The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,3
life in a different dimension because I had been forced to go into hiding from the Kingdom Beyond.
“Gone into hiding? In fear for his life? Why?” Neel’s voice got a little louder with every question. “How could you let this happen, Sir Gobbet?”
“It was shocking. A violent and unexpected takeover of the throne by the Kingdom of Serpents,” began the tiny minister.
“A coup d’état!” It was the talking bird Tuntuni. He flew in a circle above our heads, then landed on Neel’s shoulder, amending, “Or a coup d’snake, if you will.”
“Tuni!” Neel gave our birdie friend a high five.
“Say, Princie! What did the ocean say to the shore?” squawked the bird. Next to complaining, telling bad jokes was one of his favorite hobbies.
“This is really not the time,” I began, but Naya interrupted me. “What did the ocean say to the shore? Nothing! It waved!”
“Yes!” The bird collapsed in laughter while the rest of us rolled our eyes. “Oh, I’ve got another good one! Why did the fish blush?”
“Dude, my dad’s gone into hiding in another dimension. I’d like to hear how that happened,” said Neel.
“Why did the fish blush?” Naya crinkled her nose. “Because it was gill-ty?”
“No!” shrieked Tuntuni. “Because the sea weed! Get it? The sea wee-ed?”
I had to laugh at that one. Tuni and Naya were practically in stitches, and I even caught Neel and Mati cracking little smiles.
“Sire, let me tell you about the coup d’snake,” sputtered little Sir Gobbet. “And why it really wasn’t, most absolutely, my fault.”
This brought all our attentions back to the matter at hand. “How could this happen? Sesha was just with us in the undersea hotel,” Neel said.
“Not true.” Naya showed us the time on her miraculously-still-working cell phone. “It took us a while to swim to the surface.”
“And he did disappear into that puff of green smoke,” I added. “He could have magically teleported to the palace!”
“It all happened so fast, Your Majesty!” Sir Gobbet was in tears now, and they dripped fatly from his tiny eyes all the way down into his long white beard. “One minute, the Raja was on his throne, and the next, he’d lost control of the kingdom!”
“That imposter, that fiend who took my job was in on it!” shrieked Tuni, flapping his yellow wings in agitation. “That bane of my existence, that worm-eater of a minister, Gupshup! He handed the kingdom right over to Sesha! That shutki-fish-eating stinker!”
I was about to tell Tuntuni to chill, but I didn’t. Because just then, there came from the ocean behind us a tremendous splashing. Tuntuni squawked and spit, and we all whirled around. When I saw what was rising out of the water, I felt anything but calm. I fumbled with my bow and arrow, fear shooting through my body.
“Rakkhosh!” I shouted. “It’s an attack!”
The crowd of demons rose out of the Honey-Gold Ocean of Souls. There were air rakkhosh with their wings unfurled, fire demons shooting flames out of their noses, water demons with webbed fingers and toes, and land demons who looked every-which-way weird, with horns sticking out of their foreheads and teeth for hair. Plus, all the rakkhosh looked bruised and battered, with banged-up noses and broken wing joints, like they’d just come from a fight. It was a surprise attack!
“Rakkhosh!” I shouted again. I looked over my shoulder and realized that while the ministers and other human courtiers from the palace looked nervous, and Tuntuni was flitting around in panic, no one had pulled out a weapon or anything. Naya looked seriously hurt, and the Pink-Sari Skateboarder girls—demonic and human—all seemed to be laughing at me.
“No kidding they’re rakkhosh!” Priya shot little flames out of her mouth with the words. “So are half of us. Or have you forgotten, Princess? And if I’m not wrong, you yourself freed these sad saps from the detention center when you destroyed dear old daddy’s underwater hotel.”
“I wasn’t the only rakkhosh in that detention center,” Neel reminded me. “There were a lot of others kept captive too.”
“But they’re not like you, Princie!” Tuni squawked. “You’re one of the good ones!”
“Stop being such an anti-demon bigot!” Mati scolded. Her words were aimed at the little yellow bird, but I could tell she meant them for me and the other frightened humans too. “I would think you would know by now that no one type of creature has the market on monstrosity. Rakkhosh can be good or bad, based on their choices—just like human beings!”