I knew which ones nursed battle wounds and how they entered the palace. But now I knew the rotation of the guards’ schedule. They told me they’d keep my death quick if I’d only smile for them one more time. People have a tendency to want to comfort small, broken-looking things. I’m still proud that I sobbed instead of ripping out his throat with my teeth. I’d even let one of them touch my hair and tell me that perhaps he could be convinced to get me better food. I’d let them think that my reputation was nothing more than rumor. I wanted intelligence, so I faked whimpering nightmares. I’d gathered that much from the guards outside my dungeon. Then again, what do you say to those who are about to be sentenced to death? I knew what was coming. The Ujijain attendant who was supposed to prepare me for my first-and probably last-meeting with the Prince of Ujijain didn’t speak. Skanda, my brother, would have made sure by now that no hearth in Bharata would welcome me. Home, where Nalini would have been waiting with a wry and inappropriate joke, her heart full of trust that I hadn’t deserved. Home, with the pockets of wildflowers and sandstone temples cut into the hills, with the people whose names I had come to murmur in my prayers before sleep. For a moment, thoughts of home choked me.
Gauzy columns of fragrance spun slowly through the bath chambers, filling my lungs with an attar of roses.
The bath was scalding, but after six months in a dungeon, it felt luxurious.
I would have my throne if I had to carve a path of blood and bone to get it back. One might think one armor was stronger than the other, but a red lip was its own scimitar and a kohl-darkened eye could aim true as a steel-tipped arrow.ĭeath might be waiting, but I was going to be a queen. Today I would meet it not in my usual armor of leather and chain mail, but in the armor of silk and cosmetics. Death stood on the other side of the chamber doors.
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