Aru Shah and the End of Time (Pandava Quartet #1)(30)
Aru grinned, nodding so fast she thought her head might fall off. Mini, as usual, was more thoughtful. She watched Valmiki for a long while before finally nodding.
Valmiki smiled. “This rhyme won’t save your life, which is a light, but it will surely hide you both from sight. Say it once; be sure not to miss a beat, or you will risk becoming monster meat. Now repeat after me, little heroes, for I’d rather you not become zeroes….”
Mini and Aru leaned closer.
“Don’t look, don’t see, there’s no such thing as me,” said Valmiki.
The words wound through Aru, powerful enough that she imagined she could see them floating around her.
Before they could thank Valmiki, he sank back into the anthill and it closed up around him.
“Now that you have the mantra,” said Boo, “let’s try again to reach the second key’s location. The Sleeper shouldn’t be able to find you this time.”
Shouldn’t, but not won’t.
Aru steeled herself, and she and Mini spoke the words aloud. “Don’t look, don’t see, there’s no such thing as me.”
Up to now, Aru had never given much thought to how a word or sentence might taste. Sometimes when she said something mean, there was a bitter aftertaste. But when she spoke Valmiki’s mantra, she felt magic on her tongue, like fizzing Pop Rocks candy.
The last thing Aru saw before she touched the second key symbol on her mehndi map were some new words on the boulder. The poetry ants had spelled out what looked to be the very bad first draft of an epic poem (then again, all first drafts are miserable):
IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT
WHEN GIRLS WITH PIGEON DID TAKE FLIGHT
TO STOP THE SLEEPER IN HIS QUEST
TO WAKE LORD SHIVA FROM HIS REST
A Trip to the Grocery Store
Something touched Aru as she was flung through the Otherworld. Claws scraping lightly against her. Aru didn’t feel safe. She had the prickly-neck sensation that someone was watching her. She looked down and saw something that nearly froze her blood:
The end coil of a thick black tail that was studded with stars.
It slithered over her feet. All the while she murmured, “Don’t look, don’t see, there’s no such thing as me.”
The whole thing lasted maybe a minute. All the while, Aru heard the Sleeper’s voice in her head. Just like your mother. Slippery and deceitful.
How could the Sleeper possibly have known her mom? Did that mean Mini’s mom was a hero, too? Not for the first (or last) time, Aru wondered why all this had been kept from her. How come Mini got to know and she didn’t?
Light broke over her. Aru looked around to see that she was standing in another parking lot. Mini and Boo were there, too. She couldn’t tell what city they were in, but it was a little warmer than the last place. Here, autumn gilded the world. The sky was bright, and the clouds seemed closer, as if they were weighed down by unspent rain.
“Why do we always end up in parking lots?” asked Mini.
“Better than in the middle of a road,” said Boo.
They were standing in front of a Costco. Bright red grocery carts were lined up next to bales of hay. The trees burned scarlet and saffron, so vivid they looked as if someone had covered each leaf with gold foil.
Aru’s palm itched. She glanced at her hand. The number eight had disappeared, replaced by a new, shining mark:
“What the heck does that mean?” asked Aru. “Please tell me the universe feels bad for us, and it’s Sanskrit for Treat yourself to a demonless day and not the number three, which it kinda looks like.”
Mini examined Aru’s hand. “It’s not the number three.”
“Yay!”
“It’s the number six.”
“WHAT?”
“Saat. Six,” read Mini. She frowned and turned to Boo. “But yesterday, our maps said we had eight days left! What happened?”
Boo shook out his wings. “Traveling through the Otherworld requires a cost. Time does not always adhere to mortal standards.”
“But that means…that means I’ve been awake for seventy-two hours,” squeaked Mini. “I should be dead! Am I dead?”
Aru pinched her.
“Ow!”
“Nope. Alive and kickin’.”
Mini rubbed her arm and glared.
“You’re Pandavas,” said Boo. “You need less sleep and food than mortals. But occasionally you do need something to keep your strength up. We’ll get some snacks inside.”
“Inside the Costco?” asked Aru.
Not that she had a problem with this. On the contrary, an industrial-size box of Oreos was just what she needed.
“That’s not an ordinary Costco,” said Boo proudly. “For Otherworld folks, it becomes a different store depending on who you are and what you need. For us, it will be the Night Bazaar. Inside, we’ll find the Seasons and ask them to design you some weaponry. After that, we’ll look for the second key.”
Aru dearly hoped the second key would be located next to an industrial-size box of Oreos. But all thoughts of Oreos quickly vanished with Mini’s next words.
“I’ll go anywhere as long as we don’t run into the Sleeper again. Did you see him when we left Valmiki?” she asked. “He was right next to me! I could’ve sworn he wanted something. He even touched me!” She shuddered. “At least I think it was him? It was just a giant snake tail. But it felt like him?”