“This cannot stand,” she wailed. “What are we supposed to do without cake?”

“Are you going to tell the lion he can’t cook for us anymore?” Lej demanded. “Have you seen the size of his teeth?”

Later, as planned, we slipped across the city to the river after dark. The Kaveri shimmered like liquid silver in the full light of the moon, and the forest on the other side of the river whispered and hummed in the wind. We stood quietly on a bridge that arched across the river and scattered Pip’s ashes over the water.

As we walked away, I looked back one last time. And for just one moment, I could have sworn I saw a crow, taking flight into the night.

23

I woke to thunder. Startling awake, I looked out of the window, into the pinkish predawn. Dark gray clouds rolled across the sky, seething and furious, and thunder crashed over the city. I covered my ears. I had never heard thunder this loud. And why wasn’t there any rain?

The skies roared and an enormous bolt of lightning struck the top of the Chamundi Hills. Then another struck one of the jewel-bright houses in the city, making the earth tremble. The thunder crashed again.

My door slammed open, making me jump, and Ashwini burst in. “Come on,” she said, shouting over the sound of the thunder. “We have to go!”

“Go where?”

“To the gandaberunda,” she said.

Dread made my stomach lurch. “The thunder, the lightning,” I said. “It’s not just a storm, is it? It’s Mahishasura.”

“He’s trying to use what little power he has to rip open the tear between worlds even wider,” she said. Her eyes were wide and frantic, her entire body jittery. “This is what happened when the tear opened up the first time. I don’t know if he can tear it any wider, but we can’t take that chance. If we want to stop him, we have to break that statue’s eye now!”

“But we still don’t know how to get to it!”

“I’ve got ropes downstairs. We’ll climb the walls of the palace.”

“That’s a terrible idea! You said there are Asuras circling the statue and guarding it at all times. They’ll see us and stop us in no time.”

“Nope,” she said, practically bouncing off the walls. “Not right now. Not with that storm in the sky. Come on, Kiki. I’ll wait for you downstairs.”

“What about the others?” I asked as I shoved my feet into Pip’s shoes.

Her face was grim. “I made them all promise to stay here. I can’t lose anyone else. I wouldn’t even have come to get you if you weren’t the only one who can break the eye.”

She darted out, and it occurred to me that if we did this, if we succeeded, this would be the last time I would ever be in this house.

No, I couldn’t think about that. There was too much grief already, I couldn’t start thinking about how much I would miss everyone else.