Force of Fire, page 5
part #4 of Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond Series
“Relax, Deembo, it’s fine.” I don’t know why, but the whole interaction made me queasy. I grabbed both sisters none too gently by the shoulders and shoved them behind me.
“Look, I really don’t have the time to stand around arguing with you about this.” Sesha looked pointedly at his bejeweled wristwatch. “If it doesn’t appeal to you, don’t accept the mission. I’m sure I’ll find another rakkhosh willing to help.”
“No!” Even though something felt off about this whole thing, it was my chance to learn control over my power, and I wasn’t ready to give that up. “Fine. I’ll do it. I just wanted to know all the facts.”
“The facts are these: I have something you want, and I’ll give it to you if you get me the thing I want,” Sesha said in a too-patient voice. “But I don’t have time for hand-holding.”
“Hand-holding!” I practically squawked. “Don’t get any ideas, Mr. Big Shot, I have no interest in holding your hand!”
“Oh, really? Not what it seemed like before.” Sesha grinned and then, unexpectedly, touched the side of my mouth again. I shivered and felt myself grow warm with embarrassment as I saw his grin widen. “I’ll see you here in one week, with the moonbeams. Then we’ll have another lesson.”
What was it about this guy? He made me both want to punch him in the self-confident nose and … what? I couldn’t even let myself imagine what that other feeling coursing through me was. “Fine,” I gritted out, “in one week.”
“Use whatever force you need to keep those moonbeams safe.” Sesha lowered his voice into an intense whisper. “Don’t let anyone, and I mean not a snake, human, rakkhosh, or anyone else, hurt those moonbeams. Get it? Keep them safe, or I will make you regret the day you met me!”
I must have looked shocked. What the heck was he blathering about? How could anyone hurt a moonbeam, anyway? But without another word, Sesha swept out of the forest with his snake and insect minions in tow.
The snake boy wasn’t boring, I had to give him that. But how in the dimensions was I going to find those dratted moonbeams?
As luck would have it, my first class the next day was Honors Thievery with Professor Ravan. Elder brother to our headmistress, he had made his mark on rakkhosh history with the kidnapping of an important queen in a flying chariot, an incident that caused a full-out human-rakkhosh war that he was usually blamed for. Never mind that he was actually just getting revenge for the way that the humans in question had treated Surpanakha, his sister. But now that he was retired from supervillainy and warmongering, Ravan was an excellent teacher. He was low-key cool, a little scary but seriously inspiring. I’d already learned a lot this semester. So far, we’d finished chapters on petty larceny; distraction-based theft; disguises; and, my favorite, snatch-and-run stealing.
After staying up most of the night unsuccessfully researching moonbeams in the library, I knew I had to ask Ravan. I got to the classroom early, a first for me, and went straight up to the teacher’s desk. Instead of the banyan grove, Ravan preferred to teach in one of our indoor classrooms. He said it was his allergies, but I had a suspicion all that open space made him nervous.
“Um, Professor?” I ventured, clearing my throat as I entered the room.
It was a bit ramshackle, as were all our rooms at the Academy, with peeling paint and a dusty ceiling fan. Half the chairs were wobbly and broken, most not even big enough to fit some of the larger rakkhosh students, and we never had enough textbooks to go around. The school budget cuts were the sort of thing that revolutionaries got furious about, but I’d never thought too much about it. After all, I’d never had much money, so everything at the school looked pretty fancy to me. But now, after meeting both the rebel teacher boy and the serpent prince in the woods, I was beginning to notice all sorts of things I never had.
“Yes? Who are you again?” Ravan was wearing an immaculate homespun panjabi and dhoti and peered over his smudged reading glasses at me.
“I’m Pinki? From your first-period class?” I tried not to let my nervousness show. My professor’s gray hair, bad memory, and failing eyesight didn’t change the fact that his chest was the size of a tree trunk and his shiny teeth were huge and sharp in his mouth.
“Of course, Pinki.” The professor shut his book, one on famous kidnappers in history. The illustration on the tattered front cover featured a young Ravan himself, decked out in his war armor, flying away in his magical chariot with the captive queen as she threw her jewelry to the ground so her husband would know she’d been taken. “I’m sorry, my dear, I was engrossed in the past. What can I do for you?”
“Sir.” I didn’t meet his eyes but stared at his one earring dangling from a thick lobe. “I was wondering, is it possible to steal anything—say, the stars from the sky?”
“Well, the right thief can steal anything.” Professor Ravan reached out and waved his hand by my hair. When he opened his fist, I saw that one of my hair clips was in it. Wordlessly, he handed the clip back to me. “But I would discourage you from any star stealing at this point in your career. Try starting smaller. Planets, small satellites perhaps.”
“Satellites, do you mean like orbiting moons?” I asked a little too eagerly as I put the clip back in my hair.
Ravan took off his glasses and peered at me with sharp eyes. “What’s this about, young fire demoness?”
I rubbed my cheek, remembering the spot where Sesha had touched it. “I heard that there might be some stolen moonbeams out on the market …” My voice trailed off.
Ravan’s nostrils flared, like he’d smelled some tasty prey. “What did you say?” He looked around and then got up quickly to close the classroom door.
“Moonbeams, I heard that maybe the Old Moon Mother had some beams stolen from her? But maybe that’s just a rumor,” I mumbled.
Had I already said too much? I longed to ask him if he knew about the Moon Mother helping the serpents invade the Kingdom, but there was no way I could explain where I’d heard that. He probably already suspected I was working with the Empire of Serpent Overlords.
“Where did you hear this rumor about the moonbeams?” The professor’s face had somehow sharpened, his entire posture going from vague scholar to hunter on alert.
“Just around,” I said vaguely, trying to achieve a casual posture by leaning on his dusty desk. In the meantime, my palms were starting to sweat.
“Smart, very smart.” Ravan lowered his gravelly voice, nodding. “Yes, don’t tell me, it’s safer that way. We don’t know if the snakes are listening.”
My nervousness gave way to confusion. Did Ravan guess that I had gotten the information about the moonbeams from Sesha? But if he did, why was he looking at me all approvingly, like I was the best thing since fried shingaras?
“So do you know who I should talk to … who could help me find them?” I walked around the desk, closer to where he was standing, and lowered my own voice to match his cautious tone. “The moonbeams?”
“Shhh!” Ravan slammed his book onto an already-tottering stack on his desk. “Better not to say that word again. Call them the … thingamajigs!”
“Okay.” I looked around the empty classroom too, feeling his paranoia rubbing off on me. “Do you know where I should start looking for the … thingamajigs?”
But Professor Ravan seemed not to be listening. Instead he was pacing in front of the classroom’s bookcase full of thievery aids—lockpicks, sleeping drafts, black ski masks, and the like—with a bemused expression on this face. “A chip off the old rakkhosh, aren’t you?”
“Sir?” All of a sudden, I remembered that he had gone to Ghatatkach Academy with my father.
“The revolution has been asleep for too long. Too many have paid a terrible price. That’s why so few of us believed in this story about a moon-powered superweapon. It seemed too over-the-top, too outlandish. Out of a science fiction story. A trap, maybe.” Ravan was still pacing. “But if this is true, it may be the unifying sign we’ve been hoping for.” He turned to me, his thick moustache quivering with excitement. “Pinki, you may be the spark that ignites the dormant fires of revolution!”
“Th-the spark …” I stuttered, smoke coming out of my nose. This was going down just like Sesha had predicted.
“Yes!” My professor’s laugh was hushed but excited. “I’m so proud of you. I know that my sister has been hard on you, my dear, but I told her that deep underneath all that bluster, the antisocial behavior, and, of course, the ridiculous selfish attitude was a brave heart! She didn’t believe me, told me you were a hopeless loser, but I told her there was more to you than meets the eye!”
“Um, thank you?” I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased or offended.
“Of course! I knew you couldn’t let down your revolutionary lineage!” Ravan rambled on, twirling his already-stiff moustache into sharp points. “This is wonderful! The best news I’ve heard in weeks!”
Just like Sesha had predicted, Professor Ravan was assuming that I was looking for these moonbeams as a way to stop the Serpent Empire, not help them. What would he and the headmistress do if they realized that I was actually on the serpents’ side?
“So, Professor, about where I should begin to look …” I started again, but Ravan hushed me with another vigorous wave of his hands. His face turned sharply away from me.
Then, with two giant steps, Ravan reached the classroom door and yanked it open, making the two rakkhosh who had been listening to our conversation tumble into the room. Ravan grabbed them each by the ear and dragged them over.
“Ouch, sir! Let go!” whined Aakash, his giant insect wings beating.
“Professor, please!” said my roommate, Kumi, her already-liquidy eyes filled with water.
“Listening at the door, were you?” hissed Ravan, twisting their ears even harder in his giant hands. “How much did you hear?” With a heave, he pushed them both into the room, then slammed the door behind them.
“Nothing!” insisted Kumi, rubbing her reddening ear. “We heard nothing at all!”
“Just some stuff about some stolen moonbeams and a mission to stop the snakes from making their superweapon and then ignite a revolution!” added Aakash, his face twisted in pain. “Nothing else!”
“Airhead!” Kumi snapped. “You just can’t keep your mouth shut, can you?”
“What?” Aakash fluttered his wings and fixed his way-too-complicated hair style around his horns. “What did I say?”
Kumi looked like she wanted to strangle him. Kind of like how she usually looked at me.
“Well, you have obviously heard too much.” Ravan’s facial hair quivered in rage. “In which case, Pinki and I have two options.” He gave me a warm look, and I felt a serious twinge of guilt shoot through me. “First option, we assume you’re serpent spies and rip out your tongues right here and now.”
Aakash clapped his hand over his mouth, and Kumi’s eyes widened in fear. “What’s option two?” she asked quickly. “Seriously, we’re not spies!”
“We will see about that!” Professor Ravan was already pulling a small bottle out of his khaddar panjabi pocket. Like a flash, he grabbed Kumi’s mouth and poured a few drops of the liquid into it. Then he did the same to Aakash. Both rakkhosh students spluttered.
“Hey, that tasted disgusting!” protested Aakash. “Like strawberries and chocolate! Ick!”
“Truth serum, my own recipe,” Ravan said with a smile. “The nasty taste is purposeful! It only lasts a few seconds, but it’ll get the information we need.” He turned to Aakash and Kumi, and demanded, “Are you working with the serpents? Are you spies?”
“No!” they both said earnestly. My hearts were pounding as I wondered what would happen if the professor used that serum on me. But he didn’t. Instead, he just nodded at Kumi and Aakash and put the bottle away.
“Option two is that both of you accompany Pinki on her mission,” Ravan said, waving two fingers in their faces. “And protect her with your lives.”
“What?” they both yelled in unison.
“That’s really not necessary,” I added.
“I don’t want to hear one word from either of you,” the huge professor snarled. He turned to me, his voice softening a bit. “And you, Pinki, you can’t take this entire thing on your shoulders. Think about what happened …” He let his voice trail off.
I didn’t want to think about what had happened. I’d been living under the shadow of what happened my entire life. “It’s just a rumor that these … thingamajigs are even out there,” I said in a rush. “What if it’s not even true?”
“But what if it is?” Ravan demanded, his eyes shining with something that looked like hope. “We’re talking about finally kicking the Serpent Overlords out of the Kingdom and back to their undersea lairs. We’re talking about being successful this time in getting our freedom! We have to at least try.”
My mind whirred. This whole thing was bringing up way too many feelings for me about my past. A past I’d come to Ghatatkach Academy to forget. But there was no way to go except forward, if I wanted Sesha’s help in controlling my power.
“Now, as for you two!” Ravan turned away from me again, his voice a low snarl. Aakash and Kumi both gulped, visibly terrified. “You have isolated Pinki, made fun of her for her successes, teased her, and called her names, but this classmate of yours has more courage in her little talon than any of you have in your entire bodies!”
Aakash and Kumi looked, as they say, gobsmacked.
I tried to arrange my features into what I hoped was a humble expression. Like “yes, it’s true, you have underestimated me all along, I’m actually this awesome.” But I couldn’t help but feel a bit oogly at all the praise Ravan was pouring on me.
“It’s really nothing …” I started, but Ravan waved me quiet.
“While the rest of you are worrying about being elected Demon King or Queen, Pinki here has been upholding the honor of her family lineage and quietly working for all our liberation.” The professor snapped his thick fingers in front of Aakash’s and Kumi’s faces. “Not many students would think of such an ingenious way to undermine the serpents at their own game.”
“No way Pinki’s all that …” Aakash said faintly, but Ravan cut him off. “Way.
“Now, let me think about your next step.” Ravan plunked his glasses back on his nose and started digging through one of the many piles of moth-eaten books on his desk, knocking over a bunch in the process.
With our professor busy, Kumi just gawked at me. I couldn’t resist getting in a dig. “Rui! Katla! Eeleesh! Close your yap, roomie; you look like a feesh!”
Both Aakash and Kumi gasped at my rhyming. But I grinned, remembering that goody-two-shoes teacher boy in the woods talking about how someone’s language and culture are the sources of their strength.
“You’re no freedom fighter,” my roommate hissed in such a low voice, the professor couldn’t hear it. “No matter who you’re the daughter of. You’re up to something, and you better believe I’m going to find out what.”
“Yeah, find out what,” repeated Aakash, throwing a casual arm around Kumi’s shoulders.
“Put your arm around me like that again, flyer, and I’ll sauté up your gallbladder and feed it to my hench-crocs!” snarled Kumi, spitting rain.
I swallowed a laugh. My roommate got on my last nerve, but she was no wimp.
Aakash immediately removed his arm from Kumi’s shoulders, stretching it out, along with his wings, like that had been his plan all along. “Cool. Cool. Cool,” he mumbled. “Sure thing, sure thing. Very cool.”
I doubled down on my scowl as I turned on my roommate. “I don’t know why you’re such a suspicious little slug, or is it just that hard for you to imagine that I might be as much of a legendary villainess as I’ve always seemed?”
“The revolution is dead,” growled Kumi. “Even if it wasn’t, you’re no legend in the making. You’re too selfish.”
I felt my fire simmering inside me as I stared her down. “Well, we’ll just see about that, won’t we?”
“Yes, we will.” Kumi made that “I’m watching you” gesture where she pointed at her own eyes and then at me.
Aakash tried to copy her gesture, only he poked himself in the eye a little as he tried. “Ouch! That hurt!”
Kumi and I both snorted, a rare moment of togetherness.
Ravan finally looked up from his books. “I think your best bet to locate these stolen … whoziwhatsits, is asking Chhaya Devi, the Merchant of Shadows. She has her finger on the pulse of both the human and rakkhosh black markets.”
“You mean the weird shadow seller with the stall at the edge of the bazaar?” I asked.
“That same one.” The professor eyed the classroom door, through which more students would be coming in any second now. “And not one word to anyone else about this.”
He glared at all three of us, his gaze softening a bit when he landed on me. “Aakash and Kumi, you will protect Pinki on this mission, is that understood? If you can find these … whatchamacallits … it will be a huge blow to the Serpent Empire. It may give the revolution the spark it needs to burst into flame!”
And then the door opened and dozens more students streamed noisily into the room. I glanced at the sundial. It was almost time for class to begin.
Professor Ravan pointed us to our seats, but not before issuing one more threat to Kumi and Aakash. “Remember what I said. Protect Pinki and her mission at all costs!”
Kumi gave me an evil grin, flicking her pointy tongue out a little. “Oh, don’t worry, Professor, I won’t let her out of my sight!”
“Yeah, not out of our sight!” Aakash tried that pointing-at-his-eyes-and-then-at-me thing again, looking ridiculously proud when he managed it without hurting himself.
“Mind that you do!” snarled Ravan as the other students settled into the room. “I’ll have you for an after-dinner snack otherwise!”
I slunk to my seat, feeling nauseated. How was I supposed to find these stolen moonbeams and get them to Sesha with Kumi and Aakash breathing down my neck?
