105
" Act like you’re chanting a prayer,” hissed Kamala in my ear.
“Like what?”
“Mutter something,” said Kamala. “Do you know how many sadhus I’ve listened to? Let alone eaten? If you don’t start muttering something, they will turn on you. And I don’t want to eat them. They look like they’d taste horrible.”
“I--”
“A list or something.”
“Uh,” I stammered, trying to draw out the sound into the beginning of a chant. The people of Bharata were beginning to frown at me. Some had even stopped hurling shouts at the gates to watch me fail.
“Skies…fingers…teeth…”
Kamala nodded approvingly.
“Can they hear you?” I hissed.
“No, not at all. Continue talking to me. That will definitely make you seem crazy. Very convincing for a holy person.”
“Are you sure?”
“Quite,” said Kamala. “You are like me. Half a thing. Mildly insane. A little of the Otherworld.”
“How comforting,” I muttered, continuing with my ridiculous list as we shouldered through people. "
― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)
110
" I hoped you would choose me,” he said.
I blushed, suddenly aware of my unbraceleted arms and simple sari. “I have no dowry.”
He laughed, a hesitant, half-nervous sound that did not match his stern features. “I don’t care.”
“Then what do you want from me?”
“I want to lie beside you and know the weight of your dreams,” he said, brushing his lips against my knuckles. “I want to share whole worlds with you and write your name in the stars.” He moved closer and a chorus of songbirds twittered silver melodies. “I want to measure eternity with your laughter.” Now, he stood inches from me; his rough hands encircled my waist. “Be my queen and I promise you a life where you will never be bored. I promise you more power than a hundred kings. And I promise you that we will always be equals.”
I grinned. “Not my soul then, Dharma Raja?”
“Would you entrust me with something so precious?”
I was silent for a moment before reaching for my foot and slipping off the worn slipper. “Here, my love, the dowry of a sole.”
I began to laugh, giddily, drunkenly, before he swallowed my laughter in a kiss. "
― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)
111
" When we had shaken enough hands and embraced enough people, Amar pulled me away from the sounds, back through the room with flimsy walls where the torn obsidian mirror-portal glowed blearily. There was only a handful of air between us, but it was all illusion. We were closer than that, two souls sewn together with light.
His palm slid to my cheek and my skin sang. I loved him with two loves. One, a relic of another era. Another, unformed and hot, a freshly wrought star. All enigma and song. I think he felt the same way because his next words were almost resentful:
“You are quite deceptive, my queen. Like a handful of light one moment and then winged night the next.” He smiled. “I would know all your mysteries if you would let me.”
“You can try, but you’ll never know them,” I said. “I have a thousand smiles, a hundred forms. Not to mention all my names.”
He closed the space between us, lips skimming hungrily across mine.
“Then I am pleased we have eternity,” he said, pulling me into a kiss. "
― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)
112
" We need a soul, my lord. You said so yourself. If I do as you ask, the sadhvi must take his place. A soul for a soul.”
Amar wasn’t laughing anymore. The muscles in his neck tightened. His jaw clenched. But he didn’t say anything. Nritti’s grip on the noose turned her knuckles white. She was controlling him. I bit back a snarl.
Nritti turned back to me and her face was triumphant. “No soul, no bargain.”
Kamala shinnied, pulling against Gupta. I dropped my gaze to the ground, my heart frantic when I saw my sandals--mud crusted, tearing at the seams. I grinned. Don’t worry, Kamala, I thought, I’m not dying.
“I have one.”
When I spoke, my gaze was for Amar alone.
“Here,” I said, tearing off the sandal and throwing it at Nritti’s feet, “a sole for a soul.”
Kamala began to laugh and the deranged sound pitched off the walls, scattering between the bodies of the dark Otherworld beings. They stood slack-jawed and still. Only their eyes moved--bounding between me and Nritti and back. Before Nritti could speak, a creaking sound clattered through the room.
Amar scooped the dirtied sandal in one hand before pulling me away from Nritti. His grip crushed into my arm, strong as iron. But there was something else…he was trembling. I could feel it through my skin.
“I accept her barter. "
― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)
117
" I ran my fingers across the pillar before snatching my hand back. A crack had split the pillar. The hairs on the back of my neck rose. A hideous roar growled from within the pillar and I jumped back.
“It’s only an illusion,” came a voice near the door.
I spun around to see Amar slouched against the doorway. He looked gaunt; shadows creased the skin under his eyes and his hair was mused. Still, he smiled to see me and I couldn’t help but smile back. Until now, I didn’t realize that the listlessness I had felt was because of him. I had missed his presence, his speech. Next to him, I felt more alive.
“What is this?” I asked, gesturing to the growling pillar.
Amar sank into an onyx chair that he had conjured from thin air. He tilted his head back and took a deep breath.
“Are you well?”
“Soon enough.” His smile didn’t meet his eyes. “That,” he said, “is a reminder that none can escape death. I am fond of the legend.”
The moment he said that I knew exactly who was in the pillar, and with a strange ache I remembered the harem of Bharata.
“Narasimha,” I breathed. “I have always liked that tale.”
His eyes widened in surprise. “You are familiar with it?”
I nodded. It was the one tale I never told Gauri. Too gory. But for some reason, strangely comforting to me. The pillar quivered behind us, as if it was waiting for me to tell the tale myself. Amar leaned forward, his broad shoulders hunched around him like a predator in wait.
“Tell it to me.”
“Why? We both know the tale.”
“Even so. I want to hear it from your lips. Tell the tale. The room will keep rhythm. "
― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)
119
" A strange illusion,” I murmured shakily.
“Not an illusion,” said Amar. His voice was brittle. “Didn’t I promise you the power of a thousand kings?” He crossed the marble floor that had once been an ocean. Water glistened on his feet and a gray fish flopped helplessly in a corner.
He stood in front of me, his eyes hectic and alive. Even through my fury, I couldn’t look away from him.
“You and I are the ground and ceiling of our empire,” he said, his voice harsh and desperate, pleading and ruthless at once. “You and I can carve lines into the universe and claim all that we want. We need only share between ourselves. Don’t you see?”
“All I see is your power,” I said. “None of my own. All I see are my words and expectations thrown up against whatever it is that you choose to tell me--”
“--whatever I can tell you,” finished Amar. “And as for your power, I was hoping you would ask that. It’s time to practice.”
“Leave me alone,” I hissed.
“Your duties in Akaran will pay no heed to the whims of its empress.”
I bared my teeth at Amar and he returned it with a half-grin.
“From now on, whatever concentration you use is yours alone. It is your power. Not mine.”
“How would I know?”
“You’ll feel it in your bones. Like blood singing to marrow.”
I slid off the bed and when my feet hit the floor, something silvery trilled through my body, like light had seeped in and was rediscovering me. It was like being full for the first time. Like being weighed and made whole.
“Power needs balance,” said Amar. “Our game today, as our reign, is simply a matter of reaction. What can we do when chaos is flung into our face? "
― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)
120
" The stars, filled with cold light and secrets, held no emotion in their fixed language of fate. Emotion belonged to life, a thing the stars could never experience. I, not the starlight, shaped my decisions. And it was me, not the evening sky, who shouldered the responsibility for decisions gone wrong. My horoscope had already come to pass, leaving nothing before me but a future ripe with the unknown. The stars had already told me everything they knew. And even though it left me untethered from any cosmic map I had once known… I felt freed. (p. 218). "
― Roshani Chokshi , The Star-Touched Queen (The Star-Touched Queen, #1)