The Lotus Thief novel · Chapter 11 of 32

Chapter 11: Anantaka's Bargain

The coils came up and up and then they stopped, and out of the middle of them rose a head.

It was a serpent's head and it was bigger than the Makara's and it had a hood like a cobra's.

Its eyes were gold and it was looking down at the two of them standing in red water.

Ton's hands were empty. The bloom was floating behind him.

He didn't move.

Bua didn't move either.

"Anantaka," Bua said.

The head came down.

It came down until it was level with them, and the breath off it was warm and smelled of rain.

"You know my name."

"Everyone knows it."

"Then you know what I am."

"You're the guardian."

"I am the first coil of the world," Anantaka said. "I am the ring the lotus sits inside."

"And you cut it."

Ton spoke.

"I did."

"Say why."

"My sister is sick."

"Everyone's sister is sick."

"She's twenty-two and she coughs blood and she's got a month."

"So you cut the bloom in half so that she might have a month."

"Yes."

"Then you did not take it for her."

Ton's mouth closed.

"You took it for the man who sent you."

"He's got her medicine."

"He has her medicine because you gave him the power to hold it."

Anantaka's head came closer.

"You are a thief who tells himself he steals for love."

"You steal for fear. There is a difference, and the difference is the whole of you."

Ton stood in the water with his hands at his sides.

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