Aru Shah and the Song of Death

by Roshani Chokshi

  “No sign of Surpanakha on this side,” said Brynne. “She’s must be trying to get in from the other side.”

  “What are we going to do when we find her, though?” Aru asked. “What if she doesn’t have the bow and arrow on her?”

  “She will,” said Brynne. “She can’t control the Heartless without them.”

  “She doesn’t like fighting,” said Hira quietly. “She told us herself.”

  “Bam!” said Brynne. “We show her our weapons, then she’ll stand down.”

  Aru wasn’t too convinced, and when she looked at Aiden and Mini, they didn’t seem too confident, either.

  Everything was silent….

  “Mini, switch places with Aru,” said Brynne. “Dee Dee can give us more cover from the rear.”

  “I think we’re fine, Brynne,” said Aru. “There’s no one behind us, and if Mini moves, there’s a higher chance that someone will spot us. I say we stay put.”

  “I say we switch!” said Brynne.

  “Aru, Brynne, let’s not fight,” said Aiden. “We need to stay focused.”

  “Okay, fine,” said Brynne, stopping and holding out a fist. “How about we rock, paper, scissors it?”

  Aru crossed her arms. “I am not risking my life on a game of rock, paper, scissors.”

  “Ooh, I love that game!” said Mini.

  Something happened at that moment. Aru could sense it even before she realized what it was. In her excitement, Mini had moved too fast, and Dee Dee must have touched the metal wall of the dome.

  Their magic shorted out. It was just as Agni had said: the dome rendered celestial weapons powerless. Instantly, Aiden’s scimitars stopped glowing, and Vajra transformed into a lifeless ball in Aru’s hand. She stashed it in her pocket.

  Worst of all, Dee Dee’s shield melted, leaving them completely exposed.

  “What was—?” started Aru, but before she could finish, Aiden clapped his hand over her mouth and pulled her backward.

  Just as Aru was ready to bite him, Aiden lifted his hand and silently pointed at the Heartless.

  Before, the eyes of the Heartless had been blank, their bodies still as statues. Now, their pupils—a furious, inhuman red—fixated on Aru and the others. The army took a step forward in perfect unison.

  “I was wondering when you’d show up,” all the Heartless said at the same time in different voices.

  The hairs on Aru’s arms prickled….

  The crowd of zombies parted as two figures walked—well, one slithered—toward them:

  Takshaka, the naga who had betrayed Queen Uloopi.

  And Surpanakha, the rakshasi princess. Strapped across her back was a heavy bow, and dangling loosely from her hand was a long golden arrow. It was so bright that it looked like a shard of sunlight.

  “I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you,” she said.

  “Meet you, meet you, meet you…” the Heartless echoed.

  The Tale of the Demon Princess

  A rakshasa or asura didn’t start off evil, unless they cultivated their dark arts…then they became demonic. But that inner darkness didn’t always show up on their faces. Aru had to remind herself of that fact, because Surpanakha wasn’t anything like what she expected.

  She had gleaming golden-brown skin, and her hair was a mass of dark ringlets studded with small jewels. Her eyes were almond-shaped and tapered to a point. She wasn’t dressed in skulls or blood-spattered clothes like Aru had imagined, but in a pair of dark jeans and a long-sleeved golden silk blouse. She didn’t look like a demoness at all, except that her bottom canines were a tad longer and sharper than most people’s, and her irises were red. But not scary red. More like warmed-up cherries drizzled in chocolate. Her nails were definitely long, but in a fashionable way—not like “sharp bladed fans” or whatever it was her name meant. As for her nose, it was there, and it looked normal. The only sign of her long-ago scuffle with Laxmana was a faint scar across her cheek.

  “Sorry about that,” said Surpanakha, gently. She twisted the arrow in her hands, and the army of Heartless went slack behind her, no longer repeating her words.

  The arrow worked a bit like a remote control, Aru noted, which had to be somewhat frustrating. Imagine every time you flopped on the couch, not realizing the remote is under the seat cushion, the TV creepily turned on. Except in this case, hundreds of kidnapped people started shouting the latest infomercial.

  “I thought having them echo me would make for a dramatic effect,” Surpanakha said, “but that was a bit frightening.”

  “Sur—” started Brynne.

  “Oh, please don’t call me that,” said the demon princess with a sheepish smile. “That’s not even my real name. If you want to call me something, call me Lady M.”

  M? What was her real name?

  Aru had been expecting lots of things, but not this. She wanted—no, needed—to fight. They were running out of time to keep their spots in the Otherworld, and Lady M—or Surpanakha, or whatever her name was—had started all the trouble. But she wasn’t threatening them. She was just smiling and being agreeable, and it made Aru want to scream.

  Takshaka slithered forward, but Lady M held up a hand. “Leave us, please? I need some time alone with the girls.” At Aiden’s snort of protest, she added, “And our handsome gentleman.”

  Takshaka lingered, his milky eyes looking somewhere above Aru’s head. He flicked out his tongue, tasting the air. “I would not trussst them. They are on the side of the devas. They have no reason to join our cause.”

  “Cause?” echoed Aiden.

  Aru and the others startled. Aiden wasn’t usually the one who spoke up first. But when it came to Takshaka, anger vibrated off him. He gripped his camera tightly, and a faint red glow lit the air around it.

  “What cause? You swore to protect Queen Uloopi, and instead you went behind her back and betrayed her,” said Aiden. “Didn’t you?”

  “I am not ashamed to admit it,” said Takshaka, whipping his tail. “I had my reasons. I thought Uloopi was wise, but her judgment became compromised once she fell in love with Arjuna. It was pathetic.”

  “You hid her heart jewel,” said Aiden. “You took her eternal youth. You made her weak on purpose.”

  “She couldn’t be trusted,” said Takshaka.

  “That wasn’t your choice to make,” said Aiden darkly.

  For the first time, Takshaka looked ancient as grief pulled down his face. “I had to do it, for the greater good. Uloopi would not lisssten.”

  Aiden dropped his hand from Shadowfax but didn’t respond.

  “What you did was a noble act,” Lady M said to Takshaka with a sad smile. “Let me talk to them, my friend. Allow me to show them the truth, and perhaps I can change their minds, just as I changed yours all those years ago.”

  Takshaka nodded, then slithered away between a row of Heartless.

  Lady M walked over to the metal dome and patted its side. Touching it had no effect on her. “Do you know what’s in here?”

  “The nectar of immortality,” said Mini immediately. “And you want it to—to…”

  Come to think of it, they didn’t actually know what she wanted with it. She’d existed for this long, so it’s not like she needed immortality. She was already stunning, so she didn’t need it for eternal youth. And she had enough power as it was.

  “Answer me this,” said Lady M. “What is something that never dies but lives a thousand lives at once?”

  Now she was asking them riddles? They looked at each other for a moment, before hesitantly answering.

  “Gods?” asked Mini.

  “Demons?” asked Brynne.

  Hira shook her head, but didn’t answer. Aiden stayed silent, watching all of them.

  Aru loved riddles, and so when she heard Lady M’s words, a different answer came to her mind:

  “Stories?”

  It was the only answer that made sense to her. True, gods and demons were immortal, but they didn’t live a thousand lives at o
nce. Only stories fit that description. Aru’s mom had taught her that many tales from around the world were similar. That didn’t make them unoriginal or bad, but rather proof that people cared about and were frightened of the same things no matter where they lived. Each culture put their own spin on the same universal story, keeping it alive in many different versions.

  Lady M’s eyes snapped to Aru’s. “That’s right,” she said softly, stroking the metal dome like it was a large cat. “Stories. Legends. Myths. Once a story stops being told, it dies. Unless people find pieces of it later, polish them up, and breathe new life into them…I need the nectar of immortality not for my body, but for my story.”

  Lady M stretched out her hands and Aru watched as her previously smooth, golden-brown skin turned rough and gray. Her once polished red nails grew sharper, deadlier. Even her bottom canine teeth had grown and were now jutting against her top lip. And her nose…it was fading away.

  “It’s happening more and more,” Lady M went on, her voice breaking. “I am beginning to lose my true self. In the end, all we are is the version of ourselves that others choose to remember.”

  Wariness prickled through Aru….

  “You must have found my soul song in the treasury,” said Lady M. “I’m sure you know by now that if you wish to reverse what I’ve done, you’ll have to plunge this arrow through my heart. But did they tell you what would happen to me? To the song left in my soul?”

  At their silence, she answered:

  “You would kill the truth of my story. My soul would become a song of death.”

  Brynne was getting impatient and flustered. “We’re not here to talk,” she said gruffly. “We’re here to get back what was wrongfully stolen. Hand over the bow and arrow.”

  Lady M looked at them with tears in her eyes. “Pandavas…I accept that you wish to fight me. I understand and would even forgive you if it came to that. But before we draw our weapons, may I tell you my tale?”

  Brynne looked unsure, but Mini’s face was calm—she was probably relieved not to be fighting. Aru didn’t know how to read Hira yet. Aiden looked suspicious, his dark eyes pinned to Lady M.

  Aru had never considered herself the Let’s go attack things! type, but she didn’t want to hear Lady M’s sob story. She was already torn about fighting Takshaka because she was sorry for his suffering, and now this? Aru didn’t want to see all those gray spaces between good and bad—she just wanted things to be easy.

  But then Lady M asked, “Pandavas, will you see my truth?”

  See well. Those words, uttered by Varuni, Sage Durvasa, Ratri, and Agni, echoed back to her. Aru’s jaw clenched, but she nodded. She owed it to all of them, and, a small part of her said, she owed it to herself.

  Lady M cast out her hands and an illusion flew forth from her fingertips….

  “When I was born, my parents named me Meenakshi…the girl with fish-shaped eyes.”

  So she’s the girl with eyes like a fish! Aru thought. All this time she’d pictured someone with a flat head and a big round eye on either side….

  Meenakshi’s story rippled out like a scroll of silver against the metal dome, and in it, Aru saw the image of a happy little rakshasi playing with her big brothers.

  “I grew up and got married, and I was content.”

  The image sped up to show an adult Lady M with flowers in her hair, her hands painted for her wedding day. The scene changed again to display her sitting on a golden throne, dispensing orders and proclamations.

  “But my husband was a greedy rakshasa, and so my brother, Ravana, slew him. I was devastated and searched the world for a cure for my sorrow.”

  The picture expanded to reveal the god king Rama, his wife, Sita, and his brother, Laxmana, moving through the forest. But unlike the vision Aru had seen in Kamadeva’s floor, this one showed Lady M’s perspective as she walked through the woods, her head bowed, her hand to her heart as if it were so broken she was trying to keep it from falling out of her. The sight made Aru flinch.

  She knew what happened next. Lady M fell in love with Rama, who rejected her; then she went to Laxmana, who rejected her; and then she attacked Sita and had her nose cut off.

  And Aru saw that the story was true…but it was not the whole truth.

  “I was too forthcoming, perhaps, in my affection,” said Lady M. “I had never learned to be shy about asking for what I wanted, and I saw no reason to start then.”

  In the vision, Aru heard Lady M say that if Rama would take her for his wife, she could keep him safe from her brother. But Rama did not want another wife, and though he was kind in his rejection…his brother was not. Laxmana ridiculed her for even thinking that one of them would ever want her as a bride. Lady M’s face went from stricken and full of grief to full of fury.

  “I regret that I attacked Sita,” said Lady M, “but my pride was wounded and my fury demanded release.”

  Aru didn’t think it was right that she lashed out at Rama’s wife, because it wasn’t Sita’s fault. But Aru understood Lady M’s hurt feelings. She’d been humiliated.

  The whole scenario reminded Aru of a girl in her class who’d gotten bullied. Someone had pretended to be the girl’s secret admirer online, then took a screenshot of all their direct messages and sent them in an email blast to every student at Augustus Day. Aru remembered seeing the girl in the hallway afterward and noticing how small she seemed…how alone. It was so bad that the girl’s parents pulled her out of school. A week later, the bully was expelled, but no one forgot what had happened.

  “Despite the outcome, I do not regret my boldness,” said Lady M.

  In the vision she knelt alone in the forest, stanching the flow of blood from her face.

  “But I am more than my moment of anger.”

  The Lady M in the scene looked up, and Aru saw her eyes lit by vengeance. For the first time, she seemed demonic.

  “In the tales, I am nothing but a monstrous footnote in an epic about gods and men,” she said as the images faded. “But in reality, I was so much more. My brother was never punished for killing my husband, yet I am blamed for starting a war. When I dared to express my feelings to two gods, I suffered not only dishonor but also disfigurement. Forevermore I would live with that mistake—it was as plain as the nose removed from my face. But I also had triumphs and joys. I was a daughter, and I was a sister, and I was a wife, and I was a princess…and I deserve to be remembered for all those things, too. Do you deny me that?”

  Lady M Makes a Request

  Aru wished Vajra would snake through her fingers and send her a little shock, something that would clear her mind and help her sort out her feelings. But her lightning bolt had remained a dead weight in her pocket ever since Mini had touched the metal dome covering the nectar of immortality. Aru was on her own.

  Her friends’ reactions to Lady M’s tale were mixed. Mini appeared to be frustrated, like she couldn’t decide whether Lady M was telling the truth or lying. Brynne looked angry (which, Aru knew by now, was her usual expression). Aiden’s face was strangely blank, as if he were trying to hide his thoughts.

  As for Hira, she was entranced. She kept nodding, encouraging Lady M to continue with the story.

  “Now do you understand why I need the amrita?” said Lady M, her hands joining together. “The stories about me do not resemble my truth. As a result, my outer appearance no longer reflects my inner soul.”

  She held up gnarled hands, which now had claws at the end. Her fish-shaped eyes had a sallow look to them, and her skin was paunchy.

  “If my true tale is never told again, I will suffer a fate worse than death. I will have to live out my days as nothing more than the worst that others believe of me.”

  “But…I still don’t understand how the nectar will help you,” said Aru. “Couldn’t you just write down your story?”

  A flicker of impatience crossed Lady M’s face before she collected herself again. “This is bigger than just me, child. You think this army is the only one pr
eparing to storm the world? There are many of us who feel we do not deserve the treatment we received from the gods.” Her eyes penetrated Aru. “Your father being one of them.”

  She didn’t mean Indra…. She meant the Sleeper.

  “We find ourselves on the same side,” said Lady M. She gestured at the golden dome. “This was all his idea. His way of allowing us to take back what was stolen from us.” She gave Aru a doleful look. “He misses you, you know.”

  Aru’s jaw clenched and she gripped Vajra tighter in her pocket. “Yeah, well, considering he tried to kill me, I doubt that’s true. He’s really not that great. Trust me.”

  “He reacted in fury as I once did,” said Lady M. “You mustn’t—”

  “You attacked Sita even though she did nothing to you!” Aru blurted. “And you let your brother Ravana abduct her! Just because you feel bad about it now doesn’t mean you’re not guilty.”

  “I apologized to her later, when she was exiled to an ashram,” said Lady M. “We both found it in our hearts to let go of our anger, and eventually we became friends.”

  That knocked the breath out of Aru’s lungs.

  “You…you were f-friends?” sputtered Brynne, her eyes narrowing.

  “Rama abandoned Sita,” said Lady M, unable to hide a little vicious glee. “After he fought to steal her back from my brother, the god king banished her. His people thought she was impure despite her faithfulness. Rama believed her, but he didn’t defend her, and he sent her away when she was pregnant with his children. She even walked across open flames to prove her fidelity, but it wasn’t enough.”

  That…sucked.

  Did any girl in these stories enjoy a happy ending where she didn’t a) get her nose chopped off, b) get turned into a rock, or c) get barbecued? It was bad enough that Sita had married a god king only to have him say, JK! We’re going to live in exile and wander through forests for a billion years!

  No thank you.

  “I leave you to confer among yourselves for five minutes, Pandavas,” said Lady M. “After that, you must choose your side. Help us become as powerful as the gods, or…well, I’m afraid you’ll find I also fight hard for what I believe in.”