“We’ve got to break it,” she said, her whole face brightening. “And not with magic.”
“Wait. Say what now?”
Mini reached for a small pebble on the ground.
“Um, Mini…?”
And then she hurled it straight at the gigantic cauldron full of poison, hollering, “For science!!!”
Welp, She Did It
If Aru had been politely indifferent to science before, now she straight up hated it. She watched as the pebble soared from Mini’s hand. It was a valiant throw. Nice arc. Very dramatic.
But the pebble fell short and dropped about a hairbreadth away from the cauldron. Aru breathed a sigh of relief. They were safe.
But then the infernal pebble did what pebbles can’t help but do:
It rolled.
Then tapped the cauldron.
“Maybe that wasn’t too strong of a—” Aru stopped as the cauldron began to quiver more violently. Its vapor sides began to swirl. “Nope. I take it back. We’re dead.”
“We’re not dead,” said Mini. “I just wanted to stir up the liquid a little. We’ve got to hit the fire next.”
“Spewing poison isn’t enough for you?” demanded Aru. “You have to add fire to it?”
“The way this room has been designed, the heat from the fire above has turned some of the poison liquid into a gas,” reasoned Mini. “If we bring downallof the fire, it should vaporizeallof the poison and leave behind only the third key!”
The vapor shell of the cauldron began to split. The cave ceiling trembled, and bits of black rock flaked down. The chandelier of fire swung back and forth.
“Gather as many rocks as you can and start throwing them at the fire,” said Mini.
“What if they hit the cauldron by mistake? We’ll—”
“You said you believed in me!” shouted Mini. “So believe me!”
Aru clenched her jaw. “All right,” she said.
She gathered up rocks, and together the two of them started pelting the fire. A cracking sound rolled through the cave. Aru looked up—her guess had been right! The firehadbeen encased in something. And whatever it was that had been protecting them from the flames was beginning to break.
Fire tumbled down in long, flaming ribbons. In a moment, it would meet the poisonous vapor and liquid of the cauldron.
“Run!” shouted Mini. “To the entrance!”
Aru ran just as blue plumes of poison spiraled into the air. She gagged. The smell wasawful. Her toe had barely crossed the threshold when she heard aboombehind her. The cauldron exploded. Out of the corner of her eye, Aru saw a giant wave of rising poison liquid.
A burst of heat and light threw her and Mini onto their backs. Aru blinked and looked up to see a wall of flames towering above them, blocking the cave entrance. The wave hit the threshold of the entrance…and stopped. Aru heard sizzling and steaming. But the poison had disappeared! The magical flames had formed some kind of fence, and must’ve cooked up all the liquid.
Mini walked to her side, out of breath, but her face shining. “See? Enough heat, and time, will turn a liquid into a gas.”
“That wasincredible,” said Aru. “How’d you think of that?”
Mini just beamed.
Aru couldn’t help recalling what Lord Hanuman had said before they’d left the Court of the Sky. About how sometimes you needed someone to remind you of how powerful you were—then you would surprise even yourself.
All the flames in the room had burned out. Mini tiptoed carefully toward the center of the cave. Where the cauldron had been, there was a scorch mark on the ground. A tiny bit of the poison had found shelter from the fire in a new place: the statue of Shiva who had once crouched openmouthed behind it. Now his throat glowed bright blue.
