I remembered Ma had told me stories about her cousin-sister’s gaye halud. How she and her other young cousins had all worn yellow. How they had watched as all their aunties had laughed and ulu-ulu’ed and smeared the bride-to-be’s face, arms, and legs with Va-va-voom Turmeric Cream, a product advertised to help clear up your complexion and make you look, according to their company jingle, “va-va-voomilicious!”
Neel, I noticed, was scribbling something on a piece of notebook paper that Naya had helpfully handed him. In classic Naya style, she’d also given him an assortment of sparkly and fruity-smelling markers to write his note. For who knows what reason, Neel was going along with her suggestion to write each word in a different color. I looked over his shoulder and saw that his note was simple but direct.
Dear Mother—You may be a killer, but you’re no stooge. Are you marrying this goon for real or are you a prisoner?
Your sometimes-loving son,
Neelkamal
“Huh,” I couldn’t help but say, “interesting choice of wording.”
“Don’t judge,” Neel snapped, as with Naya’s help, he tucked the note into a gift tray full of fake eyelashes, bobby pins, and nail polish.
Mati came over to me. “The plan is to smuggle some weapons into the wedding venue inside these trays of presents. So that they are there for when we decide to bring in a bigger force.”
“Weapons?” I echoed.
“Sure. We rakkhosh can use our strength and nails and teeth. But you human resistance fighters need a little more help. Take that giant sandesh shaped like a fish.” Priya pointed at a tottho tray lying nearby, wrapped prettily in bright pink cellopaper. “It’s the perfect shape to hide chakus.”
“What’s the point of smuggling in weapons without anyone to use them?” I asked. “I mean, you’re putting knives inside sandesh, but you’re only sending in four or five spies at a time to each of these events.”
“Weapons are expendable; my team is not,” Mati said. “I’m not risking even one PSS life unnecessarily. We have to study, scout, and plan everything out.”
“How long are you going to do that? The wedding is at the end of the week,” I snorted. Man, for an important resistance leader, Mati was ridiculously cautious.
“Do you have a problem with the way I’m running things, Cousin?” Mati’s voice got tense again as she caught my expression.
“No, no! Not at all!” I said, trying to fix my face.
I caught Naya and Priya giving each other a look. “What are in these saris, then?” Neel asked, pointing to a tray of saris starched and sculpted to look like a bouquet of butterflies.
“Oh, they’re not saris at all,” explained Mati. “They’re poison-proof shields. Armor for the humans on our side if and when there’s a battle.”
“Wouldn’t want to risk someone getting a hangnail,” I muttered.
“Kiran, come on,” Neel said. Now it was his turn to give me a “cut it out” look.
“The fate of the multiverse is at stake, Cousin,” Mati snapped. “I’m not going to just run in there willy-nilly without a plan!”
“If you’re so busy planning, maybe you’ll never have to run in there at all,” I countered.
Just then, one of the younger PSS girls skated on her board into the room and whispered something in Mati’s ear.
“Listen, I’ve got to go deal with some kind of crisis with the rakkhosh pedicures. I’ll be right back,” Mati said. Her face was tight and tired, and I felt bad for giving her a hard time. “Naya, will you give me a hand? I’m not sure I can always make out all these different demonic dialects.”
As Mati and Naya left, I felt ashamed, but also a little irritated. Why was Mati being so darned careful? Were we heroes dedicated to saving the multiverse or not?
“What’s that?” I pointed to a clay horse half a head taller than me. It looked like the traditional clay horses from the Kingdom Beyond that Ma had decorating our mantel in Parsippany, only a bunch bigger.
“Oh, Mati had it made to hide swords and bows,” said Priya. “It’s going to be part of the tottho.”
Looking at the big clay horse gave me an idea. “Why not hide the rakkhosh army in there instead of just weapons?” I suggested, thinking of an old story I’d read about at school. “You have a few humans go with it, pretending it’s a present for the tottho, and then, at the right moment, they let the rakkhosh out of the horse! No need to worry about all this costuming and manicuring, then!”
“Brilliant!” squawked Tuni.
“It could work,” said Neel. “If only to get us enough time to figure out if my mom’s a prisoner and get her out of there.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t say anything.
“Cool plan.” Priya looked impressed. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Let’s clear it by Mati,” Bunty suggested. But I stopped the tiger before they padded away.
“Don’t bother her! She said she had to deal with a pedicure crisis!” I knew Mati was a good leader, but what did that make the rest of us, chopped liver? “We can do this on our own!”
“But, Princess …” protested Tuni.
“What, don’t you trust me?” I asked in an offended tone. “I do have some experience with this being a hero stuff, you know. More than Mati.”
“Jealousy is a green-eyed monster,” mumbled Neel.
“What did you say?” I snapped.
“Nothing, nothing,” said the prince, but his words struck me hard. I set my jaw in a determined line. Just because I had a different way of doing things than Mati, that didn’t mean I was wrong.
While most of the rakkhosh army stayed at headquarters, working on their manis and pedis and tusk filings, I assembled a crack force. Even though Bunty didn’t want us to, Neel and I decided to be a part of the Trojan horse delivery mission.
“I’ll go with them and keep them out of trouble,” Tuni said. “Don’t you worry, you old scaredy-cat!”
Bunty roared in annoyance at the bird, batting a giant paw. Wisely, Tuni flew out of the tiger’s reach and perched on a jutting rock near the ceiling.
“You’re not leaving me out of the fun!” said Priya. “You’re right, Kiran. I’m getting tired of all this prepping and planning. I want some action!”
“Perhaps it is more prudent to wait until a bigger horse can be prepared,” mused Bunty. “I estimate no more than about six rakkhosh are going to fit inside that!”
“I’ve got to go see if I can find my mom, talk to her.” Neel was chewing on his fingernail again. “Even if this isn’t a perfect plan, it’s better than sitting around here doing nothing.”
Neel and I gave Priya and her friends on the inside our weapons. Then we dressed up in some excellent yellow designer duds from Gyan Mukherjee. Since both Neel and I were pretty recognizable, we made sure to hide our faces. Neel had on a weird fake beard and I a full face scarf.
“Most likely Mati is going to be livid!” said Bunty, but Tuni flapped his wings in the tiger’s face.