“Whoa, Aru!” yelled Brynne. “You almost took my eye out!”
Aru blinked. Brynne and Mini were already dressed. Two moon jellyfish floated behind them like living lanterns.
“It’s time,” said Mini.
Once Rudy’s enchanted Sad Boi Rocks™ rocks were in place to throw his parents off their trail, Rudy led them through the passages of his palace until they arrived at a chamber with a dozen elevators floating a foot off the ground. The moment the Potatoes stepped inside the room, a pedestal swiveled out of the ground and a sparkling keypad appeared.
All the elevators looked more or less the same, except one. It was an ancient palanquin, the kind Aru imagined had once carried kings and queens. The palanquin was an elaborately carved and painted wooden box with open sides and two long beams underneath that four or more men would have hoisted onto their shoulders to carry the person within. The elevator was big enough for six people, but it didn’t look like it wanted company. Frost spiderwebbed across its exterior, and though Aru was more than twenty feet away, she could feel an odd chill emanating from the interior.
“Don’t worry,” said Rudy, following her gaze. “No one goes in that one.”
“Where does it lead to?” asked Aiden.
Rudy shrugged. “My mom says it goes to the end of the world.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” said Rudy. “I mean, technically, there’s more than one end-of-the-world location. And I guess it also depends on the universe? Don’t ask. Just thinking about it gives me a headache. But that particular end-of-the-world location is really cold and dark.”
“Remind me again why we couldn’t try to use a portal?” asked Aru, staring around the eerie elevator bank.
“Too risky,” said Rudy. He placed his palm on the pedestal’s keypad. “Patala isn’t like other places. There’s always maintenance going on down there. It’s super unstable, too, because all the other worlds got piled on top of it. If you get stuck…you might not get found.”
Welp, thought Aru, glancing at Mini. She was rocking on her heels, a clear sign of the beginnings of an MOMDPA, also known as a Mini Obscure-Medical-Doom Panic Attack. Probably something about oxygen deprivation. And death.
“It’ll be fine, Mini,” said Brynne, clapping her on the back. Brynne glared at Aru, signaling that she should say something reassuring to Mini, too, but Aru was still thinking about her dream with Sheela, the way her blue eyes had turned empty and unfocused.
Nothing. I saw nothing.
What was waiting for them in Patala? Rudy had said that Lord Vasuki’s treasures were guarded by fierce creatures…the greatest fear of the weakest men. She didn’t know what that meant.
“This way,” said Rudy, ushering them inside one of the massive elevators.
This one wasn’t as polished or modern as the others. Its glass was frosted and etched with designs of undulating snakes. In the corners winked huge, uncut chunks of rubies and emeralds. Instead of chairs, ancient silken pillows were arranged in the center.
“It’ll take a while to get there,” said Rudy, plopping onto the ground. “Might as well sit.”
Aru leaned against one of the pillows. Dust puffed into the air. Mini coughed. “Why is it so musty? Don’t your parents ever visit Patala?”
“Not if they can help it,” said Rudy. “Patala is beautiful, but it’s…not pleasant. You’ll see.”
The moment the doors closed, the elevator silently plummeted through the marble floor. Aru’s ears popped as the landscape shifted. At first, the scenery seemed normal enough for the underwater realm. Every now and then she caught the occasional glow of a giant orange squid floating through the dark sea. After that came layers upon layers of striped rock embedded with pieces of lost ships. But then the setting became unfocused and oddly bright, like a molten rainbow was sliding down the elevator glass.
At some point she must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she felt was someone shaking her shoulder.
“We’re here, Shah.”
Aru woke to see Aiden’s face barely a foot away from hers. Their eyes met. For a moment, it looked like he wanted to say something to her, but a second later he snatched his hand away from her shoulder as if it had burned him.
On the bright side, your drool was minimal this time! said Mini through their mind link. I didn’t even need to get out the wet wipes!
Aru sighed. Clearly, I’m winning at life.
The elevator doors opened into a long, dimly lit cavernous passageway. A rocky ceiling soared hundreds of feet above them and the smell of wet stone and roots filled the air. At the end of the passageway, a bright light lit up the caverns. The moment they set foot on the ground, a trail of glowing rainbow quartz bloomed down the corridor and a voice echoed around them.
“Welcome to Patala, once the resplendent home of the ancient naga aristocracy and now one of the most celebrated historical ruins in the Otherworld,” said the voice. “Witness the majesty of its architecture from the safety of our pavilion! See the world-famous cavern rumored to hold the treasures of Lord Vasuki himself! The deadly stage of the beautiful vishakanyas! Visit our exhibit to see a collection of ancient artifacts excavated through various digs. On behalf of the Society for Historic Preservation, thank you for supporting this landmark!”
Aru turned to Rudy, who had his hands jammed into his pockets. He looked skittish. “This way,” he said.
Rudy had said that Patala was not pleasant, but so far, it didn’t seem any different from the parts of the Otherworld she’d already visited. There was a tautness in the air, a pulse that Aru recognized as magic coursing through the rock. The closer they got to the “rainbow” end of the tunnel, the more Aru imagined she could hear something in the stone, like the softest of whispers. Aru shivered, and the sounds disappeared. Maybe she’d imagined them.
To her right, Aru saw glowing red words: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL AND ARCHIVISTS ONLY. But beneath the sign there was nothing but solid rock.
Abruptly, the passageway stopped at a tall railing that hugged the edge of a pavilion jutting into midair. Aru’s jaw dropped. She’d assumed that the light at the end of the cavern was created by powerful lanterns or maybe tons of candles, but no. The glow came from the ruins themselves.
All around the Potatoes stretched a city made of jewel-studded caves layered one atop another in a complex so vast that it seemed to extend into the multicolored clouds far above. Droplets splashed the railing, and Aru looked up to see a waterfall of molten silver thundering into the ground below. An enchanted moonstone the size of a dining table hovered in the air and parted the falling silver curtains, allowing Aru and the others to glimpse the ancient city of Patala.
It had looked beautiful in Rudy’s scaled-down model, but in person, it was breathtaking. There were towers of raw emerald. Elaborate onyx carvings of tigers and cobras crouched over jagged cave mouths. Gardens sported blooms of intricately carved crystals spilling over pure diamond terraces. The walkways were constructed of gleaming golden bricks. All the caves opened over an ancient agora. In the distance, Aru could see the crumbling structure of a stage with ripped silk curtains as well as empty reflecting pools and the remains of what might have once been a bustling market.