Page 32 of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

“Heck no!” yelled Brynne, swinging her wind mace.

Aiden glanced up and brought out his scimitars. At the same moment, a huge sparkling net fell across all five of them. Aiden slashed at the mesh, but it was like he was hitting diamond-hard threads. His blades bounced backward once before they transformed back into bands around his wrists. He frowned and shook his hands, but the scimitars stayed dormant. Aru tried to activate Vajra, but it was useless. It was as if her lightning bolt had fallen asleep. Kara twisted her ring only for a lazy glow to bubble around her hand. Mini took out her compact and Brynne touched her choker, but nothing happened.

Kara looked stunned. “What’s going on?”

Dirt sprayed across Aru’s face as a huge figure landed on the ground in front of them. In the weak light from Kara’s ring, it was impossible to make out the features of the being on the other side of the net. All Aru could see were broad shoulders and—Wait a minute…. Was that awhip?

“I think I’m suffocating,” said Mini, panicking. “What if this net cuts off all our oxygen? We could get hypoxia! And if we get hypoxic, we’lldie!”

“Then stop using up all the oxygen, Mini!” said Brynne.

Aiden grunted. “No—room—to—move—at—all—”

Aru wrinkled her nose. She felt uncomfortably hot and sweaty, and everyone smelled like metal and potato chips. Gross. “Okay, I swear if someone burps right now, I will lose it.”

“SILENCE, TRESPASSERS!” shouted the person on the other side of the net.

“Are they really trespassers?” asked someone else in a higher voice. “Is this the part where we get to hit them over the head?”

“Please tell me it’s not that part,” muttered Mini.

“No, child, no…But I’m sure the queen will appreciate your eagerness in defending the Kingdom of Kishkinda from smelly vagrants,” said the first voice.

Brynne sniffed herself and crossed her arms. “We’re not smelly!”

“And we’re not vagrants!” said Aru. “We’re on our way to Lanka. We don’t even want to stop in your Kingdom of Kitschy—”

“It’s Kishkinda!”

“On your way to Lanka, eh?” repeated the first voice, laughing. “And how do you expect to get there?”

Aru frowned. What did that mean? This was the road to Lanka, wasn’t it?

Kanak’s voice floated through her thoughts:The golden road is intractable and unforgiving. It shall do no one’s bidding but its own.

“Let us out, and we’ll go on our way,” pleaded Mini.

The second being cleared its throat. Through the netting, Aru thought she saw a long, furry brown tail. More animal guardians? But she couldn’t identify what kind these were. The two creatures began talking to each other in low voices. Aru only heard bits and snatches:

“—be very angry, won’t she?”

“No one here in thousands of years—”

“Fine, fine, but I get first swing!”

“Okay, what’s going on out there?” demanded Aru.

“Well, if you’re sure…” came the second being’s timid voice.

The next instant, the net turned slick and translucent. All the dirt and leaves it had collected slid out of a small hole in the bottom, and then the opening sealed back up. Aru blinked wildly as her eyes adjusted to the light.

At first, she thought she saw a couple of monkeys.

But that wasn’t possible. They were too big.

Aru rubbed her eyes and blinked again.

Okay, maybe itwaspossible.