The Serpent's Secret

by Sayantani DasGupta

  “You are like a lotus, my princess.” The woman combed my hair, braiding it and twisting it into an elaborate style. “You are a flower that has thrived even in the most dark and polluted waters.”

  “What?” I jerked away as Danavi yanked a little too hard.

  “Well,” she explained in a wheedling voice, “you are a beautiful blossom, despite being raised by simpletons who toil in the dirt.” She pinned my hair up, away from my neck. I felt her fingers graze my hairline.

  “Those are my parents you’re talking about,” I snapped, even as I felt a familiar embarrassment creep up on me. It was the same feeling I got when Jovi sneered at me for having parents who owned a Quickie Mart.

  “They are farmers, my princess, no kind of parents for one of royal blood. No kind of parents for one with both the moon-mark”—she touched my neck again—“and snake sign.” She touched my arm now, smiling toothily in the mirror.

  The snake sign? Those U-shaped eyeglasses. Why hadn’t I realized it before? Or had I just not let myself? The scar on my arm was the same as the markings on a cobra’s head.

  “They are no parents for the likes of you, my princess,” Danavi cackled.

  I whipped around to face her, my temper burning. “You have no idea what you’re talking about!”

  I felt something strong harden inside of me. Something I couldn’t hide from. The truth. Had Ma and Baba ever treated me differently? Like I wasn’t their own? Granted, they were seriously kooky. Ma was always stuffing me full of food. Baba was always stuffing me full of stories. But they didn’t hate me; they adored me. And all I could think about was how much I wanted to be with them again.

  I waved off the slippers the woman offered me and jammed my still damp feet into my trusty boots. My eyes were hot, but my voice was firm.

  “My parents saved my life,” I said, “and raised me. They may not be perfect, but they didn’t ask to get dragged into this mess. Only now they have been, and I’m going to get them out of it.”

  “Oh, a thousand pardons. Of course you are, my princess. You and your companions are very brave. You will go now and rouse the good princes Lalkamal and Neelkamal from the palace …”

  “No, just Neel’s in the palace,” I corrected before I could stop myself. “Lal’s in the stables with Mati.”

  “In the stables?” The woman’s eyes shone strangely in the mirror. “Without his brother’s protection? Well, well, isn’t that convenient …”

  Wait a minute. A terrible feeling came over me.

  I stood up and started to back away. “Who are you?”

  Something was seriously not right here. Too late, I remembered how Mati answered when Lal asked if he could come into the stables. She said no. What had Neel said? That it was a custom in their country? That you never granted someone permission to enter?

  “I’m Danavi—don’t you know what my name means?” The maid threw off her cloak, revealing an entirely different form. A beautiful, dark-haired woman with a bejeweled crown stood before me. All the hairs on my neck stood at some serious attention.

  “What?” I squeaked.

  The woman smiled, revealing two fangs that hung below her ruby lips. “Demoness!” she said. “But you can call me Demon Queen!”

  Aw, bilious rakkhosh snot. Here we went again.

  I tried to run, but the rakkhoshi ripped a handful of her own hair from her head and threw it at me. It might as well have been a handful of quick-drying cement. As soon as the magical hair hit me, I couldn’t move at all. I realized with dread that the demoness’s smile reminded me of someone I knew.

  “Rakkhoshi! Be gone!” a voice commanded from the doorway. It was Neelkamal, his sword drawn. Beside him was the real Danavi.

  “I felt a cold mist enter the room, and then all became dark!” exclaimed the maid.

  No wonder the woman’s voice changed mid-story. No wonder she seemed different—the demoness had switched places with the real Danavi!

  “Leave Kiran alone!” Neel shouted.

  It was only then that I realized the Demon Queen’s sharp-nailed hands were at my throat.

  “Ayiiii!” the rakkhoshi screeched, turning toward Neel. “There is nothing so upsetting to the digestion as an ungrateful child!”

  I could kind of wiggle my fingers and toes again. Without her concentration, the demoness’s spell lost its grip pretty quickly.

  “You aren’t welcome here anymore!” Neel approached the Rakkhoshi Queen with his sword raised. “What trick is this that brings you here?”

  “Oh, that is where you are very wrong, you source of my acid reflux, you betrayer from my own womb!” the Queen cackled, growing into her full size. The poor maid shrieked and ran out the door.

  The Demon Queen was still beautiful, but with pointed ears, jagged teeth, and enormous horns rising from behind her crown. She towered above us, her horns brushing the vines on the ceiling. With another toss of her hair, she froze Neel where he was standing. I could tell he was trying to move, but couldn’t.

  “Let me go, now!” he ordered. The Queen cackled, her inhuman voice echoing weirdly.

  I ran for my bow and arrow, which I’d put on the floor next to the bath, but with a motion of her warty finger, the demoness flung them out of the way. Her eyes raged with fire, and puffs of smoke shot out of her nostrils.

  She rubbed her chest with a clawlike hand. “All those years just hovering in the shadows, waiting for some newcomer fool who didn’t know about the rules of my banishment; it gave me a terrible case of heartburn.” The Queen turned her creepy smile to me. “But you can thank your little friend here for inviting me once again into the kingdom.”

  “No!” Neel protested.

  “I didn’t!” I yelled, even as I remembered how the “maid” had asked me if she could enter. It was true. I said yes, and by mistake, I had unleashed this terrible monster.

  “For that favor, my slithery princess,” the Queen crowed, “I will not kill you—at least not today.” She licked her lips with a black tongue. “But I am afraid I cannot say the same for that tasty morsel Lalkamal!”

  With a thunder-like clap, the demoness vanished into thin air. Neel struggled in place, still frozen. He howled in a voice transformed by fear and rage.

  “Mother! Ma! No!”

  That’s your mother?” I shrieked.

  “You should talk!” Neel could obviously move again, and threw my bow and arrows in my direction as he ran toward the door. I grabbed them midair. “At least my dad didn’t force me into exile because he wanted to turn me into a snake!”

  “You’re half a rakkhosh, which means half a monster!” I yelled, threading an arrow from the quiver into my bow.

  “And what do you think you are, Princess? Ever wonder where your nasty side comes from?” Neel snapped even as he was already running for the courtyard. “I don’t have time for this! I have to warn my brother!”

  I sprinted after him, feeling his words burning in my ears. If Neel was half a monster, then so was I. I thought about the last time I saw my parents and how cruel I’d been to them. Was it because, as they would say in the movies, I had bad blood?

  Being half serpent certainly wasn’t helping my running stamina, and I was getting winded trying to keep up with rakkhosh-powered Neel.

  “Your mom wouldn’t hurt Lal, would she?” I shouted to his sprinting back. But the rate at which he was moving told me all I needed to know.

  Obviously, Neel’s mom had a serious case of the wicked stepmothers. Wanting to eat your stepchildren definitely ranked up there with all-time evildoer moves. I felt sick. It was my fault she was after Lal.

  Prince Neelkamal ran like the wind. I guess I hadn’t noticed before how fast he could move. Or how strong he was. Or how tall. Or how broad. It had been so easy for him to defeat the rakkhosh on my front lawn. And yet, he hadn’t wanted to kill it. Was it all because of his half-demon heritage?

  We approached the royal stables, which were glowing in the evening darkness with an unear
thly light. Somewhere, a crow shrieked and a fox howled. A chill ran through my body. The demoness had already gotten here!

  There was terrified whinnying as Midnight and Snowy galloped away from the stables toward the woods.

  I ran in the direction from where they came, but when I stumbled into the building, I faced a terrible sight. The Rakkhoshi Queen stood on the hay in the middle of an empty stall, a nauseated expression on her face.

  “Where is Lal?” Neel thrust his sword at his own mother. “What have you done with him?”

  “Oof! That too-proud boy!” She belched. “That willful girl!”

  “Ma—tell me that you haven’t eaten my brother and Mati!”

  “Eaten them? Of course I’ve eaten them! What do you think I have been waiting for, eh, all these years?” The rakkhoshi turned her red eyes at her son. “Only you were always by your brother’s side, my son, you traitor who nursed at my breast, you were forever protecting him!” She shifted her piercing gaze to me. “But so lucky I am, isn’t it, that this girl finally distracted you away from him. If not for her, this pretty-pretty moon-brat, you would never have left Lalkamal alone!”

  The walls of the stable felt like they were closing in. What had I done?

  Neel fell to his knees, letting out a demonic yell. “You won’t get away with this, Mother!”

  “Vah, such big, big talk!” the rakkhoshi cackled. “My son wants to kill me—what a proud maternal moment! But no, for that you’ll have to find and kill my soul—which is hidden away somewhere even you will never find, my little matricidal maniac!”

  Rage boiled in my body. Neel was still on the ground in front of his mother. The demoness might destroy him at any moment. Like everything else, this was my fault. I had to protect him.

  I aimed the arrow that was still in my bow. The rakkhoshi was distracted, and I had a clear shot. I closed one eye, and imagined I was shooting a target behind the gym at school. The arrow flew straight and true, hitting the Queen in the middle of the chest.

  “Ay-yo!” the demoness exclaimed.

  Unfortunately, the next thing she did was to pluck the arrow out as if it were nothing more than a splinter. “Not a bad shot for a skinny moon-chickie!” She used the sharpened end to pick at her teeth.

  Uh-oh. That wasn’t good.

  But I’d given Neel time to collect himself, and now he ran at his mother, his sword raised. The Queen stopped the weapon with her hand. With a terrible glint in her eye, she brought the sword to her mouth and licked it. The shining steel now dripped with gloppy black saliva. Neel grimaced, throwing it to the ground.

  “You think you can kill me with your mortal weapons, you snotty-nosed smarty-pants?” The demoness’s expression was pained. “Really, I cannot believe you young people these days! Just the other day I was telling my interdimensional poison-brewing club what a disappointment my child was to the demonic race. You never listen, do you? The only way to kill me is to find the exact location of my soul!”

  “Ma—how could you?” I was startled to see that there were tears falling freely from Neel’s eyes. His face was a mask of pain. “My brother—Mati—what did they ever do to deserve this?”

  “Deserve?” the Queen screeched, thumping herself on the chest with her words. “How can you talk to me of who deserves what? I was the king’s senior wife; you are his oldest son. It’s you who deserves to be the next king, not that puny-shuny human brother of yours. You should be king, you disrespectful fruit of my loins, not Lalkamal!”

  “I don’t want to be king!” Neel yelled. “Do you think the people would accept a king who is a half demon? A king with a mother like you?”

  The Rakkhoshi Queen clutched her stomach. “Aiii! Aii!” she cried. She shook a long taloned finger at me. “May you have children this ungrateful, my little Luna Bar, so you know the intestinal agony that only your progeny can give you.”

  The demoness turned a shade of clover green. “That ridiculous, show-offy boy! That Little Prince Fauntleroy!” she moaned, belching clouds of acidic red smoke. “That prissy-shissy girl! So noble in her poverty! So sickeningly honorable!”

  Ew. What was going on?

  The rakkhoshi began to make disgusting, retching sounds. “I knew I should not have swallowed without chewing,” she moaned. “Oh, the gaseous indigestibility of youth! Oh, the digestive agony of their sugary friendship!”

  She was going to lose her lunch. I raised my hands to my face. This was going to be gross. Way grosser than the corn-dog-vomiting incident.

  But then the Queen did something that topped the bizarre-o-meter. As if her mere existence wasn’t bizarre enough. She stretched her mouth so wide that me, Neel, and the whole stable could have fit into it. And what I saw in that eternal blackness, I don’t think I can ever forget.

  Because there, in the Demon Queen’s open mouth, were spinning—could it be?—suns, planets, moons: a whole series of solar systems.

  No. Barometric. Way.

  This was heavy stuff.

  Something Shady Sadie the Science Lady once said on TV came rushing into my head. It was about a brand-new discovery that some astronomers had made: a monster at the center of the galaxy. It wasn’t really a monster, she’d explained, but some kind of super-huge black hole they discovered with powerful telescopes. Apparently, it was so hungry it gobbled up planets, stars, anything in its way. But the monster was greedy, and it couldn’t digest everything it took in. Instead, like a fire hose being aimed at a soda can, half the stuff it tried to inhale came shooting back out of it. It proved, Sadie explained, that black holes didn’t just consume and destroy energy, they created it as well.

  Which is why I wasn’t as surprised as I could have been when the Demon Queen vomited out two enormous spheres—like little planets, really. One was deep gold and the other a glowing silver.

  “Drat! Dread! Demonic doo-doo!” the rakkhoshi shrieked.

  Whoa. Holy public television station. Was Neel’s mom the monster at the center of the Milky Way? What was it Lal said about rakkhosh being black holes—spells that had gone beyond their expiration dates?

  The demoness was still clutching her stomach when she vanished again in a flash of blinding light. “This isn’t over, you good-for-nothings, you lazy loafers. You can count on it!”

  Her voice and the smell of her belches lingered, but she was gone.

  “What the … ?” Neel stared at the gold and silver balls, and let out a big sniff.

  I walked up to the objects. They weren’t really little planets, I guess, more about the size of bowling balls. Had I imagined what I saw in her mouth? Had it been some kind of a psychedelic dream?

  There was a faint red light emanating from the golden sphere, and the silver one smelled like—what was it? Fresh cotton and honey.

  “It’s them!” I realized. “It’s Lal and Mati!”

  At the sound of their names, the spheres began to vibrate and hum. The gold one even rolled a little, bumping against Neel’s foot.

  “Serves us right for relying on Nosferatu,” Neel muttered, swiping at his eye.

  “Huh?”

  “The original Dracula,” he explained, almost to himself. “Lal and I love that movie. Not like that idiotic teenage vampire—sparkling skin! Not drinking human blood! How ridiculous!”

  He was talking about one of my favorite books-turned-movies, but I decided to let the comment go without protest. Neel was upset, after all.

  “It’s going to be okay,” I said in my most soothing, come-down-from-the-ledge-you-nutter voice. His brother had just been turned into a bowling ball, and he was debating the relative merits of different vampire movies?

  “No, I’m serious,” Neel insisted. “Vampires. Like—‘I vant to suck your blood’?”

  “Yes, I’m familiar with ‘I vant to suck your blood.’”

  “That’s where we got the idea of an enchantment that would banish my mother’s physical form from our kingdom unless someone specifically invited her in.”

 
; Oh, that was what all that permission getting was about. In those old movies, vampires couldn’t enter someone’s house unless they had an invitation. Something I myself had given the rakkhoshi.

  To quote the demoness herself: Drat. Dread. Demonic doo-doo.

  But something still didn’t make sense. “How did she get inside in the first place, to change identities with Danavi?”

  “She must have ridden in on the mist or in the vapor of a storm cloud.” Neel rubbed his eyes. “But she couldn’t take on her physical form until you gave her permission.”

  It was all my fault.

  “Neel, I’m so sorry …”

  “I should have known better.” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t have listened to you.”

  “About what?” I felt so bad for inviting the rakkhoshi into the kingdom, I didn’t even realize that Neel blamed me for something else.

  “You’re the one who insisted we leave Lal alone.” Neel kicked at the ground in frustration. “Why did I listen to you? A stranger! Someone who has no idea what she’s talking about! Someone so selfish she never thinks about other people’s feelings!”

  “It’s not all my fault!” I shouted, my shame and horror making me defensive. “What about you? You didn’t think you should tell me you were a half demon and your mom was out to snack on Lal? Or that you two had come up with some horror-movie spell to keep her out of the kingdom?”

  Neel lifted the two spheres onto his shoulders without another word. But his jaw was working like he was chewing and swallowing down bitter emotions.

  “Look, Neel, I’m sorry,” I said, blinking back tears. “I’m so sorry. For your brother, for Mati, your mother, for everything.”

  Still, the prince said nothing.

  “Do you hear me? I’m sorry! I’m going to help make this right—I promise!”

  “Don’t you get it?” Neel’s eyes were shining with water, but he ground his words out with a fury that startled me. “You can’t do anything to make this right! Nothing will ever be right again!”