The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,79

in Surpanakha’s hand. She flicked off the wilted petals (or were they wings?) with a careless gesture.

“I think we know now why the blue champak tree died off,” muttered Neel.

“Or maybe they didn’t,” I whispered, thinking of how many blue butterflies I’d been seeing in the Kingdom Beyond lately. “Maybe these flowers have been there all the time, but we just didn’t know how to recognize them.”

As his name was called, Aakash, a powerful and kind of scarily handsome rakkhosh, stood up from the air clan banyan and took a bow. The leaves and branches of the air clan’s tree waved in what appeared to be a gusty storm. Aakash’s giant insect-type wings spread out several feet when he extended them. His chest was bare under his light-blue-and-white house shawl, and I could see his muscles rippling as he waved to the crowds. I noticed that rakkhosh from a bunch of different clans seemed to give out long sighs all at the same time.

Aakash approached the throne and bowed. “For our queen, the air clan offers the power of flight.”

Aakash made a little gesture, and where there had been nothing before, suddenly, there was a blue pulsating energy, like a little swirling storm, in Aakash’s hands. The pulsing ball had, I noticed, tiny wings.

Pinki gave him a skeptical look. “Was it you calling to me today from the garden?”

“My queen?” Aakash looked confused, and I remembered Pinki had called out his name when Neel and I had tried to warn her about Sesha.

“Never mind.” With a gracious incline of her head, Pinki took the winged storm from him. “Thank you, air clan, for sharing with me your power of flight,” she said, promptly ruining the gracious effect with a huge burp.

The wild thing was, as soon as Pinki accepted the air clan gift, there appeared on her arms the same tattoo-like swirling markings that were carved into the champak tree. Now that I saw them in the context of her wedding outfit, I recognized them for what they were: the mehendi designs that brides often had henna-ed upon their skin for their weddings. But there was something different about Pinki’s mehendi; they almost appeared like they were …

“Stories!” Surpanakha intoned, holding up Pinki’s arms to the crowd. “All the stories of the air clan and the creatures of flight are now the responsibility of our queen. They are etched into her very skin!”

Almost as soon as Surpanakha finished speaking, Pinki’s mehendi disappeared, as if being sucked into her skin. Aakash, still bowing, backed away from the throne. Surpanakha waited for the applause to die down before reaching for the next magical champak flower. The gift giver for the water clan would be a sleek and strong rakkhoshi with a scaly crocodile tail named Kumi.

Kumi too approached the throne with a deep bow. Her hair dripped as if wet, and her tail swished as she walked. The rakkhoshi knelt before Pinki, then waved her hands and produced what looked like a giant teardrop. “From the water clan, we offer our new queen power over water in all her many forms.”

Pinki graciously took the offered gift. “I thank you, water clan, for your gift.” As before, as soon as she said these words, her skin was again covered by the swirling, beautiful mehendi designs, this time in the flowing shapes of waves and teardrops, rain and rivers.

“All the stories of the water clan and the creatures of the water are now etched into your skin,” said Surpanakha. The headmistress then picked another of the blue champak-flowers-slash-butterflies.

“Our gift giver representing the land clan will be … Kiranmala!” shouted the small blue flower. The headmistress Surpanakha dropped the dying petals and wrinkled her brows. “I didn’t know we had a student with that name,” I heard her mutter.

It took me a minute to register what had just happened. “Don’t be shy—that’s you!” Harimati the rakkhoshi urged me forward, even as the rakkhosh she’d called Gorgor-da growled at me. “Never mind Gorgor-da, go give the Queen a land clan gift!”

“Wait, no—” Neel began, but Harimati cut him off.

“It’s an honor! Get up there!” Before I could stop her, Harimati and another rakkhosh hoisted me up on their shoulders and carried me toward the stage!

Oh no, what was I going to do? I didn’t have the ability to conjure up a magical gift like Aakash or Kumi had done. But then I thought about the one magical gift I did have. Maybe this was meant to