Aru stared at Urvashi. “Okay, so, which aisle of Home Depot do we go to?”
Mini laughed, but it was a panickedI-am-definitely-gonna-diekind of laugh.
“This map will help you,” said Urvashi. “Merely touch the symbol of the key, and you will be transported somewhere close to it. But from there, it is up to you to find and claim the real key.”
Urvashi opened her hands. Aru hadn’t noticed until now that images covered Urvashi’s skin from the tips of her fingers all the way up to her elbows. It wasmehndi, a design made from the powdered leaves of the henna plant. They were temporary tattoos that women wore during celebrations like weddings and festivals. But this design was unlike anything Aru had ever seen.
For one thing, it wasmoving.
On Urvashi’s wrist, a branch sprouted blossoms. “The sprig of youth.”
A book opened and closed on the side of her hand. “The bite of adulthood.”
A wave of water washed across her fingers. “The sip of old age.”
But the very center of her palm was blank.
“You have nine days until the new moon, Pandavas. Less than that, perhaps, for time runs differently here than in the mortal realms,” said Urvashi. “Stop the Sleeper from stealing the celestial weapons, find out how he may be defeated from the Pool of the Past, and then you will receive Pandava training from the entire Council.” She paused to toss her hair over her shoulder. “Myself included. People wouldkillfor the chance to be in my presence. In fact, they have.” She smiled. “Succeed, and your disgraced guardian can even rejoin the Council.”
Boo shuffled from foot to foot on Aru’s shoulder. “They’ll succeed, I know it,” he said. “They havemeto guide them, after all, and I was illustrious.”
“Was,” said Urvashi. Ignoring Boo, she grabbed Aru’s hands. Then Mini’s. When Aru looked down, the same mehndi map was covering her own skin. “There,” she said. “Your map. Fight well.”
For the first time, Urvashi’s smile turned warm. But there was something sad about it. She folded her legs beneath her and tucked her hands into her lap. She looked so vibrant and beautiful that it was hard to believe she’d been present in all the ancient stories. Aru knew that Urvashi had not only trained heroes…she’dlovedthem. She’d even married one, and had kids with him. But they were mortal. She must have outlived them.
“So young,” Urvashi murmured. “It is not right.”
And with that, she disappeared.
Hanuman looked between Aru and Mini. “The daughter of Lord Indra and the daughter of the Dharma Raja? Daunting indeed. Before you leave the Court of the Sky, there is something I’d like to tell you.”
Daunting?
That seemed like a good thing? At least, she hoped so. Last year, everyone in homeroom took theDivergentquiz on Buzzfeed, and she got “Dauntless” as her faction, which apparently meant she was brave and courageous. So…yay?
And if Hanuman—theHanuman—thought they were daunting, maybe it wasn’t so bad. But then she looked down at her hand with the three symbols of the absurd keys (how, exactly, does one take asipof old age?) and her stomach turned. Nope, still bad.
Hanuman opened his paws. A small sun hovered above his palm. It burned so bright that Aru wished she had sunglasses.
“When I was young, I mistook the sun for a fruit. Got in alotof trouble for that,” he said, sounding more pleased with himself than guilt-ridden. “I clashed with a planet, and threw off a scheduled eclipse. Your father, Indra, was so mad that he used his famous lightning bolt to strike me down from the sky. It hit me in the side of the face, which is how I earned the name Hanuman, or ‘prominent jaw.’” He stroked it, smiling at the memory.
“I used to play pranks on the priests, too. So they cursed me,” he went on. “It was a tiny curse. The kind designed for mischievous immortal children.”
“They punished you with a curse?” asked Mini.
“Just for being a kid?” added Aru.
That didn’t seem very fair.
“They said I would never remember how strong and powerful I am until someone reminded me,” said Hanuman. “Sometimes I wonder if it is a curse that we are all under at some point or another.”
The small sun in his palms vanished. He patted their heads lightly. With a final nod at Boo, the monkey demigod disappeared. Now it was just the three of them and an expanse of empty sky.
“Come along, Pandavas,” said Boo. “The map will guide us to the location of the first key. From there, it’s up to you.”
Aru touched the image of the first key, the blossoming twig on her wrist. She felt a tug in her stomach. Her breath caught.
One blink later, the three of them stood in the parking lot of a strip mall. Where were they? It didn’t look like Atlanta. Snow frosted the bare branches of the few spindly trees. Only a couple of cars and loading vans were parked there. A shopgirl dropped her cigarette when she saw them. But if she thought it strange that two people and a pigeon had materialized out of nowhere, she didn’t say anything.
