Page 27 of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

“Now, Mini!” yelled Aiden.

Kara jumped off the hoverboard, and Aru tried to do the same—but one of her feet snagged in the other foot’s shoelace. Aiden caught her in his arms and spun her sideways just as a blast of violet light shot toward Kanak.

As the marmot tumbled back into the souvenir shop, Mini shouted, “Sorry! Thank you for your time?”

“You arenotwelcome!” huffed Sonu, scampering to Kanak’s side.

“I’ll leave a five-star Yelp review!” Mini shouted.

It was the last thing she said before Brynne redirected the force of her wind mace and pushed the camouflaging clouds back across the archway behind them. Aiden released Aru so fast she’d barely had time to realize that he’d had his arms around her.

“Sorry,” he said quickly.

Vajra shot back up, transforming into a spear in Aru’s grasp. Her head whirled with a thousand sensations. The violet glow from Mini’s Death Danda, the ghost of warmth from Aiden’s body. And now, the sudden cool darkness of the cavern ahead of them.

Aru quickly straightened her top and tucked her hair behind her ears, grateful for the cold air on her face. When she looked up, she realized Kara was staring at her. Aru felt the tiniest stab of guilt. She had no real reason to be annoyed with Kara. It wasn’t Kara’s fault she was nice and pretty and helpful.

Shamefaced, Aru cleared her throat. “What you did back there with the salt facts…” she said. “Thank you.”

Kara beamed. “Sometimes I go overboard when it comes to history and words, but I’m really glad it helped.”

“Um, Kara?” said Mini. “Could we get some light?”

“Oh, right!” said Kara.

She raised her trident, and the light ate up the surrounding dark. The Otherworld-cities road was in a long tunnel. For a moment, Aru thought she caught an eerie sheen nearby, like light skimming over saliva-glossed fangs. She heard the flap of wings and an animal cry in the dimness. Aru shivered, but it wasn’t the dark that scared her.

Ever since that last fight with the Sleeper’s minions, her thoughts had grown shadows. With every step Aru carried her worries for her mother, her fury at Boo, and her confusion about the Sleeper. Whenever she thought about the battles ahead, an oily voice whispered in her skull,How can you fight when you don’t know who to fight for?

Aru pushed that voice aside for now. If she listened to it, she’d never find the strength to move forward. Besides, all that mattered was that the Otherworld was in serious trouble. Even if she didn’t know who to trust, she could at least protect her home. But to do that, she needed the Nairrata army.

And she was determined to get it.

“You ready, Shah?” asked Aiden.

Aru twirled her lightning-bolt spear. “More than ready.”

Perhaps Aru was not actually ready.

At least, not ready to figure out how to get from one place to another.

It seemed that the golden road was tricking them. At first, their surroundings had seemed dark and eerie. But then, after they’d been walking for about five minutes, things changed. The shadows pulled back. The eerie animal cries vanished into silence. Aru had the distinct impression that the road was waiting and judging them somehow. For the next twenty minutes of their journey, she kept her lightning bolt raised and her senses sharp, but nothing happened.

Eventually, the tunnel opened into a pit where a sparkling mist surrounded a circle of tall statues. Aru saw what looked like an East Asian pagoda, an Aztec pyramid, a harp as tall as her body, and a pair of golden mongooses facing each other.

“I think all this is supposed to represent the interlinked Otherworld cities,” said Mini, squinting. She pointed at the pagoda. “That must be for Shangri-La.”

Brynne pointed at the Aztec pyramid. “And that must be El Dorado.”

“There’s only one place a mongoose could signify,” said Aiden. “Lanka.”

The moment he said the word, the air turned stifling hot. Carefully, the five of them approached the foot of the mongoose statues. Up close, the figures were at least twice Aru’s height. Each mongoose had one palm up, with a sphere balanced in the center, and between the two statues levitated a basket. A strange glow reflected off the animals’ metal teeth, making them look even sharper than they already were.

“I thought mongooses—wait, is itmongeese?—were supposed to be cute,” said Aru. “These things look deadly.”

“Makes sense,” said Aiden. “They can kill cobras.”

“Cobras?”Mini moved closer to Aru and scanned the ground. “No one said anything about Lanka having cobras.”