He began frantically breaking gourds while I watched. I shivered and started to sweat, a scorpion came out of the next one and he stomped on it with his boot. He found a gourd with wind, one with a fish, and one that contained a small star that glowed so brightly we had to close our eyes until the light diminished and it sunk into the floor.
Every time he found a liquid, he rushed it over to me and made me drink. I drank some fruit nectar, regular water, and some kind of bitter dark chocolate. I refused to drink one that smelled like rubbing alcohol but I dabbed it on my skin so the gourd would disappear.
The next three contained clouds, a giant tarantula, which he kicked into the corner of the room, and a ruby, which he pocketed. My vision was going black at this point, and Kishan was getting desperate. The next gourd he chose had some kind of pill. We debated if I should take it or not. I was really dizzy and weak, feverish and sweaty. Breathing was hard, and my heart was racing. I panicked, feeling sure that if we couldn’t find something soon, I’d die. I chewed the pill and swallowed. It tasted like a kid’s vitamin, and it didn’t make me feel better.
Two more gourds contained cheese and a ring. He ate the cheese and slipped the ring on his finger. The next one had a white liquid. He was nervous. It could be a poison that killed me outright or it could be my cure or it could be the elixir of eternal youth for all we knew. I waved him over.
“I’ll drink it. Help me.”
He lifted my head and tilted the gourd, its contents spilling between my dry, cracked lips. The liquid trickled down my throat as I swallowed weakly. Immediately, I began to feel strength return to my limbs.
“More.”
He held the gourd steady as I drank. It tasted delicious and gave me enough strength to take the gourd from him. Wrapping both hands around the bowl shape, I gulped down the rest in two big swallows. I felt stronger than I had before we’d come into the room.
“You look much better, Kells. How do you feel?”
I stood up. “I feel good! Strong. Invincible, even.”
He let out a shaky breath. “Good.”
I looked around with clear sight. Almost better than clear. “Hey. What’s that?”
I pushed a few gourds out of the way and grabbed the handle of a large round gourd with a long top stem. “It has a tiger carved on the outside. Try this one, Kishan.”
He took it from my hands and smashed it on the floor. Inside was a folded paper.
“It’s like a fortune cookie! What does it say?”
“It says—The hidden vessel shows the way.”
“The hidden vessel? Maybe it means a hidden gourd.”
“Pretty easy to hide a gourd in a room full of gourds, Kells.”
“Yeah. Let’s look for out-of-the-way gourds that are in the back of the room or tucked in corners.”
We collected a group of smaller-sized gourds. Kishan had about ten, and I had four. He opened his group first, which contained rice, a butterfly, a hot pepper, snow, a feather, a lily, a cotton ball, a mouse, another snake, which he got rid of—it could have been harmless, but better to be safe than sorry—and an earthworm.
Disappointed, we turned to my group. The first had thread, the second contained drum sounds, the third held a vanilla scent, and the fourth, shaped like a small apple, had nothing. We waited for a minute and started to get nervous thinking one of us was going to get sick again. The broken gourd disappeared like the others, so something had happened.
“Is that it? Do you see anything?”
“No. Wait. I hear something.”
After a minute, I said, “Well? What is it?”
“There’s something different about the room, but I can’t tell what. Wait. The air! It’s moving. Can you sense it?”
“No.”
“Give me a minute.”
Kishan crept around the room examining shelves, walls, and gourds. He placed his hand on one of the walls and leaned in closer, bumping gourds that rolled and shifted.
“There’s air coming through here. I think it’s a door. Help me move these gourds.”
We cleared the entire section of wall, which left only bare shelves.
“I can’t move this one. It’s stuck.”
It was a tiny gourd that seemed to be growing out of the wall. I pulled and pushed, but it wouldn’t budge. Kishan stepped back to