Toads and Diamonds (10 page)

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CHAPTER TEN Tana

INDU
!" Ma Hiral shrieked out the window. "Bring your basket."

Tana didn't dare speak. When the neighbor boy came running, snake basket and forked stick in hand, she pointed mutely at the black-and-white-striped snake coiled in the corner of the room.

"It's a krait?" Tana's mother quavered.

Indu inspected it from a safe distance. "No, wolf snake," he decided. "Harmless, even though they copy a krait's coloring to fool hunters. Wolf snakes are half as long, and the white bands are clearest at the head. Be careful, if you're not sure which kind you've got," he lectured Tana, capturing the snake and dropping it into his basket. "The priests say kraits' venom is much stronger than a cobra's. One bite will kill you dead."

"Wolf snake, krait--take it away," Tana's mother begged, and Indu obliged.

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Tana folded the last dress wrap and put it into the sack with the rest. She looked around for any items she might have forgotten to pack.

Clang!

"That woman could have the decency to wait one day for us to remove our things before she breaks down the door." Ma Hiral straightened from Tana's bedding, which she was tying into a roll.

Tana shrugged. The room held nothing but sunlight and dust. If Ba Javerikh's cousins were so eager to take possession, they could sweep the floor.

Clang, clang!
The gate bell pealed again.

"Hanging on the bell won't move these old bones any faster," Ma Hiral grumbled.

Tana slung the bedding over her shoulder and picked up the bag containing her few possessions. Odd, when she had so little, to know that, thanks to the gems Diribani had left behind, Tana and her mother were probably richer than anyone on their street. When Trader Nikhat had come the previous night for his sapphires and Tana's report, he'd agreed to keep the jewels safe for them. Tana had explained that she and her mother had become homeless, at least temporarily. Upon Diribani's departure from Gurath with the prince's caravan, her father's cousin would lose no time claiming the property.

Indu had already helped carry Ma Hiral's possessions, including the silver pitcher, next door. Tana's mother would stay with his family until the promised house had been built by the stepwell. A temple priestess had helped arrange it, when she visited at first light to hear Tana's account. She had also collected the jewels from the

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offering dish and invited Tana to stay in the guest quarters at the temple grove south of Horse Gate, outside the city wall.

Tana had accepted with relief. As long as Ma Hiral was comfortable, Tana had no reason to fight with Diribani's relatives about the house. She couldn't linger in Gurath, not after the prince had ordered her to leave.

Her mother murmured a parting prayer before the household shrine. Silently, Tana followed suit.
Naghali-ji, give me the strength to bear your gift with honor.
She'd done the same upon first waking, when she discovered she was still speaking frogs and snakes. Diribani's jewels and flowers continued as well, she assumed. Given the distance opening wide between them, the reminder of their shared experience comforted her.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

"We're coming," Ma Hiral called across the courtyard. She opened the gate and recoiled as a dusty white-coated figure fell at her feet. "You! Haven't you caused enough heartbreak? Get out at once!"

"Please, hear me," the girl panted.

"Gulrang?" In her astonishment, Tana spoke. A toad plopped in the dirt. With an affronted-sounding croak, it took refuge in the shade of the well cover.

Gulrang covered her mouth with her fist, as if toads were poisonous.

"Get out, I say!" When Tana's mother reached for their visitor's coat, with the apparent intention of throwing her into the street, Tana put out a hand to stop her. Tears blotched Gulrang's face. Bits of hay stuck to her crumpled clothing, as if she'd slept in a barn and

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then run all the way from the overseers' quarter to yank on their gate bell.

"Who is it, Hiral-ji?" At the neighboring house, Indu's grandmother appeared at an upper window. "That one! Shall I have my son-in-law get rid of her?"

Tana frowned and shook her head. "No, thank you, Nama-ji," Ma Hiral said.

"It wasn't my fault," Gulrang said behind her hands.

"Speak up, girl." Indu's grandmother rested her hip against the window frame. "What's happened to bring you here in such a state?"

"My lady dismissed me yesterday evening," Gulrang said.

Ma Hiral sniffed. "And you expect sympathy from us? After Diribani risked herself for your unworthy hide?"

"I know." Gulrang bowed her head. Like a tent frame collapsing, the tall girl seemed to fold in on herself, her limbs a bundle of sticks. "My parents are weavers in a small village upriver, so I went to stay with my brother, a groom at the governor's stables. He was so angry. He and his friends had been drinking palm liquor. All night, they were drinking. And he said, he said--" She broke off, shuddering.

The older woman leaned out of the window. "Are you going to tell us or not? These ladies aren't interested in hearing a girl complain about the curry she dished up for herself!"

"My brother blamed Mina Diribani for my disgrace," Gulrang wailed. "He said she was a witch, a cursed witch. He said no true Believer would let her live."

The two older women gasped.

"Did he hurt her?" The bedding slid from Tana's shoulder to the ground. Her insides felt frozen. She was surprised that the

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two pale-yellow frogs leaping from her lips didn't shatter like ice chips when they hit the ground.

"I tried to stop him. I told him, over and over, that I'd been stupid, and then unlucky--it had nothing to do with her. But this morning he tied me up--his own sister--and left me in an empty stall. He had a knife." Gulrang started sobbing.

"And Diribani?" Ma Hiral demanded. "What about her?"

"I don't know!" Gulrang cried. "Nobody at the fort would tell me. One of my brother's friends cut me loose. He said my brother was dead. He said that I'd better run, or the soldiers would kill me, too."

"Why did you come here?" Tana asked. A whip snake flexed its tail, dark brown against the courtyard's reddish ground.

"To grind our hearts in the dirt, you wicked girl?" Ma Hiral would have slapped the kneeling Gulrang, but again Tana stayed her mother's hand.

"No!" Gulrang said. "I came to tell Mina Tana. In case one of the others had the same idea about her."

"Brother Akshath, protect us!" Ma Hiral folded her hands and lifted her face to the sky in prayer.

As when she first saw Diribani speaking gems and flowers, Tana felt numb. How could someone have attacked her sister? Naghali-ji was no crow god. Unlike Brother Utsav, whose favor was as whimsical as the wind, the snake goddess dealt fairly with her worshipers. Diribani had gotten good fortune. Hadn't she? Like a wheel with jeweled spokes turning, the possibilities revolved in Tana's mind.
Wisdom. Good fortune. Death.

For either sister, or both? Tana had nothing; she didn't want to die. So she would have to be wise. "Thank you for the warning, Gulrang," she said. "Will you do me one more service?"

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The girl averted her eyes from the two sand boas writhing on the ground. One twined around the other in a living knot. She wiped her wet face on her sleeve and faced Tana squarely. "Yes."

"Trade clothes with me," Tana said.

"Very good thinking," Nama-ji approved from her window seat. "No one will expect to see our snake girl dressed in a white coat."

Gulrang looked uncertain. It struck Tana that the two of them had quite a lot in common: cast from their homes, their work taken away, pursued by those who wished them ill. Not surprising if Gulrang hesitated to give up the last thing she could call her own.

Slowly, the girl nodded. "If Mina Diribani hadn't stood up for me, those soldiers would have ripped the clothes from my back and offered nothing but shame in return." Her chin lifted with the arrogance that had marked the Gulrang of old. "You people call us flesh-eaters. But our religion also condemns the murder of an innocent person. If my brother succeeded, he will suffer in hell forever. I pray that God will know the regret in my heart and judge me accordingly."

"Yes, yes. Change dresses now, justify yourself later." Ma Hiral shooed both young women into the empty house.

Tana took a clean blouse and red dress wrap out of her bag. It had been her idea, but she wasn't looking forward to trading with Gulrang. Traditional clothing was so much more practical than the invading white-coats' tailored things.

Prettier, too. The rich crimson shade of Tana's blouse flattered Gulrang's dark skin. Once Ma Hiral had helped her into it, the dress wrap's graceful drape disguised the girl's lankiness. She looked womanly, as elegant as a swan.

Until she walked across the room. Her long stride stretched the

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pleats around her waist. When she stepped on the skirt hem, the whole length came unwound and puddled at her feet. Gulrang flushed with embarrassment. "How do you keep it on?"

Ma Hiral tutted. "Small steps." She picked up the fabric rectangle and started over. "Tuck this end here, then pleat like so."

Tana, meanwhile, was swimming in her borrowed clothes. Gulrang's coat was far too broad in the shoulders; the sleeves dripped over her wrists. She sat on the floor, rolling the trouser legs so she wouldn't trip over them.

"Not like that," Gulrang corrected her. "Bunch the fabric around your ankles." She knelt and rearranged Tana's pant legs. "The idea is to keep your skin covered, not show it like a--" She glanced at her own bare arms and belly, and blushed deeply. "The shoulder laces adjust this way."

Tana held still as Gulrang tightened yellow ribbons over her arms and down the coat's side seams. She had thought the ribbons were just decoration. Had she ever really looked at a white-coat except with suspicion? Or cared about one?
Wisdom,
she reminded herself. If she and her sister wished to cheat death, they needed to pay more attention to the world around them. Tana ventured a few steps. The clothing felt tight against her skin, invisible hands squeezing her arms and legs.

"It's big on you, but not too bad," Gulrang said. "Try walking like you have an important errand and your lady will beat you for tardiness." She glanced apologetically at Tana's mother. "I know it's not what she's used to, but she looks silly, mincing along."

Ma Hiral snorted. "If stomping like a pregnant elephant gets her to safety, so be it."

Tana opened her mouth, then closed it again. When her mother

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looked at her, she shrugged. Big steps. She only had to wear these uncomfortable clothes for a little while.

Gulrang, too, was managing to walk without tripping over herself or unwrapping the garment. Tana pointed at the door. "You'd both better be going," her mother said with a sigh. "We'll send Indu to the temple grove with news of Diribani. The moment we know."

Tana nodded, her throat tight. She folded her hands to Gulrang.

Before the girl could leave them, Ma Hiral fumbled at her waistband, then pressed something small into Gulrang's hand. "For your voyage home," she said. "No, no. You take it. We'll be fine."

"Thank you." Gulrang bowed and walked away without a backward glance.

Tana hugged her mother fiercely.

"May blessed Khochari keep you safe between her palms until her will brings us together again." Ma Hiral dashed tears from her eyes. "What am I saying? The grove's not so far that these feet can't make the journey. We'll be together very soon, I'm sure." She led the way to the gate. "Don't forget your clothes or bedroll, daughter."

Tana hugged her mother, then picked up her belongings and waved to the neighbor. "Good-bye, Nama-ji."

"Safe travels, Tana." The gray-haired woman leaned out from her window and peered into the courtyard with professional interest. "That's a new ratter, isn't it? Eyo, grandson!" she called into the house. "Go down and open the gate for Hiral-ji, please. And collect that house naga, Indu. Your auntie was saying just the other day..."

With a final embrace, Tana left her mother at the neighbors' house and strode down the street. At any moment, she imagined fingers would point and voices shout "Impostor!" Maybe the jealous white-coat god would strike her for disguising herself as a Believer.

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But no one seemed to take particular notice of her. A pushcart vendor spat at her feet; another berated her for blocking his way. At the next intersection, she didn't hesitate but turned east, toward Cow Gate, instead of south, to Horse Gate and the road to the temple grove.

Not wanting to argue and spoil their newfound harmony, Tana had let her mother think she would seek safety immediately with the priests and priestesses. In truth, she had no intention of leaving Gurath until she knew what had happened to her sister. Prince Zahid had promised to treat Diribani with honor. If he had failed that trust, he would answer for it.