Behind Aleesa, blue light flashed as Brynne transformed into a hawk, her dagger pinched firmly in her beak. Aleesa didn’t notice. Her eyes were fixed on the ring.
“Well!” said Aru loudly. “This was very illuminating and not at all disturbing!”
She took a step back, one hand steadying Mini. Rudy was on her other side, looking more concerned about Mini by the second.
“That was all?” asked Aleesa, frowning. “What about the foundations? Are our jewels safe for the next year?”
Here we go! shouted Brynne.
“Yup!” said Rudy. “Supersafe!”
“So glad that whole deadly creature protecting the stash thing turned out to be fake,” said Aru, laughing.
A terrible crashing sound tore through the cavern. Dozens of voices cried out jaggedly:
Mothers! Help us!
Breaking!
Who will hear—
Aleesa spun around and shrieked. The cave shook, and several women rushed out from niches in the walls. The light behind them was a pure, vivid white, and in its glow, Aru saw something she hadn’t noticed before about Aleesa and the other guardians of Vasuki’s treasures. Their skin was tinged green, like emeralds, or…
Like poison.
“Brynne!” yelled Aiden, brandishing a scimitar.
Near the roof of the cave, Brynne was on a ledge, her blue wings beating uselessly against the rock. She cawed, and Aru knew she was trying to transform, but she was stuck as a hawk. The shard of the Sun Jewel still glowed brightly in the wall behind her. Brynne stopped flapping. Her blue glow faded as her bird form went limp. She plummeted to a ledge not far off the ground, wings feebly stirring.
BRYNNE! Aru screamed through the mind link. She couldn’t catch her breath. Panic choked her, and the air around them turned thick with something foul and claggy.
“Let us go!” Aru tried to yell, but her voice came out as a whisper.
“We do not answer to the demands of thieves,” said one of the women advancing toward them.
The exit was a hundred feet away, but the moment Aru looked at it, the door slammed shut. The two rows of jewelry stands, once cast in a soft glow, now held the menacing gleam of two sharp blades.
“Mini?” asked Rudy, terrified.
Aru flung out her arms, but she couldn’t catch Mini as she crumpled to the floor.
Poison, said Mini weakly through the mind link. There’s poison in the air….
As the women stalked toward them, their features seemed to change in the eerie lighting of the cave. Their hair waved around them. They grew taller, the silken hems of their gowns rising and twisting into what looked like vast tentacles. They were no less beautiful, but their beauty now belonged to something dangerous. Something deadly.
“You dared to steal from Lord Vasuki?” demanded one of the women.
“You dared to injure our beloved charges?” sneered a second.
“It will be the last thing you ever do…” said Aleesa.
From the tips of her long fingers a silver vapor emerged. It rose up like a cloud, drifting toward Aru, Rudy, and Mini. Aru tried to wave it away, but the moment she touched it, pain lanced through her thoughts. It was as if the vapor were made of razor blades. Her skin started to blister. The women moved closer.
When Aleesa smiled, Aru saw the sharp points of her teeth. Ice shot down Aru’s veins as she finally realized who, exactly, the guardians were. Rudy’s story hadn’t been fake at all. The guardians of Vasuki’s treasures were none other than the vishakanyas of legend….
The deadly poison maidens.
Aru tried to pull air into her lungs.
The corners of her vision turned fuzzy. She tried to look past the vishakanyas, but it was as if the whole cave were choking on black smoke. Aru squinted at the floor where Brynne had been lying unconscious. But she couldn’t see any sign of her. Or Aiden. Her heart sank. The vishakanyas had surrounded her, Rudy, and Mini in a careful circle of poison. Already, Aru could barely keep her thoughts straight. If she tried to make a run for it, she’d die.
Brynne! Aru called through the Pandava mind link.
There was nothing but static in response.
Aru swayed. She fumbled for something, anything she could use to fight back, but her grip slid on the jewelry cases. Beside her, Rudy shouted at the vishakanyas. He was the only one who didn’t seem affected by the poison. Instead, the scales along his cheekbones were glowing. Dimly, Aru realized he must have transformed into his half-snake form in the last few seconds, because now he towered above Aru and Mini. The coils of his naga tail wound protectively around Mini, who was still and unresponsive.
“I’m a prince!” said Rudy desperately. “Like, a real prince! You can’t do this! I’ll…I’ll tell my dad?” Rudy shrank down on his coils. “Are you going to kill us?”
“You, princeling, are exempt from our justice, but your friends have violated sacred lands,” said Aleesa. “And now they shall pay the price.”
“Get away from them!”
Aiden cut through the black fog of poison, his scimitars blazing. His face was half hidden by his hoodie, which he had pulled up to cover his nose and mouth. Then he slammed down a blade.
One of the poison maidens shrieked, but Aiden’s weapon hadn’t touched her. Instead, he’d crashed it into the jewelry case, shattering the glass. From inside, a necklace of pearls began to speak in a quivering, frightened voice.
O Mothers, who will listen to me now?
Aiden whirled back to face the poison maidens. For a moment, his eyes went to Aru’s. Something fierce and determined flashed in the depths of his gaze before he jerked his sword at the vishakanyas. “Hurt them and I’ll—”
But he never got to finish the sentence.
The roof of the cave trembled. Aiden frowned, glancing up.
“Look out!” yelled Aru hoarsely.
Aleesa blurred forward. In one movement, she swatted the scimitar out of his hand. Next, she grabbed Aiden by the throat and dragged him up and across the cave walls. He kicked out wildly, but his feet found no purchase.
“You shall never touch our charges again,” hissed Aleesa.
Time seemed to slow around Aru. Rudy thrashed his tail as if trying to help his cousin, only for three vishakanyas to step through the black cloud around them.
One of them pointed a red-taloned finger at Mini. “Another move, and I’ll aim all my venom at her heart.”
Rudy’s tail went slack. “Please, you can’t….”
“Oh, but we can, little princeling,” said another poison maiden.
“And, oh, we will,” said a third, smiling.
A patch in the poison cloud cleared enough for Aru to catch sight of Brynne. She was still in the form of a blue hawk, sprawled on the high ledge right in front of the gleaming Sun Jewel. They’d been so close, thought Aru with a pang. But now the poison was starting to twist her thoughts. For a moment, she imagined the roof of the cave undulating like the glossy scales of a snake.
There was nothing she could do.
If she’d still had Vajra, Aru could have shocked the poison maidens. Brynne could have used Gogo to clear the air of all its fumes. With Dee Dee, Mini could have kept them invisible as they stole the Sun Jewel and escaped.
What did Aru have now?
Her tongue felt heavy. When she opened her mouth to speak, it was like dragging each word through a wall of lead.