Kara needed help.
But what could Aru do?
Just then, Nikita’s voice rang out in her head. So. We’re going to need one last piece of help.
What kind? asked Aru.
A distraction, said Nikita. We need everyone’s eyes on one person.
Aru grinned. She looked at Kara.
I can do that, said Aru.
Aru had imagined a thousand different ways to enter the battlefield. Shrouded in celestial light, perhaps. Or on the back of a war elephant. Preferably one that could trumpet in time with each step.
But alas, it was not to be.
There was no time for her to make a plan. The moment Aru set down Baby Boo, everything changed within seconds. Mini opened a space in the veil and Brynne gave Aru a helpful boost with a small gust to her back. Unfortunately, that “small gust” ended up being a tiny hurricane that sent Aru tumbling head over heels across the rock to land facedown in the dirt ten feet away from the Sleeper.
As Aru scrambled up, she uttered a word that she probably shouldn’t have said in front of a parental figure.
That elegant landing really inspired confidence, said Nikita through the mind link.
Aru ignored her.
It was an easy thing to do because the next moment Aru found herself staring down the three glowing prongs of Kara’s trident. Her sister glowered at her with flinty eyes. Aru looked past her at the Sleeper’s shocked face.
“Yeah, see?” said Aru. “She’s definitely not on our side.”
Aru smiled.
In her head, she heard Nikita through the mind link. Keep their eyes on you, Aru. I need five minutes for the troops.
Aru stared up into the Sleeper’s slack-jawed expression. “Aren’t you going to ask me how I did it?”
He seemed to recover himself. He snapped his fingers and the nectar of immortality vanished…but not quite. The air where it had been looked wrinkled, as if someone had merely pulled a curtain in front of it. Aru could still smell its immortal fragrance.
He may have hidden it for now, but she’d find it.
“Kara, where are your manners?” asked the Sleeper. “Say hello to your sister.”
“Hi,” she mumbled. Kara swallowed hard, hoisting the trident a little higher. The glower had gone out of her eyes, replaced with something searching. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”
“Well,” said Aru, “it is.”
“Have you come to join us?” asked the Sleeper, his gaze sweeping over the empty terrain. “Perhaps you’ve seen the error of your ways? Already there are those who call me a liberator, for I will free them from the ugliness of this world. I will release them from the silence it inflicts, from the shadows it wraps around those who deserve better….I will remake Time, child. Tell me, have you finally seen reason?”
“Reason?” said Aru, grinning. “Nope. Never met her.”
The Sleeper frowned. “I have searched the perimeter. You are alone. You have no army.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Was it Aru’s imagination, or did Kara’s trident drop by a fraction? Her eyebrows furrowed in question.
“You don’t even have a weapon, child,” said the Sleeper, with a rueful smile. “What can you possibly do?”
Aru groaned. Why was everyone so obsessed with asking her this question? Why couldn’t they just shut their mouths and…
“Watch,” said Aru.
She raised her hand. The illusion of darkness overhead parted cleanly, revealing an open sky. Thunder rattled the world. Lightning splintered the violet clouds and rain pelted the ground.
Now, she said silently.
There was a screeching roar, like metal against metal. Around them, the jagged battle terrain was briefly illuminated and then swathed in the darkness that follows when a light flares in front of your eyes. But this was better than light. This was lightning, and Aru Shah had just pulled it out of the sky.
“Hi, Vajra,” she said. “I missed you.”
Her lightning bolt had gone from tame to semi-feral. Whips of electricity slapped the ground, rattling the rocks. Ribbons of light wound up Aru’s arm with a gentle squeeze and tickle, as if Vajra purred with happiness.
Within seconds, the Sleeper’s army manifested in the labyrinth. Their numbers were legion. Aru could hear them panting and growling even as they were momentarily blinded by her power.
Kara gasped. Sunny, her trident, looked like a candle next to the flare of Aru’s lightning bolt. The two sisters were locked in their positions, weapons poised, the air so tense that a mere breath would snap it.
Out of the corner of her eye, Aru watched the pale naga lieutenant slither forward. “Orders, sir?” Followed quickly by: “Is she allowed to do that?”
Welp, that did it, thought Aru.
“First of all,” said Aru loudly, “she can hear you. And secondly…Yes, she is.”
Through her mind link, she could hear Mini and Brynne cheering. Aru let her hands fill with energy. Vajra—who had climbed to a towering fifteen feet in height—cast sparks over the battlefield.
“I’m giving you one last chance,” said Aru.
But when she spoke, she wasn’t talking to the Sleeper. Her eyes were fixed on Kara. Her sister—even if that wasn’t what she wanted to be—looked torn. The light of her trident flickered. It seemed smaller and weakened.
Kara looked between Aru and the Sleeper before casting her eyes downward.
“You may have power, but you have no army,” said the Sleeper through gritted teeth.
“Yet,” said Aru.
“What?”
“We have no army yet,” said Aru.
On the left, said Nikita through the mind link.
“But you’ll meet them real soon,” said Aru. “In fact, they’re here right now.”
Aru turned her head. And then she frowned.
Helloooo? she said through the mind link. I just said something super dramatic. Back me up!
I said on the left! said Nikita.
I am looking left!
No, you’re looking to the right!
“I meant on your left, Aru!” said Nikita loudly, in a voice that was no longer in Aru’s head.
Right then and there, Mini’s violet shield pulled back like an eye slowly opening. The vortex of Brynne’s wind power had kept them silent, but now the massive Otherworld army roared to life. Aru’s heart soared, and for the next few seconds before the world broke apart, she stared at all the people Sheela and Nikita had gathered. All the people who believed in them.
In one corner, the vanaras from the Kishkinda Kingdom waited, their monkey tails switching like whips as they bared their teeth and stamped the ground. Beside them, Queen Tara stood as tall as a skyscraper and ten times as impressive in her battle regalia. She wore an ancient bronze helmet and gold-plated body armor covered in spikes. One hand was extended over the hundreds of gathered vanaras; the other held a conch shell war horn just inches from her lips.
Queen Tara caught Aru’s eye and nodded in acknowledgment. In the skies, dozens of Maruts beat on war drums made of thunderclouds. They jostled together, their electrified daggers casting sparks over the battlefield. Otherworld creatures with great wings beat the air, their bows and arrows already trained on the Sleeper’s army. Hordes of nagas slithered out from pools of water in the ground. Rudy was among them, wearing plate armor made of carved sapphires. His hands were full of gems, and the stones whined, low and angry and rattling enough to raise goose bumps on anyone’s skin.