by Payal Doshi
A look of thrill filled his face.
“In all these years, folk fewer than the fingers on my hand have made it to the other side. Some came close but died in the end. There was once a man who sailed across the lake, battled the serpents and won! He were mere inches away from the shore when he stopped rowing to take a look at the castle. In that motionless second, the serpents besieged his boat and he was eaten alive. More than thousands like him have perished trying and the rest be scared stiff to tempt fate.” Poppy returned to his chair and stretched his leg out in front of him.
“So, you’re saying it’s impossible to cross the lake alive...” Rea was disheartened. She had thought the whole point of the story was that there was a way around the lake.
“Never did I say impossible! Every problem must have a solution. Didn’t I say a few unknown souls have crossed to the other side?”
“Then how do we—I mean anyone who wants to—do it?”
The creases in Poppy’s cheeks deepened with a smile. “The answer lies in the knowledge itself. The lake is created by magic. And magic fights magic! I believe there can be two ways to cross the lake. You can be a royal, born with the same nectar that runs through the blood of the Queen, or you can find the right type of magic to conquer the magic of the lake.”
“What if you call the Ceffyldwer?” Rea asked over him. “It has magic, doesn’t it?”
Poppy rubbed his scruffy stubble. “’How did you think of that, youngling’?”
“Just a wild guess...”
“Some of them who made it were rumored to have summoned the Ceffyldwer. Magic fights magic! Alas, a rare few know how to summon one.”
“What if you do know how to summon it?” Rea could barely mask her excitement.
Poppy gave a big bear laugh. “Then summon it you must.”
“If only it was that easy to know the Ceffyldwer’s call,” said Xeranther. “Aren’t there countless variations of it?”
“Aye, there be. And the magical beast won’t come for any who know its call. The Ceffyldwer appears for those rare few with the truest of intentions. Our legends call them chariots of angels. But summoning the beast isn’t something you take lightly. First you have to survive the lake. That be how I lost my leg. If my mates hadn’t chopped it off, my blood would have thickened all over my body and I’d be good for dead.”
Engrossed, Leela picked at her fingernail. “What about the Queen’s family? Can they safely get across?”
“One doesn’t know anymore seeing as the Queen has done away with her family. Distant relations fear her and prefer to remain distant. There was a time when the royal family were gracious hosts to their cousins and relatives. Now, the Queen keeps to herself as far as we know.”
Poppy paused, lost in thought.
“King Zulgar believed the use of magic caused tyranny,” he continued after a moment. “During his rule, its use was kept to a minimum, lending a feeling of equality betwixt the royal family and the common folk. Magic of the nectar was practiced only for the good of the people and in the most exceptional of circumstances. But the Queen rules for tyranny and for the division of classes. Dare I say, she is succeeding. Common folk fear her Shadow Magic. We are not equals. We stand far beneath her eyes.”
“What about portaling in and out of the castle?” asked Rea. “Xeranther mentioned there’s a portal within the castle grounds. Couldn’t it be used to travel to and fro?”
“Portals allow transport betwixt realms, not within Astranthia. Lad, you should be knowing that.” He thwacked the top of Xeranther’s head with his stick.
“Ow,” he cried, and Poppy’s smirk evaporated.
“The time is upon us now for our history to be rewritten. We will be waiting to see what the Queen has in store for the Night of Nilaya. Whose blood powerful with the magic of the nectar will she sacrifice on the sacred Som? Will she wield her Shadow Magic? The only thing we know is on the night of the full blue moon she cannot hide behind the gloom of her castle walls. She will have to present herself in front of us all. And we await the day. If she cannot replenish the sacred flower, her claim to the throne will be lost and she will be banished for all of time! Her only chance is to conjure up the royal children. Bah, it be impossible!” His face puffed pink.
Rea’s nerves tightened into a knot. Rohan was captured by the Queen. Did that mean he was one of the royal children she needed to conjure? Was that why his blood was required? And... if that was true, was she a royal too?
Rea glanced at Leela and thought of their life in Tombu. Old clothes, coarse hair, small houses, no money, and skin that never looked as clean as the rich no matter how hard they scrubbed it. It was absurd to think she could be a princess.
“Are you done churning their innocent minds with your imperious rants, Poppy?” Xeranther’s mother teased. She handed Poppy a cold drink. “Look at the lassies, you’ve scared them silly. Poppy’s stories go round your head and get tucked behind your ear until you don’t know where they begin and where they end. Come along now Par, it’s time to go to the fields.”
Poppy eased his weight on his daughter as Berber hovered with a pair of worn gloves. “Say Felza, is that pudding I smell on you?”
Xeranther’s mother laughed. “He may not hear so well, but his stomach is in tip-top shape.”
“All right my new friends, I must get to work before the landlord cracks the whip on me. And she be right, don’t go worrying about the serpent sea. Lucky for us, you don’t have to cross it. Now, best be keeping those curious minds curious.”
“Thank you so much, Mr... er—”
“Friends of my lad are my friends too. Call me Poppy.”
“Thank you, Poppy,” Rea said, and a fuzzy feeling spread within her.
Rea couldn’t stop thinking about what Poppy had said. If getting to the castle was such a dangerous mission, she had to do it alone. It was her quest, and no one should have to pay the price for it except herself.
“I don’t care if it’s dangerous, I’m coming with you,” said Leela, when Rea expressed her feelings on the matter. “I thought we were a team.”
“We are. But I don’t want you to feel pressured into doing it... What if something goes wrong?”
“This is important.” Leela stood her ground. “Rohan is important and I’m not going to let you do this alone.”
Powder-blue blossoms from nearby trees turned in their direction, infusing the air with a fruity fragrance. Rea struggled to find the words she wanted. Her heart, used to being empty, was filled with gratitude. Leela cared for her so much that she was willing to risk her life for her.
“You are a really good friend, you know that?” she said, calling Leela her friend for the first time and realizing for the first time what it felt like to have a friend. “I’m so glad you’re here with me.”
Leela threw her arms around Rea’s neck.
“You know, I’ve always wanted to be your friend,” she said, nudging a pebble, “but I thought you didn’t like me.”
Guilt creeped over Rea. She was ashamed of herself. After spending time with Leela, she had come to appreciate her knack for seeing the sunnier side of things. It wasn’t annoying anymore. If anything, it was comforting. Amma and Rohan may have turned their backs on her, but maybe it didn’t mean everybody else would… And what if Tara, the mean girl from Mishti Daadi’s village was right? The reason she didn’t have any friends was because she was the mean one, only wanting to see everyone’s faults, and never opening her heart up to anyone.
“Um,” interrupted Xeranther. “Just to be clear I won’t be joining you on the lake. I—er—don’t want to risk—dying.”
“I understand,” said Rea, knowing he, too, was going out of his way to help her. “You’ve done so much already. I couldn’t ask for a better Astranthian guide or friend.”
Xeranther blushed, looking at his feet. “There are a few hours left until sundown. Will you be staying or portaling to Earth?”
“I can stay, if you don�
��t have to get back,” said Leela. “No one will realize I’m gone. Besides, Amma will think I’m at the library working on school stuff. I’ve been playing that up these past few days.”
Rea considered what would be best. Although Amma hadn’t once asked where she was going or if she had slept or eaten, Rea knew her mother wouldn’t let her leave the house for an overnight mission without an explanation. But if she was gone when everyone woke up, she was pretty sure no one would notice her absence until well into the evening. Once they noticed, she wasn’t sure if Amma would care that much that she was missing. Amma had never favored her anyway, and with Rohan gone, Rea had begun to feel like a burden to her. Bajai would be worried, but she’d forgive her after she came back home. Or maybe even Bajai would forget about her altogether.
“I’m not going anywhere until we rescue Rohan,” Rea said decidedly.
Xeranther nodded and led the way. Since they had a few hours to kill, they chose to walk to the lake. The sun, a flaming mango-orange, brushed the landscape in hues of sepia. Xeranther’s mood darkened as the sun began to set. He implored them a dozen times to abandon their plans to cross the serpent sea. When they remained adamant, he reverted to long silences or monosyllabic replies.
“I have to meet with the boatmen later tonight to finalize the arrangements,” he said. “It’s best I do it alone.”
Rea and Leela didn’t argue. They walked on, the path turning narrow and rocky. Xeranther walked ahead as Leela and Rea followed behind.
“Have you thought of why Rohan might be brought here? I mean this kind of stuff usually only happens in books or movies...” asked Leela, walking closer to Rea.
Rea lied and shook her head. She wasn’t ready to tell her about the possibility of Rohan being one of the royal children until she was absolutely sure. Her conscience pricked her. She wasn’t being a good friend at all. Rea swallowed her guilt. It tasted bitter like medicine.
“What about your Amma and Bajai? Do they know he’s in Astranthia?” asked Leela.
“Oh, no. Amma thinks Rohan’s gone forever. From the moment we realized he was missing, she said it was too late as if she’d done anything to find him. And Bajai has shriveled up like a prune. She keeps asking about the nightmare, but I haven’t said any more than I did before. It’s not like she can help us, and I don’t want her thinking I’ve lost my mind talking about portals and paries and evil queens. What about you? Won’t your Amma and Baba be worried if we’re here a few days?”
Leela looked at her and laughed. “It would be a miracle if they notice I’m not there. Anyway, I would much rather be here. Charting my own life path.”
Rea grinned, glad that Leela had chosen to stay. “You know, I haven’t been able to shake off the feeling that Amma knows more than she’s saying... or rather, not saying,” she confessed. “It feels like too much of a coincidence that Rohan went missing the day she met Mishti Daadi.”
“What do you mean?” asked Leela.
“I think Amma knew something bad was going to happen and that’s why she went to see her.”
Leela went wide-eyed.
“After we get Rohan back, I’m going to find out what it is. It might have something to do with Baba...” Maybe he’s trapped here too, she wanted to say.
“Parents can be a real pain sometimes,” said Leela, letting an ordinary butterfly land on her palm.
Rea glanced at Leela, hesitating for a moment. “Before, you said you wanted to be my friend... why me?” she asked, not adding the ‘since I wasn’t particularly nice to you’ part.
Leela shrugged. “You’re different, like me. The kids at school call me ‘nerdy’ and ‘too eager’ and you, well, you don’t care about what they think. I admire that because I do care, and it sucks sometimes. And I’ve seen you stand up for yourself when some of the girls are mean to you and that’s awesome.”
Rea’s cheeks went red. No one had ever seen her this way before. Or said they actually admired something about her. She beamed at Leela. “You’re awesome too. Everyone else is just stupid.”
Leela winked. “You also didn’t have any friends, so I thought, hey, there’s something we have in common!”
Rea was prepared to feel offended by those words, but she laughed. “You know what, that’s a pretty good reason!”
They chuckled as Xeranther turned, giving them a side-eye as though they were crazy to be making jokes at a time like this and they both stopped giggling.
“Hey Xee, don’t you go to school?” Leela asked and Rea did a double take, hearing her call him ‘Xee’ like they were best friends.
Xeranther turned grimmer. “I used to, but after Par was taken away, Poppy was forced to work the fields. He could only work half the hours with his age and wooden leg. So, I left school to sell trinkets and do odd jobs.”
“Oh,” said Leela and she begged Rea with her eyes to change the subject.
A dragonfly with arm-long wings swooshed towards them and swirled over a host of bushes, creating a deafening buzz. It swallowed a fat, finger-sized bee and nodded towards them to say hello. Rea jumped back a good few steps and glanced at Leela who had turned still as a statue with an expression of shock etched on her face. Xeranther casually tipped his head at the insect and said, “Hello.”
“Obviously there’s magic in Astranthia,” Rea said after awkwardly returning the dragonfly’s greeting. “But no one uses wands or casts spells. Yet flowers bloom and wilt before our eyes, walls whisper secrets and paries help change the seasons.”
“Well, it’s not that confusing,” said Xeranther. “Astranthia’s nectar runs within her. Through her soil, air, and water. It’s why her ‘magic’ manifests in spectacular forms of nature—in flowers, animals and all the pari-folk. There are so many manifestations, I haven’t seen them all. And they keep changing. Though most have become commonplace for us, when we come across a new manifestation, it’s like discovering a treasure.” His eyes glittered.
“And the Queen’s magic is different?”
“Aye. As an Astranthian royal, the blood of the nectar flows within her but the magic she conjures is utterly unnatural. It’s made from stolen and elusive matter, which is evil in nature and the opposite of nectral magic, which is good and nurturing. Shadow Magic draws its power from sucking the light out of nectral magic. Only the magically powerful can wield it.”
Leela shook off a shiver.
“What about potions and enchantments?” asked Rea.
“They’re made from the Queen’s Shadow Magic and are sold to help create larger harvests, deeper rivers, greener pastures—things the nectar once took care of. With these potions, the Queen has poured greed into the people and now everyone wants more than what the land can provide.”
Xeranther grew glum again until his eyes fell on a tall plant with bamboo-like shoots. He snapped off three of its shoots and crunched down on the bulbous part with his teeth.
“You should try these lollisuckles.” He sucked on the shoot like it was a straw in a milkshake. “They’re delicious!”
Thick juice oozed down his chin, and Rea and Leela took one each. The shoot brimmed with a syrupy liquid tasting of sugarcane and honey.
“This is yummmilicious,” said Leela and she broke off a few more for them to drink. Rea slurped hers down in seconds.
“There’s a third kind of magic,” said Xeranther. “Underground magic or trixter magic. Expert brewers, fermenters and alchemists—ordinary folk who study the use and philosophy of magic—experiment with the mildest form of nectral magic, which is the best they can conjure, to create amazing trixters that make objects do a host of tricks.” He wiggled his belt-pouch to show off the last remaining drops of his ‘make a branch grow’ potion. It twinkled in the light.
“Once I give Mar the money she needs from the sales of my trinkets, I save the coins I have to spare, if there are any, to visit Hex Hollow, a night market where merchants, vendors and brewers of trixter magic come to sell their latest inventions. See, ordinary folk
aren’t meant to conjure magic—most of us aren’t able to anyway—and although the trixters are harmless, you cannot be caught buying them. The Queen bans their creation and sale, so the market keeps moving, setting up shop in secret places.”
“That’s so exciting. I wish we could see one,” gushed Leela.
“Well, you will.” He grinned. “It’s where I’m meeting the boatmen tonight.”
Chapter 17
A Tear in the Night Air
Walking in Astranthia at night was an experience. Flowers with iridescent petals glowed, infusing the air with scent and song, some humming soft lullabies, others a peppy, flute-like tune. Paries skittered. Buds swam in lantern light, dotting the landscape like bonfires. Some, in the wealthy budhoods, even glowed in hues of rainbow light. The celestial realm, translucent during the day, shone brilliantly against the liquid black sky. Its silvery light shimmered over the road for miles.
“We’re here,” Xeranther said, stopping beside a canopy of neon-colored blossoms sighing and rustling in a contended daze.
Rea saw flowers floating high above them. They seemed embedded into the sky, without a trunk or a branch to hold them there. The wind picked up, and the sky-flowers swayed. For a second, branches, darker than coal, glinted beneath the flowers, and Leela reached to touch one.
“Don’t!” yelled Xeranther. “The Nightshade isn’t a tree. He just looks like one. And his flowers bite.”
Leela’s hand stopped mid-air and Xeranther gave a sigh of relief. “Don’t you have the Nightshade in your land?” he asked, confused at Rea and Leela’s shocked faces.
“The only plant I can think of that bites is a Venus flytrap and it doesn’t look anything like this. Besides, its leaves do the biting and eating. And if there is a tree like the Nightshade in our world, its flowers don’t bite, right?” Leela turned to Rea.
