The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,43
one. And he kept using that dratted expression—the all is one. Oh man, I was getting a really bad feeling about all this.
“Nidhoggr,” I said, trying to keep the panic out of my voice. “What is this ACC you keep mentioning?
“Hah! Do you seriously have to ask?” Ned smirked even as he reproduced that one disappeared shell, then started juggling with all three. “Well, I guess you’re not exactly besties. Not since you keep trying to kill him. ACC is short for the Interdimensional Multivillain Anti-Chaos Committee. And its chairperson is your dear old daddy, Sesha, of course.”
My stomach gave a serious nosedive off a metaphoric cliff.
“I knew it …” I breathed. “So he’s working with all you serpents from other stories to try and destroy diversity? He wants to make all the different stories of the multiverse the same, and become, what, some kind of all-seeing demon-god?”
“Ding-ding-ding went the princess!” Ned gave me another of his oh-so-charming grins, this time along with a broad wink. “You got it right, beautiful snake girl.”
Ugh. I ignored Ned calling me beautiful and thought about what I’d just learned. That’s why Neel had turned briefly into that other king, why my moon mother had transformed temporarily into that wand-waving good witch, why I’d fallen down another storybook girl’s rabbit hole. It was all the work of Sesha, Nidhoggr, Stheno, and this Anti-Chaos Committee. This was horrible. Were all the stories from the Kingdom Beyond going to be lost—smushed forever into other, more dominant tales?
“If you hate the Greek myths,” I said, remembering the dragon boy’s words about some myths getting more play, “you don’t want your own story to become smushed with my Gorgon principal’s, do you?”
“Don’t you worry, Princess, I didn’t survive all these millennia by being stupid. I’ll figure something out.” Ned was playing with the three acorn shells now on a root so thick and flat it was like a table. He put a penny under one of the acorns, then kept moving them around in front of him like roadside hucksters do in the movies, showing me how the penny was now under one, now under another of the shells. “You, on the other hand”—he laughed in a not-so-friendly way—“are in a bit of trouble, my girl.”
Oh man. There was no one to help me. I had to get myself out of this mess and stop Sesha and his Anti-Chaos Committee goons. I had to save the multiverse and save our stories. But first, I’d have to save Jovi, Zuzu, and Lal. And I didn’t have much time to figure out how.
So you’re pretty smart, are you? Pretty good at games of illusion?” I asked the dragon Ned as cheekily as I could. “But how good at magic are you really?”
The Anti-Chaos Committee wanted to smush stories together, huh? Well, two could play at that game. I had just remembered a movie Zuzu and I had watched a whole bunch of times and loved. In it, a brave hero had outwitted a villain and saved a captured princess with a game of wits.
“Let me put it this way. Ever heard of Houdini, Copperfield, P. C. Sorcar?” asked Nidhoggr as he shuffled the acorn shells in front of himself faster and faster.
“Sure.” In truth, I hadn’t heard of any of the names but the first. But I figured they must be other magicians.
“They’re all kids’ birthday party magicians compared to me,” spat Ned.
“Is that so? Well, then how about a challenge?” I said, trying to act all confident even though my hands and feet were totally trapped by Yggdrasil’s roots. “I challenge you to a battle of illusions and wits!”
“For your friends’ lives?” the dragon snarled.
I nodded.
“To the death?” he added.
I nodded again, trying to do that trick that Neel did where he raised one eyebrow. From the confused way that Nidhoggr was looking at me, I’m not sure if I was doing it right. But finally, eyebrow raise or not, he took my offer.
“All right, darlin’, why not? I accept!” he said. “I’ve never been stumped by any game of wits!”
“I don’t know, though,” I fudged, hoping Ned’s ego was as huge as it seemed. “I don’t know if you’re a good enough magician to get me the things I’ll need. They’re pretty random.”
“Name them and I’ll get them!” the dragon boy said airily.
“First I’ll need two glasses and a pitcher of Thumpuchi!” I said, naming a kind of soda from the Kingdom Beyond.