“Calm down?” said Aru, shooting out of her chair. “Boo did betray us! And Hanuman and Urvashi messed up everything by convincing my mom to trap the Sleeper. Maybe they’re trapped in Lanka, or maybe they just gave up on us, like Boo did!”
“You don’t know that!” said Brynne.
And then too many things happened at once. Sparks flew off Vajra just as a gust of wind blew Aru back into her seat. Aiden dove forward, throwing out his hands like a referee. A huge burst of violet light shot across the room as Mini slammed Dee Dee into the ground.
“ENOUGH!” yelled Mini. “Aru, Brynne didn’t say she doesn’t believe you. And, Brynne, just because you don’t like what you hear doesn’t mean you have to sneer about it. Aru has clearly gone through a lot. All of us have!”
Aru stared at her sisters, feeling smaller and smaller by the second. Mini was gazing at her with pity. Brynne looked dubious. Why didn’t anyone believe her? Because they know you’re a liar, Aru Shah, whispered a voice in her head.
Aiden slowly lowered his arms. “Can we agree to start over? We’re not going to find the answers we need until we get to Lanka, and we have to figure out how we’re going to do that when all the portals are closed. Let’s just focus on the next step for now, okay? Brynne, Aru, is there something you want to say to each other?”
Brynne and Aru glared at each other for about five more seconds before Brynne grumbled, “Gods, Aiden, you’re such an ammamma.” Brynne looked up at Aru and sighed. “You’re a mess, but you’re still my sister.”
There were a lot of things that Aru didn’t know and didn’t understand, but one thing hadn’t changed. “Love you, hate you.”
“Fair enough,” said Brynne.
And that was that.
Mini and Aiden exchanged classic tired-of-these-kids faces before Mini said, “It is kinda weird that you can’t remember the wish.”
“I know,” said Aru bitterly. “But every time I try, I see something else. Snow, and a bridge…I dunno.”
Mini went pale. “Shukra’s curse.”
“Who?” asked Brynne.
Aru felt cold.
Shukra. The guardian of the Bridge of Forgetting in the Kingdom of Death.
While Mini explained who he was to the others, Aru felt dragged back into an old memory. Aru and Mini had been forced to fight their way out of that place, and in the process, Aru had hurt Shukra. Badly. In return, he had cursed her.
“In the moment when it matters most, you, too, shall forget,” said Aru. “That’s why I can’t remember….”
Brynne threw up her hands. “But we need that wish! It’s the only thing that proves whose side we’re on! Without it, Kubera won’t give us the Nairrata army. I bet he’ll make a deal with the Sleeper. He’d do anything to keep Lanka—and himself—safe.”
“Seriously?” asked Aru. “He would really do that to everyone else?”
“He’s a god,” said Aiden darkly. “It’s different for them. Immortals don’t care about stuff the same way humans do. They never grow old, and they can’t die, so things like war don’t mean much to them.” He sighed, then added, “There’s something else you need to know, Aru.”
Aru frowned. “What? He expects us to compete in his trials as actual mongooses?”
“It’s about your mom,” said Mini quietly.
Aru went cold. “What about her?”
“She waited for you a long time,” said Aiden. “And then, last week, she packed up and left. She said she needed to do some urgent research…. She found something that might give us a clue about the Sleeper’s next move. He’s still after the nectar of immortality, and he’s getting closer to finding it again.”
Aru thought back to the strange Ocean of Milk, and the great silver dome that held the amrita elixir. After the Pandavas had fought near it, the Council had supposedly devised a way to hide the nectar even from themselves. It was the only way to protect the powerful substance. So how did the Sleeper know where to find it?
“Where did she go, exactly?” asked Aru.
“I wish we knew more, dude,” said Brynne sadly.
“She said she knew what she was doing, and she promised to stay out of harm’s way,” said Aiden. “She also gave me a message in case you got back before her.”
“She did?”
Aiden looked deep into her eyes, and Aru felt prickly and warm all over. “I love you, Aru.”
Aru’s whole face went up in flames. Uh, what? “I meant the message?”
Aiden lifted an eyebrow. “That was the message.”
“Oh my god, I was joking,” said Aru, while quietly dying inside. Honestly, now would not be a bad time to bounce Vajra off her forehead and electrocute herself again.
“We’ve been watching the place while she’s gone,” Brynne added quickly.
Through their Pandava link, Brynne added, That was PAINFUL to witness.
Mini winced. Stop! I’m sure he didn’t notice.
Aru darted a glance at Aiden, who seemed extremely preoccupied with his camera. His face looked a touch red.
He definitely noticed.
Aiden frowned and crossed his arms, not looking at them. “So, uh, we’ve got two days left to get to Lanka and answer Kubera’s summons, but there’s literally no way to get there—”
A tiny thud made the four of them whip around to look at Kara. She had woken up, and in the process of sitting up, she’d let the book she’d carried from the Sleeper’s lair fall to the floor. Kara immediately hunched her shoulders, looking around nervously.
“I, um, I think I can help you,” said Kara in a small voice.
Brynne stood up.
The blue choker around her neck, which held Gogo, her camouflaged wind mace, glowed slightly. “Do you really think we’d take help from the daughter of the Sleeper?”
Really, Brynne, scolded Mini.
Kara turned to Aru, her eyes shining. Aru forced herself to stand still. She wanted to defend Kara, but she was afraid that if she did, it would make her look like the “untrue sister” from Sheela’s prophecy. The rest of the Otherworld already thought she was bad news. She couldn’t have her Pandava sisters thinking the same thing.
Kara looked down, hurt, and her hands curled into fists in her lap. “My name is Kara, and I’m not his only daughter, you know.”
The whole room fell silent for a couple of moments. Aru felt her palms turning hot. She was about to go to Kara’s side when there came the sound of a chair scraping back.
“This is ridiculous,” grumbled Aiden.
He swiped a glass of water off the table and walked over to give it to Kara. As she drank, Aiden bent down, picking up the book that had fallen off her lap. He turned it over, a soft smile growing on his face.
“A book of Emily Dickinson poems?” he asked, handing it back to her.
Kara flushed. “Her work has always made me feel…less alone.”
Aiden’s eyebrows shot up in surprise, and his gaze lingered on Kara. As Aru watched, something painful nudged at her heart.
“Okay, okay, this isn’t book-club time,” growled Brynne. “What do you really want?”