Page 29 of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

“See?” snapped Brynne. “Told you.”

“Let’s go,” said Aru.

But they’d barely taken one step onto the Lanka road when the ground beneath them shuddered.

A huge banyan branch swung toward them. Aiden leaped forward, his scimitars flashing brightly as he slashed it in half.

“What’s happening?” shrieked Mini.

Aru’s mind raced.How did Kara know?But then the bricks beneath their feet began to crumble, forming a glowing crater.

“The ground!” yelled Aru. “Move back!”

All at once, the road collapsed in on itself, plunging them all straight into a pit of churning gold coins.

You know that image of Scrooge McDuck diving into a pile of money?

Aru used to think:THAT. That is 100 percent what I want for my life.

What could be better than plunging into your riches, flailing your arms and making snow angels in piles of gold, while maniacally cackling,MINE! IT’S ALL MINE!

But in practice? Not so much.

Aru tried to claw her way out of the pit, but it was like quicksand, sucking her in up to her waist. More gold coins suddenly rained down thick and fast from the sky above. Aru struggled to gulp air as cold pieces of metal pelted her face.

Beside her, Brynne fought to lift her wind mace. Blue light flashed around her. For a moment, her form shifted, flickering back and forth between a giant bird and a long-tailed monkey, but the coins created a weird static and finally she gave up.

“I can’t transform!” screamed Brynne.

Aru tried to clamber onto her Vajra hoverboard so she could haul everyone out of the money pit, but the torrent of coins only grew thicker, forcing Aru down until she was buried nearly up to her neck, her legs and torso immobilized in the swirl of gold.

Aru pried one arm free to block another onslaught of gold when purple light bloomed around them. Mini—buried up to her chin in coins—had thrust out her Death Danda. A shield bubbled over them.

Now the coins sounded like hailstones hitting a windshield. Within seconds, tiny cracks spiderwebbed across Mini’s dome. With the downpour paused, Brynne managed to scramble up on top of the pile of gold. She hauled out Mini, who spat coins and gagged a little.

“We’re”—spit—“going”—spit—“to—”

“Die?” offered Aiden as he wriggled his way free.

Beside him, Kara was struggling, so he extended his hand. Aru, meanwhile, was still stuck and panting like a dying wildebeest, and no one seemed to mind….

YANK.

“There ya go, Shah!” said Brynne, as Aru went sprawling on top of the coins.

“We’re not going to die,” said Aru, coughing and pushing the hair out of her face.

“The second the shield fails, those coins are going to trap us down here,” said Brynne. “There’s no way we can climb our way out—look how far away it is!”

Through the dome, Aru could just barely see the rim of the hole they’d tumbled down. It was at least a hundred or so feet away from them.

Brynne grumbled. “I can’t transform, Mini’s shield doesn’t work, and Aiden—”

“Can document our final moments of terror and doom in the hope that future generations can learn from our mistakes?” suggested Aiden, patting his camera.

Mini whimpered.

“I have an idea,” said Kara, looking at each of them in turn. “But this time…you have to trust me.”