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Back The Dream Runners Save as PDF
Chapters (53)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. Part One
  6. 1
  7. 2
  8. 3
  9. 4
  10. 5
  11. 6
  12. 7
  13. 8
  14. 9
  15. 10
  16. 11
  17. 12
  18. 13
  19. 14
  20. 15
  21. Part Two
  22. 16
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. 32
  39. 33
  40. 34
  41. Part Three
  42. 35
  43. 36
  44. 37
  45. 38
  46. 39
  47. 40
  48. 41
  49. Acknowledgments
  50. About the Author
  51. Books by Shveta Thakrar
  52. Back Ad
  53. About the Publisher

Maybe that wasn’t fair. Despite everything, Nayan had loved him, too. But Venkat was too tired to worry about what was fair and what wasn’t. “Tell me where the runners are.”

Garuda laughed. “The workshop seemed to me a logical place to hide them, but my mother had her own designs. Alas, it appears she is indisposed at the moment and unavailable for comment. But you have learned how to navigate puzzles; surely you will solve this one as well.”

Venkat hadn’t really expected Garuda to answer. He let it pass, then presented the object he’d forged while in his trance. He hadn’t needed dreamstones; each element he’d drawn on had been right there.

“This is how I’ll compel you,” he said, and iridescent bubbles formed around the various garudas and garudis—all but Garuda himself. “You’ll go back to Svargalok and Lord Vishnu, and you’ll never come back here. It’s up to you what you do after that, whether you find a way to make peace with your cousins or not, but you won’t involve humans in your affairs ever again. If not, I’ll trap you in a dream.”

One by one, the bubbles and their inhabitants vanished.

Garuda could have leaped at him, and Venkat wouldn’t have been able to lift a finger in time to stop him. But he didn’t. “I cannot promise the other garudas and garudis will abide by this,” he said, smiling. If anything, he sounded oddly proud. “You will need to invest more than that to stop a war.”

Venkat nodded. “But you can abide by it. Show your mother it’s the only way.”

“If I were you,” Tanvi called, “I’d agree.”

Garuda glanced at his mother and his aunt in their bell jar. He smiled again, a wry yet chilling smile. Then he ascended into the air and flew off into the once-more jewellike sky, leaving Venkat behind.

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40

After seeing to the fallen and wounded naga soldiers, the nagaraja and nagarani had sent attendants to scour the palace for Nitya. They’d searched for a full day, endless hours during which Tanvi gnawed her fingernails to nibs and refused to eat. What if Vinata had stuck Nitya somewhere no one would ever think to look? They still didn’t know if she was in the palace at all.

Tanvi couldn’t even go to Venkat for comfort; he was in yet more emergency meetings of the council, recounting everything he knew while they tried to establish order in the capital.