Page 14 of Heart of Night and Fire

The gates slammed shut with a resounding quake as Zarya threw herself off the horse, staggered several steps, and then heaved out the contents of her stomach against Dharati’s magnificent golden wall.

SIX

Zarya wiped her face with the bloody, dirt-stained hem of her kurta. Vikram’s brow furrowed with concern, while Yasen’s upper lip curled in disgust.

“What?” she asked, standing up straight and tossing her braid over her shoulder, trying to pretend she wasn’t covered in vomit and missing a shoe. Her stomach had settled again, but she couldn’t figure out why she’d felt so ill a moment earlier. Perhaps she was coming down with something.

She took a step, and her injured leg crumpled beneath her, sending her collapsing to the stones. Vikram leaped to her rescue, and as he helped her stand, he wrinkled his nose, though she could tell he was trying to hide it.

“Sorry. I don’t smell my best right now.”

His answering smile was kind, his striking green eyes crinkling at the corners.

“It’s quite all right. Do you need help walking?”

She nodded and slung her arm over Vikram’s shoulders.

Yasen exchanged a few words with the guards at the gate, their expressions grim as they surveyed the wall that was the only thing protecting them from what festered beyond it. It seemed solid enough, but Zarya hoped it was stronger than it appeared. It would take more than stone and mortar to keep the demons out forever.

Vikram also gave the guards a stiff nod before escorting a hobbling Zarya into the streets of the city. Yasen led their mounts while a sullen Aarav shuffled along, glaring at everyone with suspicion as though someone might peel away from the crowd and kidnap them all.

What was he so scared of?

Zarya took in the vast scope of her surroundings, the air in her lungs turning to mist. Dharati wasn’t just a city—it was a cacophony: layer upon layer of color, people, carts, and animals roving through the crowded streets.

Zarya took a deep breath, barely able to comprehend so many people together all at once. After spending so much of her life alone, it was overwhelming. The sheer audacity of so much existing in one place. Lahar had been nothing like this. There had been a few hundred people at most living on the shore, and this blew all of her expectations to dust.

She watched a man and woman arguing in the middle of the maelstrom, their hands flying while they spoke with heated words. But after a moment, they stopped yelling and smiled, embracing each other with such tenderness that Zarya’s heart ached.

This was it. The life she’d been chasing. The chance to experience something more.

As they proceeded down cobbled streets and through a packed bazaar, vendors shouted at passersby, gesturing to towers of fragrant spices, rows of shiny baubles, and stacked bolts of embellished fabric. Animals and fruits and vegetables and an array of things that Zarya couldn’t name lined every walkway in gravity-defying piles.

It was everything she’d dreamed of and so much more. Everything she’d been denied. Everything Row had claimed she hadn’t been missing.

Vikram and Yasen led them through winding streets, past taverns, and coffee houses, where outdoor chairs and tables played host to animated conversations as people gathered at the end of the day.

They turned down a wide boulevard dominated by the sprawling facade of a glittering palace. Situated along the shore of the Nila Hara Sea, it gleamed like it had been dipped in broken glass.

Slender minarets and curving gold domes reached into the sky, and the luminous marble walls looked as if they’d been poured from heavy cream. Lattices wrought in marble and pale wood, sparkling with gemstones, covered rounded windows and gently pointed arches, and every surface was intricately carved with flowers, people, animals, and leafy vines.

“Jai Mahal,” Zarya breathed. She had seen drawings and read descriptions, but nothing could have prepared her for the actual thing. Jai Mahal defied her most vivid daydreams.

Vikram steered her towards the palace’s grand courtyard.

“Wait? We’re going inside?”

She stopped, tugging him back as she pulled her arm from his shoulders, finding she was able to put weight on her leg again without too much strain.

Vikram gave her a quizzical look. “We are taking you to see the queen. This is where she lives.”

Before them stood a set of towering doors painted a dazzling shade of sky blue, decorated with ornate white scrollwork.

“Why not just let us go? We won’t cause any trouble.”

Vikram raised a brow, clearly unmoved by her words.

“We found you wandering alone in the swamps, and you claim to live out there. Her Majesty will need to know about that.”