The black SUV moved through the midday heat of Jaipur. Outside, the sun was merciless, bleaching the highway and the sparse trees that lined it. Inside the vehicle the air-conditioning hummed steadily, but it did nothing to ease the tension that sat thick.

Kynat sat rigidly in the back seat, hands locked together in her lap so tightly that the knuckles had turned bloodless. Her eyes were fixed on the road ahead as if she could shrink the kilometres. Every few seconds her breath hitched, then forced it self steady again. She had not spoken for a long stretch of road.