The impatient honking ceased as Ruban – harried and disheveled – stumbled out of his apartment building. He clutched a briefcase in one hand and Hiya’s schoolbag in another.
Soon, both he and Hiya were inside the car, breathless and panting.
The engine purred, and Simani turned back to glare at him. “When you ask for a lift, at least have the decency to be on time. I’ve been idling here for fifteen minutes.”
From the passenger seat, Sri groaned. “We’ll be late for morning assembly again – thrice in a row! We’d be lucky if we don’t get detention this time.”
“All Baan’s fault for not knowing how to make breakfast,” Hiya said, chomping moodily on her sandwich.
“I can make breakfast just fine.” Ruban frowned, fixing her skewed braid. “You’re just a spoiled brat. Nobody needs a grilled club sandwich at eight in the morning.”
She pouted. “Ashwin doesn’t think so.”
“Ashwin has far too much free time on his hands–”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Ruban bit his lip, swallowing back the rest of his remark. A stifling silence enveloped the car as it weaved through the morning traffic on the way to school.
The children didn’t know what exactly had happened in Ghorib or where Ashwin was, but Ruban knew they sensed something was wrong. Hiya certainly did. Ruban had told her that Ashwin returned to Vaan, but he could tell she didn’t believe him. She was worried, and it made her antsy and obstinate.
But much as he wanted to comfort her, he couldn’t bring himself to tell her what he knew to be a lie –
That Ashwin was alright. That he would be safe, wherever he was. That there was nothing for her to worry about.
The rigid, tense line of Simani’s back told Ruban she was thinking along the same lines as him. The rest of the journey passed in fraught silence, until they finally dropped Hiya and Sri off at the school gates.
“Why did he want Ashwin so badly, Ruban?” Simani asked at length, once she’d maneuvered the car onto the byroad that formed a shortcut to their Quarter. “Janak Nath, I mean. He kept talking about Reivaa, but I don’t understand…
“What does Ashwin have to do with his vendetta against her? Nobody even knows who he really is. He has no value as a hostage. If Janak wanted to arm-twist the IAW, why not take us instead? Either of us would’ve made a better bargaining chip than Ashwin.”
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Ruban rubbed a hand over his face. He hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep since their return from Ghorib four days ago. The exhaustion made his eyes sting, a headache building steadily at his temples. “It’s a long story. And Janak isn’t exactly what you’d call sane.”
“Maybe not, but he believed implicitly in what he was saying. I could feel it. And he expected you to know what he meant, if not agree with him.” She took a sharp turn, steering the car away from their destination. “For once in your life, just tell me the damn truth!”
“I don’t know what you think I’m hiding from you, Sim.” He exhaled tiredly. “If I knew something that’d help him, that’d change this…situation, do you really think I wouldn’t do it?”
“But you know something about why he was taken in the first place, don’t you? You know why Janak was so eager to barter my life for his.”
“His wings…” Ruban closed his eyes, the knot of rage and guilt tightening in his belly. “Janak has spent months looking for him. Well, not him, exactly. He thought Reivaa was the only Aeriel in existence with markings like those.”
“There was a time, not so long ago, when we thought the same thing.”
“Yes, well…I found out the hard way, last year in Zikyang–”
“When you killed Reivaa?”
He nodded. “Those wing markings signify the queen’s second-in-command. Usually, there’s only one Aeriel queen at any given time, so only one Aeriel with those markings. But Safaa was the queen of Vaan even when Tauheen was still alive–”
“And Ashwin was – is,” she amended. “Her deputy?”
“Something like that. For the longest time, Janak thought he was Reivaa.”
Simani hummed thoughtfully. “Banki said something along those lines. That Janak was trying to capture Reivaa–”
“He was. I don’t think he realized, until he saw Ashwin at the mines, that he wasn’t her. I just didn’t think he would…” He shook his head, trying to dislodge the throbbing pain at his temples.
“Why did you let him?” She asked, finally turning onto the street leading to their Quarter. “Why did you agree to trade him for me, Ruban?”
“Because he’s stronger, more resilient. He’s an Aeriel, for God’s sake. Whatever they do to him, he’ll survive. You wouldn’t have.”
Driving into the parking lot, Simani found her usual spot and turned off the engine. “You know as well as I do that’s not necessarily true. If Janak really does think of Ashwin as some sort of substitute for Reivaa; if he wants to torture or kill him for his resemblance to her, for the markings on his wings, there’s no telling what he’ll do.
“If he’d taken me, on the other hand…” she shrugged. “I’m a well-known member of the Hunter Corps. If I died in the mafia’s custody, it’d have brought the wrath of the Vandran public and government down on the Qawirsin. And they would’ve known that. At the very least, they’d have had an incentive to keep me alive and relatively unharmed. With him, they have none.”
Ruban stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut. “Well, I have to believe he’ll be alright, Sim.” He was clutching the briefcase so hard his nails dug into his palm. “Because I was never going to leave you there to die. Not for any Aeriel in the world.”
Simani eyed the briefcase, which carried detailed reports of all recent activities of the Qawirsin and its major rivals in the underworld. Finally, she shook her head and turned to walk inside. “And to think I ever suspected you of selling us out to the Aeriels.”