Page 73 of Aru Shah and the End of Time

With a final farewell, they were off.

The moment the door closed behind them, all of Aru’s old fears raced back to her.

“I like him,” said Mini.

“Of course you do! You guys are practically the same person.”

The Halls of Death unfurled like a maze before them and actuallygrew. Colors gathered and stretched into passageways. The signs cropped up shortly after that:

TO DARE

TO DISTURB

TO DEIGN

An arrow was attached to each sign.

DAREpointed right and down a blue corridor.

DISTURBpointed left and down a red corridor.

DEIGNpointed up and into nothing.

Beneath them, the floor was polished marble, and the ceiling was a strange twisting river of names that, Aru imagined, belonged to the dead.

“Red pill or blue pill?” said Aru, in her best imitation of Morpheus.

“What pill? It’s a red road or blue road, Aru.”

“I know that! I’m quotingThe Matrix!”

Mini blinked. “But a matrix has nothing to do with color. In mathematics, a matrix is a rectangular array of—”

Aru groaned. “Mini, you’rekillingme. Don’t you ever watch old movies?” She shook her head and pointed ahead. “Which way should we go? Why don’t they have signs that sayWeapons of Mass Celestial Destruction, and thenEverything Else Is Actually a Trap? That would be helpful.”

Mini laughed. “What if we went withdare?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s like…we’redaringto save Time?”

“Are we, though? Or are we just panicking around and trying to save what we like?”

And the people we love, thought Aru with a pang.

“That doesn’t sound very heroic…” said Mini.

“What aboutdisturb?” asked Aru. “Like, we’redisturbingthe natural order of things?”

“I don’t think that’s right,” said Mini. “That makes it seem like we’re doing something wrong, and we’re not.”

“Fine. What doesdeignmean?”

“I’ll look it up,” said Mini, and she dug in her backpack.

Aru thought she was going to use her compact, but instead she brought out aMerriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary.

“Seriously?” asked Aru. “Of all the things you thought to pack on a quest, you brought apocket dictionary?”