Aiden opened his mouth, then closed it. “You’re…welcome.”
“Hug?” asked Rudy.
“No.”
“Okay!” said Rudy, turning back to the Pandavas. “So you see why I’ve never really met him? I think once I saw a part of his tail when our parents took us camping. My brothers and I poked it, and then the scales started rippling and we got freaked out and swam away. I don’t think anyone has seen G-Thousand’s head in…centuries? He’s so ancient and so huge that he’s basically part of the infrastructure of the whole kingdom.”
“How are we going to find the piece of the Sun Jewel if we can’t talk to him?” asked Brynne. “Does he have a storage room or something? Maybe we can look through that?”
Rudy shuddered. For the first time, his bravado slipped away.
“What’s wrong?” asked Mini.
“I know where we have to go,” said Rudy. He walked over to one of his shelves. There, Aru saw a miniature model of a kingdom she’d never seen. It was made entirely of jewels and interlocking caves; the jagged mouths of caverns wove between shining towers and spires. He tapped the top of one miniature cave. “Here.”
“And what is ‘here’ exactly?” asked Brynne.
“Patala,” said Rudy. He whispered it like it was someplace sacred. Or haunted. “It’s mostly ruins these days, but it used to be an old kingdom and now it’s ‘something, something, historical landmark, something.’ I think one of my cousins is interning at the archive desk there. G-Thousand’s treasures are supposed to be in one of the caves.”
“But if we know exactly where to go, isn’t that…good?” said Mini.
Rudy winced.
“What’s the problem?” asked Aiden.
“Um, the guards?” said Rudy, wide-eyed. “I’ve never been down there, so I don’t know who or what guards those treasures, but my dad says that it’s protected by the greatest fear of the weakest men.”
“What does that mean?” asked Aru.
Rudy shrugged. “I dunno. On our school trips, we just took a picture by the balcony vantage point. No one goes into the ruins anymore. Too dangerous.” He squared his shoulders. “But I can get us there. We’ll have to leave tonight, though.”
Brynne threw up her hands. “Tonight? Why can’t we go now? We’ve already lost so much time!”
“We have to wait until my parents go to sleep before we can use the fancy elevator,” said Rudy apologetically. “In the meantime, I’m gonna grab us some food and stuff. Get comfy!” He flailed a hand at the different hallways shooting off from his own private lobby/room/thing. “There’s a war arena down there. I didn’t know what to do with it, so it’s mostly my recording studio. Showers and pools thataway.”
With that, Rudy opened his door and slipped out.
“This’ll give us time to eat, freshen up, take a quick nap,” said Aiden calmly. “I’ve got some chocolate. Want some, Brynne?”
“I’ve got no appetite,” she said.
Aru and Mini exchanged shocked looks. Brynne Rao never turned down a snack.
You okay? asked Mini through the mind link.
Brynne sent a mental grunt down the line.
Gonna take that as a solid “maybe,” said Aru, but Brynne didn’t seem amused.
“C’mon, Aiden,” Brynne said. “Let’s run through some drills. I gotta stay sharp. I want to try out some new shape-shifting forms, and I can’t get…” Weak, she finished telepathically.
Aru wondered if Brynne had meant to think that aloud, because without another word she turned on her heel and stalked off in the direction of the arena. Aiden looked over his shoulder at Aru. For a moment, it seemed like he was trying to catch her eye, but Aru didn’t look back. Every time she did, she missed Vajra’s electrocuting properties too much.
“I’m worried about her,” said Mini when she and Aru were alone. “I’m worried about all of us. And that test Agni mentioned…What if I screw it up?”
“That’s impossible, Mini,” said Aru. “You’re the most neurotic and good-est demigod I know.”
“That’s not a real word, Aru.”
“See?” Aru grinned. “Nothing gets past you!”
Mini laughed. “I wish I was like you sometimes.”
At this, Aru’s grin faltered. She didn’t know how to tell Brynne and Mini that, for all her plans, she still felt lost. What if, when the time came, she did exactly the wrong thing? Aru changed the subject.
“Well, for what it’s worth, I think Rudy likes you just the way you are.”
Mini’s shoulders slumped. “Pretty sure what he liked most was all the power I had. Key word: had.”
“Don’t think like that,” said Aru. “It’s like what Boo said…We’re more than the things we fight with, right?”
Mini held her gaze. “And is that how you feel?”
Aru paused. Mini had her there.
“Thought so,” said Mini.
That night, Aru didn’t think she’d ever fall asleep, but one moment she was staring at the wall, and the next…
“ARU!”
She was standing now. Sheela threw her arms around her waist. Nikita waved beside her twin. The girls were dressed in matching blue pajamas and hair bonnets. The outfits lacked Nikita’s usual flair, which meant she must have designed them in a hurry.
Alarm bells went off in Aru’s head. They were on a cold beach. Above was a gray sky, below was gray sand, and the water was the indistinct color of smoke. Sharks made of clockwork dived in and out of the waves. There was no sound but a constant ticking, like time running out….
“Where are Brynne and Mini?” asked Aru.
Nikita pressed her lips into a grim line. “Couldn’t reach them. They’re lost in their own dreams.”
“But we could get to you, at least,” said Sheela, still clinging to Aru.
“What can we do to help?” asked Nikita. “What happened when you went to Lord Agni?”
Aru quickly told them about the Sun Jewel, and how it had been cut into three pieces—one for Lord Agni, the second for Lord Vasuki, and the third for Jambavan, king of the bears.
“Jambavan’s name keeps ringing a bell,” said Aru. “But we don’t know where to find him. Maybe you can do some digging for us in the Otherworld?”
“On it,” said Nikita.
“I don’t like this,” said Sheela, stepping away.
“Like what?” asked Aru.
Sheela glanced nervously at her twin, who nodded her approval to continue.
“I tried to look into the future, Aru, and it…It was the first time I ever saw something like that.”
Aru tried to keep the panic off her face. She wasn’t sure she succeeded. “Something like what?”
Sheela looked up at her, and her blue eyes seemed to ice over. “Nothing,” she said in her prophecy voice. “I saw nothing.”
Aru frowned. “What do you mean you saw ‘nothing’?”
But if Sheela was planning on answering, the moment was disrupted. The gray sea split in two. The sky churned overhead, and Aru felt her feet sinking into the ground. She tried to catch her balance, her arms shooting out to steady her—