The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,7
too. The tickly smell made me sneeze, so I handed mine to Priya. Tuntuni flew around, dropping fragrant petals over everyone’s heads, and the musicians started their different, clashing songs again. A few people took up the tongue-waggling ulu-ulu call to mark the special occasion. Everyone looked really happy, except Neel. I took a step to go over to him, wanting to ask him if he’d experienced the same slipping into another story that I had, but Naya grabbed my arm.
“Even if His Rajaness Neel cannot go, I will go with Her Princess-ship back to New Jersey to rescue Prince Lalkamal!” the girl announced.
“No, Naya.” Mati shook her head. “We need all the rakkhosh who are on our side here right now. Especially you air clans. Tuntuni can go with Kiran.”
“But I’m needed here!” The yellow bird squawked, spitting a few remaining flower petals out of his beak. “To help rally the country with my eloquence! To lighten the mood with my humor! To kick that Minister Gupshup’s tuchus and get him out of the palace!”
“Dear birdie, we all must go where we’re needed,” Naya said.
The three of them were so busy arguing, and so firmly in this world, I was sure I must have imagined Neel’s temporary transformation into that other king from that other story. I must be tired, or underoxygenated, or suffering some kind of post-snake-fighting trauma. That was it. That must be it.
“Tuni, you’ll go with Kiran,” Mati said again. “She’ll need help. And we can’t afford anyone el … ah, I mean, you’re the right bird for the job.”
“You’ll be all right, Kiran?” I wasn’t sure, but it seemed like Neel’s eyes were scanning my face, like he was looking for something. But maybe I was imagining that too.
“I’ll be fine. Totally!” I pasted on a fake smile, acting all cheery even though I felt anything but. “We’ve all got to do our part for the resistance!”
Tuni and I had been at it for hours. Driving around in our auto rikshaw, calling ourselves hoarse. It was early evening, and the moon would soon make her appearance in the sky. The plan, which had been to get my moon mother’s attention before she rose for the night, wasn’t going exactly perfectly.
The others had left us long ago. As soon as Neel was crowned, everyone was in a hurry to get off the beach and on their way. The crowd had rushed around, packing up instruments, mounting skateboards, and the few chariots and horses they had with them.
“So how am I getting to New Jersey to rescue Lal? Will Bangoma and Bangomee help?” I’d asked. The giant, human-faced birds had once created a wormhole from New Jersey to the Kingdom Beyond just by flying faster and faster in circles. If they could do that for me again, then Tuni and I would be back in Parsippany in no time.
The only problem was, the giant birds made the wormhole last time not out of the goodness of their hearts, but because they were paid by Neel’s mom, the Rakkhoshi Queen. And the PSS didn’t have near enough money to hire them for as big a job as intergalactic wormhole creation.
“I don’t blame Bangoma and Bangomee. They have a lot of expenses, what with all those giant baby birds to feed,” Mati said.
I was disappointed. I’d liked the strange-looking magical birds. But more importantly, how was I going to travel to New Jersey without them?
“Please don’t tell me that I have to cross back through the transit corridor, then!” The transit corridor wasn’t an easy place for those without official papers, as I’d discovered on my first visit to the Kingdom Beyond. I’d had to face a riddling monster of a transit officer, who had almost eaten me rather than let me pass through.
“No, we can’t go through the transit corridor because Sesha’s obviously got that under watch, that snaky-pooper!” chirped Tuntuni from the handlebars of the auto rikshaw. The half-car–half-taxi–half-motorcycle–half-spaceship thing I’d driven here from New Jersey had some sort of magical spell on it that allowed it to travel safely in outer space, but it couldn’t make a wormhole from scratch.
“We don’t want to risk the Serpent King getting his hands on you again,” added Sir Gobbet.
“So what are we supposed to do?” I asked.
“Find your moon mother,” Neel suggested, looking a bit silly in his paper crown. He’d pushed it to the side to make it look cooler, but there’s not that much swagger anyone can