Page 41 of Aru Shah and the End of Time

Mini frowned. “No. How ’bout to you?”

Aru stilled. “Earlier. The last time we tried to get to…wherever this is. He spoke in my mind and compared me to my mom. Called me deceitful like her. It was so weird.”

Boo looked as if he was trying to make himself smaller on top of Mini’s head.

“Do you know anything about this, Boo?” asked Aru.

“Me? No. Not a thing!” he squawked. “Come along!”

“If he figured out where we were last time, and he can find us when we’re traveling between places, he can probably do it again, even if we have the mantra to cover our tracks,” said Mini. “What do we do if the Sleeper catches up to us?”

“Run faster than the other person,” said Boo. And with that, he flew off toward the entrance to Costco.

Aru was about to make a joke to Mini, but she had turned on her heel and was jogging into the jungle of parked cars and abandoned shopping carts.

“Hey! Mini! There you are!” shouted Aru.

Aru had circled Costco Parking Lot Section A twice before she saw her. Mini was curled up on the hood of a minivan that boastedMY CHILD IS AN HONORS STUDENT.

When Aru walked up to her, Mini didn’t turn her head. She just kept tracing the Sanskrit symbol on her left palm.

“You’re going to leave me behind, aren’t you?” asked Mini softly.

“What? Why do you think that?”

“I’m not as good as you are at…at this….I wasn’t even supposed to be going on any quests or anything! The first time my mom ever took me to the Otherworld, I threw up. The threshold guardians didn’t even let me past.”

“That’s better than me,” said Aru. “My mom never even took me to the Otherworld. At least your mom told you about all this stuff.”

“She had to,” sniffed Mini. “She’s apanchakanya.”

“What’s that?” asked Aru. She could break down what the words meant, but it didn’t help her understand.

Panch. Five.

Kanya. Woman.

“It’s the sisterhood Mom’s always talking about. Five women who are reincarnations of legendary queens from the ancient stories. These days their job is to raise and protect us.”

“So my mom is part of this…sisterhood?” asked Aru.

“I guess,” said Mini a little rudely.

Aru knew why Mini’s tone had changed. They had started off talking about Mini’s feelings, and now they were back to talking about Aru. But Aru couldn’t help herself. There was so much she didn’t know…and so much shewantedto know.

“Do you know who the other women are? Do they talk on the phone? Have you met the other Pandavas? Are they all girls our age?”

Mini shook her head. “Sorry.” Then her eyes narrowed. “Why? Do you wish you had a different Pandava with you, instead of me?”

“I’m not saying that….”

“You’re notnotsaying that,” said Mini. “But it’s fine. I’m used to it. Second choice for everything. I’m always getting left behind.”

“Is this about what Boo said? That the slowest one of us is going to get caught by the Sleeper?”

She nodded, sniffling.

“Boo was just being Boo. He’s a pigeon.”