The Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) - Sayantani DasGupta Page 0,78

Maybe our words to her were having some effect?

“Pinki of the fire clan has been elected our new Demon Queen due to her skill in the classroom and the combat yard, and of course due to all of your faith that she will fulfill the great cosmic duties of demon-kind,” Surpanakha was saying. She peered around the clearing with her sharp eyes. On either side of her lounged two fierce-looking jackals on golden leashes that she held in her hand. Even as the animals feasted on some kind of bloody meat, their sharp eyes moved over the students just like their mistress’s.

“Tonight, as has been our custom since the beginning of time, we have captured the princely sons from two neighboring kingdoms—from the Kingdom Beyond and the Kingdom of Serpents. One of these future rulers, Pinki will choose as her consort.”

“She just said that they captured the two princes, but Sesha wants to be here!” I whispered to Neel.

“Obviously, Pinki and Sesha bent the rules because they were into each other!” Neel hissed back.

The headmistress went on, “Before our new queen makes her choice, she must swear to keep the balance of the multiverse. For the seeds of the multiverse’s origins—the singularity—reside in our queen, and on her shoulders falls the responsibility of rakkhosh-kind: to keep in balance the light and the dark, birth and death, story and silence. On her shoulders falls the responsibility to keep the diversity of the multiverse ever expanding.”

“Whoa,” I whispered. It was all that stuff the scientists had been talking about. About the origins of the multiverse coming from something within black holes—aka rakkhosh. But that last bit, about rakkhosh-kind being responsible for keeping the multiverse expanding, that was the exact opposite of what Sesha was trying to do. I wondered if Neel could be right after all. Was Pinki not a part of the Anti-Chaos Committee but actually, somehow, Sesha’s prisoner?

“To fulfill this great duty,” Surpanakha went on, “our queen must gain the power of all four clans. She already has the power of her own fire clan, but tonight the other three clans will be sharing their power with her with offerings of symbolic gifts. I call first upon the air clan to make their offering.”

“Look at the tree!” As the headmistress was speaking, my attention was captured by the blue champak tree to the side of Pinki’s and Ai-Ma’s chairs. The tree was full of bright blue champak flowers that seemed to be moving—almost as if the flowers were actually butterflies!

“Do you see what I see?” I hissed. Neel just made big eyes and nodded as one of the flowers-slash-butterflies took off from the tree and flew into the darkening sky.

“Wonder who’s gonna be the gift giver for our clan?” singsonged a tall rakkhoshi sitting on the next root from us. She had on a necklace with her name, Harimati, in Bangla script, and giant jhumko earrings. She also had yellow eyes and fangs so sharp they looked like she’d stolen them from a saber-toothed tiger.

Harimati was nibbling from a banana-leaf plate piled high with what looked a lot like bat-ear fritters. “If it’s not Gorgor-da, he’ll be off on a killing rampage, won’t he?”

I looked over at the rakkhosh she was pointing at, a muscle-bound fellow with three eyeballs and way too many rows of teeth. Gorgor-da caught me looking at him and made a threatening, knuckle-cracking-type gesture. I looked away quickly, gulping hard.

Harimati chuckled, shoving more fritters in her mouth even as she offered the plate to Neel and me. I shook my head no, but inexplicably, Neel picked up one of the fritters and tried it before gagging and spitting it out in his hand.

“Um, wow. That’s got a bite to it,” Neel muttered, and I saw that he was right. The half-eaten piece of food in Neel’s hand did indeed have chomping teeth. Ick.

Harimati laughed. “That’s what makes ’em so good, innit?” she said. It was weird how she was just accepting Neel’s and my presence here even though she’d never seen us before in her life. Must be part of Einstein’s storybook’s magic.

In the meantime, the headmistress plucked one of the blue champak flowers from the tree. It fluttered in her hand as if it had wings. Then the wings turned into lips as, in a strangely breathy voice, it announced, “Gift giver for the air clan will be the flier Aakash!”

As soon as the champak flower said the name, it seemed to wither and die