We were on our way to the Ruby Red Sea, when something else Neel said in the Serpent King’s throne room came back to me. We rode side by side, but I still had to shout a little to make myself heard over the wind.
“Hey, Neel, what was that other thing you said about my … I mean, the Serpent King? You said he was my dark matter? Is that the same thing as dark energy?”
“Nah, dark matter’s a whole other mysterious force.” Neel clicked his tongue at Midnight, who kept straining at the bit, trying to gallop faster. “In your dimension, dark matter’s the invisible presence that surrounds galaxies. Your scientists can’t see it, except sometimes like a halo around star systems.”
“And that relates to the Serpent King how?”
“Dark matter has this incredible gravitational pull,” Neel explained. “It wants to incorporate everything into itself. Think about how badly the Serpent King wanted to draw everything into himself. Your brother-snakes. You.”
“There is no light without the darkness,” Tuntuni chirped from my shoulder. “No darkness without the light.”
It was the same thing the merchant of shadows had said to Neel. She’d also said that Neel had to face his shadow self but not get pulled into the darkness. I guessed the same was true for me. My biological parents had been invisible my whole life—but hovering around me like a dark halo even as Ma and Baba filled my life with light. And now that dark pull had brought me back to this place, threatening to extinguish my parents’ light forever.
I couldn’t ask anything else because we had already gotten to the edge of the sea. As we landed and dismounted the horses, I noticed there was a long line of colorful barges on the shore of the lapping water, carved and painted to look like peacocks. Neel pulled the barge closest to us in more securely onto the land.
“Can’t the horses just fly us over?”
Neel shook his head, pointing to a sign that read:
PFDBMHNFZ
Then in smaller letters under it:
Pakkhiraj, Flying Demons, Bird Man, and Helicocroc No-Fly Zone
“Another no-fly zone, huh?” I remembered the Mandhara Mountain.
Neel nodded. “Any land mass that tends to move is a no-fly zone. There’ve been cases of flying horses getting trapped in the space between here and there if they’re flying when the land under them decides to shift around.”
“And I guess I don’t really want to know what a Helicocroc is, huh?”
Tuntuni shuddered. “Just be glad, Princess, they can’t fly here.”
Neel heaved the golden and silver spheres out of Midnight’s saddlebags and into the barge, while I packed what food and supplies we had left into my backpack. As we worked, I picked up the conversation from before.
“I don’t get it, Neel. Is the Kingdom Beyond Seven Oceans and Thirteen Rivers some kind of version of outer space? Back in the stables, I think I saw something really weird in your mother’s mouth …”
“Like planets and moons and stuff?” His smile was twisted and didn’t really reach his eyes. “Like I said before, it’s all really complicated to explain. That’s why we call people from your dimension 2-Ds. Most people from there can’t imagine that there are a lot of realities that exist at the same time. That one thing can have multiple forms. That the difference between inner space and outer space might just be an illusion.”
I remembered a Shady Sadie the Science Lady show about how our reality might just be one of many, and that these parallel dimensions might be like a bunch of vibrating strings in a row—each dimension clueless about the existence of the others. But even though I’d heard about it before, it was still really hard to imagine. Just trying to think about it hurt my brain.
But then something else struck me. “So if we don’t get to my parents in time”—I gulped—“they really will get swallowed into a black hole?”
“You could say that. Every time a spell collapses, it gives birth to a new rakkhosh from a well of dark energy. The amount of time that takes varies—usually rakkhosh are born the night of a new moon. And when they’re born …” Neel trailed off. “Well, let’s just say, they’re hungry.”
“So what are we waiting for? Let’s go!”
Before I got into the peacock barge, I hugged Snowy’s muzzle.
“I’ll miss you, Tushar Kona,” I murmured, using his real name.
And then, as clearly as if the horse were speaking to me, I heard his voice in my mind.
Don’t get killed, Princess. I really like you.
“Okay, I’ll try not to get killed,” I whispered, tickling Snowy’s ears.
“Are you talking to your horse?” Tuntuni made a cuckoo gesture with his wing, drawing circles at the side of his head. “Isn’t that a little wacka wacka?”
“Look who’s talkin’,” muttered Neel.
And with that, we pushed offshore in our peacock barge, waving good-bye to our loyal horses.
The full, red moon hung high in the sky, beaming down on us with an eerie light. The tides were on our side, propelling the little boat forward on the water. We didn’t have to row, but Neel steered us straight with the wooden rudder. To balance out the long barge, I sat at the far front end, with the golden and silver spheres in the middle. Tuntuni plunked himself in my lap and fell asleep.
As we floated along, something strange began to happen. Just like I could hear Snowy’s thoughts in my mind, I felt a buzzing all around me, as if something—the sky, the sea, the very air—were speaking to me.
No, it’s the moon.
“Did you say something, Neel?”
“Hmm?” he called from the back of the boat.
Look at the water to see my reflection, Daughter.
The dark red moon was enormous in the mirrorlike surface of the sea.
“Mother?” I whispered, barely believing it.
I have been a poor mother to you, my little piece of the moon …
The voice sounded so sad. Did she know what we’d just been through?
“The underworld kingdom,” I started. “We buried the lake …”
He will rise again, I fear, the moon replied. Until then, Daughter, you have freed me of my obligation. And this month on the night of no moon, when I come down to Earth in my human form, I can visit you.
My birth mother could come down to Earth on the night of the new moon! It couldn’t be a coincidence that was the same amount of time I had to find my parents before they became baby-demon food.
The sea wind whipped my hair and the salt water stung my cheeks. I looked back at Neel, who was staring ahead, steering the boat into the dark water. My eyes fell on the surface of the sea, and I started. Was I seeing what I thought I was seeing?
The moon shone even more brightly than before, making the surface of the water shimmer as if made of bobbing red rubies. Tentatively, I ran my fingers in the sea. Then I scooped my hand back into the boat.
Clunk, clink, thunk.
I didn’t leave your father’s kingdom entirely empty-handed, Daughter. These are your birthright.
I scooped my hand along the sea again.
“What was that?” Neel called.
I didn’t know what to say. At my feet glimmered dozens of bloodred rubies I’d just plucked from the water’s surface. Wordlessly, I held up one of the stones. The night was dark, but in the glow of the python jewel, the ruby shimmered.
“Where did you get that?”
I pointed at the sea. With a grin, Neel started scooping in fistfuls of rubies himself.
At the sound of all the clunking, Tuni woke up.
“Cross ruby seas full of love beneath the dark red moon,” he recited.
I slid the smooth jewels through my fingers. “Thank you,” I whispered, “Mother.”
You’re welcome, Daughter. I’m afraid you’ll need them in the terrible place you’re going.
“We’re not going straight to Maya Pahar?” I felt a pit of dread growing in my stomach.
Check the map, the moon said before disappearing behind a gray cloud.
In the back of the boat, Neel whooped as he scooped up more and more rubies.
“Watch it,” I called. The boat sunk pretty close to the surface of the water. “We’re heavy enough as it is.”
I took Ma’s map from my pocket, and peered at it in the python jewel’s light.
“Oh no … the thing’s shape-shifting again.”
“Look, we’re approaching shore!” Neel pointed to a vague gray line on the horizon.
“Neel,” I warned, “according to the map, that’s not the Maya Mountains anymore.”
The lines on the paper finally stopped moving. The little bird peeked over my shoulder. “Okay, now the Maya Mountains are on the other side of …” Tuni stopped. He made a choking noise, and discharged several yellow tail feathers.
“What?” Neel asked.
“That shoreline in front of us is definitely not the Maya Mountains.” My stomach was in knots.
“What is it, then?”
I turned around to face him, my eyes wide. “It’s Demon Land!”