The Lotus Empire (The Burning Kingdoms #3)

Chapter 75 Malini

MALINI

Priya lay in her arms.

I should not have picked her up , thought Malini. But Priya was no longer screaming. She was silent and unconscious. Her face was unmarked, apart from the glow of leaves under her skin. But the rest of her…

Malini swallowed, raising her head. Sahar’s teeth were gritted. Her bare arm looked awful. Two priests of the nameless who had tumbled out of the path with them came to kneel beside Sahar, and one carefully examined her arm, not quite touching it.

“How did you stop the fire?” Malini asked Sahar. “It burned the yaksa to nothing. How did you save Priya and yourself?”

“I don’t know, my lady,” Sahar said helplessly. Her face was gray with pain.

“You were holding a knife.”

“Heart’s shell. But I thought it only had use against the yaksa and their power.”

Heart’s shell clearly had power against fire, too.

Light and shadow flickered over all their faces. “If you can run, we must,” one priest said. “E-Empress. If you can carry the uh, the Ahiranyi…”

There was a thud. Sahar jerked at her side and fell to her knees.

An arrow protruded from her shoulder. Malini stared at her, uncomprehending for a moment before horror dawned. Then her voice returned to her, as her heart gave a painful thud.

“ Sahar ,” Malini gasped out.

Sahar’s mouth moved soundlessly.

The priests scrambled away, but Malini did not move. She could not. She was holding Priya. Instead, she could only watch as Sanvi lowered her bow and met her eyes. Shri lay on the ground dead, throat slit, beside her.

“Empress,” Sanvi said, her voice steady. She looked calm—calmer than she should have in a maelstrom of fire. “Priests of the mothers have chosen to die alongside you. Their fire is here. Did you not see, Empress? The fire followed you. It sought you out so sweetly. The priests will burn this land and our empire, Empress, until you burn willingly and take the yaksa with you. It’s time.”

Malini stared at her. If she’d had any emotion left in her, she would have felt betrayed—and worse, foolish. She should have seen the viper in her own personal guard.

Too late, now.

“If I burn here, the yaksa will survive,” Malini said.

“An Ahiranyi falsehood,” Sanvi said swiftly. She looked so sure . Malini had only ever seen such certainty in the faces of priests. Sanvi lowered her bow and took a bottle from her belt. Opened it and raised it above her head, letting it pour like water over her hair, her skull.

Oil.

“It will make it easier,” said Sanvi. “Oil, flint, a spark. It’s better than drawing on faith alone. Priest Mitul told me what to do. You don’t need to be afraid, Empress. I’ll be with you.”

Sanvi held her arms open.

“You were always meant to enter this forest,” Sanvi said, smiling. “You are here because you’re ready to die willingly, Empress, whether you admit it to yourself or not. But the time for falsehood is over.”

Ash and motes of fire were being carried on the air. It would not be difficult to go aflame.

“My lady,” Sahar said raggedly. “Don’t.”

“Sanvi,” Malini said. Her voice shook. “I’m afraid.”

“You don’t need to be, Empress!” Sanvi walked to her. “I’ll go with you,” she said, hushed. “Together.”

Malini swallowed. Nodded.

“Come here,” she said. “Please.”

Sanvi kneeled down. She held the flask of oil out, radiant with belief. Malini reached out a hand.

She didn’t take the oil. She curled her fingers into a fist.

The magic inside her responded to her movement—to the demand she infused into it. The green shook, and the soil splintered. Sanvi shrieked, dropping her oil to reach for a weapon, but it was too late. The soil had opened and swallowed her up to her waist. She flailed her arms and Malini smoothly drew a short blade—one concealed at her own waist—and pinned Sanvi’s right hand to the ground.

“I considered suffocating you in the ground,” Malini said, with utter calm. “But this is slower. Better. You may burn as you wished to.”

In response to her magic, the fire arced toward her again. She flinched and felt Priya stir. An exhale from Priya, and the earth rose up in a wall, holding the fire at bay. For now.

She heard a noise. One of the priests was still there. Crouched and terrified, only feet from her. She saw resolve filter into his eyes. His hands clenched, and he raised himself up.

“Let me come with you, Empress,” he said hoarsely. “Let me fulfill our purpose.”

“No,” she said numbly.

Fire-hot wind caught her hair, making it fly around her.

She looked back at Sahar, who was alive but grievously wounded.

“Let the sacrifices that have already been made be enough. Take my guard to safety. You need to stop her bleeding. Her weapon—the one made of stone—may protect you from the fire.”

“I won’t leave you,” Sahar said.

“You’ve served me well, Sahar,” Malini said. “But I won’t allow you to die here.” She looked again at the priest. “Take her. Go. ”

Despite Sahar’s protests, he managed to get her to her feet. She watched them limp into the forest. She could not do more for them.

She picked Priya up in her arms and made hushed apologies as Priya cried out.

How far were they from the Hirana? Too far, surely. Malini could not outrun the fire. The fire was seeking her out.

But she needed to take Priya to the deathless waters. Those waters could heal Priya. That feverish thought caught her and held her. If anything could save Priya, it was the waters that had made her strong.

Malini tried to stand. The movement jolted Priya awake. She made an awful noise. Her eyes, unfocused at first, fixed on Malini’s face. Malini froze in the process of lifting her, and lay her carefully back down.

“M-Malini?”

“I’m here, my love.”

“I… need to—get to the Hirana.” She was panting hard, her breath breaking her words into shards. The whites of her eyes were vast—the wild whiteness of a spooked horse. “Need to…”

“Shh,” Malini soothed. “I know.”

She knew now that she had made a terrible mistake coming here, and believing that what she had put into place would be enough to leash the priesthood. She had used their faith against them over and over, but faith was a flame that could not be grasped forever. Eventually it would turn on its wielder. It had.

No turning back. The priests would have what they wished. Her death, one way or another.

She felt oddly calm. It was one thing to be dragged to a pyre. To be afraid, and used. But it was different to kneel on burnt soil with your love dying in your arms, pondering a choice.

“I will take you into the Hirana myself,” she said.

Priya made a groan of protest.

“I’ll go— myself .”

“You cannot go on your own. Surely you recognize it,” Malini said softly. “You and your yaksa are bound. And you and I are bound. Your magic…” She breathed, and exhaled, a deliberate parting of her mouth—and knew Priya felt it all through the green, a susurration, a song. “I’ll take you.”

“You shouldn’t have come with me,” Priya said, voice small. “You were meant to—to rule. To hold on to power first.”

“What does it matter,” Malini said, her voice splintering. “If I don’t have you? If you are gone where I cannot see you or feel you or dream you again, then what is any of it worth to me?”

She cupped Priya’s face tenderly between her hands. Tilted Priya’s face up.

“I have escaped death so many times,” Malini said, in a voice that trembled but was fierce, fierce. “I am done. Priya.” A kiss to each closed eyelid. “Show me the way to Mani Ara.”

Priya exhaled a rattling breath.

No seeker’s path opened before them. Instead, a line of flowers—jasmine and ashoka, needle-flower and oleander—bloomed in a line before them, marking the way to the Hirana. A wall of rock shuddered out of the ground behind them.

A way forward and a shield at her back. Priya was so good to her.

“Thank you,” she whispered, and heaved Priya up into her arms. Priya made one sound of agony then went silent.

Malini did not know how she would carry her all the way. Her arms already ached. Her lungs burned from smoke. But she clenched her jaw and began to walk.

It went on forever, hot and awful, the fire screaming at her back. She felt the green magic shiver around them. Priya’s magic.

“I cannot carry her alone,” she said to it, and felt the green respond to her. Vines crawled their way up her body, twining over her arms, until they cradled Priya with her, carrying her along with Malini. It was easier after that.

She landed heavily on her knees on the ground at the base of the Hirana. It was her hand that she placed against the Hirana’s stone, and her borrowed magic that somehow opened a tunnel into the Hirana. Blue light glowed at the end of it, beckoning.

She lifted Priya up once more and walked in. She closed the stone behind her.

There were no more vines to help her. She carried Priya’s weight alone.

She walked until she was deep into the heart of the Hirana. Until there was blue light around her, and blue water before her.

She waded in to her knees.

Behind her, beyond stone, a fire was pulsing, roaring. It would follow her down into the depths beneath the Hirana eventually. It would find her at the deathless waters, and it would kill her. But not yet.

“The waters can heal you?” Malini asked. She felt as if she were begging.

A rasping breath from Priya. Then, “No. I don’t know.”

“They’re your yaksa’s waters. Mani Ara’s. They made you strong before.”

“Yes.”

“Then she will save you,” said Malini decisively. She had to believe it. If she didn’t, then Priya was as good as dead. “And you’ll come back to me. Promise it, Priya.”

“Promise,” Priya echoed. Then her heavy eyes snapped open. “The priests. Where are they?”

Malini shook her head.

“You didn’t bring a priest,” Priya said. “Not one? Malini. We need them. The deathless waters—they need to be destroyed.” Priya’s grip was painful on her arm. “They need to be, or the yaksa will continue changing the world, their magic will…”

“I will make sure the waters die,” Malini promised. “When you return, when you’re safe, I will open the Hirana to the fire and let the waters burn.”

“You—you’ll die—”

“I won’t,” Malini lied. “I won’t, Priya.”

“If Mani Ara comes out of the water wearing my face—Malini, you won’t even know.”

“If Mani Ara comes from the waters wearing your face, I will know,” said Malini. “Because I know you.” She brushed back Priya’s hair softly from her forehead. “And if she does I will burn us both. I will destroy her with my faith. I promise.”

“No.”

“We leave together, or not at all,” Malini said quietly. “I’ve chosen.”

A rattling breath.

“But you have—no faith. To burn.”

“I have no faith in the mothers,” whispered Malini. “But I have faith in you.”

Malini lowered her into the water. And let go.