Lal put away his sword and rolled up his sleeves. He circled Nose Ring with his fists raised, like an old-fashioned boxer. “We are the princes Lalkamal and Neelkamal—guests in your land from the Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers. You have insulted us, and I must ask for satisfaction.”
Princes? Ma’s note said something about trusting princes. The truth was, I guess I’d already decided to trust the boys—right after I’d figured out they probably weren’t serial killers. Why else would I be sitting on the back of a winged horse, waiting for Lal to finish his duel with a teenage zombie?
The horse under me whinnied and stamped its feet, and I was grateful that Neel had its reigns firmly in hand. But Lal wasn’t paying either of us any attention.
“You are unarmed, so I challenge you to fisticuffs! Hand-to-hand combat!”
Lal’s dark eyes glinted at his opponent, as if he had nothing better to do than fight a mascara-wearing high schooler. As handsome as he was, I had to admit, Lal wasn’t the most practical person I’d ever met. And why did he talk like an old-fashioned hero when his brother didn’t? It was like he was playing some movie version of a prince. I almost expected a little glint of light to cheesily spark off his front tooth. Like: ching
“Hello? Could we move it along? Being chased by a demon here?” I muttered. Neel gave me a sideways glance.
“Haoo, maoo, khaoo!” The crashing sounds were louder now, and I could hear the demon’s cries very close to the front door of the house. The horses skittered and neighed, and I held on as tightly as I could, but kept my attention on Lal and his opponents.
“Man, that’s a wicked scary haunted-house tape!” Some of the high school boys looked nervous and started backing off.
Only Nose Ring stayed. He hacked and spit at Lal’s feet. The goober hung on a lone blade of grass, shimmering like a disgusting jewel.
“I demand satisfaction!” Lal yelled. He circled the boy, his fists still up. Despite how ridiculous he was being, anger only made Lal more hair-meltingly handsome. While I got my fill of Lal-flavored eye candy, Neel swung himself up on the ever more agitated black horse.
“Hold tight,” he ordered over his shoulder. “I bet you don’t know how to ride and I don’t want you rolling off and getting pancaked.”
My skin prickled at Prince Neel being so close. Not just because he was a boy, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever sat that close to a boy, but because he was an obnoxious boy. A boy who thought he was all that and a packet of samosas.
“Why can’t I ride with Lal? I bet he’s more of a gentleman!”
“Oh, sure, he’s more of a gentleman, and better at being royal too.” Neel raised a dark eyebrow. “But you better believe I’m the better rider.”
Uck! Obnoxious and an egomaniac! I was about to zing off a good response, when I heard a cracking noise—like an iceberg breaking off a glacier.
I looked up just in time to see the entire wall around my front door collapse. The horse flapped its wings and bucked in fear. I had no choice but to hang on to Neel’s waist for dear life.
“Time to go, little bro!” Neel hollered, barely keeping the animal on the ground.
The rakkhosh pushed through the wall of my house as if it were tissue paper and held one of the pillars from the front porch in its hand. Bricks and mortar fell on the demon’s shoulders, but it brushed them away like raindrops. When its beady eyes finally focused on the far end of the lawn, the demon lumbered in our direction, the pillar raised like a club over its head. Each step made the ground shake.
“Mommy!” Nose Ring was halfway down the street, running at full speed behind his already disappeared crew.
To my left, I heard a thin, high-pitched voice. Oh no!
“Look at the scary monster costume, Daddy!” A little mermaid approached the house with her suit-wearing father.
“Run!” I shouted at the dad, since I was pretty sure he couldn’t see the rakkhosh.
The father stood frozen, as if he wanted to run but wasn’t sure why. I shouted at him again, and by some instinct, he grabbed his daughter and started sprinting down the sidewalk. The girl’s smiling face bobbed over her father’s back, her tiara hanging crookedly from her head. “But I want to see the monster eat the prince, Daddy!”
Lal was paying no attention to the rakkhosh that was gaining on him by the second. Instead, he shook his fist at Nose Ring’s departing form.
“Run, you lily-livered lamprey! Run from my wrath!”
Even with a looming demon, a near-eaten neighbor girl, a spooked horse, and a rude riding companion on my mind, I noticed that some of Lal’s dark curly locks had come loose from his turban. sigh
The advancing rakkhosh was drooling so much goo from its mouth now that strings of the frothy stuff were sticking to the tree stumps and bare bushes it passed. It eyed Lal, licking its lips.
“Dirty socks and stinky feet!” the demon screeched. “I smell royal human meat!” Bristle-like hairs stood up on its arms and nose.
Wow, rakkhosh really do rhyme! I thought in passing, before my mind became more appropriately preoccupied with my imminent death and dismemberment.
Handsome or not, this royal wack job was going to get us all killed. Trust the princes, Ma had said, but we’d all have to survive first.
“Come on, Lal!” I yelled. “Let’s get out of here!”
The white horse was just as scared as the black one. Its eyes were big and its breath came out in audible whooshes through its nose. But it wasn’t going anywhere without Lal. The loyal animal opened its wings and took a few steps toward its master. It shook its mane, as if asking him to get on its back. The black horse bearing Neel and me shuddered, dashing this way and that, barely under Neel’s control.
The demon’s black tongue lolled from between his fangs. “How he’ll holler, how he’ll groan, when I eat the mortal prince’s bones!”
“Seriously?” Neel mused. “That’s the best meter he could come up with?”
The horses whinnied in fear and warning.
“Lal!” I screamed. The rakkhosh’s fingernails were inches from his head.
But just then, Prince Lal did something fairly high on the Richter scale of stupidity. He launched himself off a tree trunk, did an Olympic-level double back somersault in the air, and landed on the demon’s head, gripping its two horns like motorcycle handle bars.
“Me thinks, sirrah, you need to go on a diet!” Lal announced. He tried to stab the monster with his sword, but the rakkhosh’s thick skin stopped the blade from going in too far.
“This prince is like a little fly!” cried the demon, swatting at Lal. “Me thinks it’s time for him to die!”
“Aren’t you going to go help him?” I yelled at Neel. He just sat there in front of me, watching the spectacle.
“Aw shucks, he’s just showing off.” Neel reached into his pocket and scarfed down a couple more of Ma’s rasagollas.
I shrieked as the monster’s fist managed to connect with Lal’s head. The prince slumped forward, unconscious, and then began to slip off the rakkhosh’s neck. Only his red sash, which had gotten tangled up in one of the demon’s horns, saved him from crashing down to the ground. Prince Lalkamal hung upside down from the thrashing monster, his perfect face deathly still.