Free The Dragon and the Lotus (Chimera #1) by Joseph Robert Lewis Page A

find something new.”
    Priya sighed. “You know, I’ve been hoping to stay somewhere larger than a village, at least for a little while. I have so much to teach people. So much to tell them about the things we’ve seen and done. How big do you think this town is?”
    Asha squinted at the massive temple rising high above the trees. “I’m guessing it’s pretty big.”
    “All right then. We’ll stay by the lake for a few days and you can play in the mud, but when you’re done we are going to that town and we are going to talk to people. Real people. Lots of people. Deal?”
    Asha rolled her eyes. “Deal.”
    They continued along the edge of the lake and passed the turn in the road that led south toward the temple. As the sun blazed small and white overhead, Asha spotted a handful of houses nestled in a grove of slender trees crowned with fiery orange flowers. Asha smiled. “Palash.”
    “What’s palash?”
    “A tree. A beautiful tree. It’s called the flame of the forest.”
    “Why is it called that?” asked the nun.
    “You’d know if you saw it.”
    “Is it good for anything?”
    “Skin cream,” Asha said. “But mostly I just like to look at it. I think I found a place for us to stay for the next few days.”
    There were four houses together at the water’s edge and each one had a small floating dock jutting out into the shallows where fragile canoes bobbed on the waves. Two jute-string fishing nets hung from the trees.
    Asha knocked at the first house and a smiling woman stepped out to welcome them. She introduced herself as Nisha and when they asked about staying with them, she regretfully admitted that three of the houses were quite full of the fishermen’s families. But there was room in the fourth house. Nisha winced and wrung her hands, and fell silent.
    “What’s wrong?” Priya asked. “Who lives in the fourth house?”
    2
    Nisha led them closer to the water. They could see a handful of little boats far out on the lake and off to their left Asha saw more than a dozen small children wading and splashing and running through the shallows as they chased frogs and hunted for snails. Nisha pointed to the right around the edge of the last house and Asha saw a pair of legs dangling off the porch into the water, back in the shadows.
    “Who is that?”
    “Rama.” Nisha sat down on the grassy bank and motioned for them to join her. “Poor Rama.”
    Asha tugged Priya’s sleeve and they sat down beside her. “Why poor?”
    “He was just such a nice young man with a lovely young wife. He built that house himself. He wouldn’t let anyone help him.” Nisha smiled. “He has such a nice smile.”
    Asha nodded. “But?”
    “But she died.” Nisha sighed. “Vina, his wife. She took ill during the rainy season a few months after they built the house. Rama was devastated. He just sat there in his house and stared at the lake. He barely fed himself. I was so worried, we all were. And then he began taking off at strange hours. He would disappear for days and later we learned that he was going into town to sit in the temple and stare at the images of Lakshmi. Poor boy.”
    “So he’s in mourning?” Priya asked. “Would our company be more helpful or harmful, do you think?”
    “Oh, he’s not in mourning,” Nisha said. “Not anymore. About seven or eight months after Vina died, Rama was out on the lake fishing by himself. We heard him cry out. It was a strange cry. A bit of surprise, a bit of pain. It only lasted a moment, but after that he stayed out there all afternoon, just sitting there. Eventually my husband paddled out to check on him and found that Rama was blind.”
    Priya leaned her head to one side. “How?”
    “We don’t know. He says he was just sitting in his boat, working his nets, when suddenly everything went white and he couldn’t see anymore.” Nisha nodded over at the last house again. “But that’s when everything changed for him. Rama stopped spending all his time