“Chhaya Devi.” Prince Neelkamal joined his hands together before her in a gesture of respect. He added the word devi, which means “goddess,” at the end of her name—so that her name became “the shadow goddess.”
I hung back with Lal, helping him control the skittish horses. I caressed Snowy’s nose, whispering to him. He exhaled puffs of hot air on my hand, while opening then folding his wings, as if he wasn’t sure whether to fly away without us.
The old crone peered at Neel with one sharp eye. The woman’s other eye, rheumy and diseased, focused directly at me. I could feel her gaze boring into the mark on my arm.
“You have brought this princess back home from exile?”
Neel nodded. “We’re going to face many challenges, and I think we might need help from both the darkness and the light.”
My skin broke out in goose bumps. I hardly noticed Snowy chewing nervously on a strand of my hair.
“That is your mistake, Prince! And that will be your downfall!” the crone snapped, waving her cane. “You think of good and bad as something separate? There is no darkness without light, no light without darkness.” The old woman coughed—a horrible, hacking sound. When she caught her breath again, she continued, “Unless you accept that, you will fail in this quest, my crown prince.”
“You know I’m not—” Neel began, but the crone cut him off.
“I know no such thing.”
Next to me, Lal took in a shaky breath. His face was pale and now he looked as frightened as the horses. Even though I didn’t know what worried him, it was my turn to pat him reassuringly on the shoulder.
“You must see and accept the face of your shadow self, but never lose yourself in the darkness,” the old woman was saying. “If you do that, no one can fetch you back.”
Neel looked a little shaken by the crone’s words. “I won’t … I’m not … I mean …” He snuck a look in my direction. “I understand.”
“You understand nothing! You are like one forever asleep in your selfish misery!” she spat. “But you will understand before this quest is over. You will awake and see or perish trying!” The old woman hobbled over to a tiny purple vial with a pointed cork. The vial seemed to be full of a pulsating, swirling energy.
“Take this shadow—it took me weeks to capture the spirit of the old banyan tree. Its roots are many and deep, its branches curious and reaching.” She cackled to herself. “But Chhaya is patient, more patient even than the oldest tree in the oldest grove. I waited until the banyan’s shadow began to creep out over the earth. And then I caught it in my bottle!”
Catching the spirits of trees in bottles? Visiting the goddess of shadows? I shivered. I was definitely not in New Jersey anymore.
The old woman handed the vial to Neel, who seemed careful not to touch it. He wrapped it in a cloth pulled out of his pocket and tucked it away again.
“How much shall I give you?”
“Do not talk to me about money!” the old woman spat. “You know what I want in return.”
Lal gasped. “No, in the name of our royal father, please don’t promise it!”
Neel didn’t even acknowledge his brother’s presence. “I promise,” he said to the crone. But the fist by Neel’s side was clenching and unclenching.
Then Neel 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!”