‘For goodness’ sake!’ Baring her teeth, Idhika pushed Aarti to the edge of the trail, the steep slope just a few feet away.

Aarti only smiled.

‘Quit acting so high and mighty, Aarti!’ Idhika screamed in her face. ‘You’ve pushed everyone around all year. You really think we’ll forget that Prithvi was kidnapped because of you? That you then tattled on us to Sanaka?’

‘What?’ Payal said.

‘Or when you stepped on my hand in Gurukul?’ Fayza asked.

Aarti’s eyes widened. ‘No, no,’ she said softly, putting a hand on Fayza’s arm. ‘Truly, that was a mistake. I was just walking towards Prithvi. Never meant to . . . I really am sorry, Fayza.’ Aarti now turned to Idhika. ‘And regarding Prithvi. Sure, maybe it was wrong of us to go to Pataan but we never forced her. In fact, she showed us the way past the wall. When the eagle took her, we were equally surprised. And we never “tattled”—’

‘It’s true!’ Payal said.

‘Payal and I were only concerned about Prithvi’s abduction,’ Aarti said. ‘Despite the fact that Idhika had slapped me in front of everyone outside Pataan, I swallowed my pride and begged Sanaka to help Prithvi. It was only months later that I found out that Sanaka had ignored us and instead punished you all upon your return.’ Fire returned to Aarti’s eyes. ‘Because soon after, you five banded against us. Set up opposite camps. Weren’t you supposed to be a leader to us all, Idhika? And not just the people you preferred?’ Savitri hummed in agreement.

Idhika knit her brow. ‘If you felt this way, why didn’t you bring it up? You never even talked—’

‘How could I?’ Aarti looked down. ‘Not after what happened on my first day in the valley. I was the first Soul from the plains to arrive and Sanaka told me to go to your hut. So we could meet and you could help me settle in. But moments before I entered, I heard you talking to someone, saying you weren’t interested in meeting me at all. You had made your decision without ever meeting me. I was alone in a foreign land. Surely you know what it means to be separated from your parents . . .’

Idhika felt a twinge of guilt. She recalled the moment now—she had been plagued with her own self-doubt, her fear of being inferior to the plain dwellers, and hadn’t wanted anything to do with them then.

‘You see,’ Aarti said. ‘I learnt early on that I was alone in the fight for my survival. Especially when the Child of the Valley was going to shun me. I had to find a way out of the valley. That’s when Payal entered Vanyasa, and we confided in each other. And we had no intention to harm Prithvi. Just wanted her to be our friend instead of yours . . .’

No one spoke for a while, but Idhika wasn’t buying Aarti’s story. It was as if deep down everyone knew, even the Eka, that something wasn’t right. Looking to the sky, she noticed the dark clouds that had rolled in. Idhika led them further up the mountain, all of them walking in silence. They had to conserve their energy to forage for berries, nuts and seeds, and collect sticks and fallen branches. The one problem for which no solution was in sight was finding a place that could shelter them from the wind at night.