The Rise of Hastinapur (49 page)

‘It is never about one man or one woman, Kubera,’ she said, standing up. He got to his feet too, and bowed to her. She touched her palm to the hair on his scalp and murmured a blessing. ‘There are always bigger tales afoot than yours and mine. Remember that.’ She saw his face crumple up again at her words, and before he could ask her a question, she gestured him toward the stairs. ‘It is time for my evening prayers. Perhaps we could speak of this at a later time.’

‘My lady,’ he said, and turned away. She did not wait to see him descend the steps and make his way to the boat. She hurried away to her front door and let herself in, giving her eyes a moment to get used to the darkness of the hut. She groped with her free hand and found the firestone. At her fireplace, she gathered some hay and began to scratch the stone against the hearth. The first two sparks were too weak, and they fizzled out after they touched the hay. But the third caught fire, and Ganga reached for her blowpipe. Just then she heard the sound of hoof against stone on the porch, followed by a light gurgle. The mother doe had come.

She smiled to herself. All was well, now.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sharath Komarraju is a Bangalore-based author. He began life as a software engineer but has since jumped the fence to write full time. His first novel,
Murder in Amaravati
, was longlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2013. Perhaps his best known work is the
Hastinapur
series, which attempts to tell the story of the Mahabharata through the thoughts and lives of the epic’s lesser known female characters. When he’s not writing, he’s either watching cricket or talking to his wife, or trying to watch cricket
while
talking to his wife.

Also by Author

Novels

Murder in Amaravati

Banquet on the Dead

The Winds of Hastinapur

The Puppeteers of Palem

Nari

The Crows of Agra

Non-fiction

Money Wise: The Aam Aadmi’s Guide to Wealth and Financial Freedom

Short Fiction

Jump, Didi!

The Narrow Road to Palem

First published in India in 2015 by
HarperCollins
Publishers
India

Copyright © Sharath Komarraju 2015

P-ISBN: 978-93-5177-376-4
Epub Edition © October 2015 ISBN: 978-93-5177-377-1

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

Sharath Komarraju asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction and all characters and incidents described in this book are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under The Copyright Act, 1957. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins
Publishers
India.

Cover design: The Book Bakers

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