5. Escape
Kiddu
WHAT?

To Har­rappa! For his part, Gil hadn’t even thought Har­rappa existed—it always just seemed like a native leg­end.

Jaruna looks just as shocked as Kiddu—though his nar­row eyes don’t open quite as wide as hers.

Jaruna
You can­not be seri­ous, sis­ter. Sin­ners are for­bid­den from enter­ing the city.
Ayan
It is true. But Jaruna, Asham is a mer­ci­ful God. Is it their fault they were born under the shadow of the Empire? The True Path is not just for the tribes of the desert and the moun­tains, brother. It is for all the peo­ple of Quu. Do you have so lit­tle faith in Asham that you refuse to believe he will show them the Path?
Jaruna
You sound like our older brother.

Ayan just looks down at this. Jaruna scratches his tur­ban and shuf­fles his feet, glanc­ing from Gil to Kiddu and back to his sis­ter.

Jaruna
Hrmph! I will do what­ever you want, sis­ter. It is just that—well—
Ayan
What?
Jaruna
I have already promised to bring some oth­ers to Har­rappa as well.

Ayan gasps.

Ayan
Brother! Are you mad? How many? Why?
Jaruna
Just a few … dozen or so. But you do not under­stand, sis­ter! The shu­dra of the Lost Tribe are so des­per­ate! I had to tell them some­thing. I came to this city to search for you, and when I started ask­ing them ques­tions about where you were—Ayan, they think I am some kind of sav­ior.
Ayan
Of course they did! They are shu­dra, and you are mujasha­triya. But they can­not sim­ply come to Har­rappa!
Jaruna
Ha! And these two can?

Kiddu opens her mouth to say something—but then thinks bet­ter of it. She grabs Gil by the arm as the mys­tic and sis­ter con­tinue to argue about things Gil doesn’t quite under­stand.

Kiddu
Har­rappa! Gil! HARRAPPA!
Gil
Yeah…
Kiddu
What? Why are you not excited? Are you crazy? We’ll be the first Akka­di­ans EVER to see the city!

Gil shrugs. His head is still spin­ning. At this point, he isn’t sure if it was a good idea to leave his prison cell.

Kiddu leans in close, whis­per­ing.

Kiddu
Let’s just play along. I mean, be polite, and all that. We just have to make sure not to piss these two off on the way there. Okay?

She stares up at him with such unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cally sober, earnest grav­i­tas that Gil cracks up with laugh­ter.

Gil
Can—can it be? You’ve finally learned tact? My Gods, will you look at that—my lit­tle Kiddu is all grown up!

He pats her roughly on her hair, which still sticks up from the light­ning. She swats his arm away and punches him in the stom­ach. He dou­bles over with a loud squawk.

Ayan
Stop act­ing like chil­dren! Both of you, be quiet.

More sand col­lapses behind them. Gil’s ears pop.

Jaruna
Enough talk. Come—we must reach the Sun Tem­ple before sun­set.

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