Naya turned to Lal with a giant smile. As she spoke, the zillions of perky ponytails all over her head kind of bopped and waved.
“Oh yes, Your Princeliness! I am a rakkhoshi! From the air clan!” At Lal’s confused expression, Naya added, “I just happen to have retractable wings—not everyone does. Should I bring them out? They’re pretty cool. Do you want to see them?”
“No!” Lal shouted, his hands up. Sir Gobbet and the rest of the palace courtiers were looking nervous too. Lal turned to Mati. “She’s not coming with me, is she?”
Naya’s face fell. I put a protective arm around the girl’s shoulders. “Lal, seriously!” I muttered. I noticed Naya’s eyes were already filling with tears.
Neel looked thunderous. “Dude, did you forget I’m part rakkhosh too?”
Lal looked even more confused. “But you’re different—” he began.
Mati cut him off. “A lot has happened since you’ve been gone, Lal. If you want to work with the resistance, you’re going to have to get used to the fact that we are an interspecies group. You’re going to have to get over your prejudice against rakkhosh.”
Neel gave me another fiery look, but I ignored him. Unlike Lal’s opinion of Naya, my opinion about Pinki wasn’t based on prejudice; it was based on knowing what kind of an evil monster the Demon Queen really was.
“I was just saying—” Lal started, but Mati interrupted him again. “I don’t want to hear it. But for your information, no, Naya’s not going with you. I need her here, helping me. She’s my right-hand woman.”
Poor Lal looked totally confused by his best friend’s reaction. The last time he’d seen Mati, she’d been a loyal and gentle stable hand. Now she was the general of an interspecies resistance army.
“I’m … sorry,” Lal muttered to Naya. Even as she nodded her thanks, I could tell that Lal was having a hard time understanding that rakkhosh, like human beings, weren’t all the same.
Gobbet and his helpers bundled Lal onto the elephant’s back, and within less than an hour of us arriving in the dimension, Lal, Budhhu, Bhootoom, Gobbet, and the royal ministers and courtiers were off.
“Good luck, Lal!” I called to the younger prince. “Take care of your ankle!” I hoped that being on campaign would give him time to get used to the new way of things and that he’d learn to be more open-minded about our new rakkhosh friends.
“I’ll miss you … all,” said Lal, but I could tell his words were mainly for Mati. Then he looked down at Neel, his face amused. “Thanks for doing my job while I was gone, Brother! I’m sure you’re relieved to hand over the responsibility!”
“Sure,” Neel said in kind of a flat way. I noticed a little muscle kind of clenching and unclenching in his jaw. “Good luck, Bro!”
We walked together behind Mati deeper into the PSS headquarters. Both Naya and Neel were super quiet, and I could tell they were each thinking about what Lal had said.
As Naya moved in front of us, to walk with Mati, I poked Neel teasingly in the side with my finger. “He’s been trapped in a tree for a long time. He’ll figure things out.”
Neel let out a breath, batting my poking hand away. “A lot of people have prejudice against rakkhosh. Some who even think they don’t.”
“Ugh, enough,” I said. “Look, let’s just agree to disagree right now on why your mom is marrying Sesha, all right?”
“Fine,” snapped Neel.
He was so darn pigheaded! I really wanted to scream, or knock him in the head, or both.
The main part of the PSS headquarters was overrun with rakkhosh. Fire clan, air clan, water clan, land clan—they were everywhere. I gave a little gasp at all the demons surrounding us. I was still not used to seeing so many rakkhosh and not having a freak-out fight-or-flight-type response.
“Relax. Remember they’re on our side,” Neel said under his breath, like he knew what I was thinking.
I felt my face heat up. Okay, maybe I was a little more like Lal than I was ready to admit. I too seemed to be having a hard time getting over stereotypes about rakkhosh. But of course, that didn’t mean I was wrong about Neel’s mom.
“Operation Demonic Wedding Guest is well underway!” Mati told us, spreading her hands around her with pride.
“The wedding invitation clearly says no rakkhosh,” Neel said, looking around at all the potential wedding guests. “How are you planning on getting all these demons to pass as human?”
“These rakkhosh are going to pass as human the same way I passed as a regular Parsippany sixth grader!” explained Naya. Tuni was sitting on her shoulder, casually nibbling on the birdseed she held out in her hand. “Nothing that a little manicure, pedicure, dental filing, contact lens insertion, haircut, dermabrasion, and wart peel can’t solve!”
“What about for air clans—the ones who can’t hide their wings like Naya?” I pointed to a bunch of rakkhosh waiting around, who had huge dragon-type wings, smaller insect-type wings, feathered eagle wings, and everything in between.
“Oh, that’s nothing for the legendary fashion designer Gyanendrachandra Mukherjee!” Mati said. I followed her gaze and realized there was a little mini fashion show going on in one corner of the cave. A long-bearded, gray-ponytailed fashion designer with a cape, gloves, and dark glasses was clapping his hands and showing off models wearing futuristic backpacks over their evening gowns, giant feathery capes over their saris, and even elaborate hat-scarf sets that draped all the way down the backs of their tuxedo jackets. All were designed, I guessed, to hide wings.
“Clever,” Neel said, but I wasn’t convinced any of those outfits wouldn’t draw more rather than less attention to the person wearing it.
“Exploitation of the sewing proletariat,” sniffed Bunty. “Although I do like those snazzy capes.”
“You should see some of these engagement party pictures!” said Tuni, dropping a copy of the Seven Oceans Gazette in my lap. “We missed a wild party while we were traveling through that wormhole!”
I looked at the party photographs on the front page of the Seven Oceans Gazette. I noticed a couple of tall cape-and-scarf-draped partygoers, and realized they were probably rakkhosh in disguise.
“The plan is to send out just a few scouts at a time to each of these pre-wedding events, to see if their disguises hold,” explained Mati. “Last night, all of our spies came home safe and sound.”
“Why are you being so cautious?” Neel asked. “I thought our plan was to infiltrate the wedding and stop it.”
I couldn’t help but agree with Neel. “Plus, I didn’t travel through all these dimensions just to sit around and watch other people go up against Sesha,” I said. “I’m ready. I want to face him.”
“We can’t just rush in there, Kiran. I want to make sure we have a plan that works,” said Mati. “We can’t risk everybody’s lives because you’re impatient.”
I glanced at my cousin’s cane, wondering again if she was overdoing it. “You should take it easy, Cuz. Is your foot bothering you?”