The curtain shimmered, and another actor stepped into view—a woman with fair skin and a shimmering sari, her hair dressed with flowers.
“And that’s Rama’s wife, Sita,” Constance added dryly.“Standing around doing nothing.”
Constance had never been very impressed by Sita.She was supposed to be divine, just like Rama and his companions—an avatar of the goddess Lakshmi.But what did she actually do?
Nothing, so far as Constance could tell.She gave longing looks while Rama won her hand in marriage.Joined him like a piece of luggage when he was exiled to a demon-haunted forest.Then she let herself get kidnapped by the evil Ravana, sparking Rama’s epic battle with the demon king.
What kind of goddess allowed herself to be kidnapped?
Not one that Constance was very impressed by.
A final player pushed through the curtain, his broad shoulders weighed down with ten maniacal faces.
The extra heads were all made of papier-mâché, cleverly scaffolded around the actor’s face—not that Constance could see it yet through the undulating sea of humanity.
She pushed up on her toes for a better look.The bodies parted, and she found herself staring at a stranger—straight-backed, silver-haired, and sun-weathered with an officer’s peaked cap and pale gray eyes.
The howling heads of the demon king framed the man so perfectly that for a moment, Constance was taken in by an illusion.
How odd,she thought,that the demon king of Lanka would be played by an old white man.
Neil grabbed her arm.“Hold on—isn’t that Borthwick?”
Constance blinked away her confusion as the figure of Ravana straightened, revealing that a young Indian fellow actually wore the costume, his face painted to match the scowling papier-mâché masks braced on his broad shoulders.
It had been a trick of perspective.Borthwick, left behind, turned and slipped away into the mass of close-packed bodies.
“Adam!”Constance called out to where she could see his battered fedora near the entrance to the chemist’s.
Adam pushed back to them, weaving nimbly through the crowd.
“We need to split up.Find out which way he’s gone,” Ellie determined.
“Neil and I can head back toward the Jagannath temple,” Constance declared.“You two take the other way.Come on, Stuffy!”
She pulled Neil with her, moving against the current of the crowd.Here and there, she tried to push up on her toes to look for Borthwick over the heads of the people packed around her.
A Christian missionary railed about the evils of the “Juggernaut.”A family cracked coconuts open against the curb for good luck.A shower of sweets rained down from a passing chariot, carrying the blessings of the god to his devotees.
Neil spoke up from behind her.“I’ve got him!”
The motion of the crowd jostled him into her back.Constance lurched at the impact, and Neil caught her by the shoulders.
Her awareness of the chaos around her was briefly overwhelmed by the press of warm hands through the fabric of her blouse.
Neil quickly let her go, pointing up the road.“Over there!”
Constance glimpsed a khaki cap and cropped silver hair—then grabbed Neil and whirled him about as Borthwick started to turn.
Risking a sideways glance, she saw the colonel’s attention snag on her fashionable blue hat before he looked away again.
“Blast it,” Constance cursed under her breath.
Her mind whirred furiously—and locked on a nearby cloth vendor’s cart.
She yanked off her hat, tossing it at the old man inside.He caught it instinctively, blinking with surprise.
Constance snatched a length of richly patterned cloth from the shelf.Shaking it loose, she tossed it over her head, whipping the end over her shoulder.
