Page 11 of Dance of Stars and Ashes

As they ran, Zarya felt the path’s gentle ascension like they were powering uphill.

“I think we’re heading past the wall,” Rabin called.

“How do you know that?”

“Because we’re moving east.”

He said nothing else as darkness closed in around them, making it impossible to discern shadows from substance. A moment later, a flare of copper light filled the tunnel. It was the same rakshasa earth magic she’d seen Vikram use the night the kimpurusha had chased them into the city.

Why hadn’t Zarya thought of that? She was still adjusting to the idea that she had magic at all, let alone understanding all the things she could do with it.

The narrow tunnel filtered a thin blaze of light around Rabin’s large frame, making their progress a little less treacherous. As they progressed, Zarya was trying not to think about the fact it had been several minutes since they’d heard Amrita scream.

“Light up ahead,” Rabin said another minute later. They stumbled for another few steps when Rabin ground to a halt. Zarya crashed into his back, her hands coming up to save herself from cracking a tooth on the cut of his muscle. He was very firm and warm and… stop it.

He peered down at her, his brows crimped with a look of incredulity.

“Before you go charging out the end of a tunnel, it’s probably best to check no one is waiting to ambush you on the other side,” he said like he was talking to a five-year-old, and she resisted the urge to stamp her foot just like a five-year-old. But he was probably right.

“Fine, do your surveillance, Commander.”

He sharpened his gaze and then eased towards the opening with his sword out. Slowly, Yasen and Zarya followed. They emerged into the open air, and sure enough, they were now somewhere in the blighted forest well beyond Dharati’s walls.

“Keep your senses sharp,” Rabin ordered as Zarya and Yasen scanned their surroundings from left to right while Rabin peered ahead.

“I don’t think they’re here,” Yasen said.

They all held still, straining over the silence for a hint.

“Over there,” Rabin said, pointing into the distance. Zarya couldn’t make out what he was seeing, but Yasen also nodded. She squinted, but she wasn’t gifted with the same rakshasa eyesight.

They took off running again.

As they drew closer, Zarya heard another scream before she saw the dark outline of shapes moving through the trees. It seemed there was a group of about five or six, and they were struggling to hold on to Amrita as she kicked and fought. They probably hadn’t expected her to put up such a fight. Good for her. Too many underestimated this princess. Zarya puffed out a sigh of relief that she wasn’t already dead. But what were they doing with her?

Rabin veered to the left, melting into the trees.

“Where’s he going?” she asked, but Yasen didn’t answer as they continued running.

“Hold up!” Yasen shouted, and a few of the vetalas looked over, their eyes growing wide before they let out a series of clicks and screeches that appeared to be their way of communicating with one another. A small group of vetalas broke off from the larger collection, turning around to face them, while the rest continued with a kicking, screaming Amrita clutched in their arms.

Zarya bent down to retrieve a second dagger from her boot before she and Yasen stalked towards the demons. She wished she had her sword with her, but this would have to do. The monsters ambled closer, their bony limbs too long for their bodies and their sharp teeth bared. They snarled with mindless abandon, and it took only moments for Yasen and Zarya to fall upon them, slashing and gutting them into a shapeless heap of limbs.

“Where’s Rabin?” Zarya yelled, wiping a smear of blood off her cheek with the back of her sleeve. “We could really use his fucking help.”

Surely, he hadn’t just run off? He might be many things, but he didn’t look like a man who backed down from a fight. But what did she really know about him?

She peered into the distance, despairing at the ever-widening gap between them and Amrita.

Yasen kicked into a run, and Zarya sprinted after him, racing over the dry plain, skipping over rocks and tree roots.

A roar from above drew their attention skyward as their view filled with an enormous black dragon rippling with a dark rainbow of iridescent scales. It flapped its enormous wings, stirring up a cloud of shadowy mist. She remembered it vividly from the night of the kala-hamsa attack. This was Rabin in his dragon form.

Zarya’s pace slowed as she marveled at how he dove and looped through the sky when something struck her in the back. She went flying, landing on her hands and knees.

“Fuck!” she hissed as she rolled over just in time to evade the swipe of a clawed hand across her face. Her dagger flew up, slicing the vetala’s palm deep enough to sever clean through its fingers. The monster squealed and stumbled back, clutching its wrist. A second later, a blade pierced through its chest as Yasen jerked it up before the vetala slid off his blade.

“Pay attention!” he said to her. “You almost got yourself killed.”