The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,40
the tree trunk and out of sight.
And then my eyes filled with wonder as mysterious glowing letters in some ancient script appeared above the tree trunk doorway. “Wait a minute, I’ve read about this in a story before. Plus I’ve seen this movie way more times than I should.”
“Then what do those letters say?” Ned asked. I was too distracted at the moment to think too much about it, but there was something kind of hungry and excited in the way that he asked the question.
“How are we supposed to know? That’s not in any known language.” Zuzu frowned as she ran her gloved hand along the unfamiliar lettering. “Believe me, I would recognize it if it was.”
Well, that at least sounded familiar. The Zuzu I knew and loved was way into languages and was teaching herself to speak a bunch from a website. But the Zuzu I knew and loved would also have recognized this language, since it was she who had watched the movie so many times with me.
“The letters aren’t in a real language. They’re in a storybook one: Elvish,” I whispered.
It was happening again. The smooshing-of-stories thing. Like when Neel and I had fallen into this very same story back on the shores of the Honey-Gold Ocean of Souls.
“You mean, like from the movie with the blond elf guy? And that tough dude who’s heir to the throne of Bondor or Gondor or whatever?” Jovi asked.
“Veeery good!” Ned watched us carefully as he practiced a silly magic trick, making a playing card appear and disappear from between his fingers. I noticed the design on the card was a bright blue butterfly. “But can you tell me what it says?”
Zuzu whipped her sword around toward the boy. “Wait, Kiran, I think it’s a trick!”
“Suspicious much?” Ned waved his hand so that the butterfly card disappeared into the frosty air with a pop.
“Of course I know what it says!” I scoffed.
“Kiran, do you think …” began Jovi, but I was on a roll, wanting to prove myself somehow to Ned.
“It’s Elvish for the phrase ‘Speak, friend, and enter!’ ” I said.
Despite Zuzu and Jovi’s warnings, nothing weird happened when I said the words from the movie. Well, nothing more weird than had already happened. The magical doorway was still there, the glowing letters arching above it.
“I love that elf dude with the ears,” Jovi mumbled, coming over to examine the doorway with me.
“What about that elf queen lady?” Zuzu added as we all three ran our hands over the door. “She’s so cool, talking about how she’s going to be beautiful and terrible and everyone will love her and despair.”
“Self-confidence goals!” I agreed, and the other girls laughed.
We were all examining the frosty tree with its funny doorway, basically ignoring Ned. It had been weird to accept this new, nice version of Jovi, and the slightly meaner version of Zuzu, but we were starting to feel like an all-girl crew. Like a female version of three musketeers, only without moustaches. Like the Pink-Sari Skateboarders, only without pink saris. Or, like, skateboards. Like Charlie’s Angels, but without the 1970s feathered haircuts or disembodied dude on the speakerphone.
So that’s why, when Jovi and Zuzu both lost their footing at the same time, I was looking at them and not at Ned. “Whoa, are you okay?” I asked, before I felt my own ankles suddenly stiffen, like someone had clamped a giant hand around them. I looked down to realize that, as my friends were being pulled underground, one of the tree’s giant roots had wrapped its strong length around my ankles! What was going on?
The girls were screaming now, and while I tried to reach them, I couldn’t move. The tree’s gnarled roots had me fixed in place.
“This better not be one of your magic tricks, dude!” Zuzu yelled, her feet entirely hidden now under the frosty lawn. Ned laughed, but as he did, he kind of hissed at the same time.
I turned, almost in slow motion, toward Ned and saw that his eyes were a lot more yellow than blue. And his perfect pale skin strangely scaly.
I gave a startled yelp of recognition. “You’re a serpent?” I shrieked. I was pulling my legs with my hands now but with no luck.
Ned shrugged, letting out a little lick of flames from his vicious mouth. Then he transformed into his other, far more terrifying self—complete with scales, teeth, tail, and slit-like eyes. “Dragon, but close enough.”