[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
magic made it seem that we-just weren't there. I always knew we had
an enemy, one who had great power- but I never knew it was one of her
own blood."
Gupta's eyes clouded briefly. "Alas, that her magics were not enough
to keep the wings of the plague-goddess from overshadowing her."
Maya's throat tightened, and she groped for her handkerchief, but her
hand never reached it, for her heart froze within her at Gupta's next
words.
"I have never been certain that was mere mischance," he said, with a
hint of a growl of anger in his throat. "Kali Durga governs disease
as well as the thugee. And the snake in the sahib's boot was no
accident at all."
Of course, it couldn't have been, she thought, as Sia and Singhe
flowed forward to twine around her ankles, as if seeking comfort and
reassurance. She reached down to stroke them. "No. You're right,
Gupta. No ordinary snake would have gotten past these little
warriors. Never, ever, would they have let a serpent get so far as
the bungalow door.
Sia whined in her throat; Maya cupped her hand comfortingly around
the mongoose's cheek. "I have known for a very long time that we had
an enemy with magic power, my oldest friend. I even guessed that this
enemy caused my father's death. That was why I fled from home, and
took you with me, for since you were willing to come, I would not
leave you behind to face the wrath of one who had been thwarted. But
I did not know that my enemy had so ... familiar a face." She
shivered. "Why, Gupta? My mother and father are dead. What possible
quarrel can she have with me?"
"That you live is quarrel enough, to her and those who serve her,"
Gupta replied sourly. "And her anger and hatred would only be the
greater, that Surya deceived her for so long. Your mother-and you-are
everything she is not, have everything she has not. You earn respect;
she has only fear. She is comely, but her bitter heart casts a blight
over her beauty and her face-when last I set eyes on it-had the same
icy beauty as a diamond. A man may admire a diamond, but he will not
love it. And you have love. I do not think she is even liked by those
she serves and those who serve her. Envy eats at her, waking and
sleeping. Of this, I am certain." He pursed his lips. "And there is
another thing," he added reluctantly. "It is only a thing that I have
heard, once or twice, as a rumor. But it is said that if one who
devotes her magic to the dark slays another mage, she will have that
mage's power to add to her own. For that reason alone, she is likely
to harm you."
Maya digested Gupta's words, feeling cold and very much alone. "And
what have you seen and what have you heard, that you bring me these
words now?" she asked him, at last.
His face took on the aspect of someone who is haunted, but is
reluctant to speak of his fear. At last, he cleared his throat. "I
have heard, when I have been abroad at night, the call that the
thugee use, one to another. It was not near here," he added hastily,
"but they are within the city."
She didn't ask him how he knew what such a call sounded like. It was
easy enough to guess that it would be the call of some night-walking
bird or animal of India, and it was unlikely that anyone would be
prowling the streets of London making such a sound, unless he was
from her homeland, and he and those with him had a reason to keep
their movements a secret.
"And you have seen?" she prompted.
"I have seen-in the bazaar where I go to buy our foodstuffs from
home-the shadow of a serpent on a wall, where no serpent was, or
should be." Fear stood unveiled in his eyes. "It was said that
Shivani danced with the rakshasha. I believe the tale. The temple to
which she took herself was not of good repute."
"That would," Maya murmured, half to herself, "explain the krait."
Gupta nodded. The cobra was holy; given the number of prayers that
went up daily in praise of Sahib Witherspoon and in gratitude for
what he did among the sick, it would have been unlikely for the
sorceress to dare to attempt to use the cobra as her unholy weapon.
The krait, however, was another story entirely.
And if she had anything to do with the serpent demons, the rakshasha,
any serpent she sent might not even be an ordinary snake. Maya looked
into Gupta's eyes, and saw not only fear there, but trust and
confidence. It was that which made her shake off the paralysis of her
own sudden fears.
"You will no longer go to the bazaar, old friend," she said
decisively. "You may be recognized; certainly you will be followed."
Gupta nodded, reluctantly. "My son-" he began.
She interrupted. "Nor will you send any of this household. I fear
anyone from the homeland will be followed, to see where he goes. If
my magics are succeeding, they will have no other way to find us but
by looking for those from home. The longer we can elude them the
better." She pondered her options. "The boy Jack, the eldest son of
the woman who sews and mends for us to pay for her sick baby's care?
He runs errands; he is quick to learn, and clever. You will show him
what it is you need at the market, and send him for it. We can afford
to pay him for such a service."
Gupta's face darkened. "But he will be cheated," he protested,
unwilling to allow a mere English boy to venture into the treacherous
waters of commerce with a fellow countryman of India.
Maya laughed, perhaps with a touch of hysteria, but Gupta's
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]