You Shall Not Pass!
Aru stroked her beard. It was, she thought, an excellent beard. Nice and soft and gray, and perfect for plucking at pensively.
“Fly, you fools!”she said, scowling at her reflection in the window.
“Aru, the movie hasn’t even started yet!” groaned Mini. “You can’t quote Gandalf until halfway through!”
“It’smybirthday, I’ll do what I want!” she said with a cackle.
Aru’sbirthday was February 15. Otherwise known as the day when all the unsold Valentine’s Day candy went on sale and the world smelled like sugar and despair. But this year she was determined to make it a perfect day. She’d invited her friends over to the museum to binge-watch the Lord of the Rings movies. In costume. Mini had dressed up as a hobbit because she liked that their houses had curved walls.“Living in the forest as an elf is way too much pressure to appreciate the outdoors,” Mini had said. Hira, on the other hand, had no problem with the elf lifestyle. She had dressed up as one, and every now and then would dramatically shape-shift into Arwen, the elf princess,whichmade Aru ridiculously jealous. Brynne had dressed up as an orc. As a present, she was baking lembas bread and decoratinga birthday cake with Legolas’s face.
Aru’s mother had refused to dress up. But she had let them use the big panorama room in the museum, which was like an actual movie theater. And as a present, she’d booked two tickets to Paris, where she was going to give a lecture on bronze pieces of Lord Shiva.
It was, Aru thought, the best birthday she’d ever had, and it had barely started.
“Aru, I’llbe upstairs reading,” said her mom, pausing to kiss her on the head. “When I come downstairs, I donotwant to see your Gandalf beard on the stone elephant.”
Well, there went that idea.
“And do not croak ‘my precious’in my ear at two a.m., like last time.”
This was turning into the worst birthday.
“I love you. Have fun.”
All right, fine, it wasn’t that bad.
Aru waved good-bye to her mom.Outside the museum windows, a layer of frost clung to the trees. Boo had decided to take the evening off. But he didn’t fly away before leaving instructions:
“Because it’s your birthday, I will refrain from lecturing you about the dangers of sugar, and also, I moved the weekend training session from eight thirty a.m. to eight forty-five a.m., so that you may sleep in,” Boo had said. “Happy birthday.”
“What? That’s only fifteen more minutes!”
“Fifteen more minutes in which the enemy may advance!”
The enemy, in this case, could be the Sleeper, who stillhadn’tbeen found, or Takshaka, who had managed to escape his jailers and disappear. Though Aru didn’t like to think about it, she knew that somewhere in the dark, a massive army was being cobbled together. They may not have succeeded in gettingthe nectar of immortality this time, but both the Sleeper and Takshaka were clever…. Soon, they’d find another way.
Already, Aru had begun to hear rumors whipping through the Council of Guardians…. Something about Kalpavriksha, the wish-granting tree. After all, the amrita wasn’t the only thing that had sprung out of the Ocean of Milk when the devas and asuras churned its waters. There were treasuresstill left to uncover … treasures that might make all the difference when the next great war finally came.
For now, though, Aru was going to savor tonight. Who knew when she’d have another chance to relax and have fun like this?
“Do you think his dad is there already?” asked Mini, next to her, also looking out the window.
“I don’t know. But I hope Aiden is okay.”
Wifey hadn’t come to Aru’sparty because his dad was coming over today, and he planned to use his love arrow to get them back together. None of the girls thought this was a good idea, but the boy was stubborn.
“Mini!” hollered Brynne from the tiny kitchen. “I need help! Legolas is melting!”
“Oh no,” said Mini.
“I can help—” started Aru, but Hira blocked off the entrance.
“You’re not allowed!”
“Hira, that was aperfectopportunity to say ‘You shall not pass!’”
“Oops.”
