To Love A Murderer | ✔

30 | The Temple

Satyaki held out a hand to her, and Lilavati took it, bunching the loose fabric from her saari in her other hand, hesitating to step down from the chariot.

"Come on down, it's alright. Just use this step and then onto the ground," her friend encouraged.

Lilavati had never been on a chariot before. Well, she might have, when she was being rescued by her husband, but she had been unconscious, so she didn't remember that.

When Satyaki had found out, he had deemed it 'an absolute outrage' and immediately started making plans to take her out somewhere. Krishna had pointed out that she was still healing and she thought he might have been afraid to let her out of his sight, and Satyaki had subsided, if only for a short time. He was determined to get her to go somewhere else.

So they had come to stand in front of a temple.

It was a compromise; her elder sisters and Iltani had collectively refused to let her go somewhere more than 2 kroshas away, and no amount of bargaining would make them—especially Nagnajiti Jiji—change their minds. Lilavati could also see her husband somewhat relieved by their declaration, and before her friend could protest, agreed.

When Satyaki had looked at her, nearly aghast, she had sighed and said to him: "Satyaki, you do want to make sure I'm not taken again, right? This is easier for everyone; you'll be able to arrange better security and everyone can rest easy, and you can still take me to a place. Anyway, I don't think I'd be up to travelling further than that."

He had acquiesced and it was Jambavati Jiji who offered a suggestion that was suitable to everyone's frame of mind. It was a Narayana temple, sequestered in the nearby jungle—grown to soothe Jambavati herself, being from the mountains, the jungle was the closest she could get to her home. It was close enough to set them at peace, within the royal complex; yet it also was a change in scenery which was agreeable to Satyaki and Kritavarma and a much needed change for herself.

She sucked in a short breath, her grip on Satyaki's hand tightening as she climbed down from the chariot.

"Whew," she almost groaned. "Ilu, that was worse than the time you took me on a wagon when I was nearly deliriously sick!"

Kritavarma stifled a chuckle as Iltani jumped down, still seeming to make the motion fluid. Her best friend was grinning, a light in her eyes that reminded Lilavati of when they were young.

"I'm not the one laden down with silks and jewels, kianga!"

"Oh hush you," Lilavati rolled her eyes. "For your kind information, this is not silk, it's cotton. And weighed down with jewels? I'm not even wearing as much as you used to, you proud peacock!"

It was surprising how easily they'd fallen back into the banter of their youth. Lilavati had not been so loose with her tongue in many a year, but there was something lighter, something changed after her captivity that made her not want to hold back anymore. She had a good life now, and she didn't want to waste a single moment of this chance again.

Iltani sauntered up to her, lazily lifting the necklace of rubies interspersed with diamonds that lay on her neck. Her lips pulled up in a smirk, she agreed, "Definitely not as much as I used to."

Turning away, her best friend muttered something vaguely under her breath and Lilavati called her out.

Satyaki and Kritavarma were watching them fondly, talking to each other.

Lilavati looked up at the temple and stood there for a minute, taking everything in.

Creepers twined haphazardly over the ornate pillars of the temple. The temple itself stood proudly, a place of solace and quiet amidst the ever-active jungle. The world seemed to have faded away, all background noises reduced to a hush. Lilavati walked closer, almost in a trance, raising her faintly trembling hand to the intricate sculptures, feeling the devotion with which they had been sculpted run a frisson through her body. Dancing apsaras and gandharvas, warriors standing at the ready, people kneeling in prayer: all of these and more stood above her, rising to the roof in all its detail.