The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1)(26)

“Wait a minute.” TMI—this was definitely a case of too much information all at once. I remembered that in a lot of Baba’s stories, the kings had more than one queen. (“Once, long ago, there was a king with three queens—Big Rani, Middle Rani, and Little Rani.”) But it was one thing to think about stuff like that happening a long, long time ago, and something else entirely to think about a boy you knew having a family so totally different from your own.

“Your father has a lot of wives? And you guys are half brothers?”

“Is that a problem for you?” Neel crossed his arms over his chest.

I bit the inside of my cheek. “No, not at all.” I definitely wasn’t in New Jersey anymore.

“Good.”

We walked in silence for a bit longer. I kept sneaking looks up to Neel’s face to see if he was angry, but he was staring straight ahead. Although his expression was more thoughtful and sad than anything else.

“Um, Neel?” I said after a few minutes.

“Yeah?”

“So do you think I could, like, clean up a little before I meet your dad and stepmoms?”

“Oh, right.” Neel raised that eyebrow. “You do look kind of a mess.”

“Nice. Thanks a lot.”

We entered a courtyard of the palace, with lots of doorways leading off of it. A few people—who must have been palace servants—scurried here and there with brooms and dust cloths and piles of clean and dirty laundry. Neel called over a young woman who was carrying bed linens over an arm.

“Hello, Danavi!”

The woman smiled and nodded. “Welcome home, Your Highness.”

“This is the Princess Kiranmala.” Neel gestured to me. “Will you please help her get cleaned up and changed?”

The woman bowed in my direction. I gave her a goofy half curtsy in return. She looked at me like I was as kooky as Tuntuni.

“Is my father in the audience chamber?” Neel asked.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Please bring the princess there when she is ready.” Neel was scowling again. “I have a lot I want to discuss with the Raja.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

I watched his departing back, wondering at my own hurt. He hadn’t even said good-bye. Then, just as quickly, my feelings turned to annoyance. Neel was so predictably irritating.

Danavi gave me a curious glance. She didn’t even try to hide the fact that she was studying the scar on my arm. Clearly, people here were a lot less worried about being caught staring.

My reaction, though, kind of startled even me. Rather than trying to hide the scar, I just stared back at her. It felt good not to hide.

Finally Danavi spoke. “So you are the princess who has been living in exile?”

“I guess so. I didn’t even believe I really was a princess until yesterday.”

The woman nodded. “Yes, this is the way it is, I have heard, for those living in the two-dimensional realm. It is safer that way.”

With all the excitement, I hadn’t had time to ask about the details of my “exile.” Everyone kept talking about it.

“What do you know about why I was sent away?” I asked as the woman led me to a beautifully decorated bedroom off the courtyard. The walls of the room were covered with creeping vines, and blossoms drooped fragrantly from the ceiling. It was like a magical indoor garden. I got a little dizzy from the heavy smell of the flowers, like I had in the marketplace.

“I don’t know very much, only what people say.” Danavi filled up a claw-foot tub in the middle of the room. She tossed in some rose petals and something that made pink foam in the water.

“Tell me what you know,” I begged. I didn’t even care that the water was pink, my least favorite color. As long as it was warm.

“Are you sure, my lady?” She put a folding screen around the tub, and waited on the other side as I took off my clothes and hopped into the sudsy water.

“Please.”

I sank into the tub and blew some pink bubbles from my hands. It was heavenly.

“Well.” The woman’s disembodied voice came floating from the other side of the screen. “Long ago, when the moon maiden was once wandering the earth in human form, she fell in love with the handsome king of the underworld, and he with her. He convinced her to follow him below the surface of the water to his serpent kingdom, and marry him. And his love was so powerful, that she did this. But first, she made him swear to one condition. And her condition was that she be made to visit her husband’s dark land only one night of every month. And on this night there is no moon in the sky.”

“The night of the new moon,” I murmured, stretching my aching limbs in the water. I wasn’t bothered that the woman wasn’t getting right to my life story. I was used to Baba’s tales, which always started off in a meandering way too.

“Now, the moon maiden was wise to strike such a bargain, but none of us can be as wise as we think we are.”

“Mmm,” I answered, barely listening. I worked at scrubbing the nasty out of my hair. Some leaves, twigs, and … was that a rakkhosh tooth? shudder

On the other side of the screen, the story continued. “Unfortunately, the maiden forgot to include a clause in her agreement about her children.”

I poured water over my head with a silver cup. The moon was casting a shimmery glow across the floor in front of the tub. Then there was a muffled bumping on the other side of the screen. I prompted, “Danavi?”