Rehan rocks on her bottom, her sturdy legs spread apart. I restack the blocks, wishing the city was this easy to repair.
From the corner of my eye, I see Kalinda enter the nursery. Her trousers and blouse are wrinkled, her hair tangled. Her gaze slices through me, one part relief, two parts urgent.
Rehan gnaws on a block, my tower forgotten. Kalinda sits in the nursemaids’ reading chair near a stack of children’s books and rests a larger one in her lap.
“Shyla told me you were here,” she says. “I’ve been looking for you.”
“I come here every morning.” I add lower walls to the block tower.
“To do what?”
“Sometimes I read to the children. Other times we play games.” I continue to construct a miniature palace. “Visiting them helps this place feel like home.”
Rehan knocks down the tower again and claps at her conquest. She does not view me as her ruler. I am simply her brother.
“Deven didn’t come last night,” says Kalinda.
“At all?” I ask, looking up from the blocks. She jerks her head side to side. “Could you have missed him?”
“I didn’t fall asleep,” Kalinda retorts firmly. Rehan grabs my leg, anxious about her vehemence. The nursemaid across the chamber sends us cautionary glances. Kalinda explains, “I couldn’t have missed him. I was up all night reading.”
“Find anything interesting?” I ask, my tone buoyant to put Rehan at ease.
“Something terrible.” Kalinda palms the book in her lap. “This says mortal wanderers are doomed never to return to our realm. Deven will remain trapped below and lose his ability to die and be reborn. He’ll suffer an eternal death.”
I grimace. Severance from the gods is a penance beyond imagination for anyone, but especially for a man of faith like Deven. For a short period, he trained with the Brotherhood and almost joined them, eventually enrolling in the army instead.
“Is what the text says true?” Kalinda says, her pitch shrill.
“I haven’t read anything to refute it,” I reply. Rehan takes interest in the blocks again, decimating the palace.
Kalinda drops her chin, her fingers digging into her knee.
“I’m sorry, Kali.”
Her head snaps up. “Are you?”
“Yes.” I cannot place her animosity. “We’ve done everything we can.”