“Tinley alerted me to General Naik’s predicament. He asked you to do this for him?”
I pause, taken aback. “No.”
“I thought not. Deven is a godly man. He knows you have more to lose in the under realm than your life. Why have you come, Kalinda? Besides finding the general, why do you seek Ekur?”
We walk in silence, Naresh waiting expectantly. A confession slips off my tongue.
“I cursed the gods. The night Deven was taken, I blamed them. As soon as I learned he was alive, I pled for forgiveness, but what if I don’t get it?”
Naresh halts me. “Perhaps this is the fate the gods want for you and Deven.”
“Or maybe seeking them out is what they want.”
The chief absorbs my vehemence with a quiet “hmm,” and we continue down the corridor.
“Mortals looking for Ekur are often fleeing a pain so vast and burdensome they believe only a god can liberate them.” Naresh’s voice extends between us, both temperate and persistent. “What relief do you seek?”
My deepest worry slips out. “What if they won’t help me free Deven? What if they allowed Kur to take him to punish me for not wanting my throne?”
Staying on as Ashwin’s kindred when I love Deven would have been wrong. But what if Anu thinks I defied him for choosing Deven over my throne? Nothing I do may be enough. I could give my all to liberate Deven, and the gods may still leave him in the under realm.
Or could our fates be tied? I cannot say how much of our lives is predestined, or what, if any, is within our control. I do know that whether I live in Samiya or the Turquoise Palace or the hills of the Alpanas, peace comes through following the gods’ path for me. Finding Deven may be my godly purpose or it may give me purpose. My task is the same. I cannot leave him to suffer an eternal death, even if it risks my own standing with the gods.
“You attribute your circumstances too much to the gods and not enough to chance,” says Naresh. “I was there as well. Kur took Deven on a whim. The gods did not plan that.”
“Maybe you’re right, but I still need a god to rescue him.”
The chief’s mouth tugs downward. “I see why my daughter favors your friendship. You’re both stubborn as yaks.”
I accept his comparison of me to Tinley as praise. “Can you direct me to Ekur?”
“Regrettably, I cannot, but I know who may. Our stories are passed on orally from one generation to the next. It is a gift to learn and teach them. Our matron, my mother, was training Tinley to memorize them, but my daughter set aside her orator duties to take to the skies.”
“Is that why Tinley stays away?”
Chief Naresh halts before an open casement. Tiny fractures of ice glitter in the night sky. “Tinley’s betrothed was killed in a tragic accident. He was to become the next chief and she his chieftess. Sosi and I raised him with our children. His death was a devastation to us all.”
I have no words. Moons ago, when Tinley and I first met, I learned she had lost her intended through Indah. Tinley has never mentioned him. I assumed she was somewhat relieved to dodge an arranged marriage.