‘And the people you spoke to, conversations overheard with your donkey ears… do you not know their secrets now? Could you not blackmail them into doing your bidding if you chose? You are not so naïve that you do not know that knowledge is power. And while pulling all the pranks you did, did you not learn how to slip into a house, a farm, a mansion, even a temple, without anyone noticing? Or to conjure a lie at will? How do you think that skill could help you?’

Nala stood ashen-faced, hands clasped before the Acharya.

‘I am disappointed that you could not see beyond your tasks. The goat whose sacrifice you interrupted; that prevented an infamous tyrannical overseer from shifting to this village. The Battle of Goverdhun play that you stopped from being performed, was because an Unni Ehtral delegation was in town. What would have happened if they saw a grisly depiction of the Emperor in a village play? They would have voided their contracts to fund the village schools, or worse, they would have sent men to punish the village. As a Shadow Dancer, you are expected to identify every source of light, even invisible ones, that can potentially magnify into something big. Should I give more examples or are you satisfied?’

Nala rushed into Parshuram’s arms, face pressed against his hairy shoulders as shudders ran through her fragile, small frame. Stunned, the Acharya remained still. Nala wept for a long time, but Parshuram stood unmoving, as solid as a rock in a storm. He let the child in his arms, for child she was, cry in the throes of hope.

‘Tomorrow,’ he finally said as Nala let him go, ‘we learn the asanas, the postures you will need to master to learn the Dance of Shadows. Now, will you have tea? Yes? Go make it then.’

VII

‘I see you are well versed in yoga.’

‘I completed the third semester of Yoga Three. We were done with the basics of Ashtanga Yoga and Bhakti Yoga.’

‘Asanas?’

Nala nodded. ‘We were made to wake early and practice them every day.’

‘Headstand pose.’

Nala complied.

‘Cobra.’

Nala complied.

‘Half Spinal Twist.’

Nala complied, grunting.

‘Warrior Sequence.’

Panting and struggling, Nala complied.

‘The Triangle.’

Nala fell.

‘Useless! You are a girl, yoga should flow from you like a river. Is this how you plan to become a Shadow Dancer?’

The dreaded Shadow Dance. The days when she had pined for Parshuram to teach her the Shadow Dance now seemed a distant, alien memory. He had said that she would have learned everything he had to teach her when she could do a complete routine of the Shadow Dance before a cult of priests who worshipped Ratih, the Goddess of Darkness, and her lesser sister, Usha, the Bringer of Dawn, and they deigned her worthy of a black rose.