The Hush of the World (ONC 2024)

Chapter 1

|𝙾𝙽𝙴𝙸𝚁𝙰𝚃𝙰𝚇𝙸𝙰|

The inability to differentiate between dreams and reality.

   Cardamom and moonlight clung to me, swirling effortlessly in the tendrils of sleep. Vaguely, I could see the hands of the woman I was clutched onto, my small hands engulfed by her pale, smooth ones. Both our eyes were shut. I set two candles on Tana's, the wife of councilor Bharayat's, round table donning the cloth my amma meticulously crafted, depictions of antlers and Benari white tigers fleshed on with thread. Something to remind you of home, dear daughter, she would say. But as soon as I conjured the image of the woman in front of me my mind shifted away and very soon, it wasn't this woman's essence that I was seeing in my true dream - I was in Rani's dream again. It was almost like she was here, right now.

I let out an audible, reluctant sigh which I'm sure came out of my physical mouth too. Of all the bad timings I have encountered on my journey, this was currently at the top. When the situation with the noblewoman was already so delicate. It had taken me four months to finally coax the wife of Counselor Bharayhat to sit with me, to allow me to analyse her dreams. Maybe she would know where her husband kept the dusk moon seal that he swindled from the palace. My best bet is that he would be selling it to the highest bidder in one of those Western kingdoms, maybe Farin. Too bad for him, I needed it more.

Despite her regal countenance, Tana was a poor, hapless woman, waiting for the next fix of the lottery. Once she got to know me, it wasn't hard to get her to come to me with the promise of fortune.

My father's workers who were also my friends, Angur and Naisha were hiding in the other room, makeshift weapons poised, ready if even a single nick was inflicted on me by the guards leaning on the wall beside the noblewoman. Her chairs were cushioned and I felt more comfort than I felt in all my years of existence. One day too, I will be able to own chairs like these.

And yet, I had little control over what was happening. Gritting my teeth in irritation, I let the dream unfold and flesh out, colouring the blue skies with ash and shadows. I would just have to sit this through and hope for the sake of this mission, that I can go back to the noblewoman's mind.

Releasing another heavy sigh, I reluctantly moved Rani's hand and tightened my fist, something her slender fingers refused to do. Rani was hardly angry in reality, she was almost too good to be true.

For some reason, I was in her vision again. Even though I was certain she was currently working in the paddy fields that were at the edge of our abba's land. I was glad she was okay even as I drew in a sharp, irritated breath. I never told her I was seeing her visions. I never thought it would be remotely true. Rani was safe, here, there is no way she would leave our farmland, our parents forbade us to even cross it on the days bordering 'the choosing'. But amma was sick, and I needed a reliable invitation to the event and a worthy trade for a healer.

Sighing, I kicked Rani's feet out and yelped as the frost that I had only seen in the Western lands melted into a pool of flowers with every footstep, except, instead of indulging in the comfort of soft, velvet petals, I felt the prick of the thorns with every descent of her heel on the earth. Thank god the pain wasn't as painful as it would have been in reality. This was beyond troublesome. My true dreams were always in third person, except in moments where it came to Rani. It was as if my subconscious was compensating for the accumulated guilt of not allowing her to see what she so desperately wanted to see. Rani was excited by the other realm, about Elemore, being chosen was an honour to her, but a blasphemy to the Benaris and to Farin, the western kingdom.

In this dream, we were home but not. Benar was a land of perpetual heat and monsoon rain and yet here was a blanket of snow frosting the pathways, encasing the bamboo and mango trees in a film of ice, flurries of eddies dusting her -my shoulders, coating our black hair. She lifted her palms without my control now, to face the white of the moon, the yellow and tanned browns were barely visible on the back of her hands, just rough, pale skin devoid of blood. No this wasn't the desh we knew, not even close.