Summary

Deeti and Kalua’s raft founders and they end up at a riverside town begging near a temple. They can’t find work because so many people have left the countryside. Ghosh explains increased cultivation of poppies is driving people from their villages. “Many of these people had been driven from their villages by the flood of flowers that had washed over the countryside: lands that had once provided sustenance were now swamped by the rising tide of poppies; food was so hard to come by that people were glad to lick leaves in which offerings were made at temples” (198). Then they see an agent they recognize. Kalua helps transport him across the river and the man gives him leftovers from a feast. He tells Kalua he and Deeti can sign on to be indentured servants and leave for Mareech the next day. Deeti...