed the four of them thoughtfully as she responded.
The younger man’s mouth firmed unhappily at her words.
“What’d she say?”Adam prompted.
“That I have spent too much time at the university and too long away from the forest.”Subhas paced to the end of the porch, staring out at the thick clouds that loomed over the village.“I don’t know anything about astras—but I know about the British using any excuse they can muster in order to scout our territory for natural resources to exploit.Lumber.Tin.Coal.”
He turned to face them with his arms crossed over his chest.“Why you?”
Adam met Ellie’s look, and a shiver of uncomfortable understanding passed between them before he answered.“Borthwick’s traveling with some old friends of ours.We’ve got some idea what we’re walking into.”
“You have no idea what you’re walking into,” Subhas cut back.“This is the Jara Kra’ni in the monsoon season.You’d be lucky if you weren’t swept away in a landslide.”
“Jara Kra’ni?”Neil echoed.
Subhas glared at him.“The Forest of Tigers.”
Ellie raised her chin with an air of challenge.“What about Dandakaranya?”
Nirjara gave a throaty laugh at the sound of the name.
Subhas shrugged.“That’s what the Odias call it.They think Rama passed through here.”
“Are you not a Hindu yourself?”Constance pressed.
Subhas scoffed as though at a mild insult.“No.”
He was quiet for a moment.Ellie could see the quick gears of his mind whirring.He straightened as he reached his conclusion.“We’ll take care of it.”
