turned on his heel and strode toward us. “Close your mouths; you don’t want mosquitoes to fly in, do you?” he snapped, grabbing Midnight’s reigns. “Let’s go.”
We were all quiet. I mounted Snowy, sitting in front of Lal like I’d done before. Neel gave me a hard stare, but said nothing. I’d never known it was possible for someone to look both angry and lonely, but that’s how he looked to me.
The horses seemed more than willing to take off after our visit to the merchant of shadows. They beat their strong wings on the wind, as if to put as much distance as possible between them and the old woman’s shop.
I was feeling impatient now. We’d gotten to the transit corridor; I’d made my way past the transit officer and managed to find Neel and Lal in the bazaar. It was time to get on with my goal: to find my parents in this dark well thingy and bring them home.
“Where is this place my parents are trapped?” I asked over my shoulder as soon as we were airborne. “And how do I get them out?”
“To tell you the truth, um, Princess, I mean, um, Just Kiran, from the point of view of exact latitude and longitude, calculating for planetary rotation and, of course, head- and tailwinds …” Lal hesitated.
I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. Worse than when I threw up corn dogs at the amusement park. And it wasn’t the altitude.
“Spit it out,” I shouted over the wind.
“Well, the truth is, we don’t exactly know where your parents are.”
“What the what?” I snapped around so fast I almost slipped off Snowy’s back. “You told me they were in that demon wellspring!”
Lal grabbed my arm and the horse adjusted itself to stop me from almost plummeting to my doom for the second time in two days.
“Yes, erm, but, well, ah.” Lal had the grace to blush. “That’s probably true. Only, there are a lot of, um, such wells all over the kingdom and beyond.”
“Are you kidding me?” My mind was racing. The princes had lied to me—they lied!
“I am terribly regretful … we let you believe we knew more precisely where they were,” Lal mumbled. “We know they are somewhere here in the Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers. Or perhaps very near. We’ll … well, we will just need a bit of help finding the exact location.”
“Is that so? And why should I believe you?”
Neel pulled Midnight next to us. “Come on, stop being such a—”
I shouted over him, poison daggers in every word, “Don’t even think about calling me a 2-D!” I was so angry, I could practically feel the fangs coming out.
“Whoa!” Neel countered. “Look who’s getting her turban in a bunch.”
“I’m not wearing a turban, or hadn’t you noticed?” I snapped back.
Neel looked over at my long hair, which was, as usual, in pinned braids at the back of my neck. “I noticed.”
I felt my cheeks start to burn. I looked away from Neel, but not before I saw that one evil eyebrow rise. Argh, he was impossible!
Neel cleared his voice. “Look, we don’t exactly know where they are, but we’re going somewhere we can find out.”
“Where’s that?”
Lal pointed to the ground below. “Home!”
We were far away from the green valley with its strange bazaar, and had arrived in a place equally as breathtaking. There was a forest to our left, with cackling monkeys and cawing birds. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a herd of brown-and-white-dappled deer run by. Rising majestically to our right was the most awesome palace I had ever seen—not that I’d seen any in real life, but it was more beautiful than any movie or storybook castle. Its spires were golden, studded with diamonds, sapphires, and rubies. Its walls were silver and bronze, with carved decorations in them. Each carved panel on the palace walls seemed to tell its own story. Scenes showed a festival, a wedding, and … yup. Two turbaned princes setting off on a journey mounted on their winged horses.
“We’ve got to find Minister Tuni. He’ll probably have some useful ideas about where we should start looking for Just Kiran’s parents.” Lal’s words melted me a little. Even though he’d lied, he was obviously still willing to help me find my family.
“Let’s, ah, get the horses settled first.” This suggestion of Neel’s was made with a funny, teasing tone.
“If you insist, Brother.” I was curious to see Lal