“Guys!” said Mini, heaving. “Oh my gods, my dyspnea is out of control. I think I’m dying.”
“Dip-what?” asked Aiden.
“Dyspnea,” corrected Mini, adjusting her glasses. “It’s when you have labored breathing.”
“Right. Obviously.”
“You guys don’t have it because you’ve been walking so slow,” grumbled Mini. She pointed toward the tunnel. “C’mon. You’re going to want to see this. Luckily, Brynne turned into a gnat right before they saw her.”
“Who’s they?” asked Aru.
Mini just shook her head. “You’ll see.” She held her finger up to her mouth as they walked briskly into the tunnel. Inside, the Ocean of Milk and the treasures pushing out of the seabed were still visible, but they looked hazier through the sea glass.
The farther they went, the darker the glass became, until it was pitch-black and they had to rely on Mini’s Night Flame. The floor changed from soft white sand to slippery gray rock. The passage veered to the right, and Brynne was waiting for them at the turn, her mace up and powering a vortex of air. “The wind is white noise—it covers other sounds,” she explained loudly. She pointed down to the right. “That way we can talk to each other without them hearing us.”
Mini turned off her Night Flame and, using Dee Dee, surrounded them all with an invisibility shield. “Or seeing us,” she added. “But we still have to move really carefully.”
“I know, I know,” said Aru impatiently. “I’m, like, the definition of stealth.”
She took a step down the passage, slipped on the slick rock, and skidded forward, straight through the barrier Mini had put up. Aru went sprawling. Brynne must have dropped her vortex defenses in surprise, because Aru heard the unmistakable sound of Aiden’s camera clicking.
She didn’t even have time to properly nurse her bruised nose or ego, because Mini darted forward and quickly cast another shield to make them all invisible again. The end of the black rock passage opened up to a vista the size of three football fields placed together. Gone were the bits of treasure and snake skin. Instead, looming out of the sand was the legendary golden dome—the labyrinth that protected the amrita. Aru felt a quick thrill—they’d found it! Now they just had to find Surpanakha and jab her with an arrow, and they’d be out of here!
Then her gaze fell from the top of the golden dome to its base. There, surrounding it like a terrible army, were thousands of Heartless lined up in neat rows.
Technically, all that separated them from the dome and the Heartless army was a pair of glass double doors at the end of the tunnel. But there was one problem: in an alcove right next to those doors were two naga guards wearing helmets and carrying sharp tridents. Their muscular serpent tails were painted, one with a red stripe, the other a yellow one.
The red-striped guard slashed his trident toward Aru and sneered, “Got any last words?”
Oh No! Oh No! Oh, Wait a Minute….
Cue the world’s worst five seconds.
Aru froze. Mini had her hands up trying to keep the shield strong. How could the guards have seen them? Were their helmets magic or something? Brynne and Aiden moved to the front of the shield, weapons out…
…and the guard lowered his trident, turning to the other guard to say, “See? That is how to sound menacing.” He stepped back into the alcove.
The yellow-striped naga guard’s shoulders drooped. “I mean, when you do it, it seems so easy, but I just can’t.”
“Hey,” said the red-striped guard gently. “Remember what you said yesterday?”
“Oh. About the yellow?”
“Yes.”
The naga with the yellow stripe gestured to his tail. “I was nervous it wouldn’t go with my complexion.”
“Exactly, and now look! The yellow brings out the golden undertones of your skin! It’s effortlessly trendy.”
The other naga beamed. “Really?”
“Really,” said Red Stripe. “A pop of color always adds pizzazz.”
Yellow Stripe agreed, his tail whipping happily across the gray stone. Then they started discussing the new organic sea-farm-to-jellyfish-table restaurant in Naga-Loka.
Aru turned to Mini, expecting her sister to be just as confused as she was, but instead, she was looking at the underside of her wrist.
“Do you think I could pull off yellow?” Mini asked.
Brynne crouched between the two of them and pointed to the glass doors. “They’re so distracted we could slip right past them,” she said.
“And yes, Mini, you can pull off yellow,” added Aiden.
Mini did a delighted preen.
“Are you guys going to be okay, though?” asked Aru. “Mini, you’re going to have to keep up your shield, and Brynne, that vortex you’re casting might make things tricky.”
Brynne squeezed her right shoulder, which was probably beginning to get tired from the weight of the mace. “I’ll be okay for a while longer.”
“Me too,” said Mini, even though her smile looked a little forced. “Let’s do this.”
Aru focused on changing Vajra into a bright sword. It wasn’t a flaming sword, like she’d been hoping for from Agni, but it was still ridiculously cool. Beside her, Aiden brought out his scimitars.
The four of them tiptoed down the passage. The closer they got to the doors, the larger the naga guards appeared. Their torsos were nearly seven feet tall, way bigger than a normal naga’s, and that wasn’t even counting the lengths of their coiled tails.
“Be honest,” said Yellow Stripe. “Does this helmet make my head look fat?”
“Fat is not bad,” said Red Stripe, rolling his eyes. “Stop looking at those magazine covers. They’re totally enchanted.”
Brynne paused to raise her left fist in solidarity and kept moving.
“I know, I know…but the covers are so shiny…” said Yellow Stripe.
By now, Aru and the others were less than five feet away from the glass doors. There was a clear path before them, and just on the other side was the army of Heartless. All the zombies were standing still, facing the golden dome. The fact that they were outside instead of inside the labyrinth was probably a good sign—they were the only way Surpanakha could retrieve the nectar of immortality, because they couldn’t be incinerated. But where was Surpanakha?
Mini’s shield trembled. Aru could tell that the effort of keeping it up was beginning to strain her. Even Brynne, the strongest out of all of them, had a hard set to her mouth. Aiden wiped Brynne’s forehead with his sleeve, and she shot him a thankful smile. Aru offered her sleeve to Mini, only to see her careen backward. “The germs, Aru!” she hissed. “Get that plague-infested polyester away from me!”
Aru shrugged and kept moving. Aiden got to the doors first. Carefully, he turned the knob.
“Go ahead, Aiden,” urged Brynne.
He took a deep breath, then stepped across the threshold.
“Aru, you go next,” said Brynne.
Just as Aru prepared to move, one of the naga guards started shifting from side to side. Aru hadn’t been listening to their conversation, but she caught bits and pieces about a new club opening up in the naga realm.
“I really cannot dance bhangra,” said Yellow Stripe. “What is it again?”
“Pat the dog, screw in the lightbulb, and just sorta bob around—”
“Like this?”
His tail whipped across the floor, catching Aru, Brynne, and Mini. They all tripped and fell. The wind mace faltered. Mini scrambled to hold on to Dee Dee, but the shield shattered. From the other side, Aiden tried to jostle the door and get back to the others, but he couldn’t.
“WHAT THE—?” screamed Red Stripe.
He and the other guard swung their tridents.
“Ew, ew, ew!” whined Yellow Stripe. “Human girls!”
“Remember our training,” said Red Stripe. “When confronted with unsavory individuals—”
“Who are you calling unsavory?” demanded Brynne, swinging her mace.
“We’re not the bad guys here—you are!”
“Bad? Us?”
“Look at this sporty red stripe!” said the first naga, pointing at his luxurious tail. “Does that say evil to you?”
Mini raised Dee Dee, as if to create another shield, but she was too tired to do it again. Even Brynne’s wind mace did little more than blow hot air in one of the nagas’ faces. It was up to Aru.
She threw Vajra like a Frisbee. Lightning and thunder crackled loudly, and the two naga guards drew back. Still, they got stung.
“Owee! Ow! Ow!” they said.
Aru tried to get through the glass door, but the nagas recovered quickly. Their two tridents clashed down, blocking the exit with an X. Vajra boomeranged back to Aru, who caught it one-handed, and the lightning bolt shifted into a sword. She gripped its hilt with both hands and swung it, but the nagas moved aside in sync. Each of their tails lashed out, grabbed her wrists, and pulled them apart until Vajra dropped to the ground. It turned into a Ping-Pong ball and bounced back into her pocket, but the nagas didn’t notice. They were too busy high-fiving each other.
“You remembered our choreography!” Red Stripe said to his comrade excitedly.
Aru thought it couldn’t possibly get worse, but the universe felt otherwise. Because who should come strolling into the passage right then but…
Surpanakha herself, glossy black hair, golden skin, and all.
The demoness held out her hand, her long red nails flashing in the dim light. “Release her,” she ordered the nagas. “I will deal with them myself. After that, leave your station at once and investigate the outside of the sea-glass tunnel. I believe I’m being followed.”
“Of course, Admiral,” said the nagas immediately.
They dropped their tails, but before Aru could pull out Vajra, a pair of magical handcuffs clapped onto her wrists. Vajra remained in her pocket and tried to comfort Aru with a burst of warmth.
Brynne and Mini had also been cuffed, and they wore matching expressions of fury as Surpanakha walked toward them. She pushed open the door, shoving the three of them through it.
Aiden was waiting for them on the other side, breathless and red-faced from trying to get back to them. Out of the corner of her eye, Aru saw the naga guards slithering away down the passage where Surpanakha had appeared.
“Get her, Aiden!” called Aru.
But Aiden didn’t move.
“Whoa!” said Mini.
Aru turned just in time to see Surpanakha transforming. Where the demon princess had once stood was Hira, the rakshasi girl from the nature preserve. She tucked her hair behind her ear and waved at them shyly.
“I…I thought you could use some help.”
Hello, New Friend!
Hira looked like she was drowning in her sweatshirt and jeans. They must have been borrowed. Aru remembered what Navdeep had said to her…that she had no family to go home to.
“I’m sorry I followed you,” Hira said. The magical handcuffs she had conjured disappeared from their wrists. “I just wanted to get away from those guys for a while…. I thought maybe I could be helpful…and then you’d let me stay?”
Brynne took a step toward her, her mace out to the side. For a moment, Aru thought she was going to blast the rakshasi back to the Great Swamp. But instead, she switched her mace to her left hand and held out her right one.
“Thanks, Hira,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about those pigs anymore. You’re safe with us.”
Hira’s smile totally transformed her face.
“Although, statistically, it’s probably not true that you’re safe with us,” said Mini. “We get attacked all the time. But you can totally hang with us!”
Hira’s smile faltered only a little. “Okay?”
Wow, thought Aru, her old friends must have really sucked.
“Wait a second,” said Aiden. He looked at Hira closely. Aru saw that one of his hands was on his scimitar bracelet. “Thanks for everything you did back there, but why were you even with those guys in the first place? Why should we trust you?”
Vajra buzzed sharply in her pocket, and Aru imagined the lightning bolt was grumbling, Why is Aiden such a momma bear?
“I didn’t really have a choice,” said Hira. “I’m part of the Otherworld Foster Care System.”
Aru didn’t even know that the Otherworld had such a thing, but it made sense.
When Hira spoke, Brynne’s face paled, and Aru wondered if she was thinking of her own mother, who had given her up. Aru knew that not all parents stick around—not all can, for whatever reason. It isn’t the kid’s fault, and sometimes it isn’t even the parent’s, either. As her own mom always said, there are two sides of every tale, and no decision like that could ever come easy….
Still, that didn’t take away the pain of being left behind.
“Navdeep is my foster brother—his family took me in. He’s not that bad,” said Hira, looking at her feet. “He just acts like that whenever he’s with a group of his friends. Sometimes he’s really nice—he lets me have the bigger piece of dessert and stuff.”
Aiden’s suspicions seemed to have melted away, because he uncrossed his arms.
“Stick with us, and we’ll make sure you’re always treated right. I’ll tell my uncles, and we’ll set something up for you,” Brynne said loftily.
“How—?”
“My uncles know everyone,” said Brynne.
Aru, having spent enough time around elite prep-school kids, knew that was code for I’m ridiculously rich. Which, of course, Brynne was.
“Ever heard of the architect Mayasura?” asked Brynne. “That’s my great-great-great—like, a lot of greats—grandfather on my mother’s side. My uncle inherited his talent and runs a firm in New York City. He’s got tons of connections in the human and Otherworld.”
Mayasura…Aru remembered that name! He was the architect who had built the Palace of Illusions for the Pandavas. Aru and Mini had briefly visited it on their last quest, and they’d become friends. Aru hoped the palace wasn’t lonely. She often thought of visiting it, but things got in the way, like the fact that it was located in the realm of the dead.
Out the corner of her eye, Aru saw Mini touch her heart as if she were remembering and thinking of the palace, too.
Hira smiled, then looked over at the utterly still and silent horde of Heartless fanned out around the golden dome. They hadn’t moved.
“It’s like they’re asleep,” whispered Hira.
Aiden tapped his camera. “I zoomed in on their faces earlier…. Their eyes are totally blank—no pupils, even.”
“They’re under Surpanakha’s control,” said Brynne.
“We have to find her and finish this thing,” said Aiden. “We only have a few hours left.” He turned to Hira. “Do you know where she is?”
Hira blanched. “What do you want with Lady M? It’s best to stay far away from—”
“We don’t have that option,” Brynne cut in. “She’s our key to getting the…” She stopped herself, thinking better of revealing everything about their mission. “To getting something important back to where it belongs.”
“What about you?” Aru asked Hira. “Did she put a spell on you and the guys to make you work for her?”
Hira shook her head. “She…she’s just convincing.”
Brynne grunted. “And evil. Look at all those poor men!”
Mini nodded in agreement.
“Our best bet is to search the perimeter of the dome for her,” said Brynne. “Mini, can you shield us again? I’ll create another soundproofing vortex. The Heartless probably won’t attack without Surpanakha’s command. But just to be on the safe side, I wouldn’t get too close to them.”
“What if we end up having to fight?” asked Mini. She held Dee Dee close. “Our weapons won’t be effective in hurting them, because the Heartless have technically been changed by the act of a god, and godly weapons don’t work against each other.”
“Then we’ll just have
to use our weapons defensively—to stall,” said Aiden. “Until we can turn the arrow against Surpanakha.”
Aru grimaced. Kamadeva had said that once they had the arrow, they had to plunge it through the heart of the thief. Only then would the Heartless be restored to their human selves, and the arrow cleansed of its dark power.
Aru swallowed nervously. So little time left to fix the Heartless, to free Boo from imprisonment, and to clear their names. She steeled herself, then nodded.
“Let’s do this.”
They took out their weapons. With Vajra in her hand, Aru felt a bit better, but she still didn’t have a clear sense of what lay ahead. It wasn’t like when she’d fought the Sleeper…knowing exactly where he’d show up and what he wanted.
“You with us, Hira?” asked Brynne.
The rakshasi spread her hands. “I don’t have any weapons.”
“You have intel about the enemy,” said Brynne, “and that’s just as good.”
“Yeah,” said Aru. “What’s Surpanakha like?”
Hira didn’t hesitate. “She’s beautiful.”
The five of them snuck among the army of Heartless, which was downright terrifying. Brynne took the lead, guiding them through the thicket of men, making sure no one touched any of them by accident. Hira stuck close to her. Mini flanked them on the right, her shield cast like a sort of mirror camouflage. When Mini had used it in the past, because it required less magical energy, the only thing Aru could detect was a slight warp to the air, as if the image had been stretched over a convex surface. Aiden was on the left flank, his scimitars flashing, while Aru had control of the rear.
Vajra buzzed with anxious energy.
“Chill,” whispered Aru. “You’re freaking me out!”
The lightning bolt sent a pinch of electricity, as if saying THAT’S BECAUSE I AM FREAKED OUT!
They made it safely to the edge of the large golden dome. Somewhere inside, protected by every enchantment the gods could think of, was amrita. The nectar of immortality. Aru raised a hand to touch the metal side, then hesitated. It seemed to pulse with warning.
Aru Shah and the Song of Death Page 24