‘What?’ Prithvi said, trying to recall all that she’d learnt about the Mountain Pishachus in Gurukul.

Chayan lowered his weapon. ‘You call us barbarians. But we have never been savages . . . We’re just angry.’ He turned to look at her with wicked fury in his eyes. Then, sitting right by her, he drew his beard aside and pulled out a small blade. Holding her arm with his other hand, he pushed the blade into Prithvi’s triceps.

‘GET AWAYYAARRGGHHH!’ she screamed.

‘I’ll tell you why we are angry,’ Chayan said as he twisted the blade. He smiled. ‘Imagine this. You wake up one night to find your entire village under attack. An army of snow leopards, bears and wolves are tearing up everyone in your tribe. This is what Sanaka and his followers did to my family a century ago. Assailed and butchered over five hundred kirtimukhas with the help of Atmayog. Why? Because we wouldn’t allow him the misuse of Madhu? Because he was trying to move the bees, which would have eventually killed them all?’

‘So everyone in Vanyasa lied to us?!’ Prithvi said. She looked down at the faint line on her finger, the place where she had once worn the fortune teller’s Nagsutra.

‘We are only protectors of Madhu! And when you fight for nature, nature fights for you.’ With that, Chayan’s dagger-like nails grew, getting sharper and blacker. He smiled viciously, and in one lightning motion he pushed his nails into Prithvi’s chest and pierced her lungs. Her upper cloth instantly stained red. Chayan pulled out his nails and kissed Prithvi’s forehead. He whispered, ‘This is how my people felt with a thousand sets of leopard teeth in their flesh.’

Chayan tightened the noose around her wrists and then started walking back towards the screams.

This is no way to die for a Bhil. Prithvi steeled herself. Not without my teer-kaman. Prithvi tried to sit up but only slumped further. Her body felt like it burned at a thousand degrees.

She shut her eyes and Bhavesh appeared before her, as he had the last time she’d seen him. She looked at his arms and his nose as they both lay in the grass across the river.

‘This is what I mean, love. It is becoming increasingly difficult for me. You know what?’ Prithvi joked. ‘I will do it. I meant it earlier. In the morning tomorrow, I will go to the southern pond . . . and wait for an hour at sunrise . . . and if you don’t decide to tag along, maybe I’ll find myself a boy among the city folk.’

‘I guess I have no option but to join you,’ Bhavesh said, laughing.

Prithvi was supposed to go back to the plains and find him. But now, she would never be able to see him. She wanted to scream, but her lungs only spurted out more blood. Her vision had gone blurry, and there was a loud ringing in her ears.