“Ugh, Naga, why don’t you get a life already?” I snapped, firing at his ugly head. “How’d you manage to untie yourself after Ai-Ma tied you up?”
“You can’t be into this idea of our parents getting married!” Neel said, his attention somewhat occupied in a sword fight with three different guards.
“Dad can marry whoever he wantsss!” Naga whined, all seven of his tongues shooting out at me. “He said I could be best snake!”
“That’s not even a thing, you loser!” I snapped, shooting two arrows into a couple of his heads at the same time.
Stheno, on seeing my face, was yelling bloody murder. “You meddling middle schooler! I’ll get you for this, my pretty!”
Neel, suddenly free of enemies, swung around to help me with Naga. I kept shooting arrows at his seven heads as Neel slashed at Naga’s tail.
“Ow!” yelled Naga. “Butt-brain! I’m gonna tell Daddy you’re hanging out with the cute prince again!” The seven-headed snake slithered up a banister and disappeared down an upstairs breezeway.
“Cute prince, huh?” Neel seemed way too pleased at this. And while it was nice to see some of his old confidence restored, this was really not the time.
“Let’s scram before Sesha gets here!” I yelled.
Neel turned, his sword whirling so fast now I could hardly see it. His back was up against mine, and he was working hard, trying not to injure but rather disarm the pack of human guards attacking him. In the meantime, I started shooting arrows at the flying monkeys dive-bombing us yet again. Man, were those exploding bananas they were lobbing down at us?
“Now would be a good time to fly out of here!” Neel called, slicing mercilessly into a disgusting, smelly-furred and yet kind of mechanical-looking Rodent of Very Big Size.
“Where are the air clan rakkhosh?” I looked desperately to Priya, who was still keeping Stheno at bay with buckets of fire-vomit. The rakkhoshi shook her head no. “Didn’t you think to bring any fliers so we had an escape plan?”
“Fire clan and air clan don’t get along!” Priya yelled, whirling around to fire-blast a charging orc with a cudgel. “They always beat us in the rickets league! I wouldn’t ask those guys for any favors!”
“Now you tell me!” I shrieked, shooting off two, three, and now four arrows at a time at some drooling goblins. I could not believe we didn’t have an escape plan because fire and air clans were enemies in rakkhosh cricket!
“We’re goners! Absolute goners!” Tuni squealed as he flew around, pecking at the eyes of the vicious monkeys, flapping in the faces of the green witches. There were so many evildoers from so many different story traditions, I felt like an entire fairy-tale library had been blended up and dumped over us.
I looked desperately around. We were hemmed in from all sides. Now there were white-sheeted and chain-clanking ghosts, long-toothed vampires, ratty zombies, and green-skinned Frankensteins coming out of the woodwork. The Raja’s courtyard looked like some deadly, out-of-season Halloween party store. None of these creatures belonged in the stories from the Kingdom Beyond, and yet, here they all were. This was a serious problem.
“Not to be a downer or anything,” said Neel, now fighting what looked like a family of trolls, “but we might be in a little bit of trouble, Kiran. Unless you have some kind of secret weapon you haven’t told me about.”
Neel’s words made a light bulb go off in my head. “Priya, do you have that Lola Morgana thermos with you still?” I demanded as I dove right to avoid an evil-looking clown with a chain saw.
“Oh, yeah, I do!” Priya pulled out the thermos from some hidden pocket in her pink cape. “Take this, ya second-rate villains! Get a load of what a real ghost is like!”
The rakkhoshi unscrewed the lid to the Star Travels thermos and released the terrible bhoot who had captured Lal and taken over his identity, fooling all of us for so long.
Unlike ghosts from other cultures, bhoot from the Kingdom Beyond are seriously powerful creatures, and the bhoot-formerly-known-as-Lal was no exception. It whooshed shriekingly from its container and flew right at the Halloween villains that were chasing us.
“Go back to your own stories, you interlopers!” yelled the bhoot. “I’ll toast up your liver and eat it like a crumpet! I’ll make a thorkari with your thyroid! I’ll use your toes to flavor my morning tea!”
“You bought us a little time with these baddies, but there are more where those came from,” Priya muttered, pulling at my arm. “Not to mention the ghost himself! We better get out of here before good ol’ Bhoot-Baba-ji remembers it was you who put him in that thermos!”
“But how? We’ve still got no rides!” said Neel, sounding seriously worried.
And then I felt him, Tiktiki One, clambering up my leg.
“What are you doing here?” As I grabbed the little gecko and put him on my shoulder, I saw who was flying through the air toward us.
“Naya!” I yelled with delight. “And you brought more air clan with you!”
“Hang on!” Naya’s black wings were beating strongly in the wind, and for the first time, I realized what a beautiful sight they were. Or maybe I was just grateful my friend was there saving our butts. She grabbed me under the armpits, and the other flying rakkhosh grabbed the rest of our team.
“I should have realized someone else would know the Trojan horse story!” I yelled to Naya. “Thank goodness you came for us! How did you know we were here?”
“I guessed …” Naya began, but then she choked out a little scream and she and I started to spiral unevenly through the air.
“Naya!” I yelled. I realized that one of the flying monkeys had punctured her wing with an arrow, making a giant gaping hole in the middle! We spun through the air, dropping down a few dozen feet. Naya’s usually happy-go-lucky face was twisted in pain, and when she gasped, she brought up a frothy mouthful of blood! “Help! Somebody help us!” I screamed.
I’m not sure anyone heard me, or even knew we were in trouble. Priya and the other fire rakkhosh, riding on the backs of two air clan, were still shooting flames in the direction of our pursuers. Two land clan rakkhosh, hanging on to the legs of their air clan rescuers, were throwing spears down to our enemies. From the back of his ride, Neel was beating off some green-faced witches who were trying to chase us on their brooms. The air was dark with smoke, as our enemies on the ground were sending up flaming arrows. I could still hear Stheno’s evil voice, shrieking for my meddling middle-school head.
But Naya and I were lurching through the air, her injured wing making it more and more impossible for her to fly. “Hang in there, Your Princessness,” gasped my sweet friend, worried about me even when it was she who was so badly hurt.
“We need help! Naya’s been shot!” I yelled as loud as I could. It was finally Neel who heard me. He turned his head, his eyes widening as he took in our plight. He shouted something I couldn’t hear, and within seconds, two flying rakkhosh swooped up next to Naya. One—a fierce green-skinned fellow with a scar splitting his face in two—grabbed me out of her hands, and the other—a rakkhoshi with needlelike black teeth—put a strong arm around a flailing Naya’s shoulder.