he even bent down to see how his mother was doing, the hallway grew colder and a familiar voice made both of us look up.
Welcome, intergalactic viewers! Welcome, live satellite audience!” said Sesha, the Serpent King. “Welcome to Princess Kiranmala’s final test on Who Wants to Be a Demon Slayer?”
I whipped around to find not only Sesha sitting on a high throne in the center of the hall, but that suddenly, in addition to the cameras on the walls, there were ginormous TV screens everywhere. They were stacked floor to ceiling, lining the walls five or six high. And on the screens were the eager faces of hundreds of viewers. They were sitting in stands in fairgrounds, they were in the Kingdom Beyond’s palace courtyard, they were in huge movie theaters in the Kingdom of Serpents. I saw with a startled cry that one screen was even broadcasting my own living room—from where my parents were watching me with horrified expressions!
“Ma! Baba!” I cried, reaching toward them.
“Daughter!” I heard Ma’s voice call. “Darling Garland of Moonbeams! Do not …”
“I’m okay, Ma! Don’t worry, Baba!” I yelled at the exact same time. “I’m sorry!”
But with a flick of his hand, Sesha shut the sound off that screen. I could see my mother’s mouth still moving, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying. She and Baba were clutching at each other, and the expressions on their faces almost broke my heart. With an effort, I tore my gaze away from them.
“What is this?” I looked around at all the television screens now encircling me, the low wall all around me, the hungry eyes of all the viewers up and down the magically widened hallway. But I didn’t need to wait for the answer, because I realized that the dungeon hallway had been transformed into something that looked, for all the world, like a gladiator arena.
From who knows where, Sesha had made a harmonium materialize in front of him, and now he played it. “A princess split in two—is she boringly good or evil true?” he warbled in a deep baritone. Oh man. Why hadn’t I realized it? It had been him singing those harmonigrams all along. “Will she embrace the skin she’s in, or fight against her birth and kin?”
From behind the Serpent King emerged another figure on the dais, that obnoxious seven-headed serpent, Naga, my brother. Naga butted into Sesha’s song, “Just in case you didn’t get it, this is your last test, oh, Sissster!”
This was super bad. Super-duper-with-extra-cherries-on-top bad. I took a quick look at Neel, who was cradling his mother’s glassy-eyed head in his lap. She was alive at least, but taking in deep, raspy breaths and not looking particularly healthy.
I looked around the arena, realization dawning even brighter. This wasn’t all put together at the last minute. Sesha had known I’d be here. He’d wanted me to come. He’d set me up to do this. And it all made sense now—the instructional video for how to get here, how easy it had been to get away on Raat’s back with Ai-Ma and Naya. “You wanted me to get Neel out of detention like this all along? This was part of the game show the whole time?”
Sesha clapped, slow and mocking. As he did, the satellite audience clapped too. “Of course that was the plan!” He waved his hands at the screens, and instead of the satellite audience, I saw Naya, Mati, Tuni, and me plotting together on my palace balcony. Then Sesha played a video of me in my ridiculous dental hygienist’s costume, assisting Dr. I. M. Pagol. Me escaping with Ai-Ma after fighting with the rakkhoshi skaters. Finally, I saw myself flying on Raat’s back to the hut of demonologist K. P. Das. Then I was shooting down the fish by just looking in the pool. I saw the prisoner parade with Ai-Ma and Naya, I saw us flying here to the Honey-Gold Ocean of Souls, I saw me diving under the water, I saw me making my way to the dungeons, I saw myself solving the witches’ riddle. I saw all of it.
“Everything I’ve done since I got here has all been a part of the game show? You had hidden cameras everywhere? This has all been a part of your sick plan?” I felt like I needed a shower. I couldn’t believe it—all those decisions I’d made, all that planning we’d done, Sesha had been watching the whole time?
“Yes, dear audience!” Sesha boomed, and