Page 65 of Heart of Night and Fire

Pushing herself up from the divan, she decided she’d head over to the infirmary at least. If they were experiencing a rare lull in their duties, she’d ask someone to examine her.

Wandering across the road, she skirted past the rift, again thinking of the woman who had fallen. The masons were back at work now, rebuilding the wall as quickly as possible to prevent more fatalities. Though Zarya reasoned, a lot of the damage had already been done.

The palace was quiet as she entered. Since the fire, the entire city had dimmed to a hush, as if everyone was afraid of upsetting its tenuous balance.

A chorus of raised voices drew Zarya’s attention. She recognized Kindle’s soft timbre, his rolling r’s, and that tempered cadence, distinguishable from the others. Then she heard Suvanna’s sharp tone, and she drifted closer, curious to hear what they were arguing about. Because it was obvious, they were angry about something.

She tiptoed to the edge of the doorway and inched forward until she could see all the members of the Chiranjivi standing at the far end of a small library. They were facing one another, backdropped by a large window. Even Koura had taken a break from the queen’s bedside. Zarya also noticed Professor Dhawan seated in a plush armchair, his dark eyes surveying everyone, concern pleating his brow.

“We must do something,” Suvanna said with a hiss, smacking her chest with her palm. “This place is devouring us. More and more people keep dying. A queen is almost dead. Hundreds of lives have been lost. This can’t go on any longer. It is the darkness. You can’t deny this anymore.”

“It is not the darkness,” Koura said through clenched teeth, like he’d said it a thousand times already. The darkness. Those words sent a chill racing down Zarya’s spine. “This is powerful magic, but the darkness cannot be awakened. It has been a thousand years, Suvanna. It was banished. Forever.” Koura gestured to Dhawan. “Tell her.”

“He is right,” the professor said. “If there were anything to touch, then I would feel it. The wall is still firmly in place.”

“Then what is it?” Suvanna asked. “Tell me. You know what those demons did the other night to the Khada. They survived the sun. They barred the door. They knew what they were doing. These things are not mindless savages anymore.” Suvanna faced Koura with her arms folded, not at all intimidated by him, despite the fact she barely came up to his chest.

Koura ran a hand down his face and breathed a weary sigh. He glanced at Kindle, who sat on the window ledge with his elbows braced on his thighs and his hands clasped.

“I don’t know,” Koura admitted.

“We are trying, Suvanna,” Kindle added. “We have left no stone unturned. We have tried everything. Read every book in Rahajhan. Tried every spell. Nothing seems to touch that damned blight and whatever lives in it.”

“We have not.” Suvanna stamped her foot and pointed to the ground, glaring at each of them in turn. “If you would all just admit what is in front of you, there would be other options.”

Apsara was leaning next to the window, her arms folded with one leg propped against the wall. She dropped her stance and approached Suvanna, laying a gentle hand on her arm. “No. You are giving in to your fear, my friend,” she said. “This is not our way.”

Suvanna shook off Apsara’s touch with a snarl, and Zarya saw the hurt that flashed across Apsara’s expression.

“If it is the darkness,” Dhawan said, picking up their conversation, “then stopping the blight will be the least of our troubles. A world where dark magic flourished was nothing but devastation and ruin.

“The books tell only half the story of those black days. It would mean the end of everything we love. Everything that matters to us. When the Ashvins’ demon armies marched across the land, nothing was spared. Entire nations were razed to the ground and left in piles of smoke and ashes. Suvanna, this is not a thing to hope for.”

Suvanna huffed an angry breath. “I’m not hoping for it.” Her voice rose as she spread her arms wide. “I am hoping you fools will see sense before it is too late. Before this becomes too powerful for all of us to take on, even together.”

“Who?” Apsara asked then. Her smooth white hair shimmered in the light that filtered through the window where she’d once again taken up her post. “Suvanna, if you really believe this, then who? Who awoke the darkness after all these years? Who would have the means? No one alive in Rahajhan is that powerful.”

Zarya noted how everyone else’s eyes tried not to meet as if avoiding something none of them wanted to say out loud.

But Suvanna held no such compunctions.

“Don’t pretend you don’t know it is Row’s king.”

Suvanna spat the word “king” from her mouth like a bitter curse as Zarya caught her breath.

Who was Row’s king?

Suvanna continued, flinging a pointed finger at the window that faced north. “It is Raja Abishek. It is Andhera’s cursed Aazheri and their eternally tainted magic. They did this before, and, given enough time and freedom, they will do it again. The sixth anchor existed once. Don’t fool yourselves into thinking it has been lost to time.”

Zarya watched the fury building in Kindle as his jaw hardened and his stance stiffened before he approached, stopping inches in front of Suvanna. Zarya was sure they were about to come to blows. Who knew what kind of damage these five could do if they allowed their power to run loose?

“How dare you?” Kindle said, his voice low and dangerous. “How dare you accuse a man of something like this when he isn’t here to defend himself? Row is one of us.”

Suvanna scoffed and tipped her head. “And where is he? Isn’t it convenient things seem to be getting worse just as he disappears? What is he doing, Kindle? Why did he up and leave in the middle of everything?”

Apsara and Koura both fidgeted where they stood, each of them rolling their shoulders and tugging on their clothing as they still avoided one another’s gazes. Clearly, similar sentiments had crossed their minds.

“You are refusing to see the truth,” Suvanna said, her bright blue eyes flashing. “I am tired of being helpless. Every day that we do nothing, the people of Daragaab are in more danger. The swamps grow, magic is consuming us, the demons are getting more powerful, and people are suffering. The queen is in no condition to hold it back much longer. How soon until this spreads into all our homes? This won’t be only Daragaab’s failure. Everyone is going to die if we don’t do something.”