‘Kalingans?’ Karna was confused. His knowledge of history was rudimentary. Reshts did not attend the community schools. They could not even own property. The mildest transgression resulted in banishment or worse. ‘Do they not have a rather robust navy?’

‘Make pirates rich enough, and they turn into a navy.’

Karna did not understand but he had learned to get around his ignorance. ‘So, what brings you to Chilika?’

‘I see you’ve time to talk now,’ she teased, tracing a finger down his thighs. ‘I’m a cleaning girl. I go where the ship goes. That’s the one perk of my profession – mobility.’ That much was evident from her tanned face, which she wore almost like a mask at a fair. Though he could not identify the scars on her hand, he could see how a cleaning job on a ship had its own work hazards.

‘What about you?’ she asked.

He had the answer prepared and memorized. ‘I’m travelling to Chilika to seek passage to the Golden Islands. My Master owns a few stables and wishes me to find new markets. It is hoped that the good folk of Sumatra will welcome what I sell.’

‘The Golden Cities are at war, my friend,’ Kala told him with a strange look on her face. ‘Can it be you do not know this?’

Abyss take me! They had not told him that. ‘Well, wars are fought on horses,’ he rallied. ‘The Islanders will pay a good price for my fine breeds.’ She flashed him that curious smile again, as if she knew he was lying. No, it was not possible. She was a cleaning girl, not a mastermind tactician, he thought.

Kala rose from the bed to collect her strewn robes. ‘You must leave now. I must get to my chores. The ship isn’t going to clean herself. And we don’t want the Captain wondering why I am missing,’ she winked.

He too rose, naked but for the gleaming armour on his chest. ‘I’m sorry, Kala.’

‘Sorry?’ Her smile faded from her sharp face, replaced by a confused scowl. ‘For what?’

‘I wish I could have done right by you, Kala.’ He mentally traced the bond that had formed between them but decided he could not plunge her life into darkness along with his. ‘But I have a debt to repay back home, and this,’ he pointed to her dishevelled bed, ‘I cannot…’

Kala stared at him in bewildered surprise. Then she stepped forward and gave him a long kiss. It felt good. ‘I understand,’ she sniffled. ‘I…will try to live with just the memory of you. I hope you remember me too.’

‘Always.’ Karna held her hand. ‘Forgive me, Kala.’