‘Aye, lady.’

Behind him, the Fat Mistress was a mountain of red and orange flames, reaching from water to sky. Prakar Mardin received a funeral after all. Mati would have liked to believe she felt a twinge of guilt for the Lamb, but who was she fooling? Conscience was but a front for cowardice.

2 A bindi is a bright dot applied in the middle of the forehead.

I

The dying light of the sun shimmered across the sea beneath the first stars of the evening. A rhythmic whisper under the black water grew into a cascading hiss near the filth infested ruins of the harbour. The bank seethed in the egg-laying frenzy of strange eels that nipped at the strange creatures emerging from the blue darkness of the sea. Warm blood seeped from the nostrils of the four-legged beast as she trotted a few steps and collapsed in a heap. Her sides heaved in exhaustion as her rider patted her gently, then sprawled in the mud himself, drawing fitful gulps of air into his lungs.

‘You will live, Lady,’ Karna whispered. ‘And what is more, you will be free.’ The mare snorted in response. Karna smiled as he squirmed and then rose to his feet. He bent beside the mare, pulling off the eels that clung to her skin like leeches and flinging them out to the sides where he could hear the skittering of harbour-rats. The mare finally rose. Karna patted her rump and set her trotting into the wild.

Karna looked around, wondering why the harbour was so deserted. By his calculations, he had swum to Jade Harbour, but what he saw did not quite match its reputation. He walked up a flagstone path to find an agonizingly silent street. How long have I been swimming? He was exhausted to the bone, wanting nothing more than a straw bed to collapse on.

As he walked amidst the dilapidated ruins of the supposed-harbour, he realized he was utterly exposed, like a deer strolling through a levelled forest. He should not have let go of the mare. She had done enough. He reminded himself how close the creature had been to death. Faint sounds thrummed in his ears, coming from far in the distance. So, civilization was somewhere around. This must be the abandoned portion of Jade Harbour, he realised, looking around at the damage done by the high tides. This is what Duryodhan had meant when had called Chilika, the Sinking City.

It was then that he heard them. Figures moving in stealth, taking positions. The realization that his pursuers were professional assassins and not a ravenous mob did little to lift his spirits. How could anyone have possibly known I would land here? But there was no time for idle thoughts; not when Mardin had died in his arms, and certainly not now. He could curse his stupidity later. Karna suspected a sinister plot underway, of which the murder of Prakar Mardin was only the first step. He looked at his hands. He had no weapons. He was cold. And thirst plagued him like a swamp fever.