From the left, five figures in dark hoodies emerged from behind trees that were much too thin for anyone to hide behind. Where had they come from?
One of the strangers broke off—Aru assumed he was the leader. His hoodie was drawn low over his face, and there were two holes cut out at the top. Sharp horns protruded from them, slick and black. So he was an asura.
“Heading to the Ocean of Milk?” he said with a grunt. “Fuhgeddaboudit.”
Did Your Parents Really Name You Sparky?
The asura snapped his fingers.
Now, standing right in front of them, at the threshold of the Ocean of Milk, was another, taller figure wearing a black sweatshirt. Aru couldn’t tell if he was an asura or not. He wore obnoxious sunglasses with white stripes across the lenses, and a red T-shirt with a ram on it that said LIT. Aru rolled her eyes so hard she thought they’d fall out of her head.
Someone in the asura’s posse laughed, and their leader growled at them. Then, to Aru and her friends, he said menacingly, “Meet Sparky. No one gets past Sparky.”
“Your parents named you Sparky?” Brynne said.
Sparky lifted one corner of his mouth. He seemed…amused. Not angry like the leader.
“Move out of our way,” said Brynne. “We have business to attend to.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” said the leader.
Aru frowned. Where was this guy getting his lines from? Very slowly, she pulled Vajra from her pocket. Out the corner of her eye, she saw the others doing the same—Mini holding Dee Dee in its mirror compact form, Brynne tapping her choker, Aiden rubbing his thumb along his enchanted leather bracelets.
The leader braced his legs wider apart, like he was some kind of club bouncer. “No one is allowed into the Ocean of Milk, because—”
“YEAH! WE’VE GOT ORDERS FROM LADY M!” shouted a member of the group behind him.
Aru’s ears pricked. Lady M? Was that the alias Surpanakha was working under?
“Dude, I was getting to that!” the leader said, his voice no longer sounding deep and raspy, but younger, and a little whiny.
Aru looked closer at the leader. At first glance, she’d thought he was way older than Aiden. But she saw now that his sweatshirt hung loosely, like he’d borrowed it from someone bigger and taller. And his sneakers were platformed to give him a couple extra inches.
“Look,” said Aru, stepping forward. “I don’t know what Lady M has told you, but we’ve been sent by the Council of Guardians to retrieve something that was stolen. You don’t want to find yourself on the wrong side of the gods, do you?”
The leader grinned smugly. “That’s exactly what she said you’d say.”
“Did she tell you that you’d be stopping the Pandavas?” asked Brynne, crossing her arms.
One of the hooded figures in the back gasped, and his neighbor elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
“You’re Pandavas?” repeated the leader. “Oh snap!” But then he started laughing. “Dude, who cares?” he asked. “Look at you. You’re all freaking pathetic. She told us why you got kicked out of the Otherworld—”
Aiden spoke up. “They weren’t kicked out. You’ve been lied to.”
“Awww, and you’ve got a lackey,” said the leader. “That’s cute.”
Brynne growled, nearly lurching forward, but Aiden caught her by the wrist.
“It’s not worth it,” he told her.
“Aiden’s right,” said Mini loudly. “How could you even trust someone like Lady M? She’s a monster.”
“You got that all wrong,” the leader said. He gestured to a member of the posse behind him. “Yo, Hira. Show ’em what she looks like.”
A guy was pushed forward and his hood yanked back to reveal that he wasn’t a guy at all, but a young girl with bright hazel eyes and light brown skin. There was something shy and skittish about her, as if her own shadow could take her by surprise.
“I don’t want to—” she started.
“Do it or I’ll get you thrown out, Hira,” said the leader. “Then what are you going to do? Go back to your family? Oh wait, you don’t have one.”
When Aru saw Hira’s lips trembling, she wanted to punch that dude. But then the girl transformed.
The moment Hira took a deep breath, light rippled down her body. She turned into a beautiful adult woman with shining black hair, long red nails polished to a high gloss, and golden skin that practically shimmered.
Aru was stunned. That was Surpanakha? She didn’t look at all like how the poems had described her. Where were the fangs? The dragging limbs and gray skin?
One of the boys let out a loud wolf whistle.
“Don’t whistle at the image of my future wifey!” snarled the leader.
Mini whispered, “I wonder if Surpanakha used the love arrow on the two of them.”
That was a possibility. Surpanakha could have also bewitched this whole group of asuras to see her as a beautiful woman and not a hideous demoness.
Hira changed back and rejoined the posse.
“Please don’t make me do that again,” Hira mumbled.
One of her cohorts laughed.
Another one said, “I dunno why you keep looking like that when you can change into a hot girl whenever you want to.”
Aru glowered, but before she could act, Brynne pointed her wind mace at them. The two obnoxious asuras were blown into the reeds, landing with a satisfying splash and a wail of outrage.
“Enjoy the mud, pigs,” said Brynne.
Three others—including the leader—were hurled against the trees by another blast of Brynne’s wind mace.
Hira remained standing, thanks to a sphere that had shielded her. She stood there openmouthed and incredulous. Mini, on the other hand, had a sly smile on her face.
To her right, Aru heard a soft chuckle, and she realized that not all the thugs had been defeated. Sparky had also not moved from his place in front of the archway. He looked…taller than before, she thought. Even from behind his bizarre sunglasses, Aru could feel his intense gaze.
“Whoa! No way!”
Aiden’s exclamation made Aru turn away from Sparky the Silent.
“Is that…?” asked Aiden. “Wait, I think it is!”
Thanks to Brynne’s wind mace, all the asuras’ hoods had been blown back. This whole time, Aru had thought they were in their late teens or twenties. But no. They were seventh and eighth graders. One of them had a bad case of acne. The other wore black eyeliner and a shirt that said 4.0 GPA. WITNESS ME. Two of them were wearing thin gold necklaces that had been looped around twice to look more like intimidating chains.
The leader lurched out of the trees, groaning and rubbing his back.
Aiden started laughing. “Dude. Navdeep, is that you?”
Aru squinted at the asura leader. She definitely had seen that guy at Augustus Day.
The leader went wide-eyed, then shook his head frantically.
“Um, we have homeroom together in Atlanta?” tried Aru.
“Nah, girl. I don’t know you. You don’t know me. And you def don’t know how I live.”
“We were lab partners in Mr. Dietz’s honors bio class?” said Aiden.
“Bruh—” said the boy in guyliner.
Aru didn’t know that. Then again, she was not in Mr. Dietz’s honors science class. She had, however, been a frequent guest of Mr. Dietz’s after-school detention.
The others had recovered by now and were advancing cautiously. Except Hira. She must have run off at the first chance.
“I’m getting tired of this,” said Brynne. “You’re going to get out of our way. Now.”
She brandished her wind mace again. Aru, holding her lightning bolt, fell into place next to her. Aiden and Mini flanked them with scimitars and Dee Dee.
Both sides rushed each other at the same time.
It was, Aru thought, like playing dodgeball. Except instead of a rubber ball, everyone had, you know, harmless stuff like swords and dangerous magic!
Fig
hting wasn’t something Aru enjoyed. But fighting alongside her friends? That felt like music. Mini twirled Dee Dee in front of her, then tossed the danda high into the air as she whispered a single word:
“Adrishya.”
Vanish.
Mini had been practicing invisibility defenses for a while now, but this was the first time it worked. A veil fell over the four of them. Dee Dee hovered, utterly still in the air, like the handle of a gigantic umbrella. The asuras startled backward, shouting: “Where’d they go?!”
Aru tapped into their mind link: You finally got it!
Mini responded: Yup. Cracked it while I was sleeping.
Jeez, thought Aru, maybe I should nap more.
Now invisible, Brynne summoned the wind, which stirred the dirt and forced the goons back farther.
“Aim!” shouted one.
“But I can’t see them!”
One of the asuras uttered a magical word, and a jet of water broke through the dirt, splattering against Mini’s invisible shield.
“Found you,” said Navdeep viciously.
They ran forward, swords out.
“Shah!” hollered Aiden. He held out his scimitars and Aru touched each of them with Vajra so they crackled with energy.
“We’ve got defenses,” said Mini. “I’m letting down the shield.”
Aru and Brynne instantly stood back-to-back.
“Do it,” said Brynne.
Mini reduced the shield, keeping it wrapped only around herself and Aiden. They herded the attackers with invisible jabs, forcing them into a tight circle. Brynne blasted them with wind, and Aru added the finishing touch: a golden electrical net to catch and pin them in place.
“You’re trapped now,” Brynne growled at them. “If you want us to free you, then promise to leave.”
“Fine, fine!” said Navdeep. “Just let us go!”
Aru retracted the net. The four boys scampered away down a nature path.
Mini waited until they had become nothing more than specks in the distance before yelling, “IT WAS NOT NICE TO MEET YOU!”
Brynne laughed. “That’s what you shout at the backs of your enemies? Not ‘Don’t mess with my squad’?”
Aiden shuddered. “Can we not say ‘squad’?”
“Why? Does it annoy you? Does ‘hashtag squad goals’ make you mad?” asked Aru.
“Yes.”
“Then we’re a squad.”
“‘Squad’ sounds like it should be a vegetable,” said Mini.
Brynne rubbed her stomach. “Mmm…sautéed squad.”
“Please stop,” said Aiden.
The four of them, remembering what they had come for, turned back to the archway. And stopped short.
It would seem that not all the boys had run. Sparky had stayed behind, his arms still crossed, his face still inscrutable behind his weird sunglasses.
“Didn’t you just see what happened to your friends?” asked Brynne.
Aru rubbed her eyes, blinked a couple times, and resumed staring at Sparky. That guy had to be getting taller by the second. Around his head, she could see a faint shining corona, like how saints in old paintings sometimes looked like they were wearing gold astronaut helmets. But it wasn’t just saints who were depicted like that….
It was gods, too.
“I’m warning you,” said Brynne. “These are powerful weapons.”
Sparky clapped once. Aru felt a sharp tug in her chest, like someone had grabbed her heart and pulled. Mini made a pained sound, and even Brynne doubled over as if she’d been kicked in the gut. Aiden yelled, “Hey!”
Furious, Aru reached for Vajra and—
Her fingers closed around air.
Vajra!
Her lightning bolt was gone! How could her lightning bolt not be with her? It felt like she had lost a limb. But when she looked up, she saw it, shining in its Ping-Pong form, in Sparky’s hand. In his other hand was Brynne’s wind mace, Mini’s Dee Dee, and even Aiden’s enchanted scimitars.
“That’s not how I like to fight,” said Sparky.
It was the first time Aru had heard him talk. His voice was warm and crackly, like a fire.
Aru had no clue as to how Sparky did like to fight. But it didn’t matter. She had no other weapons or defensive items left. In her backpack was a half-empty bottle of water, a package of Oreos that she’d shoved into its very depths so Brynne couldn’t sniff it out, and a useless vial from the Warehouse of Quest Materials: a single “bright idea.”
“Who…who are you?” asked Aiden.
Sparky shrugged. “Just someone who doesn’t like fighting…. You want to go into the Ocean of Milk, and I have a theory as to why. But you’ll have to earn your passage. If you want me to move out of the way, beat me in a contest.”
“What kind of contest?” asked Brynne suspiciously.
Sparky grinned. “An eating contest.”
“Eating?” Brynne echoed happily. “Sign me up! I’ve never lost an eating contest.”
Brynne Loses an Eating Contest
Eating contests were for fairs or carnivals. They were not meant to be part of a quest to prevent a demoness from gaining immortality, so this was just rude.
There was nothing any of them could do about it, not that Brynne was complaining. Aru kept opening and closing her hands, willing Vajra back to her, but her lightning bolt was now tightly wedged under Sparky’s foot, along with the scimitars and mace. At least he wasn’t tossing Vajra up in the air and catching it, as he was doing with Mini’s danda stick.
Mini sniffed. “Dee Dee doesn’t like being treated like that. It’s a very sensitive instrument!”
Sparky, who had his back to them as he muttered some enchantments, ignored her.
Beside Aru, Brynne started pacing back and forth and massaging her jaw.
“Please don’t say you’ve got some kind of magical jaw that unhinges,” said Aru. “If that’s the case, I’m out.”
Brynne said something like Mah djaw dush not unhish!
“In Hungry Brynne, that means ‘It doesn’t unhinge,’” translated Aiden. Then he whispered, “Although it kinda looks like it.”
“Almost ready!” announced Sparky, turning to face them. He stepped aside and swept his arm in a voilà! gesture.
Right in front of the entrance to the Ocean of Milk stretched a long picnic table with a red-checked tablecloth. Its entire surface was covered with bowls and plates of different foods. They stepped closer to examine it more closely, and the aromas made Aru’s mouth water. There was steaming lentil soup, thick pieces of naan studded with fennel seeds and garlic, coconut and quince chutney, pickled mango, and hundreds of different kinds of vegetable stew. Aru saw one of her favorite snacks lying on the far side of the table: idli, savory disk-shaped rice cakes that she thought looked like UFOs.
But even Brynne looked a little wary of the mountains of food. Where had it all come from?
Mini, who hadn’t had anything but a power-nap chocolate bar since being captured, started to reach for a piece of naan….
“Ah-ah-ah!” Sparky said, suddenly appearing beside her to slap her hand away. “Only for the contestant. Now, where did I put those utensils and napkins?” He rushed over to a picnic basket that had magically appeared on the ground.
Sparky moved ridiculously fast. One minute he was standing in one place, the next minute he was somewhere else. It was as sudden as a flame erupting at the end of a matchstick.
Aru sniffed the air. “Do you smell that?”
“I didn’t do it,” said Brynne, turning red.
“It smells like something is burning,” said Mini. “But I don’t see a fire…. Oh no. What if there is a fire? Do you know that in most fires people get asphyxiated by smoke, and then they—”
“Die?” asked Aiden and Aru at the same time.
“Yes!” said Mini.
“So, are you forfeiting or what?” yelled Sparky from the other side of the picnic table. He was seated at the far end, holding a fork in one hand and
a spoon in the other, with a napkin tied around his neck. Aru wondered where he had stashed their weapons.
“No way,” said Brynne.
She sat down opposite him. On her left was the naan and a couple of wet paper towels for her hands. On the other side was a tall glass of water. From Aru’s short-lived stint in cotillion etiquette classes, she knew that water always went on the right and bread on the left, because if she pinched her index finger and thumb together while holding up the rest of her fingers, it looked like a d on her right hand (for drink) and a b on her left hand (for bread). It was the only thing she had taken away from class. (Oh, and half of some girl’s braid, but that was completely by accident. Honest.)
“So, let’s begin,” said Sparky. “I’ve always had a big appetite. Sometimes it gets me into trouble.”
Brynne cracked her neck from side to side. “Me too.”
“One time, I ate only ghee nonstop for twelve years,” said Sparky. He lifted a bowl to his mouth and started slurping.
Sparky had to be joking about the ghee. Aru thought ghee was disgusting on its own. It was just clarified butter!
Brynne must have thought he was joking, too, because she said, “One time, I ate everything in a bakery. In one day.” Then she started inhaling food like she was a vacuum cleaner.
Whoa, Aiden was not kidding. Aru’s jaw hurt just watching Brynne.
“Told ya,” he said.
“How can she breathe?” asked Mini.
Sparky had one up on Brynne, though. Not only did he keep up the pace of his eating, but he could talk through it, too.
“No one devours as much as me. One time, I ate fifteen hundred dosas in less than five minutes.”
Brynne ignored him and kept gobbling things down. Aru, Aiden, and Mini ran back and forth down the picnic table, replacing her empty dishes with full ones, tossing the dirty plates on the ground, wiping her mouth (and occasionally her nose if there was something really spicy), and holding the glass of water for her to sip. Sparky had to do everything by himself, but it didn’t seem to be slowing him down any.
Aru Shah and the Song of Death Page 21