Mati nodded. “You’ve got to make it past the first two tests, of course. Then the night before they bring Neel up to fight with you, they’ll transfer him from the underwater fortress to a holding cell on land. That’s when we’ll get him out. It’s just too dangerous to rescue him while he’s at the bottom of the sea.”
“And how will we do that?” I asked. “Rescue him from land, I mean?”
“We have a plan,” Mati said, but before she could go on, the paan wallah, who was obviously a PSS lookout of sorts, let out a high, shrill series of whistles. With one quick gesture, he wrapped up his spices and betel leaves in a dingy cloth and disappeared down the hole under his stand, the same one that one of the skateboarders had come up through.
“Time to split!” said Chandra, the rough-voiced skateboarder with muscly arms.
“Kiran, I promise I’ll explain everything, only right now, we’d better get going—we’re about to get some not very nice company.” Mati thrust a spare skateboard at me that she’d been carrying on her back.
“Stop there! No escape now, you skateboarding resistance scum! We’ve finally got you!” I heard someone call, followed by the stomping of many booted feet. It sounded like they were close. The sun beating down on us in the alley suddenly made me feel exposed and unprotected. I didn’t know a ton about battle strategy, but I knew for sure it was a bad idea to find yourself cornered by enemies in a narrow alleyway.
Naya was already back in the auto rikshaw, her phone put away. All the other pink-sari girls got on their wheeled boards, which were painted in bright colors with garish designs. The rough-voiced girl even had a snarling, red-horned and blue-fanged rakkhosh on hers. But I made a split-second decision. I was a hero. I wasn’t going to run. Be this an army of witches or ghosts or rakkhosh or serpents, I wasn’t afraid. Ignoring Mati’s advice, and the borrowed board, I stood my ground, nocking my arrow into my bow again. I sighted down the shaft, waiting for whatever it was to come into view.
I heard, rather than saw, the auto rikshaw engine start, then Naya calling out to me. I felt other skateboarders whizzing past, making little breezes in their wake.
“Kiran, don’t! You don’t want to shoot these people!” Mati urged, practically shoving me onto the borrowed skateboard. “The best thing to do is get out of here, and fast!”
“Aw, come on!” yelled Tuntuni. “Can’t she shoot a couple of them?”
I was about to argue with my cousin, but when I saw who was chasing us, I understood her point. Behind us weren’t any demons or monsters, but the Raja’s own troops in their turbaned, pantalooned, and moustachioed glory (everyone had such thick whiskers they probably bought Mr. Madan Mohan’s Artisanal Moustache Oil™ by the caseload). The soldiers should have been on our side, but they were charging us with their swords raised, their sweaty faces furious.
“Stop, you rebels!” shouted the captain of the guard, a muscle-bound bald man with a loop-da-loop curlicue ’stache. “Stop in the name of the crown prince!”
My mind swirled with confusion. Why were Lal’s guards chasing us, especially when Lal was basically Mati’s best friend in the world? More to the point, if I was about to join Sesha’s contest as the Raja’s champion, why should I run from his own soldiers?
But I didn’t have time to worry about all that now. Those swords looked sharp, and those guys looked ready to use them. “Come on!” urged my cousin, holding my hand and showing me how to pump my leg to get the board rolling.
The soldiers yelled, gaining on us by the second. Behind the dudes charging on foot were a few on horseback. That really got me freaked out. I started pumping my leg harder, trying to get my board going faster. Mati had ahold of my hand and was basically pulling me along, adding to my momentum. But still, I wasn’t exactly going sixty miles an hour. Or even half that.
“Um, Cuz, I hate to be a downer, but how are we going to outrun those guys on horses?” I yelled, trying not to sound as worried as I felt.
The soldiers were gaining on us, even though the road was slanted downhill, so my skateboard was really zipping now. I struggled hard to keep my balance, my thighs straining from the effort. I could hear their yells of “Rebel!” and “Traitor!” close behind.
“Power in numbers!” yelled Mati with a wink. And I realized she wasn’t holding on to me anymore, but had tied the end of her pink sari around my wrist. She had a chain of skateboarders behind her, some with their saris attached to the next person, some just hanging on to the next girl in some way. She shoved me forward, toward the auto rikshaw.
“Hold tight, Your Royalosity!” called Naya from inside the vehicle.
“Wait, what?” I sputtered, even as I grabbed on to the back railing of the moving rikshaw. I saw that mine wasn’t the only chain of skateboarding girls, but there were three others, each three or four girls long. The leader of each line was holding on to some part of the rikshaw, as I was.
“Okay, Naya, we’re all on. Now go! Go!” Mati yelled, and Naya pushed the gas, making the rikshaw zoom away, with all of us on skateboards being pulled along behind, like strings behind a zipping kite.
Riding a skateboard while holding on to the back of a moving auto rikshaw was a little scary, I’m not going to lie. But it was also pretty awesome. I don’t know why, but all I could think about was what it might be like to ride on a comet. I know it was just a skateboard, but speeding along behind the rikshaw, pulling along all those other girls, felt amazing. I remembered the first time I’d flown on the back of a pakkhiraj horse and felt the stars above me, the horizon stretching out in front of me, the streets and houses of Parsippany turning tiny below. I felt the same sort of wonder and thrill now. The rough-voiced girl at the head of the next line gave me a joyous whoop, then a tongue-sticking-out surfer’s hang ten like Buddhu had done. I gave her a whoop back. I couldn’t help it. Even though we were being chased by angry dudes with swords, I felt electric, and powerful, and alive. It was like girl power on overdrive, and I was all here for it.
“Hang on tight!” Naya yelled from the driver’s seat, before taking a hard right. I did, my knuckles aching and fingers straining from the effort. I couldn’t forget that if I let go there was a line of girls behind me who would get left behind too.
“Mutton curry, twelve o’clock!” yelled Tuntuni, as Naya swerved to avoid a family of sleeping goats in the middle of the road. The yellow bird was flying along right at my shoulder. “Oh, my rotten tail feathers, you’re all going to die!”
Our whole bizarre caravan careened straight toward the now panicked and bleating goats. The mama goat, heavy with milk, was standing right in front of me, screaming her lungs out as her wobbly legged babies scattered left and right.
“My line—let go!” I yelled, squeezing myself up and praying for flight. Somehow, we all managed it. One girl after the other after the other, each holding the edge of her board as she lifted up in flight. We were on enough of a slope and had enough momentum that we sailed over the animals like we were playing duck-duck-goat. And then, by who knows what miracle, as soon as my wheels touched earth, I managed to grab on again to the back of the rikshaw.
“Whoa!” “Sweet!” “Beam me up!” yelled the pink-sari skateboard girls behind me. Even the tough-looking girl gave me a wide grin. “Nice!”
I gave another loud whoop, feeling dangerous and free. I was starting to understand how Mati could have thought that skateboarding was more fun than mucking out horse stables.
“Almost there!” said Mati from behind me, and I realized the auto rikshaw was actually slowing down.
We’d been traveling so far on the main road out of the bazaar, but now we were at the top of a sloping riverbank. On the sides of the river were shallow steps—the kind that villagers might use to enter the river for bathing, or washing, or prayer. Today the steps were empty, save for a very familiar old sari-clad woman with a walking stick and only one good eye.
“Chhaya Devi,” I breathed. It was the goddess of shadows, who had been Lal and Neel’s nanny when
they were younger, before she’d gone into business catching and selling the shadows of trees.
Naya put-putted the auto rikshaw toward the old woman, who cackled angrily, “What took you scoundrels so long? My shadows do not like to be kept waiting!” Her one rheumy eye swiveled toward me, and her voice dripped with sarcasm. “You finally made it, I see, Princess. So glad you could find time in your schedule to assist your old friends! We wouldn’t want something so small as Prince Neel’s imprisonment to inconvenience your social schedule! So many soirees! Cockatoo parties! Rickets matches to attend!”
I gave Mati a quizzical look, and she explained under her breath, “Rickets is rakkhosh cricket. Traditionally played with a human head.”
All righty. Chhaya Devi hadn’t exactly been super balanced the last time I saw her, but from the looks of it, she’d lost a few more marbles since last fall.
“They’re almost here,” Mati urged. “Chhaya Devi, please.”
“All right, all right, give an old woman a parsec,” mumbled the merchant of shadows. She fumbled for something from her dangling drawstring bag as the first of the soldiers came around the bend. It was all I could do not to scream. I’d been chased by monsters and fought back. But how was I supposed to deal with these fellow human beings who I really didn’t want to hurt, but who I didn’t want to get hurt by either? I nocked an arrow in my bow, praying I wouldn’t need it. I noticed the skateboarders around me were getting nervous too, some reluctantly pulling out knives, swords, and bows.
“There they are! Get them!” shouted the soldier.
“Not so fast, you naughty rudeniks!” snapped the old woman as she smashed a vial on the ground. “Fly, my enwheeled daughters, fly like the wind!”
I knew from experience the power of Chhaya Devi’s vials. They held the shadows of trees inside. Once freed, the shadows reconstituted themselves, like expanding sponges. Super-powerful, tree-shaped magic sponges, that is. This shadow she’d freed for us seemed to be extra magical. It twisted out of its vial in a shimmering silver mist that created a barrier between the soldiers and us skateboarders. Under cover of the mist, we were all able to ride into a hidden tunnel beneath the stairs and then travel quickly under the flowing river. The soldiers were left on the other side of the magical shadow, yelling curses but unable to get beyond.
When we came out of the tunnel on the other side, Mati turned to me with a grin. “That was fun, huh?”
I rolled my eyes but laughed too. “Not bad.”
“Listen, we’re not far now from the royal palace. The stable’s right on the other side of these woods.” Mati pointed. “The safest thing for you to do is to go find Lal and stay by his side. I don’t think Sesha will try anything while you’re with the royal family and competing on live television. He won’t dare.”
“But why were those royal soldiers chasing you?” I didn’t understand everything that was going on here, that was obvious. “I would think we were all on the same side?”
“Things have been pretty confusing since the Raja and Sesha made the deal to work together, and then everybody got caught up in Who Wants to Be a Demon Slayer? fever,” sighed Mati. “Just make sure you make it through the first two challenges—we can’t have you kicked out before you get to the third.”
“What about Naya?” I asked, looking at the girl in the auto rikshaw.
I’d been speaking low enough that I thought she wouldn’t hear, but somehow, she did. “I will stay here with Mati-didi,” said Naya, using the word for elder sister after Mati’s name. “The people are expecting the Princess Demon Slayer, not the Princess Demon Slayer and her friend from school.”
“Are you sure?” I asked, looking doubtfully from Naya to Mati. I don’t know why, but I felt responsible for the goofy girl. I wasn’t 100 percent sure she’d be able to take care of herself.
“I’ll keep an eye on her, don’t worry.” My cousin looked at me, her face troubled. “When you go to the palace, check on my pakkhiraj, will you? With Neel and now me gone …” She let her words trail off.
“Don’t worry, I will.” I gave Mati a quick hug. I noticed that she didn’t ask me to keep an eye on Lal. I knew enough, though, not to ask.
And so, it was settled. I was off to the palace, to fulfill my destiny by becoming the Princess Demon Slayer.
I wanted to see Lal as soon as possible, but I had to make one quick visit first to see some very precious friends.
The royal stables were empty of people and felt strange without the familiar, calm presence of Mati puttering around. But the white pakkhiraj horse, Snowy, sensed me right away. He put his head out of the stall, his eyes sparkling and wings folding and unfolding like he was waiting for me to fly away on his back.
Princess, I missed you. Where’ve you been?
“Hi, boy! How’s the hay?” I stroked Snowy’s nose, and he blew warm breath on my hand. He wiggled his wings a little, like he always did when he was happy. I’d figured out last fall that I could understand pakkhiraj horses, although I still didn’t exactly know why.
That’s when I noticed that Neel’s pakkhiraj horse, Midnight, hadn’t even looked out of his stall. “What’s the matter with him?” I asked Snowy.
Since Neel has been gone, he has been so sad, said the horse, adding, Princess, what is wrong with your hair?
“It’s a long story.” I looked down at my braid and realized the green was spreading. I didn’t want to look at my arm, but I was pretty sure it was spreading there too. I couldn’t let myself think about that right now, so I stuffed my worry into that dark room inside me where I stored stuff like that until I was ready to deal with it.
I peered over Midnight’s stall, but the big black horse kept his head down and toward the corner. It was disturbing to see the big, powerful horse so quiet and mournful. I could see that he had a lot of worry stuffed inside him too.
I tried to reach out to him with my mind, or however this whole thing worked, but all I could sense in there was Snowy’s happiness at seeing me. I eased Midnight’s stall door open and stepped in.
“Hey, boy.” I approached him slowly. But the black horse’s wings stayed folded over his back, and he refused to look over at me. I felt an ache of sadness as well. The last time I’d really seen Midnight, Neel had been riding him.
“Hey, boy,” I said again, my hand held out. I waited like that for a minute, sending calm thoughts toward him with my mind. Then, before I knew what was happening, the big animal took two quick steps over to me. He hooked his head over my shoulder and let out snorts so long and deep, it almost seemed like a human being crying. His sadness crashed in waves through my mind, his spirit trembling in the same way his strong muscles shook under his velvety skin. I felt a little bit like crying too.
My boy, I heard the horse say in my mind. Gone. Where? My fault? Was I bad?
“No! Of course it’s not your fault, Midnight. It could never be your fault he’s gone.” But Midnight kept sending out waves of sorrow, making low, groaning sounds in the back of his throat. His sadness brought mine up too, like a tuning fork that starts to make the same sound as another. I felt tears well in my eyes at the thought of Neel in prison, and it being all my fault. Would I be brave enough to keep up the farce of this game show until we could rescue him? I hoped so. I placed my wet cheek against the horse’s powerful neck as he continued to shudder and cry.
My boy. My boy. Where is my boy?
I threw my arms around the powerful animal’s neck. My instinct told me to address him this time with his Bengali name, not the English version of it. “I’ll get him back to you soon, Raat.”
The horse shook his mane against my face, then neighed, long and deep, as if he believed me. He even gave me a ticklish little nip on the shoulder. I’d always been a little bit intimidated by his sheer size and strength, but now I felt like I had seen into Raat’s soul. The powerful pakkhiraj was unwaveringly loyal to Neel and loved him fiercely. And that sort of loyal love seemed like a pretty precious thing.
/> You promise, Princess. Promise you bring him home. Bring home my boy.
“I’ll bring Neel home to you. I promise,” I said.
My heart ached as I closed the stable door behind me on the horses and headed toward the palace. I walked out through the empty royal lawns, past sweet-smelling jasmine and oleander plants, nectarine and mango trees. I walked along the edge of the royal woods, past Tuntuni’s favorite guava tree, from where he had pelted Neel and me with unripe guavas when we had come to him for help. The vast courtyard that had once been populated by servants scurrying to and fro was deserted, and by the time I reached the filigree-lined hallways that led to the throne room, I was getting really worried. Luckily, the palace proper seemed to be functioning as it always did, with guards at the doors wearing curved swords and stern expressions.
“Halt, who goes there? What is the password?” a guard in a bright orange dhoti asked me.
Praying it was the same combination of nonsense words I’d used before, I said the password that Naya had taught me. As the guard let me through the doorway into the antechamber, I couldn’t help but feel nervous. Here I went, and here it started. Once I went in there, I’d be part of the game show. There was no backing out now.
I was in the familiar crowded antechamber, filled with villagers and courtiers, gossipers and complainers, royal wannabes and fancy-pants. I even saw Lord Bulbul, Minister of Sweets, who had been so mean to me the last time I was here. This time, however, the man practically ran over a few dozen people to get to me.
“Princess Kiranmala!” He bowed, jangling all the silly chains and medals he wore on his chest. “The clip of you in registration line is all over the kingdom! You silly billy! How could you not tell us you were coming today to join the contest?”
The minister of sweets pointed up at one of the new TV monitors lining the antechamber walls, and I saw that he was right. It was on mute, but there I was, on an endless loop, squinting into the sun as I spoke to Suman Rahaman. The words scrolling by under the image read: Princess Demon Slayer arrives incognito in the Kingdom Beyond. But her green-tinted hairdo wasn’t enough to fool her real fans!
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