The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,42

I tried to coax a laugh out of my numb lips. “I mean, you could have killed me back behind the cafeteria or let Principal Gorgon do the job. But you didn’t, did you?” My voice was shaking now, but I pressed on. “You must have had a reason for saving me back then, right?”

“You know, the AC Committee’s party line is that we’re all supposed to smush into one big happy story, but I’ve got to tell you, I really hate those Greek mythical creatures.” Ned pulled what at first looked like a rabbit but turned out to be a squirrel out of his magician’s hat. I was afraid for a minute he’d turn into a dragon again and tear the poor animal apart, but he let it go, and the animal scampered up the tree trunk and out of sight, in the same direction Tiktiki One had gone. I wondered what was taking the darned gecko so long.

“The Greek stories get so much more play than us Norse stories do,” continued the boy dragon in a pouty drawl, “and it’s just not fair. Unjust, I tell you! But then again, you know what that’s like. I mean, your stories are practically forgotten.”

“What do you mean?” I was trying desperately to get my limbs free without him noticing, but no matter how much I wiggled my arms and legs, I couldn’t seem to get out of the tree Yggdrasil’s rooty grasp. I had to keep Ned talking while I figured out a plan.

“How often do you hear people who aren’t from the Kingdom Beyond talk about your dimension, your stories?” Ned pulled three half shells out of the hat now, sort of like giant acorns. He held one out to me before waving his hands and making it disappear into the air and then reappear. “But it won’t matter much longer. The ACC is going to take care of all that. Soon, your stories won’t exist at all.”

That got my attention. “What did you just say?”

“You asked me why Lalkamal was captured by a Kingdom Beyond ghost and ended up in a Norse tree.” Ned flexed his own bicep, shamelessly showing off for me even as he held me and my friends captive. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? All the stories from less important places are getting forgotten, or collapsed with more important stories. Soon, there won’t be any more stories from the Kingdom Beyond at all. Soon, there won’t even be a Kingdom Beyond to have any stories.”

“What are you talking about?” I felt everything inside me go cold and still. All the rich culture from the Kingdom Beyond—it was disappearing? Our stories? Our history? Our people—all disappearing? How could this be happening?

“We’re gonna kill all the chaos, Princess, and bring harmony to the singular universe.” Ned spread out his hands wide. “You of all people should be grateful you don’t have to be all mixed up anymore!” He made a mock baby voice, probably supposed to be me. “ ‘Oh, I’m so culturally confused! Am I from here? Am I from there? Who am I? What am I?’ ”

“I don’t sound like that!” I sputtered, but he just interrupted me and went on.

“When the ACC has its way, the multiverse will fade into myth, and difference will disappear. That’s an act of love, Princess. That’s the end of prejudice and discrimination and everything.” Ned laughed in a seriously maniacal way. “The all will be one.”

There it was again, that terrible expression that Sesha had used when he was talking about the Ouroboros myth, the one about the snake eating its own tale. “Taking away our uniqueness and killing our stories aren’t acts of love!” I protested. “Ending difference isn’t an act of love!”

Even as I said these words, I remembered my moon mother’s poem:

Your enemy’s enemy

Is your friend

Find your prince

Where the road bends

A tree between worlds

A serpent’s friend

Hate not love

Makes difference end

“Killing our unique stories is an act of hate!” My mind was whirring. A tree between worlds. A serpent’s friend. Hate, not love, makes difference end.

I looked again at the slogan on the dragon boy’s hat. Kill the Chaos. Hadn’t Shady Sadie been saying that the universe needed chaos and diversity? And “Ned” had been arguing … what? That diversity was a bad thing—that there should only be one story ruling the multiverse. He’d been all excited about some demon who could be like a god, seeing all, understanding all, uniting all the stories into