Heir of Iron

Chapter 8

She awoke in a room with stone walls and a tall narrow window cut in the far wall. A bowl of clean water rested near the foot of the bed, and a new sari was folded on the table beneath the window. Her muscles creaked and complained as she rose, but the splash of water against her face was worth it.

She stripped off the dust- and sweat-stained sari that she had worn on the road and performed a full ablution. This was not an Uluriya household, she was not obliged to cleanse---but by the stars it felt good. When she was done she wrapped herself in the new sari that her host had provided her and leaned against the sill of the window.

The window looked out from a height of two or three storeys over the city of Davrakhanda. From this height, it appeared as a mosaic of white stone walls and baked clay paths, perched on a series of terraces that descended like stairs from the inland to the sea. A massive temple with walls painted in designs of yellow and green sprawled near the docks, the sunlight glinting off the gold of its dome to rival the glitter of waves in the sea. The harbor beyond the wharves was protected on two sides by a crook of white rock, and a stone seawall with a narrow exit covered the third side, protecting a blue thumbnail of water. The harbor was crowded with fishing scows and trade junks. For a moment she let the salty breeze ruffle her hair and admired the afternoon light, breathing deeply and trying not to think of what came next. But her fingers tightened on the sill and she turned away.

Time to find Taleg. To see if her hopes in Sadja's surgeon had been betrayed.

A man in blue silken salwar kameez was passing in the hallway when she parted her curtain. He started in surprise. "Are you Mandhi?"

The servants must all have heard her name. She nodded and said, "Do you know where Taleg is? My companion, a large Kaleksha. He came in early this morning."

The man nodded, attempting to hide a smile. "Follow me."

They passed a series of apartments similar to her own, broad windows breaking into the hallway at intervals. "Have you been to Davrakhanda before?" the servant asked.

"Once," Mandhi said. One of her father's errands had brought her here, carrying a missive to the saghada of the city. It had been years ago, and she didn't remember it well.

"You see the Ashtyavarunda there," the servant said, gesturing to the gold-domed temple which dominated the waterfront. "Will you visit it? All who sail from Davrakhanda do."

She considered her answer. Uluriya were few in Davrakhanda, but not unknown, and perhaps the man didn't know what she was. There was no point taking offense. "I am not going to sail," she said simply.

"Perhaps the shrine to Khaldi, then. That one isn't a great temple, but those of us who live in Davrakhanda love it the more."

"Khaldi?" Mandhi pursed her lips. "I don't believe I've heard that name."

"Eh? Perhaps she's not as well known outside the city."

They exited onto a stone-paved courtyard where the other servants bowed and gave them a wide berth. The servant led her alongside the stone crenellation overlooking the harbor and pointed as they walked. "The shrine is the little black crack in the east cliff." His voice took on the sing-song cadence of telling a familiar story. "In the days of Rajunda there was an order of thikratta here, and a woman named Khaldi sought to gain entrance in order to learn the secrets of the Powers. But the order allowed only men, and the lama would not admit her. So she disguised herself as a man and joined the thikratta, and soon excelled all of the others in her feats of fasting, her mastery of the elements, and her clarity of farsight. When she was very old, she began to grow transparent, and she became as light as a gull's feather. Then she called together the other members of the order and revealed herself to them as a woman. While they watched her amazed she rose and walked across the surface of the water to the east, until she could no longer be seen in the light of the waves. And then the thikratta of the order declared that Khaldi had ascended and become one of the Powers, and they made a shrine to her which is worshipped to this day."