by Payal Doshi
“It was just a lucky idea. But we would have been lost without you, Floo,” Rea said, returning Xeranther’s high-five shyly.
“Come on, flinging your blood on the lilies was pretty badass,” Leela said and enthusiastically enacted how Rea’s blood had destroyed the serpent lilies.
Rea’s ears burned. She had come so close to losing her. “Leela was… bitten by a serpent-lily,” she said, shame filling her cheeks.
Xeranther cast a horrified glance and the color emptied from his face. “I’d warned you about the lake,” he said. “Where are you bitten? How are you still standing? Come, we’ll--”
“It’s fine! I’m totally fine!” said Leela. “The dwarves from the castle healed me.”
“Poppy said that was impossible. Hoggish harpies! Did you have to cut off—” Fright sprung from his eyes and Flula spat out black glitter.
“NOTHING was amputated,” Leela said, holding out her hands to calm them both. “The dwarves used the serpent-fang as the antidote to the poison. See!” She showed them her healed leg and Flula fanned herself in relief.
“You are strong to have resisted the serpent venom,” said Xeranther. “Poppy is going to lose his other leg when he finds out the secret to curing the bite is the fang itself.”
“The dwarf said if he hadn’t found the fang in her skin, she would not have made it...” Rea’s chest tightened. The more she lingered on what might have happened, the more her resolve wavered—she would never have forgiven herself if Leela had died. Just the thought of it nauseated her.
“Stop worrying, you two!” Leela said. “Honestly, such a fuss over a little snake bite.”
Rea admired Leela’s courage. If the situation was reversed, would she have stuck around to help Leela find her brother? Rea felt the answer forming in her mind and she squashed it, vowing to be a better friend.
“The fang is known to dissolve in the blood and spread the venom like quicksilver. For those of true valor, like Poppy and Leela, it takes longer to work. For us common folk, we’d be done in minutes,” said Xeranther.
“You should give yourself more credit,” Rea said, facing him. “Revolting against your Queen, securing a stolen boat to cross the serpent waters, fighting for justice by helping us save my brother—I’d say all that requires a heck of a lot of valor to pull off.”
Xeranther waved the compliment away with his hand as a smile lingered on his face.
“She’s right!” said Leela and Xeranther flushed with pride.
“You did the impossible then and entered the castle?” he asked, his expression vacillating between shock and amazement.
“And on a Ceffyldwer, too!” exclaimed Flula.
“Fluting furbingles!” Xeranther’s mouth fell open. “You really flew on a Ceffyldwer? Are you certain it was a Ceffyldwer and not a flying quillcow or a feathery mammoth?”
“Oh, we’re sure,” said Rea, briefly wondering about the existence of a flying cow.
“He’s called Thubian,” smiled Leela.
“He flew out of the skies at the moment Leela and I were going to become serpent-food and brought us to the castle. Anyway, we’re back now and I need your help in finding something that will save Rohan,” Rea said.
She knew Xeranther was excited about her riding a Ceffyldwer, but the minutes were passing. She needed to start looking for the petal instead of updating him and Floo on every little detail. Besides, there was too much to tell—her true identity, her family history, her magical nectar, and the condition to save Rohan.
Xeranther slapped his thigh in delight. “Prancing ponies on a Pillywiggin pari! We’ve only ever heard of Ceffyl-riders in lore and legends. Now here you are, standing before us on the very limbs which rode astride a great Ceffyl!”
Rea pressed a smile on her face. “Anyway—”
“The warm flank, the velvet hairs, the curved antlers sharp enough to slice a man like butter,” cooed Xeranther. “Oh, oh, will you give me a ride?”
“We’re... um... still getting to know each other.”
“Come on, tell us every detail. What was the castle like? Were there savage spriggans guarding it? Were there trolls created out of Shadow Magic? Did the guards have blood on their weapons? Splitting heavens, don’t tell me you had to fight them? And the Queen? Did you see her? Speak to her? Oh, sweet nectar, you did, didn’t you? Did she use Shadow Magic? Did she have an army of soldiers? And your brother! Was he in the Cellars? Did you get to talk to him?”
“STOP!” shouted Rea. “We’ll tell you everything later. Didn’t you hear what I said before? You need to help us find a lost petal. It’s lying somewhere in Astranthia.”
“Huh?” said Xeranther.
Leela glanced at Rea. She knew what that look meant, but she had no time to tell them everything.
“Well...” said Rea, trying to remain patient. “I learned a few things about myself in the castle and let’s say the only way I can free Rohan is if I find this missing petal and deliver it to the Queen.”
“Whatever you say, your greatness,” Xeranther said sarcastically.
“DON’T call me that,” snapped Rea and she looked around to see if anyone had heard.
“What’s got into you? Did the Queen cast a spell on you to be rude?”
“I said I’ll tell you later.”
Xeranther’s gaze turned icy. “You know, this fight isn’t yours alone. It’s mine too. If I am to rebel against the throne and seek vengeance for my Par and the people of Astranthia, I need to be more than someone who just helps you. I need to know what I’m up against.”
“Rea... let’s tell—” said Leela.
“No, I don’t have time!”
“It’s always about you, isn’t it?” said Xeranther. “Help me find my brother. Help me cross the lake. Help me know more about Astranthia. I took you to the Whispering Walls. I took you to my family. I arranged for a boat when no one was ready to give me one. I did all that even though when we first met, you lied to me.”
“Xeranther—” Leela started.
“No!” he said, holding up a hand. “You both lied. You said you were princesses. Now that I know you better, I can’t believe I fell for that.”
“Well, do you really want to know who I am?” challenged Rea. Flula hovered close, her face a mirror of concern. “I’m a princess. Your princess. Princess Raelia of the House of Flower.”
“It’s the House of FLUR,” Xeranther shot back. “HAH! Some princess you are!”
“Well, I AM. The Queen is my aunt and Rohan’s the heir to the throne. That makes him a prince and me a princess. It’s his blood she needs to give to the sacred flower, which is why he is locked in the castle. As a common Astranthian you are sworn to protect and serve Astranthian royalty. Well, guess what? That’s me!” She cocked an eyebrow and lifted her chin the way the Queen had done, to give her an air of importance.
Leela cringed and Xeranther glanced in the direction of the castle. Rea remembered its grotesque tips, hazy amongst the smoky clouds.
“Are you really one of them?” he asked, guardedly.
Rea nodded, crossing her arms.
“Hadn’t I told you? It’s why you can portal.” All the joy that had filled his voice when he first saw them was gone, replaced with distrust and fear. “Only those with the nectar like an Astranthian royal can.”
“No wonder the banyan roots didn’t grow on me,” Leela said, smacking her forehead.
“Well, you were right,” Rea said to Xeranther. “That’s why you have to help me.”
“I don’t have to do anything. And especially not for someone who shares the same blood as the Queen,” he retorted. Hurt, of the painful and angry kind, glistened in his eyes.
“You don’t have a choice. It’s... AN ORDER!”
Xeranther stopped inches from her face. “Well then, ORDER one of your royal minions to find this dead petal. I for one, don’t give a clump’s bottom about it! Come on, Floo, let’s go.”
Flula flitted between Rea and Xe
ranther and when he disappeared into the shadows, she darted after him.
“I should have listened to my good sense when I first met you and left you on the market road!” The echo of his voice, hot with rage, rang through the trees and melted into the fog-heavy morning.
“It’s a LOST petal, not a DEAD one! And it’s not from ANY flower, it’s missing from the SACRED—”
“Um... they’ve gone. They can’t hear you anymore,” Leela said, and Rea shut her mouth.
“It’s fine. We don’t need their help,” she declared, even though her heart sank, knowing Xeranther and Flula had left them to fend for themselves.
“Who needs Xee and Floo or Amma and Bajai? I mean my blood has magic!” Rea said with affected confidence.
“But you don’t know how to use your magic except when you bleed. You can’t possibly do that every time.” Leela looked at her matter-of-factly. “We needed someone from this land to help us and Xeranther was our best chance.”
“Shouldn’t you be on my side instead of supporting Xeranther? You’re my friend first!” scowled Rea. She didn’t want to be angry with Leela, but just as things were starting to fall into place, they had already begun falling apart.
Leela’s expression softened. “Of course I am, but that doesn’t solve the problem we’re in...”
“Well, aren’t you the ‘all problems have a solution’ type of person?” Rea countered in irritation.
“I’m only saying it would’ve been a lot easier with Xee and Floo. We should have told them everything. After all, didn’t Xee help us get to the castle and risk his life for us?” Leela asked, calm and composed as if she was trying to make a child understand.
“Didn’t you hear what the Queen said? I have just TWO days to find the petal or else I won’t see Rohan ever again—you know what? If you want, you can leave too. I don’t have time to convince everyone to help me.” Rea threw her hands up in exasperation and walked away.
“Did I say I wanted to leave? Geez!” Leela ran towards her, shaking her head. “Okay fine, let’s think of different ways to awaken the magic in your blood, all right?”
Rea’s anger cooled. She was glad Leela was back on her side again.
“I should’ve asked the Queen how she awakened her magic...” Rea said, dejectedly. “Wait, what about the books you’ve read about fairies, paries and magical beings... do they say anything about how to wield magic?”
Leela thought about it. “Well, most characters either go to schools of magic, have wands, or have devas like Brahma and Shiva bless them with a magical boon.”
Rea didn’t go to magic school. She didn’t have a wand or know a single spell. And she certainly didn’t think she’d been blessed by a deva. But both Torgar and the Queen said her blood had power. Rea stared at her palms. Would the magical blood thrumming through her veins shoot out of her like Spiderman’s web and lead her to the missing petal? She pointed at objects on the street, summoning the petal, fire, water, and light. Nothing shot out of her like it had from the Queen’s fingertips. Perhaps that was Shadow Magic. And the magic of her blood was different...
As they made their way out of Pariland and onto the main road, sunrise broke from the canopies of trees. A detergent blue flecked the sky. I ought to make myself bleed again, thought Rea. It had worked to destroy the serpent-lilies. Maybe, if she sprinkled her blood on the soil, the sacred petal would grow into existence? Or it would destroy the soil, she thought with a frown.
“Let’s stop here,” said Rea. She looked at her arm, and considered squeezing the cut for a trickle of blood. But her arm was healing, and the idea of opening the wound made her feel a little sick. She spotted a bush with thorns by the side of the road. Maybe that would do?
Rea grabbed hold of a thorn in the bush and pricked her finger. A drop of blood bloomed on her skin and she placed it on the ground.
“Come on, petal. Appear!” she commanded.
Within seconds, in a patch of barren soil, pinkish green stems curled upwards and tiny buds stretched themselves awake, turning into a mélange of pink-blue blossoms.
“Oh my god, oh my god,” yelped Leela. “You cloned the plant right next to it!”
Rea blinked. She literally had. But it wasn’t the sacred blue hibiscus. “Um... Flower, do you know where I can find the lost petal of the Som?”
The plant didn’t reply like the Whispering Walls had. She kneeled on the ground and talked loudly to it. When that didn’t work, she tried communicating with it like she did with Thubian.
Rea dropped her head in frustration. As always when she felt angry or stressed, her mind cast out for someone to blame. Amma and Bajai should have taught me how to wield my magic, she thought sourly. Another instance where they had failed her. Rea kicked a tree.
“Ouch.” Her toe throbbed and Leela came up and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. Even with Leela there, Rea had never felt so alone. She wished she could portal back to see Mishti Daadi. She was the only adult left that Rea could trust. But if they portaled back, they would lose too much time. Rea had to find another way.
Rea went from flower to flower. She rubbed their petals, thorns, leaves, stems and branches, asking for the missing petal. She pleaded with the flora until her throat hurt. She touched the leaves to her face like Amma did. She kissed stalks of grass and stopped at every plant, bush, tree, and blade of grass she could find, asking for the petal while picturing the sacred Som. As the last resort, she cried her tears on the plants, hoping it would work the way her tears revealed the secret about Rohan at the Whispering Walls. Leela watched helplessly.
“ARRGGGHH,” shouted Rea to the skies. “WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?”
They were nearing a small budhood. Buttery sunlight poured over the road, but the cold morning air still stung their throats.
“I think we should go find Xee and Floo,” Leela said and Rea shot her a look. “They might know how you can awaken your magic—”
“I’m not going to beg Xeranther to help me. He doesn’t understand how important this is.”
Leela sighed. “You need to understand that you need him more than he needs you. Besides, didn’t he help us when he had every reason not to?”
“Well, I don’t care!” stormed Rea. “He chose to help us.”
“Yup, just like he chose to leave us.”
Rea opened her mouth to retaliate, but she didn’t have a comeback. Arguing with Leela felt like arguing with an older sister. Rea could see the sense in her words and yet she wanted to be stubborn and disregard it. But it was in vain. Leela’s guilt trip (and good sense) was working, mostly because she had run out of ideas on how to get her nectar to work and find the petal. Maybe she could simply ask around for it? Although, if it were that easy, the Queen would’ve done it already. Xeranther was her best chance. Arghhh. She had wasted half the day failing to awaken her magic and who knew how long it would be before they found him. He could be anywhere! For all the magic in the realm, couldn’t they use cell phones in Astranthia?
“Fine. Let’s go look for him.”
Leela raised an eyebrow.
“All right,” Rea scowled. “I’ll apologize.”
They turned to leave, and a cloud of dust rose like a mountain in front of them. Men and women charged forth from the budhood, banging their weapons of logs, pitch forks, and axes. Terrified, Rea and Leela ducked behind a cluster of shrubs.
“Renounce the throne! Renounce the throne! The Queen has failed!”
“She’s plundered our earnings!”
“Ruined our crops!”
“Slaughtered our families!”
“Your time is up! No blood, no throne!”
The protestors roared, scaring the birds. They came in waves, thundering down the road, banging their weapons against the ground. Children held onto the torn hems of their parents’ clothes and peered between the weapons, their faces similar to the ones Rea had grown up with: poor and dirty, looking like they hadn’t smiled or eaten for days. Rea and Leela hudd
led closer. As the first set of men, women and children marched by, fifty more followed.
All of a sudden, hooves galloped down the streets and the ground shuddered as a flank of soldiers met the protestors.
Swords sliced the air and steel clinked like chimes. Leela grabbed onto Rea. Soldiers in black and gold uniforms ruthlessly brandished their swords, cutting open throats and torsos. The men and women’s faces filled with fear. The gilded insignia of a tree emblazoned within the symbol of a sun—the same one Rea had seen on the dwarves’ robes—splattered in red as soldiers on mighty steeds mercilessly trampled on the fallen who were piling up like mounds of flour sacks. They cared not for the men or women or children. Amidst the chaos, Rea saw Xeranther. He was waving a spear at a soldier, screaming at the top of his lungs!
“No mercy for the treasonous!” yelled the soldier as he slashed Xeranther’s leg with his sword and kicked him in the stomach. Xeranther cried out, curling into a ball. The soldier moved on to his next victim and Xeranther lay motionless. Rea and Leela screamed.
The captain of the soldiers raced into the mayhem astride a black horse with a braided mane and a golden-red saddle encrusted in jewels. He raised his hands, signaling his men to stop. Then he peered down at the cowering protestors. They were crying for mercy.
“Her Extreme Greatness has been kind enough to spare the degenerate lot of you,” he bellowed. “If it were up to me, ungrateful specimens such as yourselves would get exactly what your comrades received. You shout your slogans of treason and what does the Queen do? She wishes to share with you a valuable piece of knowledge to pacify your anger.”
His lips quivered with excitement as the soldiers parted to make way for a horse, white as a dove’s feather, led by two blue-bodied, lizard-men like the one Rea had seen guarding Rohan’s cell in the orb.
“ROHAN!” she cried out and the captain and his soldiers looked in her direction, their fingers curled around the hilt of their swords. Leela pulled her hands over Rea’s mouth as she squirmed under her grip. Seeing no movement, the captain turned back to the protestors and Rohan, who was locked in a cage tied to the back of the horse. He was thin as bones and bound in chains.
