The Jasmine Throne

Priya, a maidservant in the city of Hiranaprastha, is in a market full of panicked people trying to get supplies before it’s locked down by the imperial guards. Priya tries and fails to buy beads made from sacred wood from an apothecary. She then meets with a group of orphaned children who are afflicted with “the rot,” which causes plants to grow from their bodies. Though unable to provide the wood they need to stave off the disease, she gives them food. A boy named Rukh pleads for her to help him find work. She agrees but takes him to Gautam first to purchase a small piece of sacred wood.

Malini is on her way to Ahiranya by carriage. Her attendant, Pramila, withholds Malini’s usual dose of needle-flower—a drug that dulls her senses—because Malini needs to be alert for her meeting with the regent. As they travel, Pramila recites from the Book of Mothers, recounting the empire’s history and the martyrdom of the mothers. This led to the country of Parijat defeating Ahiranya, ending the Age of Flowers and beginning the Parijatdvipa Empire. Malini mocks the stories, and Pramila reminds her that her brother can punish them if he knows about her attitude.

Priya returns to the regent’s mahal, or palace, where she works. She leaves Rukh in the care of Khalida, a senior maidservant. While working in the kitchen, she overhears gossip saying that Princess Malini will soon arrive in Ahiranya.

Afterward, Priya carves the wood she bought from Gautam into a bead, enduring the painful heat of the wood’s magic. As she works, she tells Rukh a story about the yaksa—they are the nature spirits whose power is in the wood, and they are all believed to be dead. Priya’s friend Sima arrives and pulls her aside so that they can watch the princess’s arrival. Sima encourages Priya to take a job assisting with the princess’s chores, as the pay is better. When Priya asks why more people aren’t trying to get the position, Sima says that it’s because the princess will be imprisoned in the Hirana, the former temple where the Ahiranyi priests and temple children were burned alive. Priya was one of the few children who escaped, so she hesitates; however, the thought of earning more money that she can use to help the orphans leads her to ask for the job.

Malini is greeted by General Vikram, the regent, and his pregnant wife, Lady Bhumika. Lord Santosh, the man in charge of the princess’s imprisonment, reveals that she will be housed in the Hirana. Malini climbs the treacherous carvings on the exterior of the temple to reach her chamber, which is a desolate room with blackened walls. Malini realizes that the room is the site of the burnings. After the others leave, Pramila resumes her usual role of drugging Malini with needle-flower. Pramila tells Malini that the regent has tasked maidservants with maintaining the Hirana; however, the princess will not be allowed to see them. As the drug sets in, Malini resolves to wait for any opportunity to escape the Hirana.

Ashok, who heads the Ahiranyi rebellion, recalls his first immersion in the sacred, deathless waters of the Hirana temple when he was 10 years old. The temple elders, like Elder Saroj, told Ashok and the other temple children that it was their duty to keep Ahiranya’s history alive, even as the Parijatdvipan Empire overshadowed their past. During this first immersion, Ashok realized that he was destined for something greater than the weakened powers of the current temple elders. He had a vision of the sangam, a mythical confluence of rivers that symbolizes the meeting of the living and the dead.

In the present, Ashok revisits the sangam in a meditative state. There, he meets a shadowy figure, Meena, who is struggling but determined to find a way to save them. He reassures her, telling her to stay strong.

Four weeks into their work at the Hirana, while Priya and her fellow maidservants are climbing the temple’s exterior, Sima slips and falls into a hole carved into the stone. The maids panic, but Priya climbs over to Sima and helps her to safety. Priya is relieved that she saved Sima, but she is unsettled: The accident reawakened memories of her childhood at the temple. After the group finishes their climb, they are met with indifference from the guards, even after the near disaster.

Priya works on fanning the kitchen fire and cleaning floors. Sima comes to thank her for saving her, but she also tells her that another of the maidservants, Meena, has gone missing. Priya joins in the search for Meena, using this as an excuse to explore the temple and try to remember her past. While wandering, Priya accidentally finds Malini, who is weeping and disheveled. The two women stare at each other, and Malini asks if Priya is real. Priya flees. On her way, she finds Meena, whom she scolds for running away into a forbidden part of the temple.

Priya and the other maidservants leave the Hirana in the morning. Though exhausted, Priya declines rest, choosing instead to visit Rukh, who is now working to clear rot-infected orchards. She checks his rot-infected hand and warns him to come to her when the bead’s magic wears off. Rukh then surprises her by pleading with her not to climb the Hirana for a week. Priya presses him on why he’s asking, but he runs off.

Later, once the maidservants are back in the Hirana for the night, the senior maid, Gauri, asks Priya to find Meena again. When she does, Meena says that she knows Priya was a temple daughter. She demands that Priya lead her to the deathless waters, saying that she needs them to free Ahiranya from the empire. When Priya says that she doesn’t know how to find the waters, Meena puts on a crown mask made of sacred wood, despite Priya’s warnings that it will kill her, and attacks. During the struggle, Meena attempts to choke Priya, and Priya briefly sees the sangam and Ashok. The Hirana responds to her, pushing Meena to her death off its edge. Malini suddenly appears, but before either Malini or Priya can do anything, the other maidservants, guards, and Pramila arrive. The guards grab Priya, but Malini lies and claims that Priya saved her life from an assassin.

Ashok feels Meena’s death through the sangam. He trained her as a soldier for the Ahiranyi rebellion, providing her with the tools and knowledge to fight against the empire. Ashok reflects on his failure to foresee her donning the sacred wood mask and acknowledges that he should have known her desperation would lead to disaster. When Priya saw Ashok through the sangam, he saw her, too. Recognizing her latent power, he decides to bring her into the rebellion. Ashok orders Kritika, another rebel, to find Priya and bring her to him.

General Vikram spends the evening entertaining Prince Prem, a frivolous and inebriated Saketan prince, while Lord Santosh questions Vikram’s handling of the growing unrest in the region. Prem hints at the discontent brewing against Chandra and suggests that Vikram might have more in common with dissenters than the emperor. Vikram, however, remains cautious, recalling how Emperor Chandra gleefully asked for details about the massacre at the Hirana. A guard interrupts, informing them that there was an attempt on Malini’s life. Vikram goes with his guard, Jeevan, to the temple to investigate. Malini pleads for protection and requests that the maidservant who saved her life be her attendant. Vikram agrees to her request to maintain peace.

When Vikram returns to the palace, he descends into the prison underneath, where he and Santosh watch the preparation of Meena’s body and examine her mask. Santosh demands that Ahiranya’s rebels be punished severely, and Vikram agrees.

One of the nameless princes of Alor, nicknamed Rao, is in a brothel waiting for a salon hosted by a subversive Ahiranyi poet named Baldev. However, the madam arrives and closes the brothel early, saying that the imperial guards are patrolling. Despite the growing fear among the patrons, Rao stays behind rather than leaving with the crowd. He is caught by a soldier and dragged into the salon. Baldev and his followers are being questioned by Jeevan about their involvement in Ahiranya’s rebel activities. When the soldiers begin to round the women up to be burned, chaos erupts. Rao is injured in the scuffle but is allowed to leave, as the soldiers decide that he is only a drunk Parijati.

Rao wakes in the palace of illusions, a more luxurious brothel, where Prem and the sage Lata nurse him back to health. Prem tells him that he didn’t get the regent’s help and questions why Rao went to the other brothel; Rao replies that he was looking for Ahiranyi rebels. While the poet said that he had the protection of someone important, he wouldn’t say who. Prem is frustrated, saying that the rebels won’t help them depose Chandra since they’re too focused on secession. He also urges Rao to move on from his attempts to save Malini, saying that they need to support her and Chandra’s brother, Aditya, as the true emperor.

After hours of isolation in a cell beneath the palace, Priya is summoned to Lady Bhumika, who questions her about what happened with Meena. Priya explains that Meena attacked her and demanded that she tell her the way to the deathless waters. Bhumika, who is another temple daughter, scolds Priya for revealing too much, but Priya defends her actions, saying that they were necessary for survival. Bhumika then tells Priya that Malini persuaded Vikram to allow Priya to be Malini’s maidservant. She also tells her to spy on the princess.

After Priya leaves, Rukh comes to tell her that he’s been working for the rebels. They ordered him to ask Priya for work in the palace. Now, he begs Priya to leave with him, fearing what the rebels might do if she refuses. Priya is exhausted and conflicted, but she agrees.

Rukh leads Priya to a place within Ahiranya’s forest that is known as the bower of bones. Though he insists that the rebels won’t harm her, Priya is skeptical. Ashok soon joins them; Priya is surprised because she believed that he had died years ago from illness. Ashok explains that a woman saved him by giving him vials of deathless water; this strengthened him and rekindled his magic. He has since become a rebel leader, dedicated to overthrowing the Parijatdvipa empire and reclaiming Ahiranya’s lost power. He asks Priya to help the rebels find the deathless waters within the Hirana. Though Priya is conflicted by her loyalty to Bhumika and distrust of the rebels, she ultimately agrees to help him.