“The previous kings of the Danava Empire are extremely powerful and not very kind. You think Meru’s a big disaster waiting to happen? That’s nothing compared to what’ll happen if the beings underwater wake up. So, I suggest you heed my words.”
“You trapped my wife, deliberately,” said Veer, frustrated. “I can’t just leave her here. I need her.”
“Yes, we’re very aware of your quest regarding Meru. Since it is so, we’ll let her go. Provided you solve this puzzle.” The kinnara nodded to his consort.
The female kinnari waved her hand. A gentle breeze whipped up dust in his eyes, causing him to shut them. When he opened them, between one blink of an eye and the next, they sprang into being. The doppelgängers—three indistinguishable copies of Chandra stood before him, across the pond.
Identical to the last degree. From the mole along the sharp angle of her left eyebrow to the same bewildered expression on each of their faces as they watched one another.
“Who’s your wife really, Prince? Choose the right one and she can go with you,” sang the female kinnari.
“And if I choose wrong?” asked Veer, watching the look-alikes. They didn’t mirror their movements exactly, which was a blessing because their presence alongside one another was already vertigo inducing.
“Then you fail, and she’ll stay with us,” said the male kinnara, sounding distinctly entertained.
“I can’t abandon my wife in the wilderness!” gritted out Veer.
“She’ll be looked after very well,” chimed the yaksha, who had been listening silently so far. “Better than the way she’s been treated by the outside world. She’s very dear to us. Here, she’ll come to no harm. Here, she’ll not die.”
* * *
“What did I tell you that day in the Navari Woods, just before I let you go?” asked Veer.
“You said that not all actions are what they seem.”
The answer that came from three identical throats was the same. Even the cadence and pitch of their voices were the same.
Veer struck the ground with his sword in frustration. He had tried everything he could think of.
He attempted to see if there were small differences in the way they looked or the way they behaved and gestured. But no. They all appeared the same. Even the same expressions crossed their faces.
He then asked them something that only the princess would know. But besides sharing physical characteristics, theyeach had an exact copy of her memories as well. He got the same answer from all of them, no matter how he phrased the question.
The kinnaras seemed to find his efforts amusing. At least it felt that way to Veer. The way these supernatural beings expressed and assimilated emotions reminded him of the way he was never sure of an animal’s feelings when he was in their minds.
He knew their thoughts, but the emotions and reasoning seemed alien. He had always thought it was the difference between being an animal and a human. If so, these beings were alien as well.
He pondered their situation pensively. Without Chandra, he wouldn’t be able to continue the quest. He needed her to finish the lotus key.
“I am lost, Yaksha. How do I differentiate between them?” Veer appealed to the only being who seemed sympathetic to his plight. “How did they create them all equal? They even have the same memories. It is quite remarkable and impressive, but it makes my task harder.”
“It’s my consort’s specialty,” said the male kinnara proudly. “She is an expert at creating images. Everything, every thought down to the last detail, is reflected.”
“Indeed,” agreed the yaksha. “Her mirror magic is without par. I use the mirrors the kinnari has created for me. It helps me know what happens in my kingdom.”
Veer knew of mirror magic. His father used it occasionally to communicate across long distances, and he taught a little of it to Veer, although Veer could only use it to communicate with his father or his uncle. The kinnaras appeared to use them to make illusions, though.
But…images…mirrors…reflections? Veer glanced at the kinnara couple and then back at the three doppelgängers, observing them closely. Surely it couldn’t be that simple.
Chandra was right-handed, he remembered.
“Raise your right hand,” he ordered quietly.
Across the pond, Chandra raised her right hand. The other two doppelgängers raised their left.
“That one is the real Princess Chandrasena,” said Veer triumphantly. “The other two are but reflections. Mirror images. Everything is reversed in their world. Left is right. Right is left. To them they have raised their right hands, but because they are mirror images, it appears to us like they have raised their left.”
The kinnara couple exchanged a look.
