Lokesh had the conniving persona of Emperor Palpatine mixed with the sadistic cruelty of Hannibal Lecter. He craved power at any price, like Lord Voldemort, and he displayed the pitiless brutality of Ming the Merciless who, like him, had killed his own daughter. My frame shook with terror. I couldn’t watch him hurt Kishan. I couldn’t bear it.
He gripped Kishan’s chin and was just about to cut his face when I realized that, even if I couldn’t move, the Golden Fruit would still work. I wished for the first thing that crossed my mind: jawbreakers. And jawbreakers I got. A storm of them. They broke monitors and one of the glass windows. The booming roar of them buffeted my eardrums as they fell in the command center. It sounded like thousands of marbles dropped in a lake of glass, and everything shattered and broke around us. Kishan and I wobbled and fell as we were pelted with a hail of the hard, round candy. My backpack was what saved me from breaking my neck. I was sure Kishan was hurt again. Luckily, he’d heal quickly. I would be grateful if even just one of us got out of this alive.
Soon, every inch of the floor was covered with the colorful candy about a foot deep. Lokesh was pummeled and hit hard enough that he lost his balance and went down. He spat out several expletives in his language as he tried to regain his footing and figure out where the storm was coming from. Then, he realized the knife was missing and began combing through the candy to find it. Kishan and I were almost buried by that point.
The building shook and a segment of wall crashed in the partition next to us. Lokesh scrambled to his feet after finding his knife, grabbed the amulet around Kishan’s neck, and yanked until the chain broke, leaving a red welt behind.
He bent over him briefly and touched Kishan’s face with the knife. “We’ll meet again,” he smiled horribly, “soon.” He trailed the knife from Kishan’s cheek down to his throat, leaving a trail of blood that would terribly scar but not kill. Then with a pained noise, Lokesh wrenched himself away. He waded through the jawbreakers to a hidden button in the wall. A panel opened, and he disappeared.
A few villagers accompanied Mr. Kadam into the office, and they hurried to help us into standing positions. Kishan was already healing, but his shirt was spattered with blood. The cut had been deep. I heard the roar of an engine and a ripping sound as a vehicle tore itself from under the building and sped off on the dirt road leading away from the village. I could have used the Golden Fruit to stop up his engine, but I chose not to.
I was ashamed, but I didn’t want to face him again. I wanted him to escape. I never wanted to see him again. I stood stiffly, berating myself for being a coward. I was weak. If I could have moved, I would have whimpered in the corner of the room, hiding. Lokesh was too powerful. We couldn’t win.
The best thing we could hope for would be to avoid him. I knew Kishan and Mr. Kadam would be disappointed with me. Some warrior I turned out to be. Giant iron birds? No problem. Kappa? I had Fanindra and Ren. Monkeys? A few bites and bruises wouldn’t kill me. But Lokesh? I turned tail and ran in the face of the enemy. I wished I could understand why I was reacting this way. He was a monster. That was all. Just another thing for me to fight. But, this monster had a human face. It seemed worse somehow.
After a few moments, the spell Lokesh had used on Kishan and me faded. We tried to rub our stiff limbs awake. When Kishan had recovered sufficiently, he waded through the jawbreakers to help me. Mr. Kadam gave the villagers instructions while Kishan supported me on my sprained ankle and helped me search for Ren. Fanindra decided to wake and help in the search. She shifted and grew.
I lowered my arm so she could slide to the floor, and she wound her way between boxes of weapons and bags of supplies. She stopped and tasted the air near a section that looked like a dead end. Smoothly, she slid under some boxes, and Kishan inspected the arrangement more closely. He found they were a fake display