The Lotus Thief novel · Chapter 8 of 32

Chapter 8: The Hamsa Sky

The laughter went on until it stopped being laughter and became wind.

The wind came down through the trunks and took the leaves off the trees in one long tearing rush.

Ton got his arm up over his face.

When he put it down, the forest was gone.

They were standing on a branch.

Not a branch of a tree. A branch in the air, with nothing under it and nothing above it.

The sky was white. There was no horizon.

The branch was as wide as a road and it ran out into the white in both directions.

Bua was beside him, on his feet, knife in hand.

Ton looked down.

Far below, so far it was only a color, there was water.

"That's the lake," he said.

"That's the lake."

He looked up.

Something was circling.

It was white and enormous and it had wings like a barn door on each side.

It came around and its shadow went over them and the branch shook.

The Hamsa.

It didn't land. It stayed above them, and when it spoke the sound came down the way hail comes down.

"One of you lied in the roots."

"He did not," Bua said.

"He did not lie," the Hamsa said. "He told. Then he stopped telling."

Ton's hands were cold.

"You gave the Yaksa half of it," the Hamsa said. "The other half is still in your mouth."

"There's no other half."

"There is always the second half."

The Hamsa beat its wings once and the branch dropped a foot and came back up.

"Walk," it said. "Both of you. To the end."

They walked.

The branch narrowed as they went, and the white on either side got thinner.

After a while it was as wide as a plank.

Ton went first because Bua made him.

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