Kiki Kallira Conquers a Curse by Sangu Mandanna

Author:Sangu Mandanna [Mandanna, Sangu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2022-05-17T00:00:00+00:00

14

“Oh, she didn’t,” I sighed.

Suki groaned. “Please tell me she hasn’t gone and gotten herself gobbled up by another book!”

“I think she has.”

Numa’s enormous eyes bulged. “She touched the Beast Book?”

I took it as a sign of how badly Numa was taking this news that he had stooped to using the book’s nickname.

“You can get her out, can’t you?” I asked.

He gave me a sour look. “I’m not sure I should bother, given I did very specifically warn you all not to touch any—”

Simha growled so loudly that we had to put our hands over our ears to try to block it out.

“Oh, shut up, you overprotective cat,” Numa said grumpily. “Of course I’ll get her out. I can’t have clumsy children living inside precious and dangerous artifacts!”

“He’s more concerned about the book than about Samara, isn’t he?” Pip said in my ear.

“It does sound like it.”

“I will get her out,” Numa repeated. “But it will take some time.”

Suki was starting to look worried. “How much time?”

“If you’re lucky, she’ll be out by tomorrow.”

“It’s going to take a whole day to get her out? Will she be okay?”

“Why wouldn’t she be?” Numa asked. “It’s a book, not a viper. She is most likely having a marvelous time wandering around among the words as we speak. As long as she’s out in a day or two, I suspect she’ll suffer no ill effects other than dehydration. A complaint we shall all soon be suffering from,” he added pointedly, “if you don’t go break that curse like you keep saying you will.”

The Crows, Simha, and I looked at each other. “We can’t just leave her,” I protested.

“I do not like it, either,” said Simha.

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” said Lej grimly. His fists were clenched, and I knew he wasn’t happy about it, but he was also nothing if not practical. “We could plant ourselves right here and do absolutely nothing until tomorrow, but do you really think that’s the best use of our time?”

I remembered the hostile expressions on people’s faces and thought of how little water had been in the canals outside. I hated when Lej was right, but I also knew he was.

Still—

“Suki?” I asked. “What do you want to do?”

Suki’s lip wobbled, but she closed her hand tightly around her locket and said, “I think we should go find Sura. If Numa’s right, Samara will be okay inside the book until he can get her out. She wouldn’t want us to wait here and waste time.”

“Do you want to stay while the rest of us take the locket and go?”

“You might need me,” she replied, and that was that.

So we left, reluctantly. Simha bounded off to the Summer Palace to summon Chamundeshwari, and the rest of us went back to Crow House, where we explained everything to Jojo and a disinterested Joy over a hasty, half-hearted lunch.

I, for one, could barely eat. The part I’d been dreading was here at last.

It’s okay, I said to myself.

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