We had no choice but to move forward. My seven-headed band of brothers were baring their fangs right behind us.
But so too were the serpents in front of us. They slithered forward, hissing, winding themselves around our arms and legs, hanging over our heads from the ceiling. It was like a horrible nightmare. At first I tried not to scream as I felt their cold skin slip across mine—but soon I couldn’t control myself. Slip—a snake was climbing up my shin. Squeeze—another wrapped itself across my chest like a purse strap. I couldn’t even see Neel anymore—my vision was entirely blocked by writhing serpents. I thought of Baba and how he had tried to protect me from this. I shut my eyes, trying to imagine myself a little girl again, safe and secure in my father’s arms.
A familiar voice screamed and screamed. It took me a couple of moments to realize it was my own.
After what seemed like hours but must have been minutes, a voice commanded from the end of the room, “Serpents begone! Make a path, and bring them to me!”
The snakes unwound themselves from our bodies. Even the ones in front of us wiggled away, making a clear path from where we stood to the throne.
My skin felt slimy and clammy. I felt shaken and bruised. I shuddered as the seven-headed snake pushed me forward again.
“I’m so sorry,” I mumbled brokenly to Neel. He reached out and held my damp hand in his own. The warmth of his skin took a small edge off my fear.
“For what?” he breathed.
We walked forward as slowly as we could toward the snake throne.
“He’s my dad. We wouldn’t be in this mess if it wasn’t for me.”
“Not true. We needed to find that python jewel.”
“Well, I’m sorry anyway.”
“It’s not your fault,” Neel muttered. “He’s your dark matter.”
“My what?” I asked, but we were in front of the throne by then and the Serpent King’s green eyes flashed.
“Silence!” he bellowed. I dropped Neel’s hand. Tuni cowered on my shoulder somewhere near my ear.
“I see you have met my son Naga,” the Serpent King hissed. “I am Sesha, King of the Serpents, guardian of the primordial ocean of divine nectar, keeper of time.”
My skin broke out in goose bumps. My mouth felt dry. This was my biological father, at last. The Serpent King had a human form: dark hair tinged with gray, shimmering green clothes, a crown made of serpent’s teeth, a handsome but cruel face. Was there any similarity there to mine? I searched but couldn’t see it.
“Welcome to the Palace of Desires,” the Serpent King hissed. Beside his writhing throne of snakes were urns of rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. He ran his hands through these as he talked, letting the jewels fall back through his fingers. “Do you see anything that pleases you?”
His green eyes glowed in my direction, and I could feel their almost physical pull. Here he was, not five feet away. My father. And he wanted me back; he wanted me to join him. What was wrong with that? That was only natural, wasn’t it? I had a swimming, goofy sensation, like I was filled with the golden honey that Mati had been feeding the pakkhiraj horses. I felt the nectar swimming through my blood. My father wanted me back. And I would go.
I swayed, my eyes half hooded, as if in a trance.
Until I felt a sharp peck on my neck, that is.
“Princess, don’t look directly at him. Still your mind. Don’t believe the sweet lies he’s feeding you,” Tuntuni squawked.
“Silence!” the Serpent King snarled, waking me out of my trancelike state. I stared at the floor, my mind racing. I could still feel my father’s pull, though. Was it magic, something about his personality, or just our shared history? I couldn’t tell but I couldn’t trust myself to resist him either.
“If she is the one, it is fate that has brought her back to me.” I could feel more than see the Serpent King’s green eyes were boring into me. “She will be a valuable weapon in the coming war.”
“Yesss, Father,” Naga agreed in his multiple voices.
My heart was a mess of contradictions. I was afraid. I didn’t want to be turned into a snake, or a weapon, or to stay in this underground reptile zoo for a minute longer. On the other hand, it was hard not to feel the power of finding my birth father. Then, like a wave, the guilt washed over me. How could I be thinking of this monster as my father when my own dear Baba was still missing?
“She has my mark on her arm,” the Serpent King hissed, “but what makes you so sure she is the one?”
“Shhhe bearsss this mark alssso, Father!” The seven-headed serpent pushed me to my knees.
“Hey!” Neel protested.
The cobra’s tail pushed my head down, revealing the moon-shaped scar on the back of my neck. The Serpent King’s laugh boomed through the cavern.
“So, it’s true. You are the brat my queen hid away. And now you’ve come back—to steal from your poor old father?” His voice was mocking. I was pretty sure Sesha didn’t think he was either poor or old.
Neel helped me to my feet. My legs were like jelly.
“I am Kiranmala.” I held my head up, hoping the trembling in my lips wasn’t too obvious.
For a second, I thought the Serpent King smiled. But his expression remained cruel.
“And who are you, young rakkhosh?” he asked. “What do you want with my”—he paused—“filthy little offspring?”
“I’m, er, friends with your, erm, daughter. Uh, sir,” Neel stammered, sounding more like he was addressing a friend’s dad at after-school carpool than a mortal enemy. Maybe he was feeling the Serpent King’s strange power too.
“Silence!” Sesha shouted. “This puny imp is my blood? I can hardly believe it.” He sneered, his upper lip curling in an ugly way.
I was rooted to the spot. This was way more awful than I thought it would be. How could I ever have thought I might have anything in common with such a horrible father?
“Just like your mother,” he continued, “so soft and weak and moony.”
My throat constricted, but I pushed down the tears. Part of me refused to blubber in front of this monster. But truth be told, another part of me didn’t want to disappoint my father.
“You will thank me.” The Serpent King raised his arms above his head. “You will thank me for sparing you from a life of drudgery and giving birth to your inner glory!”
I hid my eyes. I could feel his green gaze boring into me again, and that pull, like some kind of a magical rope between us. Like he had shot me with an invisible arrow attached to a string and all he had to do was reel me in.
“Join me!” the King thundered, a blinding green light building between his hands.
“No!” Neel shouted, as if forcing himself to resist Sesha’s magic. “I kind of like her the way she is.” He pulled out his sword, which flashed in the light of the Serpent King’s glowing energy.
But Naga pushed Neel to the ground, looming and hissing above him.
“Stop!” I cried, reaching for my bow.
None of us noticed that Tuntuni had flown out of my arms while the King talked. Now he flew up, flapped his wings in Sesha’s face, and then snatched something out of Neel’s shirt pocket.