“Don’t you think they’ve been gone a long time?” asked Rudy nervously.
At that moment, the door shuddered, contracting for a moment before swinging open. Brynne and Aiden tumbled onto the ground.
“My tabla!” moaned Brynne, staring into the void.
The door, indifferent, slammed shut behind her.
“I know,” said Mini, glancing at her empty hands. “I lost the keyboard, too.”
Aiden winced, looking like he’d been violently shaken out of a dream. He blinked a few times before his eyes went wide. “Where’s my backpack? Did I lose it—”
“Calm down, Ammamma,” said Brynne. “It’s on your back. Like it’s supposed to be.”
Brynne tugged one of the straps and Aiden relaxed. He gingerly adjusted the pack, unzipping it and reaching inside to fuss with something.
“What’s in there, anyway?” asked Brynne, trying to peer into it.
Aiden wrapped his arm around it protectively. “It’s a surprise.”
“Ooh!” said Rudy.
“Not for you.”
“Cruel.”
With his backpack decidedly secure, Aiden lifted his gaze to scan the Halls of Nidra. A few moments later, he looked at Aru. She froze. Up until now, she’d told herself that those moments on the Final Stage were all in her imagination. But the way he stared at her now was different. He seemed…determined. Emboldened. The intensity of it made her palms clammy. And this time it was Aru who looked away first.
“I’m sad we lost the instruments,” said Rudy, looking downcast. But then he brightened. “AT LEAST THE BAND IS REUNITED!”
“That was a one-time thing, Rudy,” said Aiden firmly.
“That’s what you think,” muttered the naga. “Rudy Rocks will be immortalized as the greatest band of all time….”
“I think I see a way out!” said Brynne, pointing.
Aru followed the direction of Brynne’s outstretched arm. All around them, an undulating, star-flecked purple mist rolled through the Halls. From one moment to the next, it changed shape. Where it had first looked like an ocean, now it had narrowed, transforming into an elaborate corridor with night clouds for a floor.
“Wait,” said Brynne, faltering. “Maybe I was wrong.”
Out of the corners of her eyes, Aru saw dozens of silver doors appearing and disappearing on either side of the cloud floor, but looking at them was like trying to remember the details of a dream after waking up.
And then, far ahead, the thick mist cleared long enough to reveal a door different from the others. It was larger and looked like poured gold.
“That’s weird,” said Brynne, frowning. “I…I can’t get a sense of how close it is.”
Aru knew what she meant. The labyrinth entrance had all the logic of a dream. On the one hand, Aru could sense the details—its impressive height and lustrous color. But when she blinked, her perspective changed so that it seemed small and bright and almost two hundred feet in the distance.
But even from this far away, Aru saw something appear next to the door. The star-flecked mist half hid it, but it looked like a large, oddly spiky shrub? It wiggled a bit, and something about it made Aru recoil….
How come the longer they stayed in the Halls of Nidra, the more it seemed to move? The whole space rose and fell gently. At first, Aru had thought it was the waves formed by the night-darkened clouds on the floor. But now it was as if this realm of sleep was, well, asleep. A body breathing in the dark.
Beside Aru, Mini shivered. “Something’s not right. It’s like one of those dreams where the exit gets farther and farther away.”
“Even if we have to walk for hours, we’ll get there,” said Brynne.
“We may not have hours,” said Aru.
Brynne looked sharply at them. “What do you mean?”
Mini glanced at Aru. “Sheela and Nikita were able to visit us in the astral plane. They said that the Halls of Nidra don’t stay in one place for long. We have to move fast.”
“Well, then let’s go!” said Brynne. “This could be it. The final test! Once we get through, we’ll be in front of the labyrinth!” She smiled at Aru and Mini. “I bet the moment we go through that portal, you guys will both have your weapons back. It’s going to be good.”
There was an edge of forced cheer to her voice, and Aru wondered if Brynne felt it, too—that trace of frost in the air. Or the unsettling sensation that the Halls mimicked the shallow breathing of someone dreaming restlessly.
Or someone wide-awake and watching.
After guzzling some water and eating the last of Aiden’s protein bars, Brynne took the lead. Far ahead and yet impossibly close, the door to the labyrinth’s entrance taunted them.
“I wonder if we can take any of the daydreams with us,” said Rudy, squinting at a swan made of music notes. A pale magpie flew past, with a note tucked in its beak that said EXTREMELY WITTY RESPONSES.
Aru frowned as Nikita’s words floated back to her. In the Halls of Nidra not all the dreams are nice. Aru looked around warily, as if one of the daydreams might suddenly sprout teeth and dive at them….But everything seemed serene.
“Move out, Potatoes!” said Brynne, taking the first step.
Beneath her feet, the night-darkened clouds yielded, and Aru’s stomach swooped a little as she sank up to her ankles in their softness. The clouds moved coolly against the fabric of her pants, and instantly a sense of calm stole through her body.
“Ahh!” said Rudy. “Watch where you put your feet! I almost stepped on someone’s nose.”
Mini sniffed the air. “I wonder what kind of microbes exist in the dream realm. Do those trees have pollen? Is this why I sometimes wake up with a stuffy nose? What if someone got a severe allergic reaction out here?”
As if on cue, Brynne, Rudy, Aiden, and Aru all said, “They could die.”
Mini was not amused. Aru smiled a little as they walked across the clouds. She was still scanning the narrow hallway when Aiden fell into step beside her. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his dress pants. His emerald-green costume blazer from the Final Stage glimmered. When he looked at her, his expression was serious and intense, like he had been working up his courage for this moment.
“Hey,” said Aiden. “Do you have a second?”
Alarm bells went off in Aru’s head. She lifted an eyebrow. “For what? Clearly Brynne, Mini, and I are in the middle of apocalypse-thwarting. I don’t want to risk getting distracted.”
Just then Brynne and Mini started arguing about poached eggs.
“Undercooked eggs carry a risk of salmonella!” said Mini.
“Poached eggs are rich and luxurious, and I won’t hear them slandered,” said Brynne.
Aru groaned inwardly. Why weren’t they ever talking about some kind of brilliant military strategy against nefarious enemies when she needed them to be?
“Yeah…I can see that,” said Aiden.
Aru walked a little faster. If this was going to turn into another Sorry about what I said before, but yeah, it’s true, I think you’re repulsive, she did not need that energy. Nope, nope, nope.
“Shah, wait up,” said Aiden, touching her elbow. “Please.”