“Well, it seems to be helping them. They’re not getting better, but they’re not getting worse, either.”

Tanvi chewed on her cheek so her glee wouldn’t show. She’d helped the other runners!

“Anyway, those fireflies came from the Night Market. It sells all kinds of impossible things, so maybe there’ll be a pill to fill in memories or something like that.”

The tunnel stopped then, opening onto Asha’s . . . wardrobe? How very melodramatic of her, Tanvi thought, and smirked in Venkat’s direction.

But he was pushing through the racks and racks of clothes and didn’t notice. Tanvi felt stupid and shy all over again.

The two of them stepped out into a chamber overflowing with rich fabrics and extremely expensive furniture. It figured; Asha lived in a jewel box while the runners rotted in their jail cells.

Before Tanvi could really take it all in, Asha loomed before her, dressed in what must have been her picnic finery.

“Karan suspects me. We must not dally.” Asha grabbed Tanvi’s right arm, since Venkat still held her left hand, and hoisted a cup of water.

Karan—that meant Madhu. The lush room pressed in on Tanvi from all sides.

She’d already waited too long, and Venkat needed to know. She had to say it now.

“Wait!” she cried.

Both Venkat and Asha stared at her. “What is it?” Venkat asked, his gaze full of concern.

That only made what she had to say worse. Spit it out, she told herself. “Madhu . . . Madhu’sworkingwiththegarudas.”

“That conniving quisling!” Asha exclaimed. Venkat only looked dubious.

“Why would you say that?” he asked roughly, mistrust displacing his concern.

“I should have told you sooner,” Tanvi said. “But it’s true.”

Asha cocked her head, and her tongue tasted the air. “The tale will keep. They are coming,” she announced, and let a single drop splash down from her cup. Then she swept Tanvi and Venkat into the water.

31

Still clutching one another, Venkat, Tanvi, and Asha emerged from a puddle onto a sidewalk lined with closed shops. Venkat pitched forward, and Tanvi rushed to steady him. He was pretty certain he’d almost just drowned.

“Did I not say you need to leave Nagalok more often?” Asha chided. “This sort of travel requires practice.”

Venkat spotted signs that bore names like Sona Jewelers and Chowpatty Restaurant. A few cars sat parked along the curb. He was somewhere on Prithvi, then—or as humans called it, Earth. When Nayan had brought him to the Night Market all those years ago, they hadn’t come through this entrance.

Nayan. The boons. Venkat felt like he’d been shoved back under the water, his air choked off. And Tanvi’s claim about Madhu and the garudas. How could that possibly be true?

If it was, what was he supposed to do with that?

Everything was falling apart.