Sage Durvasa Curses
The moment Mini uttered the thief’s name, the soul song flared. Saying the name was supposed to unlock the thief’s location, but the image forming within the orb was still too hazy to make out.
“It will take a while,” said Durvasa.
Aru sat on the floor and sighed, resting her chin on her hand. Magic was supposed to be fast! Actually, it was a lot like the Internet—sometimesspeedy, other times taking forever just to buffer one measly cat video.
“Sur-pa-na-kha,” said Aiden, drawing out every syllable.
Soor-pah-nah-kuh.
It was really hard for Aru to say the name aloud without bursting into the “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” song, but she restrained herself. Where had she heard that name before?
“I know what you’re thinking,” said Mini, looking at Aru. “You’rewondering where you’ve heard that name before.”
“Can you read minds, too?!”
“No, you were humming thatMary Poppinssong, so I just guessed.”
“Oh.”
“Surpanakha is the sister of the demon king Ravana, remember?” asked Mini. “Boo taught us.”
At the mention of Boo, Aru felt a wave of sadness. Poor Boo…. Wherever he was, she really hoped someone had managed to smuggle him some Oreos.
“Yeah,I remember,” said Aru. “She’s the one who got her nose cut off, right?”
“Yup,” said Mini.
“Why?” asked Brynne, reflexively protecting her own nose with her hand.
“In the stories from theRamayana,” said Mini, “Surpanakha attacked Sita, Lord Rama’s wife. Rama and his brother Laxmana fought her off. In the process, Laxmana hacked off Surpanakha’s nose.”
“Yeah, but why the nose?” wondered Aiden.
“Was hers superspecial?” asked Aru. “Like an elephant trunk that could pick up a sword and stab people?”
The others laughed softly, but Durvasa’s deep voice cut through their smiles. “It was an act of humiliation.”
The great sage had chosen not to sit anywhere near Surpanakha’s soul song. Instead, he stood off to the side, as if the object intimidated him.
“According to the stories,” he wenton, “Surpanakha was so dazzled by the beauty of Lord Rama and Lord Laxmana that she offered herself to them in marriage. They refused her. One might say they were not as kind as they could have been.”
“Yeah … but wasn’t she hideous and demonic-looking … gray skin, red eyes, fangs the size of your arm?” asked Aru.
“Not everyone with rakshasa or asura blood looks demonic,” said Brynne grumpily.“That’s a stereotype.”
Aiden nodded. “Plus, I just don’t think people should be mean to someone because they don’t like the way they look.”
Aru felt a little chastened. “You’re right. I’m sorry,” she mumbled.
“S’okay,” said Brynne, thumping her back. Except, because Brynne was ridiculously strong, Aru almost went sprawling.
“So what happened to her after that?” Mini asked.
“She ran back toher brother, the ten-headed demon king,” said Aiden.
Dimly, Aru recalled the images she had seen on Kamadeva’s floor. The rakshasi fleeing through the forest, then complaining to her brother about the injustice that she had suffered … and describing Rama’s beautiful wife. In the tales, her brother became obsessed with Sita and kidnapped her from Rama.
