Page 43 of Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes

All she needed now was a mirror.

Aru remembered seeing a big one on the wall of the stairwell they’d climbed the night before. Maybe she could pry it off and return it before anyone noticed?

She raced down the steps and spotted the mirror…but someone was standing in front of it. Aru moved closer and saw that it was Queen Tara dressed in a pure-white sari.

Aru moved even closer. In the light of early dawn, Tara looked like a ghost. Aliving ghost, as Kara had said. That was the price of being unable to move on.

The queen didn’t seem to notice Aru. She kept staring—not at the mirror, but at the wall next to it, almost as though she couldn’t bear to look at her reflection.

“Hello?” called Aru softly.

Tara startled, turning around and clutching the folds of her dress. Her face was ashen, her lips pulled into a tight line. “Oh. It’s you, child…. Hello. Did you not sleep well?”

“Oh, no. I slept fine,” said Aru, her eyes darting to the mirror behind Tara.

“Is there something you require? Provisions, perhaps, for your journey back?”

Aru nervously pointed at the mirror. “Actually, I was wondering if I could borrow that.”

“The mirror?” said Tara curiously. She frowned. “My husband gave it to me.”

Aru’s face burned. “Oh, sorry. Maybe I could use a different one…?”

“No, no…please,” said Tara. “I have no use for it.”

The queen snapped her fingers and the mirror peeled off the wall and soared into her own hands. “I always thought the mirror was a strange gift,” she said with a sad smile. “Would it not have been better to give me something useful, like silks…or valuable, like jewels? But I think my husband always suspected that he would meet a violent end and leave me to face the world alone. He told me that should there ever come a time when I needed answers, I would find them in this.”

Tara still did not look down at the mirror’s surface, but her fingers tightened around the frame.

“I tried looking into it a few times, but whenever I saw my reflection, I was reminded of who was no longer standing beside me.”

She thrust the mirror into Aru’s hands. For something so large—almost as tall as Aru—it was surprisingly light; it weighed about as much as her laptop.

“It’s a lonely thing…to truly behold yourself,” said the queen. “If you think the mirror might help you, please take it. It is enchanted and will readily obey your bidding.”

“Thanks,” said Aru. “I really—”

But Tara seemed lost in her thoughts, so Aru left the queen standing on the stairs and made her way to the beach.

The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon. The smell of brine and citrus hit Aru’s nostrils as she stared out at the sea. It looked calm and smug, dimpled all over with sunshine.

“So, Ocean, you don’t like anything except yourself,” said Aru, adjusting the weight of the mirror. “Relatable.”

Aru moved slowly toward the water, as if she was afraid of spooking the ocean. Tara had said the sea would reject anything that didn’t belong to it, and Aru had seen that happen to Brynne. But would it be able to tell the difference between reality and a reflection?

Aru pictured the mirror floating parallel to the ocean’s surface. She felt the mirror’s enchantments making a connection to her, like a plant’s fragile tendril reaching for the sunshine. Aru held on tight to that sensation, then let her hands drop. Instead of hitting the sand, the mirror hovered at Aru’s waist. Aru flung out her hand, and the mirror smoothly soared forward, inching itself past the shoreline and over the sea.

Aru waited.

Any second now, she thought.

The ocean didn’t react.

If anything, it seemed like a bored cat, its tiny waves curling gently in indifference. Aru waved her hands like an orchestra conductor, and the mirror followed her movements, swooping and spinning, rising high and dropping so low that its silvery surface skimmed the water. The ocean didn’t care at all.

Aru grinned.

GET UP!she called through the Pandava mind link.Time for us to get to Lanka, and I know the fastest route.