The Serpent's Secret (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #1)(57)

When I didn’t answer right away, Tuntuni flew up to land on my shoulder. As the bird and I peered into the hole together, I finally understood.

“I don’t think this is just any old pile of boulders,” I called down to Neel. “I think it’s a well!”

As I saw my own face and Tuntuni’s birdy visage reflected back to me from the well’s water, I realized it must be true.

“A well of dark energy!” Neel exclaimed. “Your parents must be there!”

“I know, but how do I find them? How do I get them out?” My voice echoed weirdly off the stone sides.

“We don’t have much time!” Neel cautioned.

“It’s the night of the new moon,” Tuntuni said, looking at the sky. “When the dark moon rises is the time that marks when a rakkhosh is born.”

The mist was getting darker now, swirling around in grays and blacks rather than vivid colors. Soon it would be time for the moon to rise. Or, rather, it would be the night of the new moon. And my parents’ time would be up.

I blinked hard, trying to keep my cool. “Dark matter scatters light …” I repeated to myself.

I peered at the wobbly reflection of my own determined face in the well’s dark fluid, its surface a bit thicker and more oily than water. But still, I saw myself in the darkness. Our golden bird was right.

“Ma? Baba?” I called tentatively. There was no answer.

“We found it,” I mumbled to myself. “But now what?”

Neel said there were lots of wells of dark energy; how did I know this was the right one? Could I even be sure that my parents were in here? And if they were, how the heck was I going to fish them out of this magic, invisible goo?

I didn’t have a lot of time. The mists were getting even darker. I had to find out if my parents were below the surface of that water. And there was only one way to do it. I yanked off my jacket and shoes, getting ready to dive into the well.

Stop! Ma’s voice yelled.

What are you, a few mangoes short of a bushel? Baba echoed.

I stopped. As clear as if they were standing next to me, I heard my parents’ voices.

“Stop, Kiran, you can’t dive into a well. You’ll kill yourself,” Neel shouted from below.

“Yeah, that’s what my parents just said.” I put my shoes back on.

“Okay, let’s just think this through,” Neel continued. “Every step, we’ve known we’re on the right track because we had evidence. The moving map led us over the sea, where we found the red rubies from Tuntuni’s poem.”

“Right,” I shouted back. The jewels were still heavy in my pockets.

“Then the map led us through Demon Land to here—and we knew it was Maya Pahar because another one of the poem’s lines came true—‘on a diamond branch a golden bird must sing a blessed song.’”

“Yeah, yeah,” I sputtered impatiently. Ma and Baba’s time was running out while Neel was pontificating. “Let’s move it along, haven’t got all night here. On a bit of a pre-apocalyptic deadline.”

“So let’s think about the next part of the poem. It’s gotten us this far.”

“ ‘Neelkamal and Kiranmala, heed my warning well,’ ” I muttered, “ ‘Your families will crumble, your life an empty shell.’ ” My arms were covered in goose bumps. I wasn’t going to let that happen. No way! “ ‘Unless you find the jewel in evil’s hidden room, cross ruby seas full of love beneath the dark red moon.’ ”

“ ‘In a monster’s arms be cradled and cross the desert wide, in the Mountains of Illusions find a wise man by your side,’ ” Neel said. “And then comes that line about Einstein-ji—on a diamond branch, a golden bird must sing a blessed song.”

“And then those lines about Lal and Mati—follow brother red and sister white not a moment too long.”

“What’s the next line?” Neel asked, fishing around in his pockets. He pulled out some gum, a broken pencil, and some of the sea rubies, but not the paper he’d written the poem on. “I know I wrote it down here somewhere.”

“Something about golden and silver balls?” I asked nervously, my mind a racing blank. I didn’t have time to be discussing poetry stanzas, I had to get my parents!

“ ‘In your heart’s fountain, set the pearly waters free,’ ” said Tuntuni. “I can’t believe you numskulls don’t remember. Really, it is so hard to find people who appreciate good lyric verse these days.”

“ ‘In your heart’s fountain, set the pearly waters free,’ ” I repeated, looking into the dark well. What did that remind me of? When had I heard about pearls and water? Waters and pearls? I snapped my fingers. The transit officer. What had that riddle been? The ocean’s pearl, a grain of sand, more precious than all the gold in the land …

“Neel!” I called. “I think I know what we have to do!”

I reached into my pocket and ran my hand over some of the smaller rubies I had stashed in there. My hand came out gritty and sticky, full of salt from the sea. “Set the pearly waters free,” I repeated.

“What are you talking about?” Neel yelled.

I raised my voice a couple notches. “Listen, when I had to answer the transit officer’s riddle, the puzzle was something about the ocean’s pearl, a grain of sand—something without which life would be bland. It turned out the answer was salt.”