Barely a minute has passed after Baarish’s death before the four middle worlders are trying to grab Taraana. Baarish’s minions seem shell-shocked and are unmoving. Tabassum Naaz is heaving in a corner. We walk into the chamber and Paheli pulls one middle worlder away from Taraana. He retaliates immediately, throwing a magical force at her. It rebounds, stunning him. Baarish’s minions, a monster with its head cut off, decide that we’re the enemy they need to fight and come charging at us.

“Protect your ears,” Valentina calls to Tabassum Naaz, five seconds before we scream. They wanted magic so we’ll give them magic, more magic than they’ll know what to do with. The air sparks with our screams; the middle worlders hold their heads and fall to their knees. We scream until our throats are hoarse and no one, apart from us and Tabassum Naaz, is left standing.

Paheli is beside Taraana, freeing his hands and feet from the shackles. She wraps her arms around him, holding him so tight that we worry he won’t be able to breathe. But Taraana doesn’t seem to mind. He’s holding her just as tightly.

We turn away to give them the illusion of privacy and look at Tabassum Naaz who, despite the earplugs in her ears, is still pale and jittery from the force of our screams.

“What will you do now?” Valentina asks her. Baarish’s death is hardly the end of our story.

“I need to bond to a river here.” Tabassum Naaz leans on a pillar. Valentina grabs her hand and she holds on tightly. “Once I bond to the river, I become the new Dar. Then I will have power.”

“Which river?” Valentina asks.

“Any river,” Tabassum Naaz replies.

“Gomti River,” Paheli says, walking over to us, her arm around Taraana’s waist, supporting his weight on one side while Daraja holds on to him from the other side. “We can go there.”

“Will you come with me?” Tabassum Naaz asks Taraana.

It would be prudent for us to retreat at this point, but Taraana, looking as though he has just returned from a war he lost, nods. “It would be my honor to accompany you.”

“What about them?” Kamboja looks at the bodies on the floor. Apart from Baarish, none of them are dead. They’re not exactly alive, either. The magic in our screams has cooked their brains.

“Leave them here,” Tabassum Naaz says. “Someone will discover them eventually.”

“Your grandfather?” Areum asks.

Tabassum Naaz shrugs. “As far as everyone is concerned, I wasn’t here today. He didn’t tell the family that he’d kidnapped the keeper, otherwise they’d have been here too, and things would have been much more complicated.”

“And the conjury?” Etsuko asks. We turn to look at the pendant glowing purple on the floor.

“Leave it there,” Paheli replies. “Let it serve as a warning.”