Jack, who’d been lying on the bracken bed, sat up. Through the hut’s doorway, he saw the sky was turning violet. ‘Finally.’ Rao mopped his face with a cloth and did his best to twirl the ends of his moustache. ‘So, what are we going to do when we reach the Place of Dead Kings?’ ‘Been thinking about that myself. The way I see it, we’re there to get our comrades out. That’s all.’ ‘I agree. That’s our main purpose. But the Mar are expecting more than that.’ ‘There’s not much we can do to help them.’ ‘It feels a little hard to let them down. We’ve misled them.’ ‘We didn’t have a choice. We’ll get to Mahajan’s hideout and find out what’s going on. If there’s anything we can do to help the Mar, we’ll do it. But we have to get Saleem and Parihar out above all else.’ ‘Agreed. I’m not sure that the Mar will think too kindly of us if we don’t fight Mahajan, though.’ ‘We’ll have to deal with that problem when it comes. We might find we have to leave Mar in a hurry.’ Rao stared at the doorway.
