“Well, she didn’t kill them, did she? And don’t you want to know how to bring them back?”
I turned again to the demoness. “Well, Your Highness …”
The Queen puffed up, raising one hairy eyebrow in her son’s direction. “At least some people know how to show respect, eh?”
Neel snarled, still clutching his sword.
I ignored him. “That line in the poem—” I started.
“Poem?” the Queen interrupted.
“Tuntuni’s poem … it said—”
“That interfering birdbrain of a minister? Is he still up to his tricks?”
I heard a faint squawk from the peacock barge behind us. I hoped that one of my parents had sat on the bird to keep him quiet.
“Are you going to let her talk or not?” Neel snapped.
“Fine, fine.” The demoness waved her hands at me. “Go on, Stella Luna.”
“ ‘Let golden branch grow from the silver tree,’ ” I quoted. “So I was thinking: Prince Lal is golden—of royal blood. The stable master’s daughter—though loyal and honorable—is not. How could a golden branch grow from a silver tree?”
Now that she was in her mother’s care, Bogli seemed to have all the bite—and intelligence—of a trained house pet. She clapped happily for my efforts. “Mean girl smart!”
“I don’t get it,” interrupted Neel.
“Such a disappointment!” the demoness moaned, rubbing her stomach. “Oh, my reflux! My kingdom for an antacid!”
Neel was looking murderously at his mother. I jumped in to distract him. “Lal’s the golden branch, but he needs Mati, the silver tree, around him to grow into his full potential as a ruler.”
“Okaaay,” Neel said slowly. “It’s true. Lal and Mati are friends and she is a good influence on his confidence, or whatever. He’s definitely less flaky when he’s around her.”
“Right, but the Raja and the queens will never allow Lal and Mati to continue to be friends, right? Not now that he’s the crown prince. Not as they get older.”
“No way, chickie!” The Rakkhoshi Queen cackled.
“Since they’ve been spheres, they’ve been so happy. Humming and buzzing and hanging out together. But once they become human again, then Mati goes back to the stables and Lal to the palace.”
“I guess.”
“So we’ve got to convince the Raja otherwise.”
Neel looked at me, the truth dawning in his eyes. “So we have to take them home again.”
I nodded.
“Everything is connected to everything,” drawled the Demon Queen in a bored voice.
Neel and I both snapped around to face her.
She arched a wicked eyebrow. “Haven’t you figured out the how part yet?”
I shook my head. To which she belched. Then, rolling her eyes, she shouted, “By love, you morons, by love!”
We stared at her. She moved her gruesome head side to side, cracking her neck with a gesture that reminded me of her son.
“You’re lucky you have Loonie-Moonie here.” She pointed a talon at Neel. “I for one am going to try to raise a real rakkhosh this time!”
As we talked, Bogli had fallen asleep right on her mother’s foot. The Queen shook her off, and the baby demon woke up, bawling. The Queen slapped her hand to her forehead.
“Am I to be forever cursed with imbecilic offspring?” the Rakkhoshi Queen snapped, and the two demons were gone in a puff of smelly darkness.
Her voice cackled through the vapor. “Don’t call me, dum-dums, and I won’t call you!”
The Raja wanted to banish Neel.
“We told you not to come home without your brother!” he bellowed.
“Well, that’s just too bad,” Neel snapped. “Because half rakkhosh or not, I’m still your son too.”
I was proud of Neel for saying that and not just stomping out of the throne room in a huff. I wasn’t quite as proud of the shouting match the father and son then had.
It took my parents, Tuntuni, and me a lot of effort to calm them both down. We all tried our best to explain to the Raja what had happened, but it was Tuntuni who actually saved the day with a song.
“The Demon Prince and Moonbeam Girl, each a royal child
One father of the dark, the other loving and mild
To save a brother and a sister
To serpent land descended
With shadow’s force they drowned the snakes
And the python jewel defended
Crossed ruby seas full of jewels beneath the dark red moon
Survived Demon Land in Ai-Ma’s arms but not a minute too soon
In the Mountains of Illusions there sang a golden bird
In the well of demon-birth, loving parents heard
With sword and bow and bravery, the darkness they did hold
Tears’ magic did appear as nature’s power bold
Now home again to plant a seed for friendship’s ever near
The branch grows from the tree of gold and silver spheres.”
“Loving and mild,” the Raja murmured. “We like that.” He’d been eating during most of the song, so I wasn’t sure how much of the rest he actually understood.
Neel stole a glance at me. I nodded.
“Father, for Lal to come back into his human form, you have to guarantee something.”
The Raja narrowed his eyes. “Kings don’t make guarantees.”
“Do you want him back or not?” Neel practically shouted, and was about to say more until I stepped on his foot. Hard.
“Please, sire,” I wheedled. “If Lal and Mati want to spend more time together, you would surely not stand in their way?”
“If we had our son and heir back in human form, that’s all we care about,” said the Raja, wringing his hands. “Yes, yes, best friends since childhood, friendship knows no class, race or creed, blah blah blah. We don’t like it, but we suppose that would be fine.” He waved his hands vaguely in the direction of the golden and silver spheres. “Just bring our boy back to us!”
Neel and I crossed the palace gardens and went back out to the forest. Tuntuni was waiting for us at the base of his tree. There were two shovels propped up against the base.
“Go to it!” the bird squawked.
Neel and I dug two holes next to each other. The sorts of holes we dug at school on Arbor Day to plant a little memorial tree or something. Only, Neel and I didn’t stick bulbs into the holes; we placed the golden and silver spheres inside. They hummed and glowed, even halfway under the dirt.
“You’re sure they won’t … like, suffocate or something?” I asked, rubbing at my forehead with a dirty hand.
“They’re glorified bowling balls right now, Kiran, except for the brief time they were part of the star cycle, so unless you have a better plan as to how to make them human again, I suggest you cover them up with dirt.”
Once we filled in dirt over the spheres, Neel watered the spot. Then there was nothing to do but brush the dirt off our clothing and go check on the horses.
Princess! You made it! Snowy exclaimed when we walked into the stable.
“So did you!” I hugged the horse around his neck. “Was it a long flight?”
Neel looked at me curiously. “Are you talking to the horse?”
“Yeah.” I crossed my arms across my chest. “You got a problem with it?”
“Is that supposed to be an imitation of me or something?”
I laughed. Even if it wasn’t home, it felt good to be back.
In the morning, we ran down to the forest to see what had happened and found a beautiful sight. Lal and Mati, sitting up in a shimmering, silvery tree that had sprouted from the ground overnight. Although most of the branches were silver, it was the long glittering branch of gold on which the best friends were sitting. With them was Tuntuni. Lal and Mati were swinging their legs to his music, and looking pretty happy to be back in human form.
“Brother!” Lal exclaimed, jumping down from the branch.
The two princes bro-hugged. They didn’t, however, cry.
“Cousin!” Mati ran over to throw her arms around me. Unfortunately, she did cry. A lot. Which made me kind of tear up too. Oh, the heck with it, I totally boo-hooed like a baby in her arms. It was awesome to find out I had a cool horse-wench for a cousin.
We left them there then—they didn’t seem to need us anyway. At the stables, I turned right, toward my uncle Rahul’s apartments, where my parents were waiting, while Neel turned left, toward the palace.
“Kind of what it’s always been like for Lal and Mati, I guess,” I said.
“Only, you’re a princess, and she’s the stable master’s daughter.”
“Well, for all intents and purposes, I’m the stable master’s niece, the daughter of Quickie Mart owners,” I corrected.
“That’s not entirely true …”
“It is true.” I kicked a clod of dirt with my toe. “Look, it’s not like I don’t know who I am. But in the end, they’re not the parents I choose. I mean, which would you rather be, a snake princess in a dark cave with a bunch of homicidal relatives you don’t even want to know—or part of the nice, warm, non-royal family that brought you up?”
Neel bit his lip, squinting into the distance. “You’re lucky, you know.”
“I can’t believe I used to always get bugged about how weird my parents were. How different they were from everyone else’s parents in New Jersey. They only ever wanted me to be proud of who I am.”
“That,” said Neel, “and to get enough fiber in your diet.”
I gave Neel a smack on the arm even as I laughed.
“Hey, I’ve got one for you. Why couldn’t anyone see the bird?”
“I don’t know.” Neel grinned. “But I suspect you’re going to tell me.”
“It was in da-skies!” I whooped.
Neel frowned. “Is that supposed to be funny?”
“Da-skies? Da-skies?” I insisted. “What does that sound like?”
“Look, seriously, it’s all right. It’s the thought that counts.”
“Disguise! It was in disguise!” I said, waving my arms. “Get it? It was in disguise!”
“That’s okay, Kiran.” Neel patted my arm. “Not everybody has to have a good sense of humor. You have other qualities that are really nice.”
But he was laughing, and I was laughing, and everything felt right and good.
* * *
Later, when we came back to the palace, everybody’s happiness was a teensy bit squelched by the Raja totally jacking up and refusing to remember his promise.
“We said no such thing,” he insisted.
“Sire, do you want your son and heir to return to his other form?” Tuntuni snapped.
And so, despite the queens wailing and beating their not-inconsequential bosoms and smashing their bangles against the floor, the Raja officially promised not to stand in the way of any friendship between Lal and Mati. Tuntuni actually produced a document from somewhere called a “Treaty of Royal-to-Non-Royal Friendship Noninterference” and made the Raja sign it, there and then. The handsome human prince and his loyal stable maid couldn’t seem happier at this. It was strange, but I could swear they still hummed and vibrated in each other’s presence.
As for Neel, he was still acting pretty mysterious. Finally, he admitted what it was. “I’ll have to go soon and fulfill my word to the shadow merchant.”
We were standing in a quiet corner of the throne room, where the festivities for Lal’s return were going on full blast. I’d dressed in my mother’s red wedding sari, with the same jewels I’d once hated wearing. Ma had styled my hair so that it swept off my neck, and the scar on my arm was completely visible too. I didn’t care. They were a part of who I was. Anyway, I looked—and felt—like a total princess.
Mati stuck by Lal’s side through the whole party, as the people of the kingdom showered their crown prince with love and affection. It was strange to see how easy it was for Neel to slip away unnoticed. Because he was a half demon, it was as if he didn’t count, that people seemed to think he was hardly worth counting.
Of course, what I was realizing was that Neel counted to me. He counted very much. I remembered that ominous promise he made to the seller of shadows and how upset Lal was to hear his brother make it.
“How could you promise to give her your soul?” The thought made me sick. “Of all the insane, irresponsible things to do—”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute,” Neel cut me off. “Why do you think that? I didn’t promise Chhaya Devi my soul.” He had a little smile on his lips. “But it’s nice to know you worry.”
“You didn’t promise her your soul? Then what is it?”
“Chhaya Devi used to be our nanny, a long time ago, before she got into the shady world of shadow selling.”
“Very punny.”
“Seriously, she’s not as young as she used to be, and she’s always trying to convince us to stay with her for a couple of months and help her catch shadows.”
“Then why was your brother so upset when you promised?”
“Really?” Neel pointed at Lal and Mati, who were gazing at each other all glowy like. “He didn’t want to be separated again from Mati.”
“Oh.” I looked down at the purple boots that I’d worn under my sari, which had made me feel all sorts of awesome and rebellious when I’d put them on. Now I just felt seriously stupid.
“So …” Neel stared at my shoes too, like I had the secrets of the universe written on them. “I guess, after all this is done, you’re going to go back, huh?”
“To Jersey?” I nodded. “I think my parents always thought they’d move back here some day, but now that we’re here, it’s not at all the way they remember it. More demons, I guess,” I laughed. “I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know if the place has changed or they’ve changed, but Ma says she can’t bear to think of her house as a disaster zone, and Baba gets seriously choked up at the thought of all the spoiling store inventory.”
“Your parents want to go back, but what about you?” Neel said in a lower voice.
I bit my lip. My eyes were getting a little hot. “Well, I’ve still got to finish the sixth grade,” I babbled. “I’ve missed a major Spanish test while I was gone, not to mention a ton of homework. And my math teacher will probably beat me with her protractor for how behind I am, and besides, Zuzu’ll be totally worried …”
There was a pause, and neither of us looked directly at the other. My face glowed with heat.
“Well, you sneak through wormholes all the time, don’t you?” I finally asked. “I mean, like, to see movies and stuff?”
Gah, would he think I was asking him out to a movie? Was I asking him out to a movie? I wanted to ask him out to a movie, I realized.
I mentally kicked myself. I’d made it through some pretty life-or-death situations recently, and yet, why was this one the most tricky to figure out?
Neel stared off at a weird angle behind my head, chewing a nail. “Yeah, yeah, I like to see movies, but mostly stuff you probably wouldn’t like. Old vampire flicks and science fiction, weird stuff.”
“No, I love that kind of thing,” I said quickly. Maybe too quickly.
“Oh, okay. Then I guess we’ll have to go see something really bloody and scary next time I’m over in your realm. Maybe something in 3-D.”
I grinned. “Is that a promise?”
Neel squirmed. So did I. We didn’t meet the other’s eyes.
“And maybe I can come visit, stay with Mati and her dad,” I said finally.
“Yeah, that would be great.”
“Bye, Demon Prince,” I said in a low voice.
“See ya around, Moon Girl,” Neel said before he turned around and walked away. As he did, I realized that he too was blushing.
The Serpent’s Secret is an original story that draws from many traditional folktales and children’s stories from West Bengal, India, which have been told by grandparents, parents, aunties, and uncles to gener
ations of children. I’ve used many of these stories as a basis for inspiration while writing The Serpent’s Secret—and as a way to tell my own story as an immigrant daughter. In the same way that Kiran has to discover the land of her parents in order to really understand herself, I spent many summer vacations in Kolkata, India, getting to know not just my language and family, but getting immersed in Bengali cultural stories. My grandmothers and aunts would tell me these tales, usually before bed. My cousins and I would curl up together under the magical protection of a mosquito net, while the whirring overhead fan made the netting dance gently about us. In hearing these stories of talking birds, flying horses, brave princes, clever princesses, and evil rakkhoshi queens, I felt like I was entering an amazing new universe of imagination. When I was writing this novel, it only made sense to have Kiran return not to a real country, but to a place populated and inspired by these traditional stories themselves.
Thakurmar Jhuli and Rakkhosh Stories
Folktales involving rakkhosh are very popular in West Bengal, as they are in many parts of India. The word is sometimes spelled rakshasa in other parts of India, but in this book, it is spelled like the word sounds in Bengali. Folktales are of course an oral tradition, passed on verbally from one generation to the next, with each teller adding spice and nuance to their own version. In 1907, Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar collected, wrote down, and published some classic Bengali folktales in a book called Thakurmar Jhuli (“Grandmother’s Satchel”), and the introduction to that book was written by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. This collection, which involves separate stories about the Princess Kiranmala and the brothers Neelkamal and Lalkamal, is also full of tales involving rakkhosh and khokkosh, as well as stories about the Kingdom of Serpents and the magical land of Maya Pahar. Pakkhiraj horses are plentiful in Thakurmar Jhuli, as are evil snakes, stupid kings, and peacock barges. The demon queen hungry for Lalkamal’s blood appears in the original Neelkamal and Lalkamal story, as does the lovably goofy rakkhoshi grandmother, Ai-Ma. Lalkamal and Neelkamal never meet Kiranmala in their original stories, but brave Kiranmala does have two brothers named Arun and Barun, whose lives she must save. A version of the Serpent King appears in this collection as well, although not exactly as he appears in this book. And the dumb khokkosh who get fooled into thinking Kiran and Neel are rakkhosh by a sword, some arrows, and an oil lamp? All inspired by Thakurmar Jhuli. Thakurmar Jhuli stories are still immensely popular in West Bengal and Bangladesh, and have inspired translations, films, television cartoons, comic books, and more. Rakkhosh are very popular as well—the demons everyone loves to hate—and appear not just in folk stories but also Hindu mythology. Images of bloodthirsty, long-fanged rakkhosh can be seen everywhere—even on the back of colorful Indian trucks, as a warning to other drivers not to tailgate or drive too fast!
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